Systems Analyst Internship at Convenient Food Marts of PA
What I learned from my experience first and foremost was how to conduct myself in a professional manner. This includes communicating professionally with my boss and employees of Convenient Food Marts of PA (CFM), creating professional presentations, and developing my leadership skills. These soft skills will be helpful in any job position/title. I learned how to pitch my ideas for software and look for what is useful for particular areas of business. I also learned how to work on the back-end of a POS system to enter product data, organize it in logical ways, and update inventory.
During my internship as a Systems Analyst this summer at CFM of PA, I worked both at the corporate office in Clarks Summit and on the site of the new store in Wilkes-Barre. At the corporate office I assisted with installing software to computers and researching software that would benefit the corporate offices’ functions. I prepared presentations using PowerPoint to showcase software I thought would be useful and present to my boss what value I thought it would provide for his office. My main project was to be on site at the new Wilkes-Barre location prior to its opening. At the store, my first assignment was to compare the price margins of products for the new store with that of local competitors. I was asked to make adjustments where I saw necessary and present margin comparisons in Excel. I also completed data entry in Excel to create a price catalog for each product and organize it by vendor. Most of my daily responsibility on the site was to enter product data into the Point of Sales system for hundreds of products. I had to create UPCs for products from local vendors that did not have any. I also had to organize the product data into both categories and departments in the POS for easy lookup. As the store received product I completed inventory maintenance through the POS system.
Overall, my experience taught me valuable soft skills that can be applied to any job and will help me in any career path I choose. It was interesting to see all that goes into getting a new convenient store up and running. I value the experience I had and am excited to see how I can apply the knowledge I gained to future work experiences.