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Working Abroad: How to Handle Bad A Week

Working Abroad: How to Handle Bad A Week

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Okay. This is getting really difficult.

Granted, working for The Roman Guy is a godsend in comparison to other internships I could have gotten in terms of work environment, the job itself is getting a bit overwhelming. It’s been difficult to gather exactly what I need to be doing because there are so many smaller elements that go together for each task I must complete. For example, I have to learn how to operate MeetEdgar. This is a website in which I plug in posts into separate “buckets” based on type of post.

From there I can schedule which posts go on Facebook and Twitter by plugging that bucket into whatever time slot I want. I’ve used MeetEdgar twice, but now I think I’ve got a much better understanding of how it works. Then there is Instagram where I need to be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at a time I think would reach the most followers. This would be fine if I had images to share. The Roman Guy is a fairly new company so they don’t have a ton of their own pictures. This being said, I need to be going out and taking pictures myself of the various foods and fresh food markets that are in Rome. I’m finding this difficult because I don’t have any income so I can’t always be going out to different places to take amazing food pictures for my posts. With these pictures I do manage to take, I have to create multiple images with polls, quotes, questions, etc. to post at scheduled times. It’s also hard because a lot more time is needed, in my opinion, than the 10-hour average per week that is recommended. It feels heavy especially when also managing school work. This is leaving my content not as amazing as I would like it to be (see attached images). Additionally, it’s my responsibility check on these social media accounts and interact with our followers. I won’t lie, I feel pretty discouraged.

This past week I got a really bad cough and fever. I’m not able to get sleep because of it. My supervisor noticed I seemed ill and was very kind about it which surprised me because people aren’t typically like this in the United States. She sent me home early and allowed me to complete my tasks on campus for the following day. I’m grateful for how accommodating and understanding The Roman Guy is. Though I didn’t go into work, I spent 8 hours on campus in the café this morning completing work so I wouldn’t fall behind. Realizing Rinaldo’s had soy milk was the highlight of my week so staying there for 8 hours did me some good, I’d say. Spending so much time on work today helped me feel like I have a better grip on what I have to do to stay on target. So what am I going to do to get past it? Looking for things to be happy about even if it’s as small as the cafe offering soy milk because I’m lactose intolerant. Additionally, I truly believe that no one should have to think about work and school every moment of every day. It’s healthy to take time to relax especially when getting sick. Tomorrow, JFRC is taking a group of students to a thermal bath for a spa day. Doing something for yourself to not be so overwhelmed can work wonders and improve productivity and sanity. Besides, getting through times like this is what I believe makes it all worth it in the end. I’m trying to stay optimistic because underneath it all I’m happy to be working for a company that shows that they care about my overall well being and is helping me grow into a better Marketer. Sometimes people have bad weeks and that’s alright as long as they bounce back. I just need to push through it.
Studying Abroad and Adjusting to Work Life

Studying Abroad and Adjusting to Work Life

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This week went much smoother. I no longer have a fever and I’ve got a better grasp on how to do my job. I enjoy being in the office. Weekends I’ve decided to prep photos for the week. It’s vital for me to prep my Wednesday Instagram post ahead of time because my posts are meant to go out at 6:00pm every. Since I tutor 5:30pm to 6:30pm I found myself rushing to create a post after homework and in between tutoring this week. The post was subpar, but I’m working on it.

 

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday If I’m out getting a cappuccino, at a market, or even passing a restau
rant, I need to take pictures of what I see and document where I saw it. Mondays and Thursdays are days where while I’m in the office I create. This could be anything from putting quotes on pictures I’ve taken over the weekend, to creating posts to schedule into MeetEdgar. These days are a little tricky because the shifts are so short. Monday I’m in the office for three hours while Thursday I work two. Friday shifts are five hours, so I have plenty of time to research marketing tactics to try to gain a bigger following. For social media, it’s really important to constantly be following people to get the company’s name out there.

