Jeta Gjana

I have never worked on an ERP and a CRM before, so my internship has given me a good opportunity to get familiar with how processes work in NetSuite ERP, and how certain workflows are customized using Javascripting in Eclipse IDE for NetSuite (know as Suitescript. I am very interested in creating workflows as per the needs of the sales and the operations departments. I can relate this to my MIS 3504 class, where we gathered requirements and eventually developed a potential solution for the problem. I also work in Excel, and as some of the other students mentioned earlier, Excel is a very powerful tool. Currently, I am working on writing Macros in Excel, which then can be imported into NetSuite. I feel that these skills will most certainly help me in the future and will also contribute towards building a stronger skill set for my profile.

The most important technical skill that I’ve discovered so far in my internship is being able to use Excel effectively. The one main project that I’m working on requires me to manipulate data in excel by creating pivot tables and charts. In addition, the most important business skill that I’ve discovered so far in my internship is time management. Being able to manage my time effectively is crucial because there are many different tasks and activities that I have to complete or engage in. Such tasks and activities consist of my main project work, networking and social events, and miscellaneous/side tasks. Understanding which tasks and activities are most important and prioritizing them is paramount to meeting goals and expectations. In regards to people, I would say everyone in my immediate physical area is very important. These people consist of my team members and those who I can help or be helped by most easily. There are some technical skills that I didn’t have before but that I absolutely need. These skills are associated with using systems and applications internal to JPMC. Lastly, I have not discovered anyone so far that I, in particular, want by my side excluding my team members. I try to be on good terms with everyone I come in contact with.

One of the most important skills that I’ve found that is absolutely needed for what I am doing is the understanding and ability to use Excel to my advantage. I assist the Business Intelligence team on a daily basis and use iMacros to extract information from websites and export it to CSV files and then utilize Visual Basic by running some code in Excel to clean up the data and make it easier to understand. Another skill that is important for my internship is understanding the CRM and how to use it effectively as well as knowing what each button and icon can do to the data that can lead to potential sales for the sales team. I also use Command Prompt on a daily basis to search for certain files and consolidate the data in multiple files to one single file. For important people, I would say my supervisor who runs the internship program, someone whom I interact with and ask questions to daily to learn more about the company. Also my supervisor helps me connect with other important people such as the Manager of BI, Director of IT, CEO, etc. I have been given multiple opportunities from keeping in contact with my supervisor and telling her my goals and what I want to learn and do.

Since the my first say as an intern at Campbell Soup Co. I have relied heavily on my communication skills. The majority of my time is spent in meetings where I am relied on to quickly and concisely relay my thoughts on relevant subject matter. This setting has also helped me hone in on my physical communication skills; for example standing up straight, making eye contact, giving a firm handshake, and appearing confident at all times. When communicating, these subtle physical gestures can be just as important as the message itself. I will continue to work on these skills, and will carry what I lean into all future endeavors.

The most important skills that I have discovered are communication abilities and time management. There are often times where a project plan needs to be communicated through different levels of management and this requires me to convey the plan to multiple people who all have different or similar interests in the outcome. For example, if a project involves a relocation I will need to communicate to the practice manager what that will entail and how long the practice will experience downtime. That same situation will also be communicated to technicians who are performing the actual relocation, so their interests will involve the technical aspects that the project entails. In order to follow through on these projects, time management is also essential. If a project involves any period of downtime I need to find the quickest and most efficient way to resolve the issue or reduce the amount of downtime altogether. This makes the project manager one of the most important people I communicate with. The project manager will develop a plan and we will work together to work out the details to make the process as effective as possible.

• The most important skills I have discovered while in my internship is resourcefulness and understanding. I am used to an office which is decently competent with technology, yet this position has shown that not all businesses are alike in this matter. I find myself needing to explain an entire system such as a website platform or customer database to others to explain what is and what is not possible for future implementation. I have found that a lot of the modern technology that I am used to working with was a luxury, currently working on outdated hardware/software and seeing no upgrade in the near future. An important person that I have discovered would be my direct manager since anything that I need to accomplish my tasks for the day must be approved. A skill that I found that I don’t have and that I definitely need is patience. I am extremely impatient with others when it comes to technology and I found that within this position, I am unable to continue this and need to develop patience with others, sooner rather than later. Another key skill in which I possess but need to “polish” is my communication skills. Since I need to be able to communicate all my thoughts and actions clearly to my co-workers, I need to continue working on my ability to communicate my thoughts and actions properly.

The most important skills I have discovered while in my internship is resourcefulness and understanding. I am used to an office which is decently competent with technology, yet this position has shown that not all businesses are alike in this matter. I find myself needing to explain an entire system such as a website platform or customer database to others to explain what is and what is not possible for future implementation. I have found that a lot of the modern technology that I am used to working with was a luxury, currently working on outdated hardware/software and seeing no upgrade in the near future. An important person that I have discovered would be my direct manager since anything that I need to accomplish my tasks for the day must be approved. A skill that I found that I don’t have and that I definitely need is patience. I am extremely impatient with others when it comes to technology and I found that within this position, I am unable to continue this and need to develop patience with others, sooner rather than later. Another key skill in which I possess but need to “polish” is my communication skills. Since I need to be able to communicate all my thoughts and actions clearly to my co-workers, I need to continue working on my ability to communicate my thoughts and actions properly.

For me, the ability to learn things on my own has been an incredibly useful skill during my internship. I’ve already been introduced to new software that I’m expected to use (SAP Design Studio, Lumira, and Tableau) and documentation that I’m expected to write up for my project (functional and technical specifications). I’ve had to learn these things by finding tutorial videos, instructional manuals, and asking team members for examples of old documentation. In that vein, I’ve discovered how important it is to have my whole team in my corner. They’re all super friendly, and have given me guidance when I’ve asked for it. They’ve also helped me meet people in other business areas within Walmart, which was crucial for me to find stakeholders to interview for my project. Overall, they’re very interested in my career goals and how they can assist me in achieving them. I feel very lucky to have been put on such a great team!

