Laurel Miller

An example of conventional wisdom is that getting a degree (high school, baccalaureate, or beyond) increases one’s salary. To test this, I would survey a diverse group of people throughout different industries, asking questions about salary, benefits, years of employment, industry, etc. Then I would see if there is a strong correlation between holding a degree (and the level of degree) and one’s salary.

An example of conventional wisdom is that boutique stores charge more per item than average. In order to test this one may gather the pricing logs from various boutique stores and compare their costs to similar items in other, non-specialty shops. This comparison will likely indicate that boutique stores have higher priced items than non-specialty stores for similar items.

An example of conventional wisdom is that violent video games will affect children’s behavior in a negative way. To test this I would have to observe children who play violent video games, such as call of duty, grand theft auto, etc, on a daily day for a decent amount of time. This will help me receive enough information to see if children do show aggression and or violent acts towards others. Then I would observe the children who don’t play violent video games, to see if playing violent video games does affect children’s behaviors in a negative way.

An example of conventional wisdom I have come across is that people with high GPA’s in college earn more than those with lower GPA’s. Although this could be tested in numerous ways, the simpler method would be to evaluate the top income earners in the world and compare their GPA’s in relation to their income. Using this data we could infer the impact of a persons college GPA to their future income.

An example of conventional wisdom is that the more education you’ve received, the higher your salary will be. This could be determined by gather data on how much schooling a person has received and what their annual income is. I would predict that on average, the people who’ve received more education will have higher salaries.

There is always a misconception about highly rated subjects, such as films or restaurants. If people don’t know what their getting into, then finding a review of a film or a restaurant will give them impressions of the subject. Depending on what the people read, they will go into this ‘subject’ with a impression of it being good, bad or average and this is a very subjective thing. People should use the information of reviews to give them an idea of what their getting into, not influence how they feel about the subject. A way to test how people actually feel about say a very mixed critiqued film or restaurant is to have people experience the subject and ask them a few questions such as if they enjoyed the subject and do the reviews of subject really judge the subject accurately? Of course personal opinions is what matters most and its a “not for everyone” kinda experiment.

examples of conventional wisdom is money can’t buy happiness/money can buy happiness. The data i would collect to test it are surveies from both the rich and poor, and see if they are happy or not, and what are their thoughts on this problem.

I would test the conventional wisdom of “Money can’t buy happiness”. I would test this by collecting data and surveys on the morale of wealthy people versus poor people and middle class people. The data should represent some correlation between being happy and having wealth or not having wealth.

An example of conventional wisdom is the common phrase that society throws around stating that “the harder you work, the more successful you will be. If we really wanted to figure out whether or not that this statement is true, we would have to collect data from several different people. Information such as their yearly salary, how much debt they’re in, their productivity numbers at work, and the amount of education they have. All of these things are indicators of how much hard work an individual has done and how much success they have gotten in return.

One example of conventional wisdom is that the more you study, the better you do on test. I would test this by taking a group of students in the same class, and then ask them to record how long they study for that class each day. I would then average all of their individual test scores and observe the performances of each student.

One example of conventional wisdom that I have heard often is “white men can’t jump” typically used when referring to white basketball players I know this is often not true. I would test this by finding the vertical leaping height of multiple white basketball players and compare them with a pool of players of other races to see how they compare.

An example of conventional wisdom is the commonly accepted belief that money cannot buy happiness. This can be tested by giving people a certain amount of money and letting them purchase whatever they desire. We would record their purchases and also record their emotion and pleasure after their purchase. A good example would be buying a new and better mattress because it would improve their rest and overall happiness. I would use the data of their purchases and emotions to make a correlation between money and happiness.

A piece of conventional wisdom that is accepted as fact by both laymen and the more medically savvy alike is that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer. This is, in fact, entirely speculatory and false. In order to test such a claim, you would simply measure the large-scale incidence of lung cancer in those regularly exposed to secondhand smoke against those who are not regularly exposed. Other factors, such as length of exposure, age when exposed, and previous conidtions could also come into play.

An example of conventional wisdom is when people say, if you drink water on a daily basis, then your skin will be clear. I would collect the data from the conditions of people’s skin based on who drinks water regularly and who does not. From this data you can infer if drinking water on a daily basis benefits your skin as much as people says it does.

An example of conventional wisdom is that eating too much fast food isn’t good for your health. To test this idea you would need two groups of people. The first group of people would just have a normal diet that does not include fast food. The second group would have to eat fast food at least 3 times a week. Before the experiment starts everyone should go to the doctor to see how healthy they are. After the experiment everyone must go back to the doctor to see if their health has become worse.

One example of conventional wisdom I heard was people who attend better colleges generally do better in the job market. I don’t think I ever paid much attention to it because it can be very discouraging. However if I wanted to test it I will collect the job placement rates from one lower-tier school and one higher-tier school and also collection information from similar students, such as same grades, similar organizations, and similar interest to see if this wisdom is true or false

Hello everyone, this summer I worked at Ernst and Young in their Risk Assurance practice. My primary work included travel to various client sites to perform external audits on their IT departments. I tested IT general controls including Logical Security, Manage Change and Computer Operations, along with testing different application controls relating to the companies ERP system. I was expected to interact with the clients and help my team complete the audits in a timely manner, along with spotting and documenting any issues that we deemed inappropriate for the audit. I also sat in for IT general control meetings and took notes to assist my team with documentation for walkthroughs.

Hi everyone,
This past summer I interned at Walmart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas. I worked in the Global Back Office Solution department, which streamlines back end operations to save money for customers all over the globe. More specifically, I was on the on Integration Management team under Data Strategy and Governance. My project was a proof of concept of the SAP Cross Database Comparison tool. I was able to work with the SAP tool to create a comparison report to measure data quality between different environments. Another project I worked on was the Hack Days project. I worked with 7 other leverage interns on an “Endless Isle” project where we looked at the problem of bridging the gap between digital and physical that Walmart faces today and came up with a solution for it. I also was able to gain insight on many other areas of the business including IT Audit, Project Management, Business Intelligence, User Experience, and the Data Cafe. To work for a Fortune 1 company for my first internship was a very interesting and beneficial experience.

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.