Monday, July 29, 2019
By:
I’d like to think my blog posts up to this point have been fairly holistic. While every week covers a topic I want to discuss, it seems my wide spread experiences have represented both those privileges unique to the Mather internship and SPS program and the general opportunities afforded by living in Washington DC. However, I can’t help but reflect on my time as a Mather aspiree many moons ago. SPS posts a brief informational blurb about my internship (which can be found by scrolling down this page), but it hardly quenches a thirst for a day-to-day synopsis. Instead, I looked to the blogs of the ghosts of Mather Intern past for an elaboration on expectations and a rundown on responsibilities. The beautiful irony is that no matter how detailed their accounts or riveting their tales, none of those blogs could prepare me for my own custom adventure. My position now was unknown and uncharted, a completely unanticipated development. I have no idea if my agency placement will bear any influence on future assignments (though I’m inclined to predict the preference will continue to lean towards the legislative branch), but, for the sake of those who may follow me to NIST or possibly some other executive lackey, I figure I really ought to expound on an element I’ve given only cursory attention: what it is I actually do. So, my dear Mather Interns yet to come, this is for you. And remember, this is for posterity, so I will be honest.
To first paint a broad picture, my position can be quickly summarized as ‘support staff.’ I (as you might expertly deduce) support the functions and responsibilities of my mentors, particularly my mentor-mentors, or, as I’ve referenced them before in more endearing fashion, my boss-bosses. They assign me work designed to assist their more officially mandated duties in both internal and external capacities. Now, the great triumph of the support service is its commitment to a focused and shared goal without sacrificing a rich diversity of tasks. Dare I be so bold as to venture a comparison to the irrefutable American cuisine experience?
You’ve decided to spend an evening of luxury at your local Golden Corral. What begins as a narrow line to the register quickly explodes into a great and spacious hall whose tables overflow with a savory bounty that glows in the warm light which showers from above. Hypnotized by the magnitude of modern day serving, you load your plate with an eclectic cast of edible characters. Quickly you scurry to a table and begin your feast.
But it’s not what you expected.
The options, though many, vary dramatically in quality. Some of the food delights the taste buds in a rich symphony of well-crafted flavor while the rest isn’t even worth the price of admission, but still you return for seconds. And round and round the cycle goes until, by either self-restraint (unlikely given your willing decision to patronize the Golden Corral) or the inability to consume anything else, you put down the fork and leave. Did you follow the analogy? Being a support staffer hearkens to the experience of a buffet-er. You’re often assigned a large range of tasks, each one particularly distinct in its composition and flavor, but you find that the quality of these assignments and the qualifications needed to complete them (aka the price to sit at the table) are equally varied. Some work engages a fulfilling level of problem solving, and some work is full of filling an excel sheet. I understand, the buffet is not the perfect comparison. You don’t typically have agency over the assignments you’re given, and (I hope for most cases) you don’t leave work everyday feeling an intense shame and self-loathing. Sometimes I simply can’t resist the chance to explore the lush culture of the All-American eating experience.
So what have I done? Well, I began my time here by reviewing and making recommendations for content on our office’s website (larger elaboration to be enjoyed here). Confidence does not come naturally when suggesting content and syntax edits as a fresh face to a group of seasoned professionals, but sometimes that’s exactly the point. You can, with no real degree of mental strain, imagine my delight when my recommendations actually made the website. My work took on a greater value when I realized some of my contributions could last long after I left the office, providing a morale boost once I turned to ‘filling an excel sheet.’ I spent the entirety of three and a half work days compiling information on over 300 companies in excel. Repetitive and tedious to say the least, I am glad my labors did not go unappreciated.
For my last few weeks, however, my attention was focused on a project of more creative demands. In classic support staff fashion, my boss-boss (or one thereof) asked me to visualize some data trends on our institutes he had collected (for internal circulation only...because that felt necessary to say). The project went decently beyond the scope of his provided data and demanded I scour our hot-mess of a sharepoint (never did make it around to fixing that...and now I’m just oversaturating this blog with parenthetical interruptions. Heck, by the time the closing parenthesis comes around, you may have completely forgotten how this sentence began. I’m talking of course about the main sentence, not these mini diversions within the interruption) and consult with my coworkers to collect as much information as possible. Don’t call me a Hardy boy, but I actually quite enjoyed sleuthing for data and realizing a larger picture from scattered fragments. Once I had everything I needed, and checked, and double checked, and, yes, triple checked to guarantee accuracy, I set about conspiring whimsical and wonderful ways to make the data come to life--I’m being very liberal with my language here. When it comes to visualizing data, many are satisfied with the most straight forward approach, but out of virtue of the assignment's genesis, I wanted to give it considerable thought and effort. Well, that considerable thought and effort led me to discover all sorts of hidden gems within the wide-world of excel. It can do some truly groovy stuff. I never considered gaining a competency in excel as a legitimate takeaway, but I gladly stand corrected. After incorporating some of the finer features into my visualization techniques (we’re talkin’ interactive graphs here, Baby!), I crafted a final product that again gained thorough approval.
Making lists, attending staff meetings, and being available for the whims of my mentors provide the remaining filler, and I’ve already discussed at length my conference experience. It is, as my fellow Mather accomplice Gia may call it, a non-comprehensive guide to my responsibilities, and I am far from completing my narrative arc. Everything else will simply have to wait for my final two blog posts: coming to an internet connection near you. I should know. I met the guy who “invented” it.
Nicholas Stubblefield