So far, I have discovered that effective communication is a vital skill in my internship at Walmart, whether through email, on the phone, in person or on Jabber. It is especially important to be open-minded and willing to learn new skills. So far I have been learning SAP Lumira, Design Studio, and Tableau by watching tutorials and practicing. I have realized I need to advance my data analytics skills and hope to master the data analytics tool I will be using this summer very soon. In my first 2 weeks at Walmart, my team has been vital to my success. One member of my team, Paulo, was introduced to me as the Michelangelo of dashboards, so I am very excited to learn from him!

I realized exactly how important soft skills, especially good communication, are. Every day, I see people in UHG communicating to people in the office, people overseas, and people in different cities in the United States through various devices of communication such as IMs/pings, e-mails, phone calls, WebEx conferences, face-to-face meetings, and so on. I feel that my internship is more focused on technology than business, but it still requires a good amount of communication and people skills.

One skill I realized I do not have is going up to people to ask questions and to introduce myself. I would like people in my cubicle area to be on my side. They seem to know the ins and outs of how things run in the company.

As obvious as it seems, being able to learn quickly and adapt to change when needed. I came into this internship at AstraZeneca with no prior knowledge of the tools they use like SnapLogic, Revitas, or Validata. However, my manager also didn’t expect me to know anything about them either and he understood I would have to learn on the job. It was important to learn the software through trial and error. I think learning that it’s okay to fail at first was important for me so I could better grasp how things work so I could succeed later on.

I think one of the most important skills in the workplace is time management/prioritization. Everyday there are different tasks coming in but there are only so many hours in the day that you have to work on these; so then the question becomes how to prioritize the tasks and allocate your time approriately. I am still learning this because I don’t have enough experience yet to tell which tasks are more urgent than others but I think with more understanding of the project I wil gain that skill. Besides my direct manager, I think building/maintaining a good relationship with other key members of the team is also very important. Not only so that it would be easier to coordinate efforts from separate parts of the team but also so that you can learn about different aspects of a project and really understand the scope and impact of the project.

Over the past week or so, I have discovered that being able to understand the technology side of things is just as, if not more, important than understanding the business. With my projects, there are many times I feel very out of place with all of the technical language being talked in our calls. However, I have been very fortunate to meet a mentor, who happens to be leading the data integration project I am working on. Patrick is always looking to find an opportunity for me to learn something, and get up to speed as fast as I can. Whether it is sending me a quick link on Jabber, or explaining to me different business rules and requirements as we drive down I-78, Patrick is definitely someone I will be looking up to this summer for guidance.

Working as a BA the most important skill is the ability to effectively communicate. When we think of business and technical skills we typically think of investments, economics, coding, and/or architecture. However, communication in my experience is the most important of all. Communication is a two-way skill:

First: You have to be able to listen. Listening itself is an underrated skill. As a BA I need to really listen to what someone is saying and not just what they are saying but also their tone. Their tone can tell me, is this person optimistic? Are they angry? Do they have little faith? Then when they do talk I need to understand what they are saying so I can formulate in my head how they see an idea. Not how I see it, not how my manger sees it, but how they see it.

Second: By understanding their tone, I am able to leverage their emotions and figure out how I can adjust my tone and communication to most effectively address their concerns. I need to be able to listen to them in order to communicate to them the next steps. As a BA I am often telling the tech side what the business side wants. Therefore my communication has to be on point.

So far there has not been a skill that I don’t have that I absolutely need. With that being said I do wish I was more technical, but it’s not something I need.

One of the most important people you will meet in your internship is the social guy or girl. There is always one person who is a great networker; it can be the sports guy, or someone who goes to all the company happy hours. I think it’s important to talk to people about things outside of work for example the NBA finals, it makes you human and people become less afraid of you. You also want someone like that on your side, because they can always introduce to people who will make your time more enjoyable!

Communications and time management skills are the most important ones at my workplace. The success of my work greatly depends on the content which is in the possession of different people working for various organizations in the company. I have to be able to communicate the purpose of what I am doing and the benefits these people are going to get from the end result – the Toolkit Website that my department is building. The time management skill becomes handy when multiple mini-projects create and they all need to be kept moving towards the completion of the project.
I found it to be valuable to get on the good side of the people who have been with the company for a while and ask questions during the meetings. You know these kind of meetings when there are about 20 participants and the same voice keeps asking questions? Get friendly with that person, he or she may have a lot of useful information!

I would say that networking is probably the biggest skill that is needed in my internship. I think we are all told it is important so often that it becomes something we just say, but being at one of the big 4 firms, it is almost impossible to achieve anything without a strong network. You have to have people to call on for answers or guidance on pretty much a daily basis to get you job accomplished. I never realized how important it really was but when I picked that up I almost instantly started meeting as many people as I could and finding out about their specialties. On the more technical side, I was happy that Fox has the excel class as a mandatory course because some of our training was based on excel and it was unfamiliar to some people with items such as VLookup so I was glad to have a slight edge. Also we use a proprietary in-house developed software for almost everything else that gets accomplished, so getting familiar with that software is going to be essential to my success as an intern. I look forward to actually using it on real world data and learning more of the ins and outs of the program so that I can use the software efficiently.

(Merck) Discipline and independent work-ethic. I was actually caught off-guard by the lack of structure I was presented with when I started, which was made particularly relevant by the fact that this is my first formal internship. When I’m not scheduled for meetings, I have a lot of theoretical downtime. Theoretical, because I could easily spend it without being productive, but ultimately there’s always something that can be done to help advance my ability to add value. I spent a large amount of “downtime” researching specific business processes (namely S&OP) on my own that has actually allowed me to contribute more effectively. Also, a few others mentioned the power of networking, which I will place emphasis on as well. Talk to everyone. Talk to your boss, your mentor, your cubicle neighbor, the cafeteria cashier, the security guard, your ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT (emphasis on that one because she has answered basically all of my questions without making me feel bothersome). As far as technical skills are concerned, SAP of course, but on the more general side, I saw someone mentioned Outlook above, and I’ll add a +1 to that because Outlook basically runs things here at Merck. I haven’t used it much in the past, but it’s relatively simple software to get used to, and it’s so powerful when it comes to setting up informational interviews (both formal and informal) for networking purposes.

