internship1potfolio

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 1 – Your preparedness prior to commencing your internship and how you assimilated into the organisation’s culture

“The change of life stages from a student to a professional is not always very simple” (Anjum, S. 2020). Preparing for the internship was a challenging, exciting and exhilarating experience leading up to the big first day. The original plans of the first week was to attend the Basketball Victoria head office located in Wantirna. Sadly, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, Internship host Matthew and Justine made the decision to transition my internship program online until we were able to return to the office space whilst maintaining social distancing rules. The Holmesglen subject ‘Transition to Professional Practise’, was an incredibly helpful and resourceful to refer to with all questions and enquiries regarding the internship. Before commencing the internship, I read over all the weekly slides and notes made during the lecture classes to ensure I am learning what the internship is expecting of me and how I can perform to their standards and expectations. Doing this ensured I was ready to take on any and all challenges that Basketball Victoria required of me and doing so allowed me to transition into the organisation’s way of working. Basketball Victoria’s community and culture is very community oriented as all staff were incredibly welcoming and helpful.

The first day of the internship was an introduction to Basketball Victoria and what missions and objectives they had for the school’s program department, which is what I would be working in. The schools program department were in the early stages of rolling out the Hoop Time Program which is a round robin basketball tournament that included close to every primary school in Victoria. This involved creating fixtures for the Hoop Time program that covered all teams and schools involved. Additionally, my skills and assets as an individual were recognised to be better suited for communications and customer service in light of the Hoop Time program. This was great as I have a strong background in communication with sales and communicating with people in general. Matthew assigned me with a range of duties and responsibilities to carry out that involved communicating with all stakeholders including schools, teachers, community halls, recreation services such as basketball court managers, and staff members from inside and out of Basketball Victoria.

Working well in the environment that I was in was fantastic overall and led me to having the confidence and calmness to carry out my tasks in a timely and professional manner that blended well with the organisations teamwork culture, making me a valuable team player who was willing to help others, and in return, receive advice and assistance from the teams’ colleagues. Higher education should aim to transition students into their professions and careers as smooth as possible by providing students a fair and equal opportunity to observe the industry they are studying, in real life experiences (Silva, P., Lopes, etal. 2016).

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 2 – Finding your feet in the internship: induction, and completing initial tasks (i.e., the first 40 hours discussion)

The first forty hours of the internship was utilised to find my feet and learn the systems and tasks that were required to be carried out as a team and individually. It was critically important to understand that the team at the office needs to work as a whole unit and coherently together. Doing so led to greater success in operations/ objectives, ensuring that all members were bringing their best foot forward, utilising their skills to maximum capacity day in and day out. “Bringing a group of highly-skilled individuals together is not sufficient for teams to be effective. Rather, team members need to be able to work well together in order for the team to successfully achieve its purpose” (McEwan, D. 2017).

My initial tasks assigned for myself was setting up an official Basketball Victoria email to communicate and all necessary stakeholders. Matthew Cracknell assisted me with this and was able to finalise the email set-up in a timely manner to continue the day. An initial group email was sent out to the Hoop Time coordinators as my introduction to the team for the next few months. The coordinators informed me of their duties and responsibilities over email which allowed me to gain a better understanding of their role and how I may be able to assist them better, intending to be of value to those who ask for assistance. Before commencing the Hoop Time program, schools would contact myself enquiring about everything Hoop Time. This includes, time and dates, venues, and location etc … this was initially a great challenge as all the information and answers to these enquiries would be stored on the computer system. Learning the system took lots of trial and error whilst Matthew would monitor and supervise how I navigate through the system to ensure the correct steps were taken. Any faults were quickly acknowledged and fixed, so they weren’t to be repeated in the future. This was a great display of team work as and allowed the learning process to be an enjoyable one. “To work effectively together, team members must possess specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes, such as the skill in monitoring each other’s performance, knowledge of their own and teammates task responsibilities, and a positive disposition toward working in a team” (Baker, D. 2006).

Moving forward with these 40 hours, I intend to familiarise myself well with the system in order to use the platform to my advantage whilst being a helpful asset in assisting the Hoop Time coordinators so I can be the ‘go-to guy’ for all things Hoop Time related. Doing this will make me look good in the business as someone who is reliable and is knowledgeable in the operations for Hoop Time, so the business has great faith in my abilities.

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 3 – Becoming an effective team member and contributor: how did you utilise the support of your supervisor/ co-workers to help build your confidence and become more efficient as an intern

Becoming an effective team member is not something you can prepare for, being an effective team member results in the actions that are taken to help the team perform and reach the mission, goals, and objectives of a tasks. A team player includes someone who is willing to go above and beyond for themselves and the people around them. Doing this, generates overall team moral and encourages other teammates to work harder as the results will drive and inspire everyone to perform at their best. This creates healthy competition amongst the team and allows everyone to optimise their performances considering the other members efforts are contagious.

