19 Jul A Day in the Life of a Research Intern
My name is Emma Clarke and I am an intern at Fluent Research. In the fall, I will be a senior at Tulane University in New Orleans, where I study psychology and cognitive studies. I first interned with Fluent during the summer of 2022 and I am very grateful to be back this summer. While my workdays are always a bit different, I’d like to give you an idea of what a typical day looks like.
8:00 A.M.
I typically wake up at around 8:00 in the morning because the work day starts at 9:00. I like to start my day by driving to get some coffee. My order this summer has been a brown sugar shaken espresso! When I get home from getting coffee, I make breakfast too. Usually I’ll make an omelet or a breakfast sandwich.
9:00 A.M.
The work day begins at about 9:00 in the morning. While Fluent Research has an office in New York City, I work remotely because I live outside of Philadelphia. First, I usually like to log on to my email to check for missed notifications from the previous day. Once I have done that, I will typically have some work left to complete from the day before.
11:00 A.M.
After I have completed the previous day’s work, I will either wait for someone to reach out to me with a new task they need support on, or I will message my supervisor, Mary Meyn, and ask her what I can help with for the day. I tend to work on whatever I have been assigned or attend meetings with colleagues.
This summer, I have really enjoyed attending presentations by Fluent staff to help interns learn more about the company and how it works. For example, I recently attended a presentation led by Sofia Polo about the essentials of report writing. The week prior, Farah Brensinger presented about what it means to be a user experience (UX) researcher. As I plan for my future post graduation, these presentations have provided me with insight about potential career paths. I really appreciate how everyone at Fluent is willing to help guide and teach the interns.
12:00 P.M.
Since I tend to make a big breakfast for myself, I’m not super hungry by lunchtime. I may have a small snack at this time, though.
On Fridays, we often have a “Lunch and Learn” presentation. Different staff members will present on a topic of their choice and everyone gets to learn something new. One of my favorite presentations was Charlotte’s discussion of how reproductive justice plays into research.
1:00 P.M.
At this time on Mondays, we have a weekly staff meeting, when we take time to thank and give kudos to colleagues for jobs well done over the past week, and go over the status of the current projects we are working on. I find this meeting really helpful because I can gauge where I may be of help to people that week and learn about interesting projects.
2:00 P.M.
The weekly meeting lasts for about an hour. I will then return to what I was working on prior to the meeting. This may be something like taking notes on user experience interviews, pulling quotes from interviews for reports, testing out surveys, or something else entirely. One thing I really appreciate about interning at Fluent Research is that I get to be involved in a variety of different projects and tasks.
No day is ever the same! While I can’t give details about any current projects I am working on, the most impactful one I have worked on in the past was a report on how to help military families who had a spouse that died of suicide after their service. This was a very sensitive subject andI learned a lot from it. I went through interviews of the military spouses discussing their experiences and how they would have liked to have been helped during such a tough time. It was great to know that this work was going to contribute to improving the experiences of others suffering from the same type of loss in the future.
4:00 P.M.
By about this time in the afternoon, I tend to be in need of a little break from the computer. I usually do this by taking my dog on a walk around the neighborhood. It’s nice to be outside and get a little exercise after working inside all day. I like to listen to a podcast while I walk, too. One of my favorites is “You’re Wrong About,” which discusses how events in the past have been misrepresented in society and how these events truly played out.
5:00 P.M.
When I return from my walk, I will typically continue working until around 5:00. Of course, sometimes the work day goes a little longer or ends a little earlier for me, but this is the general cutoff point.
I hope you enjoyed reading about a day in my life as an intern at Fluent Research! As I stated earlier, no day is ever the same in terms of what tasks or projects I will be working on. However, I think this portrait of a day in my life as a summer intern at Fluent Research will give a general overview of how my days are typically structured.