Some of the most important skills that I have used so far in my internship are SQL and Excel skills. I am an ITA for data analytics so I am fortunate to have a good base in SQL, but I have been learning more syntax and becoming a more effective query writer. I am at Walmart for a second internship so I have been able to leverage my network from last summer and continue to build one this summer. My team has been very supportive in helping me with my work and learning more about audit and data analytics. But my greatest resources have been those who graduated from Temple and now work at Walmart full time. They have been great mentors to me and have helped me learn more about the company and what working here is really like. One skill that would be really useful in my current job would be knowledge of unix command lines. My team and I have been trying to learn in order to clean up data more quickly and easily. There is a new VP in my department and I really admire her for her experience and perseverance. She would be a great person to have on my side and I am trying to get to know her better and show her the value I can bring to Walmart.

So far excellent communication and customer service skills have been key to the success at Fighttips. Since we are a small company, the retention of each client we make is crucial. Providing the best experience possible really boils down to how well we can communicate our products and services with every customer. Whether its a hassle free website visit or responding to our personal training clients emails, every transaction counts. I have discovered that my supervisor Marie is my most valuable asset in fulfilling customer and business needs. She takes the time to make sure all of our clients questions are answered and that they are 100% satisfied before moving on the the next task. Although communication with disgruntled clients can be frustrating at times, the positive attitudes of all our employees sets an amazing standard for doing business. I am thankful to have gained this knowledge early on during my time here with the Fighttips team.

The most important skills that I have discovered in my internship are technical and communication skills. There is a big difference between what I have learned in school and what I do at my job. I think I know everything about SQL since I got a good grade for Data Analytics; but I am stuck when I need to use SQL to get more detail information for my project. There are more thing you need to know rather than knowing the syntax. Therefore, I recognize developing my technical skill in a practical level is very important. On the other hand, I believe that communication skill is also important. There are times when a project needs to be communicated through different teams. Being able to communicate well is critical for me to finish my project. Finally, I realized that everybody around me at work is important; especially when I work in cooperate culture.

In this internship, I have learned that communication is extremely important for the job that I am doing. Additionally, efficiency and a complete understanding of the business are skills that are very important to establish. One skill which I did not really have before this job, but needed is being thorough. When working with financial data and sensitive information every day, it is extremely important to do everything right the first time because sometimes there is not a second time to fix your mistake. This is especially the case because of the fact that I have a great deal of computer power and can easily make a mistake, which is difficult, if not impossible to undo. Of course, this skill falls hand in hand with communication because many issues can be avoided if they are foreseen and avoided in the first place. I found that with the right idea, anyone can be on your side as long as their job is being made easier. People like to see innovation, especially in a company such as mine where there are a lot of people who have been using the same methods for years because they work. Therefore it is nice to have other executives and employees in other departments on my side.

The most important business/technical skills at my internship are problem solving, communication, and SQL skills. All of these skills in my opinion are equally important because when I am given a task I use each of these skills to complete the task. As for a person I want on my side, I would have to say any of the senior developers that sit on my floor. All of the senior developers are always willing to help and have an extensive knowledge of SQL and other coding languages and are a good resource for when I have specific question about SQL.

On my first day at work, all the new hired employees ( includes all interns) are gathered for an orientation. We were provided breakfast and then we went over some hiring documentations. Later on, each of us finished an online orientation with videos about company and how to use the company’s intranet system. The online orientation is very detailed and it helped me to know more about the company’s culture as well as some basic systems that we use. Later on, my boss walked me through the internal communication tool of the company. I have some problems with logging in at first, but then I figured it out by asking around. After my first day, I also have to find out by myself how to record my time since the HR didn’t mention about it. I figured out that I have to scan my badge every time I come in and out to record my hours. I have troubles fixing my time for the first two days since I didn’t scan my badge. I also recognized some interesting things later. I found out that we all wear jeans on Friday and we all have to prepare two jokes to share on Friday’s meeting. So far, I started to get more familiar with everything and I really enjoy my experience.

On my first day, I was pretty much the poster child for a lost boy. My boss had to leave at 2:00 that day for a meeting in North Carolina, and had a morning full of meetings in the office. Luckily Don, the office assistant, gave me a brief tour; however, that still did not keep me from getting lost in my building. Lunch was probably the funniest adventure of my day, as I wandered around the cafeteria about 4 times before figuring out that I was there.

When I accepted my internship with Cigna I knew it was at Two Liberty Place and that I would be taking the train form my house to Suburban Station. I assumed since Liberty Two is so big I would find it no problem. Well, on the first day I got really lost and even ended up in Liberty One. Eventually I found out how to get to Two Liberty. The next problem I ran into was that I had no idea how to navigate Suburban Station. Everyday I would just follow people after my train arrived hoping to come up somewhere near Liberty Two. For about a week I kept coming up somewhere new. One time I even came up through the Comcast Center’s lobby. Eventually I found out how to get out of the train station so I could be as close to Two Liberty as possible. Other than that the transition to Cigna has been pretty easy. The one thing that I couldn’t find was the water cooler and after about a week I asked my manager where that was. For the most part it has been smooth sailing.

For my first week of my internship I was sent to North Carolina for training and that was a different experience all together. It was my first time travelling for business without really knowing where I was going so I had to ask where about all the travel arrangements, meals, and pretty much anything. All of our hours worked and timesheets are online and booked to specific charge codes so I was constantly asking questions about how many hours we were supposed to count for training, and what codes to input to make sure my hours were tracked. Also the different definitions of business causal came out and saw a lot of do’s and don’ts but I finally got clarification on the firm standards so I was happy about that. All in all I think I have already learned a lot about the company culture.

I happened to drop in to my department the same week that they were kicking off an international analytics workshop, so I ended up having to learn a lot of things on the fly because of the hectic environment (they dropped me right in to the fire, as my supervisor put it). My supervisor gave me a quick overview of the Upper Gwynedd facility but it still took me a couple days of wandering to really situate myself. There was almost no structure to my onboarding process so it was essentially up to me to fill in any gaps. Finding the bathrooms, coffee spots, an the cafe was relatively easy, but finding certain conference rooms was not. As far as the company culture is concerned, I’m quite satisfied so far! Everyone has been very helpful and it seems to me that Merck really cares about my development!