These are points that I had to learn the hard way growing up after high school heading straight into the corporate/ retail industry. These industries need to have teamwork as a high valued trait amongst all sectors. For example, selling a pair of shoes requires constant communication between the salesperson and the customer. The customer then agrees to a pair of shoes and is then guided to the checkout where the checkout person is ensuring the product is what they need and takes payment. This transition between teammates needs to be ensured a smooth experienced for the customer so they return with a good experience being in the store. Like the internship, every member needs to be an effective and helpful piece of the team. It has been theorized that for teams to reach a certain optimization level of effectiveness, it’s critical that all team members learn an appropriate model of teamwork (Hirschfeld, 2006).

Carrying the skills on from my early employment days gave me confidence to carry out tasks and exceed expectations. With the challenges that presented enormous amounts of work, came with valuable lessons and skills that I will utilise and carry on into the future going into the sports industry. Getting to know the team members at the office was super important to make a positive first impression on everyone to begin on a good note. Introducing myself to everyone in the department was important as I made it my responsibility to keep a contact of that person via email for quick communication if needed and where required in the future. It’s important that I made close contact with every single person as they are working in the industry that I strive to be in one day. “You never know when someone else in the company is doing that might interest you later down the line” (Career Education, n.d.)  As my co-workers were very encouraging and supportive, gave me a great sense of belonging to a group that are industry experts and are always ready to assist me whenever need be.

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 4 – Challenges you faced (the nature of the work, working hours, organisation, motivation, tabling of ideas)

The challenges that I faced were spread across the time of internship that gradually presented greater challenges than the previous one. Commencing the internship, my biggest challenge was learning the computer system for Basketball Victoria and how to apply it to the tasks being undertaken. The system was a data base that had confidential information about upcoming events, schedules and more. While this is to remain confidential, I can share that the information in the system was utilised to carry out the scheduling and fabricating of the Hoop Time Program.

As my internship days were Monday and Tuesday (9am-5pm), the days could get quite stretched which at times left me feeling a lack of motivation and drive. When this would happen in the office, I would apply myself and come forward to request additional tasks for the day, in which Matthew would find this impressive and commemorate my initiative. The biggest challenge personally was transitioning constantly between the office and working from home due to the government restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be debated that work efficiency can decrease when working from home as the environment is more relaxed with less worry of supervisors/ superiors watching you for taking a coffee break. However, it can also be debated that due to the lack of an office environment and the pressures that come with it create a steady pace of workflow at the individuals own pace. Working from home did create that sense of relaxation and lessened tension of an office space (Ada Hiu, K. 2021). This allowed me to think clear and carry out my tasks in a timely manner ensuring that they met the deadline and were submitted back to Matthew to overlook and approve.

Communicating with external stakeholders such as events locations and stadiums for Hoop Time, I found it challenging initially to handle and answer questions from the person as I underestimated the level of detail the questions would be in subject to Basketball Victoria and their policies. This was something that needed to be addressed almost immediately and so I researched into the enquiries the customer would have and made notes on my laptop so in future I could refer to that if a future customer had the same enquiry and I would be able to answer and resolve the customers needs professionally and make them know they are in good hands. One of the final tasks of the internship was the biggest challenge that required an enormous amount of text in Excel. This was very overwhelming for myself as I believed as the time this is a task that is well outside of my capabilities. Yeasmin (2018), stated that, “Many firms hire lesser interns than required and put up the entire workload on the few. If you happen to join such firms, you will feel overwhelmed to be trusted with so much work”.

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 5 – Achievements and milestones (both technically and professionally, during the internship and personally)

40 Hours

The first 40 hours was filled with plenty of challenges that gradually led to small achievements and accomplishments. This time sequence was dedicated to learning the operations and internship requirements. Learning Basketball Victoria’s data system confidently felt like an achievement as I had to take the time to learn and develop the skillset of navigating the system quickly and timely in order to either assist a customer’s enquiry, or, generally assessing information to assist myself in achieving an individual task. Reaching the 40-hour milestone was a great feeling of success and meant that it was time for the first evaluation and catch-up meetings with the Internship lecturer, Sharyn. This meeting involved having a general discussion about the progression and development of myself personally and professionally during my first 40 hours period of the internship. I explained that I felt great and privileged to be working with Basketball Victoria that is an organisation that holds a lot of personal value as this is the industry that I am looking to make my professional career in the business sector of basketball.

