The Year in Industry Begins

So in just a few short days I start my Year-In-Industry. This fancy thing is basically a glorified internship, with one major advantage. It counts towards my degree! Even better my placement is with an organisation I've been volunteering for since I was 13.

There are some disadvantages though... well maybe not in the long term). One of which is that I need to keep a "log book". Something my normal blog has shown I am not that great at doing. Regular blog posts are something I fail at historically, along with talking about myself.

During the course of your placement you are required to keep
a log book. This is a personal document where you should keep an account of the work you are doing, training courses, visits and any other key development events or observations about working life. Alongside this you should retain a portfolio of internal reports that you have produced, minutes of meetings etc... that you can use in support of the log.

This on its own is not quite so bad at first glance. It's very similar to something we ask of Mozilla Reps. I've not been great at doing it to the extent of which the university requires, and I probably only just fall into the right place with Mozilla Reps (something I am working on).

The log is a multi-purpose document. In the shorter term, it will help to remind you of your key achievements, which is useful when you have performance evaluations, and enable you to complete the self assessment part of this form more easily; in the slightly longer term, it will provide evidence and inspiration for your final placement report; in the very long term, it will be something you can look back on to refresh your memory as you prepare for graduate job interviews.

Here is where I start to see the most befit from this journal for me. I have a memory like a sieve when it comes to details and time. The previous section for me has benefits more for Mozilla in my opinion, and that is fine by me. I just don't fully see where this comes into play with my course.

It can be kept in paper or electronic form...

Electronic. Obviously :P

Seeing as how a lot of you have been through this kind of thing in the past, or are going through this right now, I have a question for you.

What tips/nuggets of advice do you have for someone about to start working for such a proudly unconventional organisation?