Friday 11 February 2011

An interning week in Oxfam Scotland

For any budding interns out there here's a diary of my working week to give you a taste of what it's actually like to intern for Oxfam.

Monday


Get into the office at 9am, turn on computer, open up diary and write to do list for the day. At 9.30am I head downstairs into our diary meeting. I'm not sure if this happens at Oxfam House (if it does it'll be each individual team not the whole office) but at Oxfam Scotland whoever is in the office meets up and fills everyone else in on what they'll be working on this week. I got congratulated on how runner recruitment has gone so far; so that gave me a happy little buzz for the rest of the day.

I spent the morning emailing runners, updating spreadsheets and speaking to runners on the phone.

At lunchtime I went back into the meeting room for a talk from two lovely ladies that had come to visit the office. One lady was the Oxfam GB Regional Programme Funding Manager for South Asia. She explained about the 6 year "We Can" programme that aims to end violence against women in the region. In addition she explained how Oxfam India was established and what programmes and campaigns they will be running in India. They too are aiming to end violence against women. Their website can be found here.

We then heard from the Country Director for Pakistan. She told us about the impact the floods have had and what is happening now. **This was really hard to hear but also very inspiring as I know the money our Oxfam runners are raising in the Edinburgh Marathon Festival will help those in Pakistan and those in future emergencies.

In the afternoon I helped Helen (the Oxfam Do intern) pack up boxes to be delivered to Oxfam shops across Scotland for the scottish launch of Oxfam Do. If you're near an Oxfam Shop on Saturday 12th Feb go in, try some lovely Fairtrade goodies and find out about "Doing the DO".

Left the office at 5.30pm.

Tuesday


I worked in a bar all day to help fund my internship.

Wednesday


I had a huge to do list today, so I plugged myself into Fearne Cotton and later Greg James and got on with it.

I spent the day working on recruitment of runners. This is quite a broad thing to do but it basically involves looking at which groups of people run and promoting Oxfam as a charity to run for.

I got some careers advice from the lovely ladies in my office. (There is a strong belief in Oxfam that interns should be given a great deal of careers advice and help.) I read up on whats going on in the third sector as it's important to have something to talk about at interviews besides your work experience. This mainly included reading up on marketing and fundraising and I'll post some links to useful sites.

Thursday


I spent the morning answering runners questions. Then I legged it into town for a quick lunch shift at the bar before a 1-1 meeting with my line manager.

Then....

I went to a knitting class! It was so much fun and not old-fashioned at all. I'm going to knit some squares for the IWD quilt that will be displayed at the Tramline in Glasgow. I've also found out that there's loads of knitting clubs around Glasgow so I'll add a few to the Glasgow Life page.

Friday


Worked at the bar all day. Tonight I'm going to be blogging and knitting. Tomorrow I am off to Edinburgh to help out in a bag pack for Oxfam.


** The floods in Pakistan have affected 20 million people and they covered an area the size of England! There was no warning that they were going to happen as forecasts for the year had predicted that the season would be normal and that Pakistan could even expect 30% less rain. The waters destroyed homes, crops, livestock and took many lives. In some places the water was 20-30ft deep. At present a food crisis is developing and UNICEF are trying to establish how serious it could be. 1 million people are in an emergency state and 6 million have no shelter.

You might not have realised the floods were so bad as there wasn't the same level of media coverage as there was for the earthquake in Haiti. I found a blog post that discusses why this might be.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

"Confessions of a City Girl"

I recently read "Confessions of a City Girl" by Suzana S and thought I would write a review about it.

The book tells the story of Suzana S and leads on from her columns as 'City Girl" that were published in TheLondonPaper before it closed. Suzana S (real name Barbara Stcherbatcheff) graduated from Colgate University with a music degree and went on to achieve her ambition of becoming a City Trader. The book charts the pitfalls she encountered along the way, her marriage and divorce and her constant battle against sexism in the workplace. I didn't expect much from it, as I have a pretty hostile view of bankers  and suspected it may have been an attempt to recreate the magic of a Miss C. Bradshaw. However, I was pleasantly surprised as it was actually an inspirational read.

I absolutely loved and felt inspired by the feminist message in this book. Suzana (I'll call her by her 'character' name) continually fought against men who refused to offer her any insight into the profession let alone offer her a job as a trader. Although they were quite happy to offer her another type of job - lovely. She refused to give up, did not sleep with anyone and kept and used her femininity rather than dressing like a man. In addition, she doesn't shy away from feminism; she actively strives for and expects equality rather than denying that she is feminist because of the dated assumption that all feminists are radical.

The book gives a sharp, witty and self-deprecating insight into the City. Highlighting the gambling, drinking, luxuries and ridiculous wealth but also the stress, extra-marital affairs and self-destruction that accompanies trading. It also explores roles other than trading and documents the cliques within the City that may have worsened the financial crisis. Personally I don't think I could hack working with numbers all day as I thrive when being creative. However, prior to reading "Confessions of a City Girl" I had never considered that my skill set could be applied to roles within the financial sector. Perhaps if I had read a book like this in my career classes at school rather than the '... you're good at English, here's what you can do sheet' I would have explored what else was out there for me. The outcome would probably be the same, I could never work in the City, but I do thinks it's this kind of thing that should form the careers curriculum.

Most of all, I found the book inspiring because Suzana graduated with a Music degree and felt, like I have, that people assumed she wouldn't be successful. I graduated with a Drama degree and although I know that I learnt a great deal, including practical skills, many people have dismissed it as a Mickey-Mouse course. It's also inspiring that she had to start at the bottom and didn't always find it easy but that she got there in the end. I'm enjoying my internship but there are moments when I wish I was in a paid role, so it's good to know I'm not the only one to find the beginning of their career difficult at times.

There are problems with the book though. It's hard to get around the fact that the author made a lot of money from trading before she left to be a Derivative Consultant (read the book if you want to understand what one is). I don't think it's fair to berate someone for being successful and she obviously worked very hard. Equally you could say it's not mine or anyone else's business how big a bonus she received. On the other hand though, people who had nothing to do with the financial sector are suffering because of it's mismanagement. It's impossible to ignore that while I'm doing an internship and the majority of graduates I know are unemployed or doing temp work that the author played a part in a systematic gamble with the global economy. Towards the end of the book she suggests reasons the financial crisis could have been avoided (like frontline staff talking and listening to backroom staff) but fails to outline or hint at how much she earned or show remorse.

Overall my problems with the book stem from my problems and anger with some members of the City and this doesn't take away from what I got out of the book. If it wasn't about the City in the middle of the financial crisis, if it was about another industry it would be a truly inspirational read and I would recommend it to anyone beginning his or her career.

"Confessions of a City Girl" by Suzana S was published by Virgin Books in 2009.

Click here to go to the author's website.

Another review can be read here