100 Hours

Reaching this time came with a range of tasks, duties, and increased responsibilities that required a great level of care and attention to detail. By this stage I was well and truly underway in my confidence to complete tasks well-done and taking initiative to have my say and in-put in making business decisions for Basketball Victoria’s Hoop Time program. Matthew would host several meetings in the office’s conference room where we would discuss general ideas and brainstorming how we can magnify the operations and organisation for the Hoop Time program. Having these meetings were generally a positive experience and made me tap into my professional self as I had to be presented that way in that certain environment. This was a great example of my personal development and reflected clearly in the works results. According to the Academy of Management Learning & Education (2009), “Business departments and schools focus on the professional development of their students”.

200 Hours

Reaching 200 hours for the internship has been nothing short of enjoyable in all aspects. From learning the system, to polishing my communication/ customer service skills, to increasing my engagement with the staff at Basketball Victoria. These have been incredibly lengthy hours and days that have led up to this milestone in the internship. With only 28 hours left in this journey, I’ve acquired a great understanding of what the internship was teaching me. In addition, I am able to look back on my time with Basketball Victoria and identify what I can improve on and what I would have done differently to improve the results and outcome on a certain tasks or situation. Obviously, this was a learning experience, and I am able to look back and be proud of the effort and time I put into this internship and do everything I can to make the most of it whilst making important connections. “Completing an internship can help you apply what you’d studied but now are applying to a real-world setting” (Bloom, 2018).

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 6 – Career aspirations including goal setting

Moving into my future career, my aspirations have been fixated on joining a major organisation in Basketball that allows entry level graduate students to gain exposure, experience, and skillsets to be prepared to take on the industry. Coming into the internship, I had the expectation that I would be challenged and pushed beyond my limits in a sense that it would open my eyes more to real-world experiences. Basketball Victoria assisted my vision even further to gain better clarity and comprehension about the sporting industry. There were many things I learnt about the industry during my degree, as well as the internship program. Many of which surprised me, and many of which I was already familiar with. It’s important to understand a become better in smaller aspects. “Gaining working knowledge of spread-sheet data manipulation, formulas, and basic modelling techniques. These are essential skills for a data analyst” (Nguyen, 2017).

Holmesglen’s subject, ‘Transition to Professional Practise’, involved a one-on-one interview in preparing for the real-life interviews when the Interns begin to search for the next best Intern for their organisation. The Holmesglen Skills and Jobs Centre (HSJC) representative who I was interviewed by touched on my strong communication skills and ability to think on the spot to provide clear and concise answers. This has been a skill that has fortunately developed steadily over time and has resulted in being able to sell myself for interviews in the past that I intend to carry on and further develop heading into my specialised industry of sports business. Having experienced a lot of interviews in the past has given me a great sense of what any industry expects in an interview. With this, I have learnt that the principles are typically the same; be vibrant, be your best self, understand the criteria, understand the job, be prepared to ask questions, and research into the business before the interview day as most recruiters will ask what the candidate knows about them. This will assist in standing out from the other candidates and make you a strong contender for the role/ position.

Young adults growing up are encouraged to peruse their career aspirations. “It has been argued that to successfully achieve an identity, young adults must explore different vocational paths, deal with ensuing crises, and make an autonomous commitment to a chosen career” (Holding, A.C., 2020). This text is a brilliant example of the career pursuit that us as students are chasing and aiming towards for a successful career in the desired industry of sports. Making it to this point in the degree has involved many sacrifices of long nights and early mornings to get assessments and work done and exceeding my daily goals of work to be completed. Doing this has developed a great work ethic for myself, regardless of the scored outcome. In closing, I believe that my goals are in alignment with the actions and steppingstones I have set for myself moving forward.

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 7 – Reflection on your supervisor evaluations and how these align with your future career professional development requirements

Matthew provided good feedback on my overall performance at the end of the Internship. From ability to work, to being a team player, I had met the satisfactory expectations and above. The host (Matthew) explained that the goals of the internship were achieved which I felt reflected positively on my experiences, feeling mutually about this. Matthew touched on my ability to come into the Internship each and everyday with a ‘great attitude’ and ‘willingness to give things a go and learn’. The evaluation highlighted my many great strengths that included my personality, communication skills, and being an individual who can connect very easily with people at the organisation. In addition, my communication and email writing skills were ‘sound’ and very professional. I believed this would be identified from him as I have years of experience in customer service and know how to handle most situations in either writing, or a verbal type of communication. From this I was able to utilise my skillset. “Putting knowledge and Skills into practise” (UOW Global, 2021).

