The Business Route- Business Consulting Internship
I am reporting my full time work experience of The Business Route during the Fall semester of 2015. Previously, I worked part-time during the Spring semester of 2015, and during the Summer of 2015; but the Fall semester of 2015 is when I began working full time throughout the week. During the entire semester we focused on one huge client project. This project required vigorous research, compilation, and presentation. Our team was selected from a panel of consulting groups to carry out this project. We were to consult the Norris Square Community Alliance in opening a community center for the people in the surrounding impoverished area between 7th and front and Berks to Lehigh. I had started on this project already when working part time but I was selected to work full time during the fall semester because of amount of work this project required. During this project, one other consultant and myself were assigned the following tasks:
- calculating demographics for the area
- creating and conducting a survey to understand what the people want
- establishing connections in the area to understand the area from the inside.
- cost-benefit analysis of the community center
- compiling all data in excel or tableau and make presentable to client
- conduct status report updates to present our findings
The project is still in progress. Through our studies, we have figured out what the people in the area want in their community center and what and how much they are willing to pay for. We have figured out baseline costs and which facilities we are going to put into this center. Our next step is to do the cost-benefit analysis for the types of equipment we are going to be putting into each facility.
The difference between my part-time and full-time experience was the workload amount and the tasks involved. Although my specific title was unchanged, I was doing more in depth consulting work. The reason I was called in to work full time was because of the complexity of this client’s needs. But I was not only working on the one specific project. I was also helping with other clients that were coming to us at the same time I was working on the Norris Square Project. Some of the other projects I worked on simultaneously included:
- webpage design for two startup businesses using Dreamweaver
- feasibility study for a startup organic food business in Plymouth Meeting
- marketing plans for three startup businesses looking to get their name out (helped set up booths at food events, helped design and post on social media on behalf of their company, created brochures using Photoshop and helped gain web presence)
The full time experience helped me gain one very important skill; time management. Unlike my experience working part-time, I was focused on many different tasks at once here which required many different skills, all of which I had not developed yet. I had to learn some of these skills before I could begin working on deliverables for the clients. We were balancing up to 4 projects at a time during my full time experience and I had to manage my time to learn the skills required and get the job done before it was due. The real world full time experience was stressful and demanding but it certainly has prepared me for the full time position I will be in after graduation. I also learned about networking and interacting professionally. Our almost weekly status reports helped me gain confidence when speaking in public and reporting our findings. After a while, our clients became friends and we were all able to comfortably speak to each other about anything that seemed relevant.