Working for a start up company is not your average day at the office. I found out quickly how fast paced and unexpected your day can be during my first couple of days here. A lot of my work is self paced, meaning I have a certain amount of time to reach a goal or deadline. What I did not realize is how fast the work can pile up and the amount of time and effort that goes into analysis of each performance metric. Thankfully, I get to work and live with my supervisors and they are more than willing to answer any questions that I have. Every decision that is made here at Fighttips is based on a team effort since they all have a major impact on the company. Knowing that my position as an Intern is crucial to the success or failure of this business is both an exciting and almost scary feeling. So far my experience here has been unique and unlike any other job position that I have ever held.

Working at a company like Lincoln was a completely different experience than any other company I have worked at in the past. For example, simply getting employment at this company was very different than what I experience before. Out of all the interns, I was the only one that wasn’t referred internally. Similarly, many people that work at the main location (where I work), are related to someone else or have been working at the company for many years. This is something that took me over a week to find out and something that surprised me considering the fact that Lincoln is a fairly large company. This alone made it quite difficult to grasp the company culture, but allowed me to better understand it. Otherwise, I did find everyone to be very helpful to a point where they went out of the way to help you. Ultimately, I am learning new things on my own every day I work at Lincoln and hope to learn a lot more!

This summer I am working as an Associate Specialist in Merck’s MMD (Merck Manufacturing Division) IT Department. As of right now, I will be working on two distinct projects for the summer, with possibly more to come. I am currently sitting in Merck’s West Point, PA. office, but have been going up to Whitehouse Station, NJ about once a week for team meetings for one of my projects.

The primary project I will be working on is a data integration project. I am working with a global team to help MMD integrate all production data worldwide into a system to help with various business processes. I will be serving as a “Project Manager,” helping keep the team aware of all upcoming dates, deliverables, etc. I imagine this is very similar to what I will be experiencing in 3535. Additionally, I am also doing some BA work in helping to elicit requirements for various parts of the data integration.

The other project I am working on is the creation of a holistic data lake within Merck’s manufacturing department. I am working with use cases to help document what all MMD wants this data lake to be able to accomplish. Therefore I am not only documenting these use cases, but I am also going out and doing the research to make sure they are correct.

While I seem to have a lot on my plate with these two projects, I am sure that my roles will change as the weeks go on, I will be sure to keep you all updated, as I am being exposed to some really cool stuff here at Merck.

I will be interning as a Business Analyst in Cigna’s Legal IT Department. My internship is part of the Early Career Development Program. For my internship I will spend about a week in Cigna’s Headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut and the rest will be spent in Two Liberty Place in Philadelphia, PA. While talking with my manager I was told my main role would be as a Business Analyst but depending on the needs and size of the projects I am on I could also dabble in System Analyst and/or IT Project Management. The Legal IT division at Cigna is responsible for making sure technology is meeting the business and regulatory needs of Cigna and the government (domestic and international). I will be working directly with attorneys and also doing government compliance work as well. I will also be fortunate enough to work on some international projects.

I am interning as an Associate Specialist for Merck’s Animal Health department. More specifically, I’m doing analytics work for Merck’s Animal Health Supply Chain and helping my department integrate and optimize a new supply chain management system called FusionOps. I am currently sitting in the Upper Gwynedd location, but have made a trip up to Madison, NJ for a team meeting. My responsibilities so far have included visualization of the business case for the supply chain analytics program (for my supervisor to present to our VP) and designing a few FusionOps dashboards. My future responsibilities will include further FusionOps dashboard design as well as data validation between FusionOps and SAP. My supervisor’s goal is to allow me to see as much of the business as possible, so it’s likely that my job functions are going to shift frequently.

Over the summer I will be interning at the martial arts start up company known as Fighttips. Fighttips is a self-defense website that specializes in martial art techniques for self-defense in an E-learning based environment. The channel includes a hub of step-by-step technique instructional videos, professional fitness advice, and anti-bullying advocacy. As a digital content production intern, my job responsibilities include overseeing the entire online presence of this startup company. These responsibilities including website maintenance and development, metadata creation and analysis, website performance analysis through Google Analytics, in addition to any other daily operations of a start up company.

Over this summer, I am working at Lincoln Investment Planning, a private broker-dealer which handles investments. The company is similar to Vanguard in what it does, but not as large. My position specifically is the Intern Computer Operator. Basically, this organization has an IBM system which handles everything from financial transactions investors have made to internal transactions within the company. There is no graphic user interface and therefore everything is done from a command line. Additionally, there is a lot of manual entry into the system to make things actually happen. This is the type of system that people used to use before there was mass implementation of ERP software such as SAP. My job is ultimately maintaining this computer system and working with employees of other areas in company who use the computer system in order to make sure everything is running well. Additionally, I will be doing maintenance of the system itself, such as daily backups which a financial company such as Lincoln takes extremely significantly.

I think the experience of combining the class with the internship went well because it clearly informed me on areas my supervisor would like me to focus on improving. I started working for IMS last summer and was full time July and August and I have been part-time since then. I feel that the experience I’m gaining is invaluable for my development and future career. I would definitely take a permanent position if I was offered.

My job experience at Cherry Hill Liquors was definitely one of the most crucial in my career. Even though I had already at places such as Ernst and Young during the summer of 2014, but my duties and role was limited to technology. But at Cherry Hill Liquors I got experience in various sides of running a business i.e. Operations, marketing, finance, inventory management. During my employment I worked as a full time Operations Manager, and I would like to use the invaluable experience from here into my future career.

The experiences was great, as it has been for the past year overall. I will be staying on for the summer and continuing my projects. I will also see an increase in general responsibility. I would say that chances are looking good for a full-time offer. I love the people I work with and I look forward to continuing with them. The projects always offer a challenge and I’m excited to see what I’ll be working on in the coming months.