Before commencing my bachelor’s degree, I obtained a large variety of different work experiences. From volunteer to paid work. Gaining experience and exposure to the work environment prepared myself for the real world, as well as being ahead of my competitors, adding value and insight to a sporting organisation like Basketball Victoria. “Work experience is an established part of life for many practices. There are many advantages to offering work experience, it can develop new recruitment channels and make the practise more attractive as an employer” (Jarvis, L. 2010). From the skills and attributes, I obtained a great arsenal of things that will further assists and develop my professional learning and individual growth. The communication aspect was something Matthew mentioned in the review as something he felt comfortable to appoint me to handle by managing the customer relationships daily and providing excellent customer service that very often left the customer feeling satisfied with their enquiry. Looking at the areas for improvement, there were a few key points that Matthew touched on that we also discussed in person, and how this can be overcome with work and commitment. As mentioned in the previous entries, motivation and direction was lacking at times and I needed to come forward for additional tasks to carry out during the day. This was also reflected when Matthew said I could have applied myself better in certain situations, also adding that this is a learning process and something for me to focus on improving moving forward.

Reflecting on the evaluation, I feel overall it was an accurate and fair response from Matthew. There was lots of good communication between us throughout the internship which assisted me in continuing carrying out tasks and meeting objectives in a timely and professional manner and I feel satisfied and relieved with the outcome and score provided.

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 8 – Overall reflections on the internship and your studies

In class subject, Transition to Professional Practise, and, Sport Internship, prepared me well for what was coming ahead of me. The weekly classes went into depths about what we can do as students to optimise our opportunities, how to be a great team member, how to exceed expectations in the internship and more. The Internship class was very beneficial, providing real life lessons that can be applied to the internship was of great value and something I knew would be applicable in my scenario, no matter where I landed a place for the Internship. Preparing in class for the internship took a lot of learning and development. For example, learning how to build a LinkedIn profile and creating a resume took plenty of classes to get right. But the biggest lesson I learnt was that simplicity was key for a lot of recruiters hosting the internship.

Building resumes in class with the supervision of Sharyn was great but as resumes were sent out to Internship hosts, I quickly learned that overtime I was not hearing back from any of the position I applied for. So, I had to make a quick adjustment and change the style presentation of my resume to instead highlight the key parts of my experiences and value, rather than creating a good-looking resume. This was when the new and improved resume was sent out to Basketball Victoria for a recent opening that was looking for someone to host and work in the school program department which I felt was a great opportunity and seamlessly fit my style of background work. According to Research in Higher Education Journal, there are several factors that must be present during the internship

-        The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.

-        The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to their employment settings.

-        There are clear and defined learning objectives/ goals related to the professional goals of the students’ academic coursework

-        There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/ or professional background in the field of the experience.

(Galbraith, D., Mondal, S. 2020).

Overall, the Internship provided a great experience and learning session that I will utilise as a great experience and apply all the lessons learnt in all my future endeavours that require it.

[internship1potfolio]

[internship1potfolio]

Entry 9 - Personal Development

According to Luke Fletcher (2019), “Personal development connects the individual with their work context because they provide pathways for employee growth and fulfilment”. Commencing the first of three Internship classes, I was well underway in my internship. Learning as an individual has always been something I’ve placed as a priority in everything that I do, especially when it comes to the development in my career aspirations. Learning and developing is a critical aspect in all things humans do in order to become better and more effective in our day-to-day lives. Personal development includes increasing your self-awareness and finding and perusing one’s passions. The internship has been a yearly build-up of planning, preparation, and understanding. I joined the Bachelor of Sport Business degree at Holmesglen to peruse a career in sports business, specifically in the sport of basketball. Through my development and experiences, basketball has been the sport that inspired me as a person to develop a passion for the sport by watching basketball games, from the National Basketball League to the National Basketball Association.

Watching the game of basketball allowed me to increase and grow my passion for the sport, it made me think clearly about what career objectives I should have coming into the degree. From this, I learned that through the assessments and tasks I was required to complete over the duration of the degree had me gravitate a lot of the subjects around basketball as this is a topic I am highly knowledgeable in and felt this would reflect positively in the results and marks. My online identity was developed on platforms like LinkedIn which has shown to be a valuable tool to network and connect with industry professionals and those who can provide some value to add in my growth. The internship classes included all the student cohort to share their experiences and insights as to how their LinkedIn profile was built to come across professionally and personable. Taking this knowledge and applying it to my own LinkedIn profile created many more meaningful connections as the interests, likes and interactions correlated with the new connections.

Personal development is a critical aspect in the continuous individual growth that everyone needs to experience as this is a necessity to improve oneself and gain skills, attributes and qualities that will separate you from everyone else and be valued as an important key role in any sporting organisation. The experiences and lessons learnt, especially in the degree, will be proof of obtaining the necessary skills to carry out in the industry.