So far, I’ve gotten to know many new people, learned new practices and new publication programs, and gained useful knowledge about communication and marketing. The communications department is a good viewpoint overlooking the whole organization because you often need to reach out to the other departments and through this cooperation, you’ll learn to know the people and the organization more thoroughly. I feel very fortunate to be part of this team.
When starting at a new job, learning the ropes is always a challenge. As our team is working mostly from home because of the coronavirus epidemic, I have not met all my new colleagues face-to-face yet. On the practical level, it has been very important that all the invitations to the virtual meetings have reached me and that the team communicates actively in different channels. Our team has succeeded well in this and I have gotten to know my colleagues well, despite of the distance. When I hear the news, stories and jokes of my fellow team members on Teams, my little studio apartment gets filled with laughter, support and team spirit and the new everyday life with social distancing doesn’t feel so lonely anymore.
The Unbox Your Potential trainee program offers young people with motivation but little work experience a chance to get into the work market and get the foot in the door of their own field. Some of us new trainees are still in school, some have just finished their degrees. The encouragement and support of the work community is equally important to all of us new professionals, though. The trainee program is a good place to grow and gain valuable experience. This time as a trainee has offered so much more than just a chance to see the experienced team members do their work, but we trainees have also gotten to try our wings and test our abilities working on real assignments. I have written and translated press releases, assisted in an alignment project, published content in social media and dove into stamp communication.
Of course, everything doesn’t always go according to plan. Making mistakes on the way is unavoidable and sometimes even a very effective way to learn new things. Time for a confession: I’ve so far, for example, missed an important email, been late to a meeting, gotten many names wrong and added some Swedish into an English language press release. When a human error has occurred, the support of my colleagues has helped me the most – and there’s been plenty of it available! The impostor syndrome is quite common on us fresh out of school, I believe. I myself battle with it often but the encouragement from my colleagues helps me overcome it. Positive feedback is very important especially at the start of one’s career when self-doubt of one’s skills and competency is at a high level. Of course, I hope that I have already been a useful addition to my team and that my work benefits the organization. I wish that my team sees me as a motivated, positive and helpful trainee.
The nine-month trainee program is sure to give us, in addition to all the practical skills and knowledge we’re getting, more professional confidence and perspective on how to view and handle the accomplishments we’ll achieve and the mistakes we’ll make. Employment and a work community can’t be taken for granted at an exceptional time like this. The chance to grow as a professional in a community like Posti makes us trainees really lucky.