To make more time in the office for other tasks, I’ve decided to check social media throughout my day. For instance, if I’m eating lunch at Mensa I could also be following people, liking photos, commenting on posts, or brainstorming post ideas. It’s tough but I can do it. Saturdays need to be spent studying or I’ll never pass. I think I’ve got a better feel for my schedules as time goes along. In retrospect, I’m happy I didn’t schedule weekend trips every weekend like the rest of the JFRC students. I don’t know how I’d be able to manage constant travel and my responsibilities in Rome. Things are looking up! Only two more weeks until Spring Break and I’m ready. I’ve already got flights booked to London, then I’m taking the train to Paris. While

in Paris I’m taking photos for The Romans Guy’s other branch, The Paris Guy. This week I was given the responsibility of growing followers in The Paris Guy’s instagram as in addition to my other responsibilities. I think the photo aspect with be fun and I’m super excited to get creative with it.

During my time posting for The Roman Foodie, I’ve grown to appreciate how much time goes into marketing for food. It could be the best food on the planet, but if it doesn’t look good, no one wants to try it. The key to being good at marketing is to make everything look as good as possible. The food looks good, the company looks good, I look good.
I Live in Rinaldo’s

I Live in Rinaldo’s

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I live in Rinaldo’s. I’ve officially set up shop and am not leaving until spring break starting today. I realize that I’m spending too much time focusing on creating content for work and brainstorming that I haven’t been studying enough. I’ve done research on different and effective ways to use instagram to make sales, while posting 3 times a week, I’m supposed to also be posting 2-3 stories a week,

finding new stories to write about like new restaurants, and the March Events Blog post is due next Monday. I completely bombed my finance test which probably shouldn’t have been as hard as it was. I need to be more focused and balanced in how I’m allocating my time. The rest of my midterms are next week so I’m basically not leaving JFRC until my grades are where I need them to be (or sleeping probably, but that’s college right?). Today I took the 990 Bus to Vatican City to take some pictures for my internship and send out postcards to my friends and family. It was 2,80 euros per stamp. The man who was working at the post office seemed was super rude. I handed him my debit card and he threw my postcards on the

desk and said, “No Card.” Alright, noted. I handed him cash, took my postcards and stamps, and left. It was probably because I spoke English to be honest. On my way back to the bus I stopped at a McCafe. I wish McDonalds had them in the united states like they do here. They have cheesecake, muffins, cornetto, colorful doughnuts, and it’s awesome. I got some decent pictures for the Roman Foodie instagram. I ended up buying a creamolosa al caffee. Its pistachio fudge topped with espresso and vanilla soft serve. I had no idea what I was getting but I figure I should try a new thing every day if I can. My life has been changed. With such easy access

to sweets, I’ve come to the realization that I need to do something to keep me healthy. So, for the past month or so I’ve gone to the gym 5-6 times a week depending how my body feels. I’m finally starting to see the benefit of all the work I’ve put in and I’m really happy about. So, the goal for next week is to sort my life out, but its really hard to say the least.

 

MIDTERM

MIDTERM

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I’m half way through the semester and through the internship. In retrospect, I think I’ve accomplished a lot so far. At the beginning, I didn’t have any idea what to expect. I wasn’t sure if the office would be like in Chicago where everyone is business formal, or business casual. I didn’t know how serious the staff would be, if they’d be friendly, and actually help me build career skills. There is such a stigma towards business interns where we’re known for getting people coffee, filing, and essentially doing grunt work. This being said, I expected the worst. I’ve never had an internship before and I wasn’t familiar with the work-life in Italy. I’ve only heard that in Italy people are a lot more laid back, so I had no clue what it would be like here. The most interesting aspect of this internship is the staff because they’re really open and give constructive criticism. It is incredibly helpful. My least favorite aspect is the commute. It’s a twenty-minute walk to the train, fifteen-minute train ride, and then a ten-minute walk. Two euros a day, three days a week is no fun. I understand how to use MeetEdgar, I better understand how to schedule posts on social media to reach a wider audience, and I understand how much dedication it takes to market. During this semester I had the hardest time getting used to the work, school, life, balance. Now, it isn’t so bad. All I had to do was get used to the routine by staying consistent. Interning in Marketing reflects what I’ve done in my marketing courses because I’ve constantly got to be thinking about who my target market is, what content they’re looking for, and how to use that to sell a product. Beyond the job itself though, I personally wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing something I had no experience doing. So, here I am doing it. I think by the end of this internship, the most rewarding part is going to be the fact that I got through it. I never thought my first job would be in Italy so that still amazes me. It is difficult, but I’d recommend going through this internship to anyone.

