I hope everyone is learning a lot in your internship. Here is question #2. Please comment on this and feel free to respond to other’s comments as well.
What are some of the important things that you had to find out on your own–having to do with the company culture and/or things you wouldn’t normally think you have to ask for…finding the bathroom, finding where to get coffee in the morning, etc?
goPuff is a startup so it doesn’t have a formal training. I was totally clueless about the bathroom location and company events such as Monday breakfast, Friday Lunch, Friday briefing, happy hour and…work schedule. Eventually, I learned this thing by observing and asking my co-workers.
The first thing I had to find on my own was how to report my hours. Previously worked jobs where I just showed up clocked in and clocked out, now the hours are more nuanced and have to be applied in a particular way to be able to be billed to the client. A second thing I had to ask was how to stay organized with all the client info that comes in. This is my first consulting role so having to manage multiple clients is foreign to me since in the previous job I had the luxury of being able to focus on one problem at a time.
Ogilvy has a very comprehensive orientation program, so I mostly knew what to do. However, when it comes to the details on using the VOIP phones, tech policies, and getting to meeting rooms across a huge building, I had to rely on my manager, ask around, and use the interns’ group chat for troubleshooting. This is also the first internship in which I need to record my hours according to job codes, which determine the type of work and the clients attached. Because I have not worked in a large corporation before, I was a bit awkward in the first few days.
What is great is that despite the many policies in place and its age in the ad industry, Ogilvy is dynamic, open, team-oriented, and incredibly diverse.
I have an amazing boss who is very welcoming and helpful; he showed me pretty much everything I needed to know at Campbell’s and introduced me to everyone in the company. He tries to include me in a lot of meetings and events in the company, even events that only include very senior managers. I’m very grateful for these opportunities and I met so many great people.
There is just a small problem that since I’m introduced to many people every day, and Campbell is a huge company, I cannot remember everyone’s names, which frustrates me because I would like to greet people by their names. And I feel bad when some people remember my name, but I don’t remember theirs. I’m still looking for an effective way to remember people’s names, but in the meantime, I can use the company’s Workplace site, or look for names cc’ed in emails to refresh my memory.
QVC had a 2 day long orientation which was extremely helpful! I knew most work things but did have to figure out things like where do people usually eat lunch, what time does the cafeteria close and open. The company also has a very relaxed dress code so it took me a week or so to get used to how casual everyone is here. Navigating my way around the building proved to be a little difficult but it is always nice to have other interns around who are just as clueless as you are about where to go! I also had to figure out how to work my desk phone which I still am not 100% sure about.
Most challenging was probably learning about my team’s flow and specifically my manager’s. It took me some time to become more comfortable and study their personalities to make sure I deliver the best work in the best way. I have to say it has been wonderful working with so many amazing ladies!
My first week at Fox Run Brands was full of new things. Our company has two location: one in Ivyland, PA and one in Philadelphia. The one in Philadelphia is just for our marketing and eCommerce team. Therefore, they rent a small office inside a big building. My first day at the company, I thought the whole building was the company. I was kind of awkward when I asked my supervisor what department was next to our office. There were so many other new things like I got lost in the building the first time, or how to dress correctly. I remember my first day at work, I was the only one wearing formally.
Cigna held a two-day orientation at the headquarters in Connecticut for all interns, which was jam-packed with information and allowed us to start at our home offices feeling confident and prepared. Beyond that, there have been multiple training sessions for interns to attend together and we usually have to call in through WebEx from conference rooms. Little things like finding the conference rooms and connecting to the cameras/audio in the rooms have been issues, but no matter where I am in the office or even if I don’t know anyone on the floor, people are always willing to help when I ask. Knowing where to go for lunch and going out for coffee may have been intimidating the first couple days, but was made easier because associates in the program have showed all of the interns where people usually go and make sure we all feel included.
Ernst and Young held a week-long orientation in Nashville for the Risk Advisory interns to teach us about the expectations of the firm and how to use some of the firm’s software, so that we could be better prepared for our first days in the office. With almost 400 interns at the conference we were spread out all throughout the hotel so finding where you were supposed to go could get a little confusing at times. But there was always lots of EY employees around to help guide us around. We received our firm issued laptops but I had issues with setting up connections to the EY network and the IT team was always very helpful. Going forward to next week I think I will face many challenges like trying to figure out where to report in the office and where the bathrooms are, or how to do some tasks in excel.
I had a 4-day training for Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory in Boston before coming back to Philly to start my internship. The training sessions helped a lot, but there were so many things that I had to find out on my own.
– Conference room: three other interns and I didn’t have an assigned desk. So we had to book a conference room in the Philly Office every day to work. Every day in the past week, we booked a different room so we had to ask someone for help to locate those rooms
– Snacks and coffee: I had no clue how to operate the coffee machine and had to ask for help. Also, only one cafe out of four cafes has snacks so I have to remember the location of that cafe.
– Work schedule: my team has many people from all different offices so I haven’t met them yet. Fortunately, I have one direct senior from the Philly office who has been checking in with me. I was able to ask her what I should do to get ready to work with my client.
– Networking: people say networking is important and I should get to know more people at Deloitte Advisory. But almost everyone in Advisory is traveling somewhere so I’m still trying to find a way to get to know people.
My first day at UHS, my supervisor showed me around the building, telling me where to get coffee and where the bathroom was. Fortunately the building is not that big, so it was not that difficult to get used to. One thing I was unsure about was what people do when it comes to lunch time. There is a small café on the first floor with tables, but I didn’t know if I should eat there or just at my cubicle. I learned by just observing that you can do whatever you feel comfortable with. Most of the days, me and the other interns meet together during lunch time and eat outside if it is nice out. This is good for us because we can get to know each other and help each other out with things we are unsure about.
My first week at Freedom Mortgage was a great experience, the culture is friendly and supportive of new interns. Rather then just throwing us in a room and telling us what to do, our managers were very welcoming and helpful. They strive to make us feel comfortable and introduce us to upper management. They also do a great job at teaching us the companies values and the overall companies mission statement. So far I’ve met people from different departments and been to several meetings with upper management. Recently I’ve been working on excel spreadsheets and I learned how to manage a database called footprints. So far it’s been great and I look forward to learning more throughout the next
few weeks.* Our “First Flyer Manager” was kinda enough to show us a full tour including where the bathrooms, coffee room and the other perks offered throughout the building.
What I learned is that although SAP has very American/European corporate culture, they are very lenient. at first i thought it was very formal dress code with people wearing dress shirts and dress pants. After working here more i realized thats not the case. Jeans and polo shirts are a part of company culture too. This experience made me realise that the dress code is actually business casual and it is totally up on individual preference. There are also many SAP Employee benefits that the HR team misses to mention, i was able to learn about them on the corporate portal.
Since in the department, we use Remote access connection to manage some of our user requests. For instance, installing new software to our existing projects. I will have to get the IP address, user passwords, port number to connect to the user’s machine. At first, to finish a task cause a great discomfort since I need to acquire all of these information, but gradually through experience am getting more efficient in finishing the tasks. However, there are still difficulties in acquiring the information sometime.