I had a very good experience. My internship started the summer of 2014 and was extended until the end of this semester, and I will be interning at PwC this upcoming summer. I learned so much that I couldn’t learn from the classroom during my internship. Real world experience is in my opinion the most beneficial learning tool available to anyone in college. You can learn as much as you want in the classroom, but until you actually apply it in a job or internship, it’s tough to grasp the whole idea of what your learning.

I loved my time at Temple Computer Services. I start working here after my sophomore year and it has had a huge impact on my professional development. Working on these types of projects has really influenced what area of IT I want to work in. I learned so much during this experience, and I think my time spent working here will prove really valuable. I think that this job had a huge influence on getting my next internship this summer at AstraZeneca. I’m very excited to start working at this huge company, but I’m also just as excited to return to Computer Services next fall.

Artemid Leskaj
My experience at FIS has been amazing! I’ve really grown throughout my time here. I have met a lot of wonderful people who have helped me grow. They’ve taught me things that I will never forget. I enjoyed every moment of my time at FIS. I learned a great deal about how a company operates and how important our contribution was to the whole system. Having hands-on experience was one of the best things that I gained from this opportunity. Hands-on experience is very important because it allows you to actually experience how the real world operates; this differs from what one gets out of the classroom. The reason why I loved taking this course was because it touched on a lot of important aspects. I feel that a lot of students will benefit from taking such a course!

The year spent at Subaru of America has been a great experience. Working in the Field Operations department, I’ve been able to strengthen my analytical skills using Excel, OBI, and other various programs. I have also met many people who have taught me about the job and the automotive industry. While I have learned a lot at my time at Temple, the hands-on experience that I gained through this internship has been invaluable. I am currently waiting to hear back about 2 full-time positions that I interviewed for last week.

My time at Comcast has been amazing. I’ve learned so much about what it takes to succeed in business, and how to be professional in the “working world.” Over the two years that I’ve spent at Comcast, I’ve learned about talking to customers, exhibiting at tradeshows, building a professional network, working with iPads to move the business forward technologically, etc. It has really given me a holistic view of business, from finance to IT to marketing. I have been offered a full time position and will be continuing with the company upon graduation.

My experience in the Office of Procurement Services at the School District of Philadelphia has been great and extremely educational. I feel as though I have learned as much in my internship in the past 10 months then I have in my almost four years at Temple. I have benefited from Temple University’s amazing business school but the real life experience and application of my skills at my internship has taught me so much.
I first started at SDP last July under a new management team in Procurement and I have since seen the department grow and change. Since I have been here there two new full time employees were hired my direct manager was let go and replace three weeks later, and I have seen three interns come and go and two more stay on with us. I am leaving this May to work another internship at AstraZeneca but, I have accepted the offer to return to SDP this September as I finish up my last two classes at Temple University.

My experience at the school district was great! I absorbed a lot of information about their entire business process. I believe the internship went extremely well. I was offered to stay on part time with a raise, and put into a position that will better groom me to later take on a full time job at the school district. It is quite a big commitment to make at this point, but is definitely something I am seriously considering.

My experience with SAP has been amazing. Through these past few months I have learned more through SAP than I could through school. I was able to polish not only my soft skills, but learn hard skills such as how to up keep the WBS database, and create pre-selections. I will continue to work for SAP through the summer, and hopefully into the next school year. I would love to work for SAP full-time starting next may, but currently we are on a hiring freeze.

My experience with my internship went very well. The biggest takeaway I got from it was definitely the relationships I built with people that I work with. The insurance industry is a very small place, which is why it is important to build good relationships and never burn any bridges. Another thing that made my experience at Trion was that I was working with people from Temple who I am friends with. This made it very easy in the beginning because we were both in the same position and were able to relate to one another. I work at Trion on Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester and am staying on board full time when I graduate. I am very excited to graduate so that I can increase responsibility at my job and broaden my knowledge in the insurance industry.

My time at Subaru has been great not only for how much I learned in my time here but also for the number of personal and professional connections I have made. Although I’m still a little nervous about entering the workforce full-time, Subaru has dulled the edge of that anxiety a great deal. I applied to one position at the end of January which I unfortunately lost to another intern, but there are several more opportunities that I might pursue. More likely, however, is that I will contact a recruiter through one of the IT department’s many contractors and find work that way. Because I’m not totally sure what I want to do, I think working a different position at a different company every few months will be very helpful to me.

I have had several assignments requiring the use of the concatenate function in excel reassembling large files that were broken down into workable segments. I did learn about the concatenate function in Data Analytic’s, which was good because it gave me a basic fundamental knowledge of its functionality. However, it took some trial and error maybe some more error to actually get a strong grasp for using it. I had at least two instances that when I first reassembled the files, I had missed the “copy–paste special” step in the process, all the data was there, but risked being compromised if it was resorted.

Also, I had a task that required me to take a vertical column of data from one excel spreadsheet and manually enter into a horizontal row of data. The spreadsheet was large and would require at least a couple hours of transferring data manually. So, I researched(Googled how to copy and paste horizontal rows in excel and paste vertically), which is “transposing” data from one sheet to another. I ended up watching some YouTube videos to learn how it works. Being able to learn the transpose function from YouTube was extremely helpful and I was able to complete the assignment quickly.

One thing that I learned during my internship that I would be unable to learn in the classroom is the ability to communicate with co workers effectively. Having good relationships with co workers is a key aspect of having success at your job, and it is very difficult to learn this skill in the classroom. Another lesson that I learned during my internship is the ability to be business professional. For example, my team and I went to a lunch this summer with representatives from an insurance company. This was my first business lunch that I have every been to, and I definitely learned what to do and what not to do in situations like that. I feel like this skill along with having good relationships with co workers is a key aspect of having success at your job. This is why I think it is important for every student to try to get an internship before they graduate because there are so many things that you learn on the job that you can’t learn in the classroom.

I think that time management is a big skill that you learn once you’re working 40 hours a week that you need during your internship. Depending on how far you have to travel, you might spend 7-6 at work or traveling, and then spend the rest of the time catching up on things outside of work. It may be difficult to find a work/life balance at first because I was so used to having a bunch of free time when all I had was 15 credits with no internship. It is something that you figure out, though, as you spend more time at your internship. You figure out when you need to do things and how to do them fast and efficiently.