Spring break came around just in time. I truly needed it. My friend Cat and I went to London and it was the best city I’ve ever been to. Our hostel was above a pub and they had free breakfast. We met the nicest people who took us to some clubs and pubs and talked to us about the difference in cutlure in the UK vs the US. It was hysterical. It was such a relief to be in a city where transportation works and people speak English. We went on a slide in Stratford London that was literally the height of the statue of liberty. Afterwards, we went to Paris and Versailles. Not as fun, my friend got mugged in front of the Louvre. On the bright side, I met up with 3 friends from Chicago that I really missed, one of which studies in Paris. We went to a club with a ball pit.  A piece of home is what I needed to pull me through the rest of this semester.
What Do I Do Now?

What Do I Do Now?

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Part of my midterm was giving feedback about my company. I’ve already written tons on how that’s going for me, but I also got back the review they gave on me. For the most part it’s going well, they enjoy that I work there and I contribute solid ideas. I noticed the areas that I scored lower in were communication and making sure I complete all requirements in a task when I have to get it done quickly. So, with that, I was trying to reflect on what I’ve done up until this point, and how to change it going forward because by the end I want to make sure that I made the most of it. During the beginning of the semester, there wasn’t much structure to my internship because things kept changing. For example, they wanted me to create a schedule and brainstorm idea of what and how I want to post to social media. Then I ran into the problem of the company not having enough content for me to post so I had to find my own. On sheet the company  filled out detailing my strengths and weaknesses they also listed my responsibilities as managing social media for The Roman Foodie (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter). However, so many more responsibilities kept getting tacked on to that.

Now, I’ve worked on following growth for The Roman Guy, and The Paris Guy. I’ve added tripadvisor reviews to the Roman Guy website. I write the monthly blog posts for the Roman Guy. I’m writing a blog bost for The Roman Foodie. I create content for The Roman Foodie social media accounts which includes going out to take my own pictures, finding quotes to lay over it, and schedule it into MeetEdgar to post at specific times a day. I’ve done research for my supervisor to present on how to use Instagram to turn in a profit/make sales. So, especially in the beginning it was very overwhelming. In retrospec

t,  should have been straightforward about when the amount I had to do in a week was unrealistic because of time restraints, but going forward I feel more comfortable being honest about that. I used to me worried that it would look bad if I said there was something I couldn’t handle, but it’s far worse to have to do too much and turn in poor work or miss a requirement because of stress.

So, what am I going to do now? Definitely prioritize school and be more honest about what I need in work wether that be more time or less tasks. I’ve been keeping work and my life separate. It’s really annoying when I’m out with friends and I say, “Hold on I have to get to wifi so I can post this thing on Instagram for work.” So instead I’ve been taking pictures randomly throughout the day ahead of when I need to post something and create a caption at work so it doesn’t take up so much personal time. Since I decided to do this and keep work at work, my life has been so much more enjoyable and relaxed in Rome.
ONE WEEK LEFT

ONE WEEK LEFT

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Next week is the last of my internship and honestly this came really fast. Everything after Spring Break tends to go super quick, though. To celebrate the end of my internship, I’m going to be going to Santorini, Greece next weekend and I’m so excited for it. Treat yourself, why not? My roommate and I are going together so hang out on the beach to destress from this semester. I know I need it.

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Leaving TRG

Leaving TRG

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I’M DONE WITH MY FIRST INTERNSHIP!!!

I’m so happy with how far I’ve come, oh my goodness. My last day was this Friday and it’s my longest day in office all week. This gave me plenty of time to complete projects I had and wrap everything up. I completed my final events post for May. I added some content to MeetEdgar for the events posts to get it out there on all the social media accounts. I created a thread on Twitter for all of the food tours The Roman Guy offers so it’s easily accessible to whoever goes on their page. Finally, I went over everything I’ve accomplished and what struggles I’ve faced throughout the course of the internship.

