Laurel Miller

For my main project in the Data Science department, there are few skills that I was able to use using the knowledge that I learnt from my class. Beside a little bit of SQL knowledge that I picked up from the data analytics class, most of the requirements in the project are entirely new to me. Hence, I have to learn from scrap as much as I can.
However, for the past few days, me and other interns were given a project that is basically just a textbook case for business analysist. Our task is to design a new and improved version of Clutch’s Internal Reward system. Having learnt a lot from MIS 3506, I was able to initiate the project with a draft version of the scope document and outlining what’s the best possible route to learn about our requirement and solutions. Even though the documents are not required, I still think it’s necessary to document our project and let our employee to track back on our process if they need to.

Knowledge of Data Science, Excel for Business Applications, and Data Analytics courses help me a lot in my internship. Since most of my work involves Excel, Tableau and R-Studio, I could apply what I’ve learned in class about functions in Excel, data analysis and visualization techniques to clean data and visualize data. Also, my team is proposing an implementation of a new software to improve the system to the department and we need to do some research on pros and cons of this software and why we need this change; thus, those flash research papers in IT Architecture class is definitely a good help.

For me, MIS courses are really helpful for my IT internship. With exposure and experience in working with R, Tableau, and SQL from Data Science and Data Analytics, I am able to quickly learn and use other database environments such as SAP and SQL Server and languages such as TSQL and Spark to extract data and present most of my business unit’s demands for data analytics in an interactive, real-time dashboard in Tableau. Moreover, I can also utilize my knowledge to work on the integration project of R into PowerBI and Tableau, perform its proof of concept by developing use cases, and leverage these use cases to further business purposes. In terms of the PMO team, the project management skills and tools from MIS 3535 are key. It provides me with fundamental knowledge about the project management field generally, helping me to understand new PM software and catch up with current corporate projects effectively.

For technical skill, the Excel for Business Applications class has helped me a lot in making report generation and data finding more effective and efficient. In an upcoming project that involves testing the UI and UX of an centralized internal business dashboard, I will be able to utilize Tableau, Excel and a bit of HTML/CSS coding knowledge in order to ensure the website has a user-friendly, functional and accessible interface for prospective users.

For communication skill, the Digital Solutions Studio class has improved my ability to determine a project scope, who are the stakeholders and SMEs and how to perform strategic planning to meet the deadlines while maintaining the quality of the work I do. I will also need it for the current project I’m working on with other interns to understand the Marketing and Corporate Communications ecosystem.

As an Accounting major, I can apply almost every knowledge I learned from accounting courses at Temple to this Finance internship at Chubb. I get a better sense of different financial elements of a corporate and how those numbers are analyzed to make quality decisions. Also, as I mainly work with Microsoft Excel and Access, I can apply what I learned in Data Science and Accounting Information System to work more efficiently and effectively. Another software I use in my daily task is PeopleSoft – Chubb’s general ledger. Although I have not learned to use this system in college, I easily got adapted and mastered PeopleSoft thanks to my exposure to different systems learned and used in MIS 2502 (Data Analytics). In a nutshell, classroom knowledge plays a significant role in leveraging my internship at Chubb.

For the first project that I was on, we mainly used SQL and Tableau to transform, analyze, migrate, and validate raw data. Having some basic knowledge about those data analytics and database management tools from MIS 0855 and MIS 2502 definitely helped me a lot in developing DQI checks and SQL scripts to interact with the database. I performed a variety of tasks within SQL such as: pulling data from the database, mapping data between different tables, checking the quality of input data to make sure they all met the requirements, etc. I have also been able to use the communication skill that I got from taking Business Communications (BA 2196) class, specifically when I had to report the data quality to the team and client in order to migrate all potential risks in the data before production go-live.

There are a number of skills from my MIS and Finance major classes which I could utilize in the project that I am working on in AmerisourceBergen. The two main tools that I am currently using are Excel and Power BI. From the MIS 2502 – Data Analytics class, I have learnt a great deal about Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) in Excel which has been very helpful for me in my internship. In my current project, I also have to use complex aggregated formulas in Excel, many of which I learnt from that class. Most importantly, however, was the experience and skill of handling large complex data-sets that was the most helpful for me in my internship. The data-sets at AmerisourceBergen are extremely large and complicated and is very challenging to manage properly. There were several assignments in the MIS 2502 class where we had to work with large data-sets which is an experience that is helping me a lot right now.