Without a doubt, it would have to be dealing with other business professionals face to face. While classes at Temple taught me to write in a business matter I never really learned how to convey myself in meetings, or when meeting other professionals whether they people heads from other departments, or potential future vendors. First impressions can be very important, and if you can not show your professionalism when meeting someone for the first time it could very will be the siding factor on landing a job in the real world.

Artemid Leskaj
An internship provides experience that you simply can’t get in the classroom. My internship experience has helped me feel more confident about my choice of major; I know that I will enjoy doing similar work after I graduate. When entering the real world I will be more confident because of the great experience that I’ve gained. When you open yourself up to try new things you’ll find it is very worthwhile. I feel that in the classroom we only touch upon the fact. An internship gives you the opportunity to get a feel of how the real world runs, it’s good to take advantage of that opportunity. Interns should do their best to get the most form their place of work. You should ask questions, provide opinions, do whatever you can to learn. It can be intimidating at first because you’re new, but you’ll soon find out that people are always willing to help. You have to remember that they too were in you’re shoes at one point. An internship is a great opportunity to gain real world experience and create long lasting relationships. I’ve learned things that one could never learn in a classroom. Remember, always be open to opportunities and have fun along the way.

Although I learned a lot from the Excel course at Temple it was not until I was using excel at work on a daily bases that I became good at it. The course opened my eyes to the power of Excel and its capabilities but actually using it to produce results for work made me fluent in operating it. A large part of my daily duties include using the ERP systems Advantage and Avantis. Classes taught me what ERP systems were and what they do but I could not learn how to use them until I actually was able to sit down and play with it.

One thing that I learned during my internship that I couldn’t learn from class or a textbook was office etiquette and time management. This internship was the first time during any job that I had that I didn’t have a lot of supervision for the majority of my work. I had to adjust to the fact that I could come in, perform my work on whatever project I had, and leave at 5pm, sometimes without ever talking to my manager. She trusted that I will complete my work in a timely fashion, and I have to respect that. That took some getting used to. When I first started, I would constantly check with my manager before stepping out of the office or leaving for the day. Now I now that she trusts I will leave at my agreed upon time, and I don’t have to constantly make sure it is okay with her. I love working in this type of environment, and I hope my future positions are as relaxed as my current internship.

The most important skill that I have learned through my internship is time management. This is something that can not be learned in textbook because it is different for every person. I learned quickly that balancing work and school would be difficult. I found that the best way to balance both school and work is to make a to-do list at the beginning of the week with the most important or urgent things at the top of the list and check them off as they are completed. I complete a list for both school assignments and work assignments. Another skill I have learned is Excel. I have taken courses at Temple where we used Excel but working in Excel at work everyday has taught me even more than I could have learned from a textbook or in a class.

I’d say the most important thing that I’ve learned at my internship is how to really master Excel in applications where data, graphs, charts, etc. are important. For example, when pulling sales data and pivoting it in a way that is easy to understand and provides “fast glance” stats for executives, I had to work really hard to sort out the intricacies of pivot tables. After a bit of practice, I can now say that I feel comfortable with pivot tables and use them regularly. Additionally, general conduct in the workplace is something that can be talked about in class, but is really difficult to grasp until you’re actually in a business environment. How to address executives, what to wear, email composition, etc. were all things that I picked up early on in my internship and are of vital importance even today.

One thing I found interesting about my workplace is how different groups and teams interact. Behavior within the DBA team is very different from that of the desktop or infrastructure team, and I was surprised that company culture is not a blanket sentiment. Instead, it seems to dictate how different groups interact rather than how individuals act within their team. Being part of several teams has not only taught me many different hard skills, but it has shown me how personalities shape the way a company gets things done.

One can learn many skills from school, but due to academic limitations it is hard to measure the results of these learned skills. Internship experience was something that gave me an opportunity to put the skills learnt from school to acton and see if the results are positive. I used my analytical and leadership skills to get results for the company. My MIS background helped me bring new point of view to the corporation that was hesitant to use technology for its operation. This internship was a to test my learnt skills, had it not been the internship I would have never been able to test myself in real life situation which is vital going forward and working as a full time employee at a big corporation. Other experience that were vital were leadership skills, management skill and ability stay calm in all situations.

Communication and problem solving are skills i have learned and polished through my internship. Communication is key when trying to successfully accomplish a team project. Problem solving is also critical. When in a school environment, you can always find the answers you need in your text books, or from your teachers. However, when in a work environment, you must be able to work with different people, and utilize different resources to find the answer you need. It also means you can not be afraid to mess up. You must understand most things you mess up, you can probably fix. Don’t be scared to make a decision, be independent and confident with the answer you find; there is no need to go to your manager with every little problem or question.

I learned about enterprise data modeling in a way that class never could have taught me. Every industry has its own data regulations and needs, and even more specifically, each organization uses data differently. A strong data model is very important, and must be tailored to the needs of the business. I also learned a lot of networking skills that school never taught me. I’m better prepared than ever to make contacts within and outside of an organization as well as document the resources those contacts provide.

In a way, the short papers written in 2101 have helped me in my internship. My team is frequently tasked with evaluating potential new products as part of a technology solution, and we need to be able to summarize them succinctly, firstly such that people who are less technical might understand, and secondly because there might be ten products being evaluated and our deliverable would be illegible if we didn’t only include the most pertinent information.

Also, I suppose the programming in 3501 has helped me. I don’t do any PHP in my internship, but the fundamentals of programming I learned in class have helped me more quickly understand Java and JS in practice.

One class that has really benefitted me when starting my internship was data analytics. We learned how to do a lot in excel such as pivot tables, conditional formatting and lookup functions. I use all of these excel functions almost everyday in my internship was analyzing sales data. The class also taught me different ways to analyze a large amount of data. Another class that I have leveraged in my internship is Business Communications. I learned to write concisely which is beneficial when explaining my findings after performing analysis on specific sales data because many of people I work with do not have time to read through pages and pages of data. It also taught me to write for a particular audience so those who you are writing to understand which is useful when writing to different departments in the company n

I have acquired various technical and soft skills from my classes, and I have been able to use these skills at my internship. Data Analysis class has helped me better understand and manage the customer data. I efficiently use advanced Microsoft Excel and other data analysis tools. MIS 3504 (Digital Design and innovation) class helped me better comprehend a business problem, as well have given me the tools to discover and implement solutions. I have been able to discover the issues with the current business process that led to a decreased market share for the business. Business communication class has helped to communicate efficiently with various stakeholders. In conclusion, most of my classes at the Temple University have helped me perform at the highest level at my internship.

