My wrist and eyes are sore. July 7th – 11th

This week I spent all five days on the context sensitive help project; I spent a lot of time at the mouse and keyboard staring at my screen. The work was tedious. I think I pressed “Control + V” more times in this week than the rest of my life combined. I often enlisted the help of my coworkers when I had problems or questions. For example, I had to call Bonnie in St. Louis concerning some confusion I had relating to the columns in the example spreadsheet that she had given me. I sit by two other people in my group, Carey and Karen, and asked them questions about which applications to test next, questions in the differences between menu items, et cetera. Even though I don’t see her all that much while at work, I find it invaluable to have my Aunt to talk to about work when we get home.

My Aunt works in the usability section of the product and focuses on user interface. It is nice to be able to talk to her about the product and different aspects of the job because, unlike the developers or technical writers that I sit close to, she tends to get the whole picture. When she answers my questions she is very good at making sure that I know exactly what she is talking about by using examples. On the other hand, if I were to ask a technical writer or developer the same kind of question, they would more often than not only answer from their own perspective; they focus on their work and their work only, rarely venturing out of their niche.

Like I said, the work was tedious but I guess everyone has to pay their dues. Most everyone in the office that I have told what I was working on replied, “Yes, we’ve been meaning to get around to that for some time now”, referring to the testing of the context sensitive help so I do feel like I am actually contributing something useful. Since the company just issued large release of their product only two days before I began my internship, my supervisor has had to be creative in finding work for me to do. The rest of the technical documentation team is just beginning the undertaking of their “content improvement plan”. Since their next major release is more than a year off, and most of the time the team is caught up in the creation of new content, right now is one of the few times that they can revisit old content and update it to match the teams ever evolving writing conventions.

Three weeks in and I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of office life. I’m starting to realize that I really need to take a few more breaks than just some time off for lunch. I’ve started to bring a book in to read from time to time for about ten minutes to give my eyes a rest from staring at the computer screen all day. I’ve also started to get to know the rest of my co-workers a little better too. I’ve played basketball or handball at lunch a couple times and went out for lunch with a few people for a birthday. All in all the internship has been a great experience so far.