Jeta Gjana

The most important skills that I have discovered in my internship are good communication skills and an ability to adapt. Good communication skills, especially in a technical environment, are essential to explaining what issues need to be resolved quickly. An ability to adapt to new technology and applications is also important because there are dozens upon dozens of servers and technology within Prudential is constantly being updated and changed. The people that I have discovered are those who share the cubicles next to me, behind me, and diagonal from me. These individuals I definitely want on my side because they have a plethora of knowledge, know the inns and outs of the company, and invite me to lunch every time that they are in the office. I have always needed good communication skills, however, working at Prudential has shown me that there are many parts moving toward the same goal and that you need to work as a team to move forward in any capacity.

Hey Andrew,

Your post reminded me the time of my past year internship. I also did not know anything from excel and was afraid of not having the opportunity to learn it. I gladly thank my past internship where I learned a lot about excel and how to make macros and add-ins functions. I agree on what you said about we being starters of an conversation because I realize that when we start the dialogue with others, we are more likely to be able to step out of our comfort zone and have a more flexibility for networking.

The most important skills that I have discovered in my internship are good communication and troubleshooting skills. Being able to communicate effectively is important as an intern. You need to be a good listener because you are doing a lot of that early on in your internship (such as a full week of training). A technical skill that I realized was important is being able to troubleshoot. From my previous job, I was able to develop that skill and it has helped me tremendously. I definitely have more than one person that I want on my side. I definitely want the second year associate that I will be visiting client sites through out this internship and the mentor I have been given for this internship. They are key figures because I will be working with them quite frequently and I will be asking for their feedback on my work throughout the next seven weeks.

The most important skill that I became proficient with is time management. I knew this was important, but never really knew how to implement it when having an internship. With each passing week and project handed to me, I learned to manage school work around my internship and vice versa. Along with this, I also found time to maintain a social life as well which can arguably be equally important. Besides the boss, keeping a well-rounded relationship with all my co-workers was the best opportunity. I showed no favoritism to any one person and got along with everyone well.

Hi Andrew! Learning Excel can be tricky, even if we have had basic exposure to it in coursework. One thing that I have found useful is Excel shortcuts. I use this site: https://www.computerhope.com/shortcut/excel.htm for shortcuts; soon you won’t even have to look at it because it will become second nature. If you would like an additional resource, I can send it to you as well!

The most important skill is to adapting to the softwares they use and also communication. In my department Global Data Operations, my coworkers use a variety of statistic softwares such as JMP, Minitab, and Spotfire. These statistic softwares are similar to the software R/RStudio which we used in MIS 2502 if I remember correctly. Initially when I was introduced to these softwares the transition was not as hard because I somewhat have a sense of how to use it such as creating charts and making it spit out descriptive statistics. Communication is key everywhere, if you are having problems it is best to address it or else no one will be able to help you. There are definitely a few people who I want on my side because I am doing similar work to them therefore, I want to build a good connection with them and learn as much as possible. Everyone here I met so far is willing to help me and I am grateful to work with them because coming in as an intern, I will not know everything.

For my position there are several different skills that you need to succeed as a media buyer, or as a member of the marketing team. The most important skill is being able to read data and make intelligent decisions based on the hard numbers and not based on “feeling”. The objective for each marketing campaign is to generate a positive ROI and this can be accomplished by isolated specific factors that will determine proftiability. There are tools that help us with this and this is what I focus on in my day to day operations. Everything that I do is focused on generating a postive return on investment per campaign so It’s paramount that I can efficiently react based on the campaign metrics. Some of the metrics that I look for are watching the spend of the campaign versus the earnings. The way the paid advertising industry works is that every time a user clicks an ad the advertiser is charged a dollar amount. My main job is to generate more money per click they we pay per click. These metrics are called CPC = cost per click and EPC = earnings per click. If your earnings per click are higher than your cost per click you are in profit and can then scale your campaign our to generate as much profit as possible.

The person that I like to ally myself with is the CEO because he is very flexible and supportive, he gives me goals and allows access to anything I need to reach those goals. Another individual that’s very helpful has been the main coder who overlooks some of my websites and just makes sure everything is running smoothly as the position does tend to be very technical in certain instances.

