Day 3 -- Hell yeah!

I meant to do this day one, and yet I have been caught up in this whirlwind of work that I just haven't found the time to sit down and record my thoughts.

Heck, even now I don't have the time, and yet I am so happy with what I'm doing that I just want to tell everyone.

This summer I am working at Campbell-Ewald in Detroit. Never heard of it? Ditto. However, they do Alltel (WIZARD!), Farmers, Chevy and a lot more. We have three (or four, I kind of forget) offices in the area and some offices all over the country.

So, yes, big company.

But for being such a large company (800 people in the main building alone) it feels...like a family.
I didn't believe that when I heard it. In fact, whenever someone says that their agency is like a family I roll my eyes as it seems to be the keyword for "yeah, we ride your ass hard, but then act nice to you so that you don't jump out the window or sue the pants off of us".

Yet, last summer I worked at an ad agency of 50-ish people and, at the end of the day, I felt completely invisible. My mentor was, for lack of something more eloquent, a little bat-shit crazy, and no one seemed interested in giving me work, let alone acknowledging my existence. I could understand this if they were busy or some of the biggest names in advertising, yet they were all 20-somethings fresh out of college and seemed to forget what it was like to just BE an intern.

Conversely, my boss is one of the COOLEST and most amazing people ever (not a hyperbole. This is just a fucking fact, people). If there was some sort of coolness index which ranked on coolness from 1 through 100, he would easily get a five billion in my book.
But he sat down with me to work on projects, show us interns around, and event took us out to lunch! Honestly, when your boss can laugh at your terrible urban dictionary mention, you know you have a cool boss.

And when you can SHOW it to him. You know you have the best boss ever.

The past three days have been a whirlwind of names as everyone is so happy to introduce themselves. The funny thing is that they already know who I am. The interns in this company are treated not like some kind of grunt labor, but as something really valuable.
We aren't just given out (oh, that sounds terrible, but I'll go with it) to any group randomly. Departments must apply for us, just as we apply for the company. They have to promise to give us work, experience, and not just use us as a coffee service.

Hell, at my last place I got coffee at least 15 times. Today my boss asked if he could get ME coffee.

But this rambling means nothing, so let me put it in a more tangible story format: in my cube (and my brand new G5 -- oh yes, that is jealously your are feeling, my friend) I don't have any staples, push-pins or tape. Outside of my cube is a large filing cabinet which has a sticker that said 'office supplies'.
The other intern in my department said "Why don't you just go through it?"
"No," I responded. "I don't want to mess up the system." I'm just used to being told not to touch anything and receiving a severe passive-aggressive talk if I did (sometimes I feel like I suffer from some sort of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from my last internship).

I went back to my cube when someone from the office next to me poked his head in.
"Hey, don't be afraid to go through the stuff. You can take whatever you want!"
I couldn't believe it. He took time out of his day to help me find a stapler and some tape, then introduced me to some of the people he worked with.

Not in my department. Not responsible for me in any way. Just did it.

You know you really have a cool agency when it makes awesome work, has a room devoted to a Wii, Xbox and PS3, and the COO chats with you in the elevator.

But as much as I love the people there, I think I love my work more. I'm never sure what I'm allowed to say as, when you enter any ad agency, you sign eighty-five papers which say, in every different say possible, that you won't blab about what you're doing.
In a general sense, I look up the buzz about our clients on the internet (blogs, youtube, facebook, anywhere). I read blogs, I watch videos and just learn about anything I can learn about.

In short -- I'm getting paid to do what I would do on the weekends.

Fuck yes.