Facebook:

  1. YouTube Videos get the most interaction.
  2. Best time to post: between 6 and 9pm
  3. Posts with a longer description do better.
  4. People aren’t as engaged on Facebook, so they aren’t really into answering questions about their favorite places or anything like that. They prefer visual content that doesn’t involve much interaction which is why YouTube videos do great.

Twitter

  1. Live tweeting does well and I think it’s much easier than scheduling into Meet Edgar.
  2. Testing: Scheduling a few key posts into Meet Edgar such as events posts, and live tweeting while in the office. I think live tweeting does best because it seems more authentic in my opinion.
  3. Constant content creation/ Updating is key!
  4. Best time to post: any time/all day. With twitter there isn’t really a set time because people tweet so often that in order to be seen we also have to constantly tweet.

Instagram

  1. Stories do well and I’m a such a fan of saving the whole story as highlight because it organizes content by what people would like to see. Polls are best in thestories because they’re easy to followers to use. “Foodie Adventures” were my favorite thing to do once a week because it involved the least amount of work with the greatest engagement.
  2. Posts: Sweets, cheap food, trip advisor recommended restaurants do the best
  3. Best time to post: between 6 and 9pm
  4. Testing: posting on Saturdays instead of Mondays seems to be doing really well and hitting a bigger audience.
  5. Tested: Putting borders around pictures with a common theme, but it takes too much time and doesn’t really add much to the value of the posts.

Enjoyed:

  • I really liked running the Instagram because it allowed me to see immediately what posts did best and the analytics are easy to have a look at.

Highlight:

  • I really enjoyed the tour. It was a super interesting to see the quality of what the Roman Guy offers first hand because I spent the past few months hearing about the tours so it was cool to finally see what all the hype was about.

Enjoyed the Least:

  • Twitter: I feel like Twitter could be really fun and has a lot of creative potential, but with the new rules in MeetEdgar it’s difficult to keep on renewing content.
  • I wish I had more time to try more creative things with twitter. For example, I think it would be a good idea to create a thread on twitter of food tour information and pin it to TRF twitter so its the first thing people see when coming to the twitter. This would also be a good way to link TRF Twitter to other social media accounts.

Challenges:


  • Having enough photos for posts. Since constant has to be constantly flowing, it’s important to always have new pictures and places to talk about. That can be difficult if one week there isn’t time to go out and take more pictures.
  • TIME! I just wish I had more time here. I feel like I could have accomplished so much more. By the time I got used to how everything works and what I’m supposed to do, it’s time to go!
  • Sometimes tasks seemed a bit disorganized. Sometimes I’d have assignments on google calendar, then there was the google doc, now there’s asana so it was a bit confusing figuring out what to do at time.
  • Some weeks I’d have the main things I’m supposed to be doing like the FB, TW, INSTA, content creation, stories, monthly blog post, follower growth for TRF, but then I’d also have follower growth for TPG and TRG along with Pinterest, and Trip Advisor reviews which ended up being a lot considering I’m only able to come in for 10 hours a week. It did get a lot easier once more interns came do tasks weren’t so heavy.

What can TRG do to help future interns?

  • Show them exactly what posts should look like or what key points to hit. For example, on Instagram, name the place, food item, price of food item, recommend it.
  • For blog posts, I think formatting is helpful to go over because it’s so important in making TRG look professional.

After going over all of this with my supervisors, they gave me a run-down of improvements among their social media accounts. Engagement and website traffic went up for all social media 

accounts which is awesome! Although I didn’t reach my goal of 4,000 followers on Instagram, I have brought Facebook engagement to a record high. I had no idea I was actually doing well because I wasn’t sure of myself throughout the course of the internship considering I’d never worked in Marketing before. I was really shocked because it kind of felt like I was drowning a bit, but I pulled through.

That night we all went out for aperitivo and gelato in Testaccio. It sad to go, but I’m beyond grateful for the time I’ve spent with the Roman Guy.