I’ve learned that one skill I absolutely need is the ability to ask good questions and get explanations that make sense to me. A lot of times, I’ll ask a question about something technical or specific to my team, and the person who answers my questions won’t realize that their explanation is full of jargon and terms I’ve never heard before – often making me more confused than before. At first, I’d just nod my head and pretend to understand. But now I am learning to try to restate what they said and ask more questions until I understand what they are saying.
One person I definitely want on my side is my “cube neighbor”. He’s a scrum master for Group IT, and though he’s only been at the company for 2 years, everyone seems to know him. I want him on my side, not only for his networking ability and many connections, but also because of his knowledge of agile and his ability to explain difficult topics.

The most important skill I discovered is communication skills. It is essential for networking. And for my role, data scientist, it is important to communicate with stakeholders and developers. I need to communicate with business partners to understand business process and I also need to be able to show them how to use tableau, where to get data, and what they can do with data. On the other hand, I need to communicate with developers to make sure they understand business requirements and they can have the data ready. Another skill I need for the summer is Tableau. Since it is data analytics tool for the whole company. I will need to know how it works both Tableau desktop and Tableau Server (such as how to connect to database, where to find the server, how to save and share, etc.) The ultimate goal of my team is to make sure data is available for the whole company to use and we will show them what data can do.

At Merck, the people who I am surrounded by are very welcoming and are always encouraging me to seek help from them if needed, which is great since I am new and do not know everything. I was given a tour of the site which is pretty huge at Merck where I was shown the restrooms and cafeterias are located. As one of the classmates mentioned, there is a good number of people that work remotely 2-3 times a day throughout the week which can make networking a bit difficult. As of right now, my experience at Merck has been nothing but a positive experience for me.

Glad to hear you’re having a good experience in Prudential Claudine. As far as networking goes, does your company have any networking events lined up for you or other fellow interns?

Hey Sarikka, I love the mindset of the internship being what you make of it. As helpful as the supervisors are at my company as well, they highly encourage me to vocalize what I want out of the experience and what I want to be able to say I have learned and been able to do within the 10 weeks that I am here. They then will work around those goals and try to find corresponding projects to help me grow and achieve my goals as best as possible. So hopefully your company or team encourage you the same way and you will be able to get as much out of the experience as possible. Good luck!

Hey Shray! Sounds like an interesting work environment! I applaud your efforts to meet people via calls, even though you are all so far apart from one another. I think that you will learn a lot from this setting; working in a smaller company definitely gives you a better, holistic view of the inter-workings of a company. It’s also awesome how you are working with people from all around the world. Communication is a large barrier in international business, so by developing those skills you can aide in bridging the gap in global communications. Good luck with every thing!

That sounds really cool Andrew. What sort of projects is your team going to be working on? What sort of technical skills do you hope to develop through this project?

Being an intern at UpdatesCentral went very well for me because of how relaxed and friendly my co-workers were. They gave me a complete tour of the building as well as access to the rooftop. However, dress code was something I had to adjust to because it was business casual or anything that was comfortable to work in. I had to find a balance between dress clothes and relaxation to be sitting in front of a computer for hours. Another tip that I was taught is to take stretch breaks and do some push-ups to keep your mind flowing from sitting down too long. The final thing I learned was were to eat lunch. I did not want to walk somewhere far and waste time so I usually got lunch from across the street and got right back to work.

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?

I definitely agree with you on the stretch breaks! One of my project managers brought in an electric drum kit for when we find ourselves in stressful situations. At first I thought it was a bit odd, but I find myself using it at least once a day. Sometimes even a 5 minute break from a problem can really clear your head!

During my internship I found out that we cannot be afraid to ask questions and the company culture there is key to enhance my teamwork experience. Everyone is in equal standards and the CEO will be really glad to teach anyone and give support. Also, there were people saying that we needed to know some office languages. In My Biz Consulting, we all are encourage to communicate as a family and also speak up our own ideas. In addition, I learned that we must try to come up with some resolution first and then check with our leaders. They will guide us to make our planning better and also give us insights. And so far I am glad working with them and having good dialogues with the CEO.