Artemid Leskaj
Teamwork is one of the most important things that I have learned in the classroom and have leveraged it in my internship. Before college I didn’t have much knowledge on in class teamwork. While in college I have been involved with a variety of teams, those including projects, activities etc. Many of the courses that I’ve taken have placed me in some type of a team. I’ve taken courses that involved me being in a team throughout the semester (courses such as Intro to Marketing and MIS 3504). When I say teamwork I mean everything that one can achieve from it. While being in a team i learned how to communicate more effectively and take charge whenever necessary. I’ve also dealt with a variety of people; this helped me learn how to communicate with those people. All of the skills I’ve gained through teamwork have helped me in my internship. I’ve worked with a team; we all had to cooperate with one another to get our work done. During my internship I dealt with a variety of customers. In such situations I used my communication skills to sort out the problem. I am glad that Temple University makes us work in teams. It really shows in the workplace whether or not you have the skills to work with one another. Teamwork will benefit not only the employees, but also show a positive impact on your customers. Having such a skill can be very beneficial.

Learning PHP from 3501 was really helpful in one of my projects at my internship. For one project, we needed to get images for over 400 books for an application we were working on. When it was first assigned to me, I first thought that I would have to manually google each book and save the images one by one. That would have taken a long time, and would be super monotonous to do. Instead, using PHP, I manipulated a script I found online that would help me with this project. The script took a URL that went to an image, and then automatically saved it. I used this so that it could automatically save images for each of the books in the list. I would have never known to use PHP if it wasn’t for 3501. Using that skill saved me a lot of time and effort. Another class that benefited me a lot was Business Communications. Although writing email and project updates seems pretty straightforward, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. That class was really beneficial for me because I learned so much about proper communication and etiquette in a professional environment.

The flash research papers in 2501 and the skills taught in 3504 about being an analyst were beneficial to me during my internship. I had to be able to quickly and directly communicate what I was trying to say to others, and I used a lot of the skills taught in 2501 in order to create short emails and notes that got a lot of information across quickly. My internship consisted of a lot of BA roles, so 3504 taught me a lot about things I did every day, including process flows and desk level procedures. Furthermore, the skills I learned about interviewing were extremely beneficial because it taught me how to gather the requirements I needed for a project without wasting someone’s time.

I agree with Stephen that the flash research papers from 2501 have been extremely helpful in the office. They built the framework for me to write powerful, concise documents that get my point across quickly and are appropriate for business executives. Additionally, the teamwork and team-centric environments of both 3504 and 3535 have given me the ability to work well with all types of peers and leaders. By engaging in the right way, as discussed in the Heart of Change, I am able to get more done than if I didn’t have this team experience. Last, I agree with many of the others that Business Communications is really helpful in the office. While 2501 focused more on projects and IT, Business Communications taught general principles that can be applied to a variety of situations, which comes in handy often!

I would say that the excel tools that I learned in Data Analytics as well as the 1 credit Excel course have really helped me out during my internship. Not all of the other interns used Excel too much before the start of the job so I think that it enabled me to learn and adjust to the position more easily. In some cases, I am even able to teach some of my co workers certain tricks in Excel that they did not know beforehand. I also believe that the tools I learned in Professional Development Strategies allowed me to know what is right and wrong in certain professional circumstances such as business dinners, happy hours, etc.. Overall, there were multiple things I learned in the classroom that enabled me to better do my job.

The most obviously transferred skills from school to workplace were from MIS3501 because a significant portion of my time at my internship required knowledge of HTML and PHP (in addition to one or two other languages). Additionally, Data Analytics provided me baseline SQL knowledge and the analytic skills for dissecting data and garnering useful information from it. The business analysis and project management courses taught me the most about what to expect when working on a project. Although I do not use all the practical skills I learned in those classes, I knew what kind of documentation and lexicon to expect when discussing the project, so I could talk about it in their terms.

Data Analytic’s has been very beneficial for me at work. Learning different functions in Excel like Concatenate and Transpose are something I use quite often. I work as a data verification specialist and the majority of my work is either already in Excel or is in Access and will be converted back into Excel. Knowing what I learned in Data Analytic’s has been invaluable for not only performing my job but also being able to communicate about it has helped.

Probably the most useful thing that I’ve learned in class that has carried over to the work place would be writing in a business format. I am contact with tons of people through out the day, and it is important to convey myself in a formal matter that reflects well on myself and the school district. Another class that has helped me is the 1 credit excel for business class. While it didn’t seem important at the time, it taught me a bunch of useful tricks and methods that I use almost everyday in the work place. My job would be a lot more tedious without it.

The biggest things that I have learned in the classroom that I have applied to my internship is excel skills, short effective writing, and creativity and analysis. I took the Excel online course last semester and it really has helped me out in my internship as excel is used almost every day by everyone. I have even earned a bit of a reputation as the “excel guy” and it is not uncommon that someone fulltime or interns will ask me for help in excel. On non-contracted services I have several times sent out RFP and condensed proposals into shorter means to be presented to the Director of Procurement. Short effective writing is something that I learned in Business Communications and Enterprise IT Architecture. In Digital Design and Innovation we were encouraged to think outside of the average ways of business and its process. I often find this method of thinking to impress my manager and help find solutions to problems or projects such as mass textbook purchasing and entering information into the Avantis system.

At first it was a little bit of a struggle finding the perfect balance between school work and my internship, but after the first couple weeks everything started smoothing itself out. You start to find a rhythm between the two and get yourself on a schedule whether you’re aware of it or not. Probably the best tip I have to offer is that if you know that you’re going to be in for a busy week you just have to bite the bullet and sacrifice a day of your weekend to make sure you can stay ahead of the game.

