How I Became a Drupal Pupil

Hey Edsters,

A few weeks ago, my supervisor sent out a mass email to all the interns emphasizing the need for training on the content system known as drupal.  My immediate reaction was emphatic agreement. 

Yes! Finally! After weeks of tireless transcribing and other run-of-the mill projects, here was a much-needed change of pace to learn something new.  Not only would I be able to sharpen my rusty tech skills, but also prepare myself should a rare assignment randomly fall in my lap.

So, one morning a number of interns and I made our way to a lone conference room. Solemnly shuffling single file down the hall, we attracted attention as dozens of eyes zeroed in on us.

“Make way for the intern train!” someone in the office exclaimed with a laugh. 

Shrugging off the jest with a smile, I planted myself at a round table with the others to await our tutorial. Surrounded by glass doors and a wide window, I got the impression of being in an empty aquarium tank, feeling like a fish out of water. Hopefully, in time (with this training) I can be like Dory from “Finding Nemo” and leap back into the water to “just keep swimming.”

After a few minutes, a staffer came and quickly jumped into the lesson without fanfare. Firing up a PC laptop, he explained the benefits of the content management system (CMS) for the magazine, especially for publishing breaking news after hours or exclusive insider blogs on the website.

Creating a dummy story to demonstrate how to use the tabs and adjust the settings, he meticulously covered the mechanics of drupal. Thankfully there was a plasma TV on the wall behind him connected to the laptop so that we could see exactly what to do, step by step. No boring power point overheads here.

At the end of the thorough training, he fielded our questions about how to add key tags for more clickable content as well as including embedded links for video clips. Then he concluded that would eventually receive our own individual log-ins and referred us to our supervisor for any additional questions.

Back to my desk, I breathed a sigh of relief. Although I had stressed at first, I soon realized that this was familiar territory, similar to the blog posts for Ed. I could do this!

OK, Edsters. Now I’m psyched to put my newly acquired skills to good use and rack up more bylines. Do you find there are more opportunities in web?

XOXO,
Entertainment Intern