Luckily by now, I’ve experienced what Pfizer is like through my last internship, so I understand most of the going-ons around the campus. However, I can remember back to last year when I was completely new. I remember looking for conference rooms and having to read the maps that are put up around the building, but would still need to stand there trying to read the map for at least five minutes. I remember not knowing how to create a WebEx session through Outlook until I finally worked it out (it took awhile). As for the culture, I found out that the company is strongly focused on employee happiness. I figured out that working from home is common and encouraged when your attention is needed more there. I was asked to plan a lunch for my team in which we played games outside. I joined the in-house gym we have and found that to be a welcoming atmosphere, as well. All in all, I ran into many difficulties with having to work things out for myself, but I’m glad I worked through them.

Hi Josh, I’m both surprised by and interested in JP Morgan’s tough stance on cyber security (as all companies should be). Are you working on a security team? And are you looking forward to the challenge of rooting out and handling an intentional phishing email?

Hey Alex,

I totally agree on the stretch because sitting in front of the computer for so long kills patience and also not very productive. My supervisor always asked me to take a walk outside and think other things before coming back to work. This always works and I get back to my computer in a good mood and motivated to keep going again. Also, tour around the company give us a step forward to networking other co-workers and know the places. Good to hear you are having a good time in UpdatesCentral.

I’m working on a technology audit team. While it is not a security, our team looks at the risks and controls of processes, so in a way, it is a security team. I am also looking forward to not falling for the phishing email!

I definitely agree with and myself have had to drop everything I was doing in order to resolve an issue for the CEO or similar executive. My co-worker taught me a very important tip with dealing with this type of situation. He says when dealing with the CEO or executives of the company always triple check your work and show enthusiasm in your task, regardless of how small it is. You only get so many chances with showing the executives what you are made of before they make a judgement on your character and position within the company. I applaud your being able to handle the pressures your job entails. It seems like you are working at a company that is really transparent with their employees, which is really beneficial and hard to come by. Best of luck!

Ian, hope your summer is fun so far! I am glad you are enjoying your internship. The part about dressing for the job you want vs. the job you have is something I have heard time and time again, and it is definitely something that is helpful to keep in mind. It’s very fortunate that your team was so helpful getting you assimilated. NBC is lucky to have such a hard working and all around great guy as an intern!

When I first started in this leadership role, it took some time getting used to the flow of information and directives which come from the national activities team. After some time, I got used to it but sometimes found that the national directive wasn’t always feasible to implement at the local level. However, my regional coordinator was very gracious in ensuring that I am able to see the clear picture and understand why the organization’s culture is set-up in this way.
This summer, I will be traveling to several offices around the nation. My first stop will be in Atlanta, GA. I am hoping that it’s not too difficult to find my way around the building. From my internship last year with Pfizer, I sort of got into the habit of starting my morning with a cup of coffee. When I land in Atlanta, that will surely be one of the first questions I ask.

Kasey, sounds like Cigna really does set you up for success! What I really like about my program, similiar yours, is that we are given a buddy/mentor/coach who is an associate of the same program interns are part of. It really helps to have someone you can ask questions to, who was an intern just like us.

An important thing I learned during my first week was how to utilize the company’s communication tools. I had never used Microsoft Outlook or Skype for Business before, and I realized right away that mastering those tools is very important, especially since my team is spread across different locations. It took some initial guidance from my manager and a lot of playing around with different functions myself, but now I can confidently set up meetings, send calendar invites, and host conference calls. Also, I spent the first week taking note of how experienced employees address certain cultural aspects, such as work hours, wardrobe, where to take lunch/how long to take it for, and things like that. While I don’t have any definitive takeaways from those aspects, I’ll say that I’ve begun to follow similar practices as my co-workers in those areas.

Remember to think before you click and to always hover over links! Another thing would be to call or speak to the sender if they are requesting information. I know this from my old job as I implemented phishing training for employees along with tons of phishing emails. Good luck!