This semester balancing schoolwork, my internship, and school organizations is proving to be pretty difficult. Since I am working more hours this semester than last, it is tough juggling work projects and school projects at the same time. I’m usually fine when it comes to completing assignments by myself, but this semester I am having trouble finding times to meet for group projects. Since everyone has very different schedules, finding time to meet can be tough. I am lucky my manager is lenient about leaving early if I have to meet for a group project.
In terms of keeping up with schoolwork, the best tactic I have found is front loading your week with work, and getting as much done as possible on the weekend. Its very easy to lay around and do nothing on the weekend after a long week, but quickly taking care of some short assignments on a Saturday can be very helpful for upcoming classes. Finishing assignments ahead of time gives you a buffer period to deal with any additional work added on during the week, and it minimizes the amount of stress you have to deal with.

Balancing work and school is very difficult especially to do well. I actually work two jobs, as a waiter four/five nights per week and the other for IMS. My work schedules are pretty much set, so I really just need to determine when I will have time to study in between classes and work. I like to keep printed copies of all my class schedules in a folder so I can always utilize them as a reference to determine what time will be best for me to work on school. I bought a planner and would like to fill that out so I will have all my class schedules and work schedules in one place, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. I’m sure having a place with all your school, work, and personal obligations in one place would be helpful for managing your time.

Surprisingly, it hasn’t been too much of a challenge for me to balance my school work with my job. I think the biggest reason for this is that my course load is a lot lighter this semester because I am graduating. However, it was much harder last semester when I had my job while also having a full course load. I would say the most important thing that I did to keep on top of everything was going to the library in between and/or after classes. I would also always plan ahead and try to complete my school work as soon as possible even if it wasn’t due for a few weeks. Another thing that allowed me to balance school work with my job was the leniency of my boss. She would always be very willing to let me leave early if I had a test to study for the next day.Overall, I feel as if it is important to plan ahead and not procrastinate and you will find yourself balancing school work with a job just fine.

Artemid Leskaj
At first it may seem hard to balance what seems like a lot of work on your hands. After such experience my advice is time management! It was hard, at first, for me to balance anything. It all seemed impossible to complete with only 24 hours in a day. After a lot of practice and advice from my colleagues, I finally managed to learn how to balance my time efficiently. When I didn’t know how to separate my personal life from my work life I was all over the place. It seemed like everything was due on the same day. I didn’t know what to accomplish first. After a lot of practice with time management I started to see that 24 hours was plenty enough. I was practically on a routine; the routine involved work, school and some relaxation time. If there was a time when school work was too much I would cut off some of my relaxation time. I couldn’t cut off work time because I was on a schedule. Let’s face it to get anywhere in life we have to cut off a little of our own enjoyment. If you learn how to manage your time efficiently and not procrastinate you’ll find it’s not that hard to balance your work life with everything else.

Last semester was the first time that I had to balance an internship with a full course load of school work and I had a bit of a difficult time with it at first. I found I had much less time than I used to which meant less time to study and complete my homework on time. One of the biggest differences I made that made it easier to balance was planning things out ahead of time. I bought a planner and would schedule out my weeks in advance and my due dates so that I knew what had to be completed and when, with not surprises. This semester I’m much more used to balancing school work with my internship, and I have found a good school-work balance where I can get everything done as long as I use good time management and plan things out in advance.

Time is commodity that slips out of the hands like grains of sand. Managing a full time internship and school is quite difficult, but like other things in life one can easily balance by creating a master plan and consistently following it. In my case I manage my time very wisely, I plan my days and weeks ahead of time, and run my priorities around them. I personally make a list of five things overnight that need to happen the next day for it to be an awesome day. This plan has done wonders for my academic and professional career.

I’ve found that the most important way to handle all of the work to be done is to stick to a schedule, and build in as much free time as possible to relax and destress. I usually try to schedule classes on only T/Th so I can work MWF. This gives me a break from school one day and a break from work the other, which helps me start each day and task with a clear mind. I like to come home from work or school and relax for an hour and then start getting work done. I also try to get a lot of homework done on weekends (usually Sunday) so I have a slower start to each week.

Personally, it isn’t a question of having too much work as much as it is a question of what is able to motivate me enough to get my best efforts. With the work that I do at my internship feeling like real and meaningful work, a lot of school assignments have started to seem really silly to me. However, concrete scheduling has helped me keep my schoolwork up to par. I block off certain parts of the week to take care of my assignments, and typically I take care of them all at once depending on their due dates. That way schoolwork is out of the way and I can focus on my internship assignments for the rest of the week. Dedication to strong schoolwork will help me enter the working world all the more smoothly, and that motivation helps me balance work and school together so that I can be successful in both.

I have always been the kind of person that works better when I’m busy. Since starting my internship in May 2014, I’ve been busier than I have ever been before. Last semester it was hard to adjust to taking 5 classes and working 25 to 30 hours a week. I quickly learned how to manage my time which I thought I had already mastered. I learned to take advantage of the weekends as a time to relax but also catch up on homework for the following week. If I didn’t relax during the weekend, I would not be able to stay focused throughout the week.

I have always been something of a procrastinator, so since starting my internship I have really had to reassess how I get work done and manage my time. This semester I am taking 19 credits on top of working three days out of the week, so the problem further exacerbated in January. I have had to rely on the weekends to get a lot of school work done, where I had otherwise used the weekends just to decompress. But by getting the work out of the way early in the week, it doesn’t weigh on my mind during work and class. I’ve found that if you let it get out of hand, you cannot focus on either side of the workload with 100% accuity and end up producing mediocre results for both.

I never had a problem getting all my school work done freshman through junior year when I was not working during the semester. The first semester of senior year I continued my summer internship at the School District into the semester for 24 hours a week. I quickly found out that it was going to be very hard to produce quality work at my internship and succeed in all my classes. I learned that unlike previous years of school I could not put school work off or “do it tomorrow.” I managed to pass all my classes and perform well at my internship by utilizing my lunch break for class readings and completing school work as I was assigned it, not letting it pile up. This semester is a breeze compared to last as I am only working 16 hours a week and my course load is not as vigorous as last semester.