How My 5-Month Internship at TSS Went

Each time someone asks me what I do during my internship at The Social Space, there’s never a straightforward or simple answer that I could give. “Huh, so you work in a cafe all day?” or “Oh now you’re doing marketing?” (For context, none of these were directly related to my university major.) 

Simply put, my role was a Retail & Events Intern, but that title only tells you so much. On a day-to-day basis, I would be packing online orders, taking product photos, writing posts or product listings, helping to coordinate events, and counting stock… the list goes on. And on one occasion, I had a lizard fall on me while I was doing said stock count (note to any future interns reaching for items on the top shelf haha 🥲)

My first week was honestly pretty boring - it started with data entry, spreadsheets, learning how to operate the POS system, packing orders and the usual administrative tasks. Then, I had my first meeting with my supervisor, Farhana, and my boss, Cheryl. The meeting was so long, I remember thinking to myself - is every meeting going to be like this? Spoiler: yes, it was… 😬

As I slowly got more familiar with the work and the people around me, things started to pick up. I knew that this role expected me to handle cashiering, but I didn't quite expect to become part of the cafe crew during their rush hours too. There were days when I put my laptop aside to clear tables and serve food, only to return later afterwards and continue on whatever I had been working on. This was a recurring theme throughout my internship - there was seldom a completely mundane and predictable day. 

But of course, there were perks of working in a café - the yummy free food! Toasts, smoothie bowls, drinks… 🥖🫐🍵I even learnt to make a drink or two on my own.

Along the way, I also realised that not everything had to be particularly exciting for it to be enjoyable. Sometimes it was the quietest and most boring task - for me, I actually enjoyed packing online orders. I'd head upstairs to our storeroom, away from the buzz of the cafe and pack everything up. I loved the repetitiveness and that little bit of quiet time, and not having to think about anything else for a while.

The busiest period of my internship - working on our National Day event, ‘The Good Weekend’.

This was the biggest project I worked on during my internship.

It started with finding brands to invite, and then we began to review the list of brands and decide whether they were a yes, maybe or no.

I had a whole influx of photos to look through. More photos, and even more photos. I reviewed all the photos that brands submitted during their applications, and when that wasn’t enough I went hunting for images across all the brand’s socials. After the event, I also went through the photos taken by the event photographer to write a blogpost on the event (read it here!). By the end of it, I had probably looked at thousands of photographs. Despite all the rigour from the behind-the-scenes work, this was probably the part of my internship where I felt most like I was seeing the bigger picture.

Then I got to work with people from different organisations, speak to brand owners and finally see all the things I'd been working on come together in one physical space. Many of them had previously existed for me as names in spreadsheets. At our meetings, they became actual people - passionate owners telling me about their brands, staff and volunteers sharing why they chose to be involved. This experience truly broadened my perspective beyond the four walls of the cafe. 

After spending weeks helping to prepare the nitty-gritty for the event, we finally got to the event day. And then… I was assigned to man a socks booth - socks from a brand that I didn’t even own.  It was funny yet honestly, somewhat disappointing to realise that after all the spreadsheets, emails, photos, listings, ticketing and event preparation, my actual job on the day was to sell socks. In a strange way, this summed up my internship quite well - you could be asked to do anything.

Beyond TSS

While TSS was where I spent most of my working days, my internship experience wasn't limited to the cafe. I was also part of the Youth Corps Community Internship (YCCI) Programme, which allowed me to attend skills workshops, take part in volunteering sessions and meet other interns who were placed at different organisations across the community and social sector. Over time, I became closer with a handful of the other interns in my assigned group, and we'd often end up chatting amongst ourselves about our internship experiences, and just life in general. 

As part of the programme, I also had the opportunity to volunteer with seniors. My role allowed me to interact one-on-one with several seniors, and I found myself genuinely intrigued by their life stories - there was so much wisdom in these conversations. 

Looking back, being a part of the YCCI programme added another layer to my internship experience. While my work at TSS allowed me to learn, the workshops, volunteering sessions, and conversations with other interns were also valuable.

The things I'll remember

I'll miss the little conversations with some of the cafe crew during those in-between moments of getting water, making a drink or passing through the kitchen. I'll miss recommending products to customers telling them a little more about the brands we carry. I'll miss the free lunches. I'll miss my usual seat too - shoutout to Table 10 :)  Thank you to Cheryl for giving me a chance to intern here, and my supervisor, Farhana, whom I’ve asked way too many silly questions - I’m so thankful for their patience and guidance 🥰 

To sum it up… my five months at The Social Space was a mix of unpredictable, mundane, routine and fun. There were spreadsheets, stock counts, packing, long meetings, event planning, café rushes and more. It wasn't glamorous or particularly exciting, but I got to experience a lot more than I expected when I first walked through the doors.

If there’s a piece of advice I could tell the next intern before they start, it’s simply to go in with an open mind, and expect the unexpected. You’ll really never know what the next task will be. But perhaps there’s fun in that, and that's what makes an internship an internship!