It seems like I had a late start on my internship being that today was my second day. However, there wasn’t much “finding out on my own” that I’ve had to do so far. That may change soon next week! Before this internship, I was working part time in an IT department. Being exposed to a professional environment for two and a half years has prepared me for this internship. I will say that the hard part was having a fresh start in a new office. Being in the IT department at my previous job, I ended up developing a relationship with literally everyone in the office. Although I know it will not be possible to build a relationship with everyone at this new office, I hope I can build meaningful relationships with at least a few people.

Good Morning Everyone,

This summer, and beyond, I will be working at Infinity Digital Agency: a small digital marketing agency in Bucks County that mostly serves small-medium size business. My predominant role will be working beneath the Director of Marketing and making sure all of the SEO (search engine optimization) needs are met for our clients. While that will be my primary role, my supervisor has said that he’d like me to become familiar with all facets of the company so that I understand how my job affects everybody else’s, which I think is a great philosophy to have with interns or entry level employees. This includes PPC, social media, client interaction, market research, web design, proposal generation, and more. Also, the company is in the process of rebranding itself, and one of my extra-curricular activities will be to produce a video podcast. Since I have some minor experience in audio/video production in high school, I feel I can use those skills to really leave my mark on the company!

This summer of 2017 I will be working at Merck as a Data Management Operations Intern within the Global Data Management Standards department. I will be responsible for conducting a short term tactical data management related project or participate on an existing project. I will also work with other data management team members to accomplish project goals that can be related to data analytics, process improvement, or quality assessments/controls.

Hello Everyone,

I will be working at Domain Real Estate Group this summer. I family-owned business here in Philadelphia. I will be doing digital marketing and collaborating with others on managing their website. My job will be running a campaign on different social media platforms to increase engagement and awareness of the company. I will be utilizing Google Adwords as a strategic marketing tool to find potential clients, Come up with Search Engine Optimization strategy as well as customize their website page. The company has never before run a Google AdWords campaign or utilized Google Analytics, so I will be starting from scratch. I have some previous experience with Google Analytics which would help me accomplish this goal.

Hey Stephanie! I actually worked in a really similar role last year. I lead the digital marketing efforts for a family-owned property management company in Philadelphia. I had to learn, from scratch, how to build and manage websites, come up with an effective SEO strategy, etc. Pretty much exactly what you doing. Best of luck!

Hello all,

This summer, I will be working as Business Analyst Intern in My Biz Consulting. In this company, I will be gathering and managing data from this particular industry and also from customer’s trends. I will also evaluate variety data which are related to the company’s business processes. Since I started yesterday, I had meetings with the CEO and business analyst leaders to create a project timeline on how we are going to manage the researched data. In addition, I will be helping in the design of the data models and workflows of the project. I am glad to learn those skills in past MIS classes. I look forward to enhance those skills during my internship.

Hi everyone! This summer I will be interning in Philadelphia at Cigna, a global health service and insurance company. I am in their Technology Early Career Development Program (TECDP). Within TECDP I will be working in Group IT as a Project Coordinator in the GCMFI Program. My role will be to coordinate all aspects of the project life cycle and to work with matric IT partners to document status of deliverables, milestones, risk and issue resolutions. I will help develop the integrated project plan, resource plan, communication plan, and related project management artifacts. In my role I will serve as a conduit between project team and leadership teams to routinely brief key stakeholders on different aspects of assigned initiatives. Another part of the TECDP internship is an intern group project. I will be working with other interns throughout the summer to develop a web based application to try to reduce surprise prescription costs.

During the fall of 2016 and into spring of 2017, I obtained an internship with a digital marketing startup called Updates Central. My objective was to use Updates Central platforms and applications to target a variety of companies to reach their customers about promotions that are running. Ultimately, I increased a businesses revenue and customer base. The digital platform I used was a wonderful experience for me because it mixed both information technology with marketing. I was also responsible for updating customer profiles using certain tools within the companies application.

Hello,
I will be working at AmerisourceBergen Corporation as a Finance Intern. I will be working to map finance processes between Hyperion strategic finance system and their Hyperion planning systems as well as other Hyperion and/or SAP reporting systems. I will also be helping create management reporting presentations. I will be using data analytics as a method to getting as many projects done along with my team.

