Week three rituals, routines and real Londoners dont wear flip flops...

Week three rituals, routines and real Londoners don’t wear flip flops... by Michael Cheary Week three: rituals, routines and real Londoners don’t wear flip flops.This week our interns learned a lot about life at reed.co.uk. Unfortunately, they also learned that street-performers aren’t necessarily the most trustworthy people in the world…*AndrewAfter being in the UK for three weeks, I have come to the following conclusions:1. Always bring an umbrella with you.2. Never wait at the crossing until it turns green.3. Actually move down the carriage when you get on the tube.4. Waitrose is so much more expensive than Sainsbury’s.5. Don’t be the  guy who gets to the turnstile only to find out his Oystercard is empty.6. Real Londoners don’t wear flip flops.7. I am, by far, not a real Londoner.As much as I would like to sit here and pretend that I’ve acclimatised to life across the pond, the truth is I still feel like a Californian fish out of water.This morning I finally experienced what real summer in London is like.  Cold (by my sheltered California standards), and damp, with surprise downpours every few hours.As a foreigner who was embracing the unseasonably warm weeks that made him hopelessly infatuated with the city, I will be the first to admit that so far I have had an absolutely skewed and somewhat idealistic experience of London. I get to live near King’s Cross for the summer, where I can walk on over to work in the reed.co.uk office in central London.I get to wake up every day and have a job that most people my age don’t really get to do, and be a part of an office where I can to tackle exciting projects that affect all areas of the business, from coming up with new customer entry points to tracing people’s contact points across the company.  After work I can go on a run through Regent’s Park before making sure I punch myself in the arm as a reminder to not take this all for granted.I still have a lot to learn about the city, and more importantly a lot more to do while at reed.co.uk, but I can at lea st say with certainty that that I am one fortunate, very American, non-Londoner fool to have this opportunity.StephanieShockingly, time has flown by! Week three has arrived and deadlines are drawing nearer.We’ve been briefed on more projects and to think that our ideas actually contribute to the improvement of the company is pretty amazing. Aside from working on projects together with the other interns, lunch has been another project in itself for us. As we try to explore every food spot around Holborn, we definitely find ourselves in interesting situations. Everything from awkward street performers gone wrong, to accidently buying expired crisps has left us with laughter and energy to tackle the second half of the day.Thankfully, reed.co.uk encourages retrospective meetings which allow us to reflect on our week and what we can do to improve. Aside from the amazing orange chocolate we get treated to during our meeting (which we’re now hooked on thanks David!) they really have h elped us come together more on our projects and bounce ideas from one another, which has evidently made our approach to projects and work more effective. Our regular break out meetings and occasional chess games certainly also help to increase our engagement levels.The weekly photo-shoots we organise for our blogs has been something we look forward to too. It’s enlightening to see everyone’s inner model and photographer definitely come though. Look up and check out the new banner! Can you guess what this week’s is in homage to?AllyThe daily routine is a sacred and age-old practice. It has, despite the march of time, remained quite the same across generations. If you can find any difference between the morning hike to the hunting grounds our ancestors took just after the last ice age, and me swiping my Oyster on the bus to work, you have secret findings the Royal Archaeological Institute needs to hear.I’d argue it takes three weeks. Three weeks till it suddenly hits you that you have one. You’re sitting at your desk when your mind throws its fishing hook to the kitchen area, hoping to lure a cup of tea. You begin your journey to the kettle and think to yourself, ‘boy, this is familiar’. And you realise it’s familiar because it’s 10 o’clock, and 10 o’clock has always been time for a tea break ever since you can remember. Thus the daily routine is conceived.Not that routine is bad. A habit can be a comforting anchor in an otherwise storm-tossed life. I smile to think that this morning, as I do every morning, and as I will do every morning till the Apocalypse (or, the end of my contract with reed.co.uk), I pressed the snooze button of my alarm from 6:45 till 7:15 to the point that I had fifteen minutes to prepare for work. While the routine does change subtly through time, I find it humorous that naiveté never constitutes one of those variations.But it gets me where I need to go. If my work at reed.co.uk is a bowlful of jelly it’s the rout ine that acts as dessert spoon (awkward images stop now, promise). Like the ribbon on a Christmas gift, I tie up this week’s blog and send it to the editor, yet another component in my weekly ritual.(That last one was technically a simile.)ConnorThis week I learned (the hard way) that Americans really have no idea what we’re doingOver the weekend, Yaseen and I rented one of those little paddle boats in Hyde Park. Everything had been going great, until we started to make our way home and stumbled upon 15 or so people surrounding a man setting up a street game.It was the classic 3-cups and a ball setup where you had to guess which cup the ball was under; simple right? I watched ignorantly, and managed to guess the right cup about 6 times in a row. So, feeling confident I went for my wallet not realising the minimum bet was £40. It just happened to be the case that the only note I had in my wallet was a £50.I carefully watched his movements like I had the six times before until I was certain I knew where it was. I arrogantly threw down my money and after he stopped, I simply pointed my finger to the correct one. Apparently, I was not aware of the rule that you had to actually touch your choice of cup and lift it up, so he began reshuffling the cups and while in the process, showed me that I had guessed the right one but said it didn’t count.I expressed my complaint, but being an experienced street hustler, he just kept shuffling without saying anything. Infuriated and trying to prove him wrong twice, I proceeded to guess again at the cup I was certain the ball was under. This time I only found the pavement under the cupAfter reconsidering my life and having several strangers sympathize with me about the scam I just fell victim to, the man packed his things up and put his hand out to shake mine, saying “never put your money on a street game, especially when you have bad luck” Trying to maintain my composure without screaming every word that would be ed ited out of this blog, I simply declined his offer, saying “where I’m from, we only do that as a sign of respect”, and walked away.It was a memorable trust exercise. If only for the wrong reasons. Hopefully next week there will be no balls…YaseenMy dear ladies and gentleman of the audience, I am deeply apologetic to have to admit that until now I have yet to introduce myselfcompletely.  It has now been an entire three weeks since we first met each other.I sincerely appreciate your patience in this tumultuous relationship, and I hope you will find it in the graces of your hearts to overlook the marginalization through which I have forced you to endure.In its place I offer something that cannot be bought, marginally taught, and seldom sought: I offer Intern Wisdom.Throughout the past week at reed.co.uk I have successfully been able to present, research, and even teach my fellow interns on a subject on which I possessed no prior knowledge: modern employment trends in the UK.  I am quite proud to report that within the galactic spectrum, of internships and corporations, the illustrious learning curve does indeed exist.  I am shocked to see how much new information I am able to retain, and regurgitate at a moment’s notice.Being that I am still in Uni, it’s beautiful to finally expand our brain with real world knowledge and be able to finally apply our theoretical skills, which we have spent years cultivating, into forming the simplest speeches to analysing the most complex trenches of data.I am only 20 years old but this past week I have noticed a curious growth within myself that I cannot say I have seen before.  The laboratory results are not yet conclusive, but at its preliminary stages it would appear to seem as if this little intern has been diagnosed with Acute Maturity Syndrome.  Better known as AMS in most medical circles, I will be sure to keep you updated, and track its progress diligently in the coming weeks.  Oh yeah, and about that in troduction….Until next week ladies and gentlemen.*reed.co.uk would like to point out that this was solely included for humorous reasons, and was not intended to cause offence. Most street-performers are in fact very hard-working and trustworthy individuals.  The interns have finished week three. Stay tuned to see how they get on in the coming weeks.Find a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. Career Development Features