Enterprise IT Architecture plays an important role in giving me the foundation background of IT architecture in order to understand the IT operating systems and IT architecture of clients’ businesses. Therefore, I can develop IT knowledge about the clients’ systems and applications to perform IT auditing. MIS3501 and MIS3502 also contribute greatly to my work as I have to understand, evaluate and test the codes and queries to confirm the completeness and accuracy.

The exposure to the logical concepts behind Javascript language I gained in MIS 2402 has given me a solid foundation and a better understanding of data structures and functions in other programming languages, as the knowledge and the key ideas are transferable and applicable to different languages. This contributes greatly to my efficiency and productivity at Tapp, especially when I’m doing Quality Assurance test cases, reporting issues on GitHub, and communicating with senior developers.MIS 2901 introduced me to ERD and swimlane diagrams, which I use to break down my clients’ workflow in order to analyze and improve their technical software development.

A lot of the things I have been doing at my internship relate to my Data Analytics course. Since I have been working with ERP implementation, I have been exposed to the ETL process. I have worked with the NetSuite team to upload CSV files to the new systems. These CSV files included the Chart of Accounts, Fixed Assets, and Journal Entries from legacy systems. I have also been exposed to workflows which are a similar concept to an ERD diagram. NetSuite is a relational database, and it was interesting to see this after studying ERDs and schemas. We ended our semesters in Data Analytics speaking about data visualization- I have found this to be useful in ERP implementation. For example, in NetSuite each user is given a role based on their job description. The data visible in their homepage/dashboard is often customized to provide each role with the exact information needed to complete their job description.

I use a lot of the knowledge I gain from MIS 3406: Enterprise IT Architecture and MIS 2502: Data Analytics in my internship. My job including testing the company IT systems so it is important that I understand a company’s IT infrastructures and basic definition such as Active Directory, Domains, Single Sign-On, etc. In addition, when testing database, we have to use SQL script in order to extract the data that I need. Therefore, what I learn in MIS2502 about the ETL process, data storage and especially MySQL has been very helpful.

During the internship with Deloitte, I use a lot of the knowledge I gain from MIS 3406: Enterprise IT Architecture and MIS 2502: Data Analytics. My job including testing the company IT systems so it is important that I understand a company’s IT infrastructures and basic definition such as Active Directory, Domains, Single Sign-On, etc. In addition, when testing database, we have to use SQL script in order to extract the data that I need. Therefore, what I learn in MIS2502 about the ETL process, data storage and especially MySQL has been very helpful. In addition, my company uses Excel for documentation purpose so knowledge in this class is also extremely helpful as well.

Handling the schoolwork and summer internship is definitely easier than the schoolwork and spring/fall internship. Back in last semester, I had a spring internship while taking 18 credit class. It was really hard and took a lot of time to balance and finish both work. On the other hand, as I don’t have to take any class besides this Co-op class during my summer internship, I don’t have to worry about the school deadlines as much as I used to. Everything has been good so far because I already marked all of the deadlines for this class in my calendar, so I won’t miss anything important.

As I’m only taking one class this summer, I don’t have much difficulty in balancing between schoolwork and my internship. I marked all the assignments and their deadlines on my Google Calendar to easily keep track of the class. I am also required to submit a biweekly report to my manager as of what I have accomplished and what I have not had a chance to work on. Therefore, those assignments in this class definitely help me finish the reports more easily.

Managing between my work at Clutch and the weekly task in MIS 3581 is not that challenging at all once I have set up my assignment and schedule on Google Calendar. Since Clutch also uses Google Calendar for all scheduling purpose, it’s a lot easier for me to keep track of what I have in the upcoming weeks for both the company and class works. Moreover, interns also have a report system we have to submit every weekend. Hence, these reports also create a habit out of me to write my daily journal of what I finish or learn everyday. This is really helpful when it comes to doing my bi-monthly report for the class and my supervisor.

I set up reminders in my Google Calendar for upcoming tasks and deadlines, so it is a fairly straightforward process for me when it comes to balancing my schoolwork and internship work. At Tapp, we communicate constantly through Slack, a messaging app that allows people to chat and meet virtually to discuss projects and tasks. I also integrated my team’s Slack calendar to my Google Calendar, so I have both tasks for Tapp and MIS 3581 in one place, and that makes it easier for me to keep track and follow up on things I have to do for each day. Tapp does not require weekly/bi-weekly reports, but I take the initiative to talk to my boss to report and update my current status everyday before I leave Tapp.