Where I will be working:
BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha is a socio-spiritual Hindu organization. Established in 1907 in India, BAPS has strived in promoting social service inspired by spirituality. For many years, I have been part of the children’s activities as a youth wing coordinator. I will be working on a special project for an upcoming event this September.

What I will be doing:
I made a parallax website using HTML & CSS knowledge from MIS 3501 for a major event that will be in September. Due to the required features, we decided to configure the website through wordpress to make it easier for others to add content and/or other functions (i.e., event registration, transportation requests, etc.).

In addition to the website, I will be looking into potential options to handle backend data to manage the expected traffic. Additionally, I will be working with a few others to create dashboards that aggregate collected data and generate reports which allow supervisors to leverage the information into decision making for the event.

Hi Everyone,

My name is Arlo Antle and I have taken an Internship position at DecisivEdge, LLC. here in Newark, Delaware. DecisivEdge is a Technology Services/Consulting company who focuses on the financial industry. We work heavily with Oracle products as well as other financial services industry products. In my internship, there are three rotations throughout the summer, each lasting 4 weeks. Right now, I am in Quality Assurance, ensuring the quality delivery of our products and services to our clients. I have been working with the QA process on both agile and waterfall type projects, creating test scenarios based on provided business requirements. Moving forward, my next rotation will be in the Development & Delivery practice, who are very programming heavy as one may guess. From what I have gathered, the interns in this position often utilize the development languages they know and understand, therefore I will most likely be doing things I’ve learned at Temple such as HTML, SQL, and PHP. Lastly, I will finish in Business Optimization, which is essentially a Project Management/Business Analyst role. This practice helps in originating projects and following them through their cycles and keeping everything in check based on the business’s requirements. I am enjoying QA currently and look forward to my future rotations!

Hello, all!
Since March of 2017 I have been working at the contract research organization Chiltern International as a Project Management Intern. I have been and am currently tracking and managing resources from various teams on various sponsors. In addition to this, I have also been added to new roles in that I track the daily workload and hours of resources as well as keep the Associate Director apprised of the overall status of the projects she oversees. I also create project timelines for projects and attend status meetings with project leads to ensure that everything is on schedule and on budget.

This summer I’ll be interning at Cigna in their Philadelphia office as a Technology Early Career Development Program (TECDP) intern. My specific role will be project manager/project coordinator in Group IT. My role will involve supporting project deliverables for the Claims and Leave Management program through the following: develop status reports and project documentation and report out status, issues, risks, and escalations to project and program manager, assist in management of team’s adherence to program best practices and software delivery standards (design and requirement reviews, testing reviews, gate meetings), develop relationships with business and vendor partners to meet end project deliverables, participate and coordinate meetings and provide/follow-up on notes, and provide updates and action items to the rest of the Group IT team. In addition, I’ll also be working on a Summer Innovation project with other TECDP interns from across the country. My group will work to develop a solution regarding check-in procedures at doctors’ offices.

Hello all, I hope your summer is going well so far! This summer I will be working as an IT Audit Intern as a part of Wells Fargo’s Audit Summer Internship Program. During this, I will learn the keys to financial services, auditing, and risk analysis as well as performing a number of audit projects within the department of risk management. I am extremely excited to start this coming Monday and will be flown to Charlotte for formal training and to meet higher up individuals in the Audit department with WF. One of the main reasons I landed this position is because I explained to them what I learned and performed during Amy’s 3506 class. Ultimately, my goal is to be considered for their Audit Associate Program upon graduation and this summer will be geared around grooming myself in preparation for that opportunity.

This summer I am working again at Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, and have been working here for a year now. Throughout my time here, I have been apart of the BT (Business Technology) sector, specifically on the ACT (Advancing Content & Transactions) team. My main role involves learning and practicing Project Management skills, and with a lot of help from my supervisor, I have been able to continue to grow in that role. Some of my responsibilities this summer includes: tracking and completing CAPAs (Corrective And Preventative Actions), following up regularly with team members to ensure timely progress, and documenting critical technical information for the application that our sub-team focuses specifically on.

