Embarking on Success (The First Week)

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The First Week

There are no words, that fully encompass or exemplify how amazing the placement at DataLore Inc was for me! On our first week, Kibwe and I explored the complex within the safety range of the compound; including the courtyard, the cafeteria and the dance studio and of course our offices and desks that were allocated to us. Kibwe and I, were swiftly embraced into the work culture at DataLore and welcomed with open arms- we started with speaking to the staff that works on location and met our immediate bosses, which for me was Erica, the Brand Manager and Public Relations and Marketing Executive! (Sidebar, she was awesome, very inspiring, intelligent and quick minded as well as young and well cultured and we swiftly bonded)💕💕. After our integration, Kibwe and I had a private meeting with the CEO - Beverly Smith- Hinkson Business BA , Diploma in Business Studies, Business Admin and Life Member of the International Association of Business Leaders and Premier of Who’s who’s as well as the Project Director of CSERS -where she decided whether we would be a good fit with her organisation or not and placed us in different departments, along with giving us a mentor. My mentor as mentioned before was Erica Hinkson (Beverly's daughter and the head of the media and marketing department); Jenifer Millar was my partner's - Kibwe's - mentor and she is the head of the IT department. We were given a quick motivational pep talk on how to succeed in the world of business and work, along with pragmatic examples and encouraged to prove our worth to our bosses- this was something that Kibwe and I strived to do being surrounded by such playful and high qualified intellectuals.

31/7/17, Monday (Gasping Resources)

On our first day, after being welcomed and becoming familiar with the work organisation and background, our bosses delegated tasks to us. I worked on filtering and editing, uploading and branding the photographs to the official websites of DataLore. I familiarised the team, with several hacks and tips that made my blog successful and caused it to trend and we used these techniques on their brands to a very dynamic and immediate response! On Monday, I mostly worked on visibility and creating unique captions, titles and beautiful and vibrant photo stills. I spent three hours editing and re-uploading photographs and then we broke down the tasks for the duration of my stay there.

1/8/17, Tuesday (Young Ambition)

Even though this was Emancipation day, I took the initiative to start an Instagram account for one of the major brands in their company and I began to promote it on my own social media to give it a boost.

2/8/17, Wednesday (Working HARD)

This day was extremely productive for me and a bit frustrating but I was able to accomplish all of my tasks (including the tedious ones)😌.I was entrusted with the tasks of adjusting and presenting a google spreadsheet which consisted of; The ISBN serial numbers, Title of the book, Author and the Genre, The Quantity and the Price- this list was essentially an index of all of the books on file (5,000) and it took a full seven hours to properly write up and detail this list meticulously. I was encouraged to have fun and break between this task as it would be strenuous (to an extent). After finally finishing that, I worked with Erica in compiling a google docs list for Carifesta and re-adjusting the organisational chart which delegated tasks and broke it down into bite size modules. Erica, also stressed the point of being organised, productive and efficient in business and I can safely say that, DataLore INC does not waste any resources. I also really enjoyed discovering the atmosphere at this new workplace, which was very laid back and relaxed, with a chill, intellectually stimulated environment. Where you could be playful, girly and still be taken seriously and state your ideas and opinions and have a hearty fruitful, intelligent debate. No one here discounted me for my age and I found that refreshing.

3/8/17, Thursday (Out and About/Girls Having Fun)

I went shopping with the business today! In order to prepare for this fun expedition, Erica and I had to re-update the price list we created on Wednesday to fax to the government as DataLore is partnering with them in hosting Carifesta. When, the time came for us to go for our drive shopping ,I acted as an assistant writing up the price lists and pitching creative ideas to help with Carifesta bookstore which DataLore is managing. Erica, gave sisterly advice on being organised, becoming your own muse, owning and accepting responsibility for your actions in becoming a mature individual and thinking with your head screwed on. Again, the message of proving myself as an asset to the work culture rang true and, Erica assured me that I was doing a very good job and later on publicly praised me at work. Kibwe also excelled in finishing creating a complicated programme for his boss which we all acknowledged gleefully.

 After this a PR lady came ,Geralyn- an authoress and children’s illustrator who was a former business woman- and I was allowed to sit in on their meeting. This meeting turned out to be a promotion session, in creating a book plan and marketing proposal for Animecon. Animecon, is the largest comic con convention in the Caribbean and DataLore participates in it. Both Kibwe and I were invited to attend, even after our internships were completed for pay (yayyy aha)😆.I was allowed and furthermore encouraged, to contribute my thoughts and ideas towards their business and they jotted down my ideas for consideration and Erica praised me for being observant and having a knack with people and knowing what they want and being naturally gifted at marketing. After more input, I retired to my desk to finish off more work and chat with some of my colleagues.

4/8/17, Friday

As engaging and informative as this week was, I was pretty happy to be able to unwind with the weekend and was glad to receive a notification that, through the new Instagram I created Barnes and Nobles’s Massachusetts’s branch began following Chattel House’s account (a brand of DataLore). I then went to Erica and we made a social media plan and a goal which I hope to blog about when we meet our target (watch out for great things😜). I also got my work colleagues to contribute towards Funtastic Funmania, along with my individual promotion of that event.

For the rest of the day, I mostly worked on activities for Carifesta's bookstore and lounge (which you will be hearing more about) and Kibwe and I are expected to work that event and have the opportunity to network with some of the major brands and business players in the Caribbean and even international brands and this is an experience I am immensely grateful for and looking forward to in order to further myself. All in all this week was very fun and productive, I worked very hard and put in a great amount of effort and I feel as if I am working towards a very fruitful goal in the grand scheme of things. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, much love xoxo