Technology Early Career Development Program Intern
Background
My internship at Cigna took place during the summer of 2018 from the end of May to mid-August. I participated in a 12-week internship through the Technology Early Career Development Program (TECDP). The TECDP is a 3-year rotational program that enables full-time associates to experience a new job role each year. This allows young people entering the workforce to advance their professional growth by gaining exposure to the many career paths available in IT within a short amount of time. The TECDP provides full-time hires (and interns/co-ops!) with various ways to get involved, allowing us to participate in networking opportunities, speaker series, philanthropy events, and more.
Role Work
For the summer, I worked as a Production Support Systems Analyst Intern within Group IT. The production support team provides support for hundreds of applications that keep the workplace, and business, functioning on a daily basis. Production support is responsible for being proactive and dealing with issues efficiently, and I was able to experience this through my various different assignments this summer. I helped with supporting one application this summer, which meant learning what issues could go wrong and possible solutions to fix them. I had to communicate with the end users to determine what the issue was and transferred their issue ticket to the right support team when necessary.
Along these lines, one of my other summer objectives was to streamline the number of assignment groups that help desk tickets go into when they are escalated to production support. Assignment groups act as sort of “buckets” for different categories of issues; when I started this summer there were 28 assignment groups, and I was able to reduce this number to 8. By re-categorizing and collapsing certain groups into others, the production support environment can now be more logically organized and has increased effectiveness.
Another summer objective of mine was to help establish a “brand” for production support; I did this by creating templates for different types of standard communications that are sent from the prod support email. Using these templates will lead to enhanced visibility for the team and ensure that crucial communications don’t go unnoticed in people’s inboxes. Working on this team allowed me to interact with hard-working, empathetic people who want to help things go as smoothly as possible – being surrounded by such supportive, driven individuals made it clear to me that this is somewhere I would enjoy working.
Intern Project
I also was able to learn so much this summer by working on the TECDP Summer Innovations Project. Interns are put in groups of 12-16 to build a solution to a real-world problem and present this solution to stakeholders, sponsors, and senior leaders at the end of the summer. Throughout these 12 weeks, my role on the team was the Product Owner, which is sort of like a project manager. I was responsible for representing the best interest of the end users of our product, serving as a point of contact for stakeholders, listening to their needs and desires, using these to create and prioritize features for the platform, and motivating my team with a clear mission statement.
Comprised of technical and business-oriented teammates, our team worked together to build a platform that would enable a trauma counseling helpline in Chicago to communicate more effectively with the communities they serve. Utilizing multiple channels of communication, like SMS, voice, and online chat, our platform enhanced the connection between a caller and the helpline advocate. Featuring an online portal, with analytics and actionable resources, the advocate could more effectively tailor the support experience to each individual and ensured that the advocate is accessible in the caller’s time of need. Overall, the summer project was a great learning experience and allowed me to strengthen my understanding of being a project manager in an Agile environment.
Takeaways
Throughout the summer, I was able to learn many new skills while also building on what I have learned from the MIS curriculum. I was able to bring the knowledge and skills that I have learned from MIS classes and apply them to the workplace. My knowledge of data analytics enabled me to contribute to the improvement of the production support environment, while I was able to leverage my knowledge of business analysis and project management to complete the intern project. By having this background from my classes, I was well-prepared for the work that I had to do, and was able to approach challenges with confidence. The work I did over the summer emphasized how the information and skills that we learn in MIS classes are extremely relevant to the everyday work of a large company.
Being a part of the TECDP has allowed me to expand my network, learn about people and their jobs, experience different technologies and better understand how to navigate the work environment. I learned the importance of effective communication, adaptability, continuous learning, and asking questions. This experience empowered me to get a better idea of what I might want to pursue in my career and introduced me to so many interesting people. Working with people who are so supportive and willing to help made this experience unforgettable, but the learning/development opportunities presented to us through TECDP definitely had the biggest impact on my growth as a young professional.