Since January I have been interning at Professional Capital Services as the IT intern. The firm is a medium sized financial company that manages retirement funds. As the IT intern, I report to the systems administrator and the director of IT. I manage the antivirus and data backup software running on our servers. When an employee is hired or terminated, I create/delete their user profile in Active Directory as well as our Office 365 portal. If users have issues with certain applications or accessing something, I am the one who reaches out and resolves those issues. I also have begun managing the phones and telecommunication software that records service calls. This company utilizes Salesforce as their CRM tool. I will also be working on the administrative side of that application as the summer moves along.

Hi Everyone,

This summer I will be working at Prudential as a Business Analysis in the Incident Management Department. There they evaluate incident tickets from customers and reengineer applications to be user friendly and inclusive so that these incidents do not develop into expensive events. My manager, Gregory Brace, has called to inform me that I will be using IBM Tivoli Monitoring and Netcool/Omnibus which help to remedy customer tickets. I will also be analyzing data, looking for trends and reoccurring patterns. My goal is to find an efficient way to process and present the data so that we can create a solution to better help the application resolve and decrease the amount of tickets processed.

That is awesome! I interned with Merck & Co. last summer and really enjoyed my time there and learned a lot. Will you be working at the North American IT Hub in Branchburg or at a different location?

This summer I will be interning with JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the largest banking and financial services companies in the world. I will be part of the Audit Analyst program as a Technology Auditor for the Consumer & Community Bank. My role may include reviews of business applications, data management, global infrastructure, digital technologies and cyber/information security. I will be evaluating the adequacy and effectiveness of controls within the technology organization. I will also have the opportunity to provide management with recommendations for improving the control environment, as I learn about the importance of technology to the business success.

Hi Josh,

I will be working in West Point/Upper Gwynedd, PA location!

This summer I am interning with the Open Platform Engineering team at NBC Universal. I officially start this coming Thursday, and throughout the ten weeks that I am with NBC I will be working on four distinct projects. For my first project, I will be researching app containerization platforms such as Docker, Kubertenes, and Apache Mesos, and recommend which platform our team should use for app development projects. For my second project, I will spend time filling out the technical service logs and business service logs. Thirdly, I will be interviewing business owners, and collect information of the value that their application business bring to NBC Universal. The last project I will be working on is with a group of other Media-Tech interns which is yet to be disclosed.

This Summer I am interning in Johnson & Johnson’s Information Technologies Department, specifically the Application Services department, which is located in Raritan, New Jersey. Johnson & Johnson recently consolidated its IT department; now its four sectors, which include consumer, pharma, and medical devices, all have the same IT department. Previously, each sector worked with its own IT department, but J&J is taking significant strides in creating a single department with cohesive business information across all four sectors, thus effectively working, saving time and money. As an intern, I will be working one on one with business partners to ensure that their information is correct and up to company standards to ensure information integrity and consistency. I will be updating this information and transferring it to a steam-lined database. By doing so, my department can consolidate its amount of vendors, leverage scale, and create models for future analysis.

Hi Edward! Your internship sounds amazing! I worked as a Marketing Intern at a small start-up last Summer, in which I developed my social media, market research, and web design skills. I enjoyed working in the small setting because I could try a variety of tasks within different departments and develop a deeper understanding of the inter workings of a business organization; the experience was unique and very educational. Good luck with your endeavors!

This summer I will be working at Motorola Solutions in Chicago IL. I am working as a data analyst, data as a service, in the IT department. I will be working closely with sales department and IT department. For the summer I will define and measure the whole process from a quote to an order. And I will also need to ensure we have all the data we wanted and in the correct format. After understand the quote to order process, I will analyze the data to find insights from it. For example, how many phrases does a quote had before it turns to an order and how long does it take from a quote to an order, etc. I will provide the insights I found to the sales team in order to improve their efficiency.

Hi Kayla, working at Pfizer sounds like a great company. What is one of the most important project skills that your learned at Pfizer?