Author Spotlight
Neva Hudson
Since the first time I was not-so-subtly prompted by my mom to start thinking about my post-high school life, I’ve had a knee jerk reaction to the word “corporate.” I shook my head when she started suggesting summer internships that had even a hint of a desk job. Wasting my life in a cubicle? No thanks.
The negative connotations I associated with corporate environments came from an idea I had imagined rather than experienced. Images of corporate-ness consisting of stifling LED lit rooms filled with squeaky gray rolly chairs were more than enough to silence any desire of becoming an office worker.
Four weeks of my summer were spent sitting in a cubicle interning at a startup company and craning my neck to stare at the clock hanging on the wall opposite of my computer monitor, willing the hour hand to hit 5 p.m.. The identical grid of one person cubicles felt like confirmation of what I had pictured.
I spent so much time alone in that cubicle, by week three I was talking to myself on the car ride home for lack of company.
The Friday night of my first full week, I complained to my parents over dinner that it felt like my whole life was on pause when I was sitting in that office. I couldn’t believe that this summer internship was so many people’s reality.
But somewhere in this quotidian of 9 to 5s while my friends frequented lifeguarding, babysitting and tutoring, I learned something about my coworkers that wasn’t in the internship application. Perspective.
My outlook shifted after the first week as I begrudgingly began acknowledging the positives. Each Monday and Tuesday lunch was catered. I know, score! But the food wasn’t the best part.
The highlight was emerging from my cubicle onto the main office floor and hearing the normally so-quiet-you-could-hear-a-pin-drop space transformed into rowdy tables of millennials laughing about the building’s nonsensical WiFi password and placing bets on the Royals — loser buys donuts.
These people were friends. I mean, they really liked each other. And maybe I prejudged the typical silence of the Human Resources department I sat in as being made up of boring people. But these expectations were chewed up and spit back out — the people were the best part of the job.
True, their eagerness to talk about their lives, pets and college years could be attributed to deprivation of social interaction during the workday, but the important part was that meetings or lunches became 10 times more bearable because of these connections.
I befriended another intern who had moved to the United States from Afghanistan three years ago and a journalism and anthropology major who ended up as Chief Operating Officer of the financial technology company I was working at. I attended a panel with one of the creators of Google Earth, and actually asked him questions.
The beauty of the diverse group of people I got to observe wasn’t just that I was exposed to different personality types or cultures. It was that I got to actively work with them.
We were an eclectic group. The only common ground between us was our investment in the company’s mission of making funding accessible for small businesses. Normally I would have ignored this fact and chosen the easier option, to surround myself with those I was similar to. I attribute the way I seamlessly bonded with my co-workers to the conscious choice I made to leave my comfort zone.
Middle-aged adults I initially found intimidating were suddenly informal interview subjects and invaluable contacts for future references and jobs. I found myself unintentionally networking — something I had previously cast off as feeling “fake” — just through asking genuine questions and truly listening.
Sure, I still don’t dream of waking up each morning and heading to a cubicle. But a desk job that seemed nothing more than a dull waste of time ended up teaching me to not only embrace the job but also the people I will meet in future workplace settings.
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