Balancing schoolwork and working my internship hasn’t been as difficult as during the school year since I have many more responsibilities then. This is also my second year taking the class. Like many other students, I have set up reminders on my Google Calendar with assignment due dates. I had a little bit of a difficulty getting used to this schedule at first because summertime makes everyone much more relaxed, but I think I am all good to go now!

I would definitely say that making reminders and adding things to your calendar are some of the most important things that someone can do to maintain a good balance. Since I don’t do any homework at work, it is crucial for me to remember to do it once I get home. I also think that other important ways to to handle everything is getting enough sleep, eating healthy, and having a good social circle of family & friends.

During this summer, I only take one class while working full-time at PwC. Therefore, I do not have much difficulty balancing between schoolwork and my internship. I have marked all of the assignments’ due dates for the class that I am taking on my Google calendar, thus I am able to keep track of the assignments I have completed and the ones that I still need to submit. As soon as I get to the office in the morning, the first thing I do is to write down all of the tasks that I need to work on throughout the day, and also try to estimate how much time it would take me to complete each task. As a result, I found this strategy to be very helpful because it helps me to keep track of my time for both class assignments and work.

Since I am only taking 1 class this summer semester the course load is not too much to handle. However, as my internship requires a lot of travel, sometimes it is hard to keep up with the deadline since I don’t have access to computer or internet. In order to balance between schoolwork and my internship, I set up reminder on my phone as to when each assignment/report is due so I could finish them on time. I also utilize my free time to start early on assignment.

Since I am only taking the Co-op class while doing the internship, there is not a lot I have to do regarding managing schoolwork. However, I still make Google Calendar updates and reminders so that I can turn in assignments for the class on time. When it comes to working in Subaru, Unless there’s some downtime, I would focus on doing my work assignments first. Other than that, my after-work hours are dedicated to either doing assignments or relaxing after a long day. For me it’s important to strike a good work-life balance, as I know that things will get more hectic once the semester kicks in.

Balancing coursework and internship during a school semester is much more challenging than it is during the summer. Despite working full time during the summer at AmerisourceBergen, it is quite easy to keep track of assignments and upcoming deadlines through the help of Google Calendar. Although ABC does not have a specific application for scheduling, I usually use Google Calendar to keep track of my internship tasks as well. This helps me to view upcoming tasks for both internship and coursework on one interface. Also, I try to complete my assignments for the MIS 3581 course during the weekend so that a lot of work does not pile up for me during the weekdays. For larger assignments, I ensure that I have enough time allotted to them during weekdays so I put sufficient effort on those assignments.

As I only take one summer class, balancing school work with my internship is definitely easier than during the school year. The only problem I have had so far is the 3-hour time difference between San Francisco and Philly, which pushes the due time 3 hours earlier. With that said, I learn to subscribe to the class’ page to get notifications when a new discussion thread is posted, and finish my post on the commute from home to work. For other assignments, I put everything on my calendar and get things done during the weekends.

At work, to make sure that I keep up with my responsibilities, I schedule weekly meetings with my managers to report statuses and review next steps. I also make sure that everything I do is well-documented so that I don’t have to waste time going back-and-forth between things that were already discussed.

Putting all the key dates and deadlines on the calendar helps me visualize my schedule and get things done. I also keep 2 separate calendars for school and work so school and work won’t clash at each other. When at work, I only focus on the internship. When I’m not at work, I check my school and personal calendar to focus on other aspects. This also helps me balance my life in all aspects, not just school and work.

This summer I have taken two courses while working at my internship. Luckily, one of my classes ended two weeks into working full time. I have always found the best way to balance my time has been by planning. I use a calendar and write down my upcoming due dates. This helps me to visualize what tasks I need to focus on first. In addition to this I try to wake up early when I know that I have a lot of assignments due. I find that my mind is sharpest in the mornings, and I can get more done. If I find that I am short on time before an upcoming due date I will put my phone on silent and cut out TV. Getting rid of distractions helps me to ensure I spend enough time on my schoolwork and do not have to crunch last minute.