My STEP Signature Project consisted of traveling to London, England to intern at Ayming Performance Consulting through the Fisher Global Internship Program over the course of the 2018 summer. This internship will provided me with key insight into my future professional career while advancing my professional skills and growing my network globally. My duties as an innovation intern consisted of assisting with the R&D Tax and Grants Process, drafting reports and filing for tax credits to HMRC for R&D research on behalf of clients. Also, I attended client meetings, drafted minutes for teams for a better understanding of the consulting process and I worked with sales/business development team; identified prospective clients, developed sales pitches, attended pitch meetings and supported follow-upa kick-off meeting.
Working and living in London, England for eight weeks gave me a deeper understanding of the consulting process, a possible future career path, and gained experience living in a busy international city. Each day traveling to work for forty hours a week was an enriching experience. At work, I was welcomed by such intelligent and open employees that cared about my experience and me as an individual. I learned to navigate the city everyday while living in a large metropolitan community. Taking part of this experience requires maturity and independence. Everyday at work, I was challenged to learn and assist in the R&D Tax/grants process. I was able to help with various parts of the process and see visual results when I have accomplished certain tasks. Also, on the certain weekend I would navigate through out other European cities exploring the world while embracing new culture.
My experience that impacted me were the various projects I would partake in while working at Ayming. In the beginning of the internship, I was trained on the R&D Tax process. After my training certain employees would help and guide us through their projects. One project that stuck out was working with Vivobarefoot. I attended the kick off meetings, and wrote up technical write-ups for the R&D Tax incentives. We, at Ayming, explored various new projects with research in development. We would help companies with the application and we would earn 15% of their R&D tax benefit. I went to the office of the company with other associate consultants and took part of the interview process. We gathered information about the research and development projects. I remember being so engaged in the process and looked forward to gathering more information for the report. I learned to love this profession and working with the other employees at Ayming.
Another experience on this trip that transformed my opinion on life was all the unique and intelligent people I met on the same program from me. Ohio State is such a large university and is sometimes hard to find a niche. This program did that for me. Not only was I able to work at a prestiius firm, but I got to live with other Ohio State students who I did not know before. We hung out after work, explored all that London offered and got to even work with other students. I will always remember the people on the program forever.
As I said before, on the weekends other Ohio State Students and I would travel to other European cities and countries. This traveling helped me grow my independence and time management skills. One trip in particular that helped me grow and embrace other cultures was my weekend trip to Paris. Here I was able to absorb the French culture and even celebrate the France winning the world cup. I enjoyed the city and even experienced living in a hostel for the first time. I will remember this weekend for the rest of my life.
This experience changed my life completely. I learned to love the city of London, the consulting industry, and most importantly learned to love traveling the world and making lasting memories with new and old friends. I learned to be a harder worker this summer which is continuing this semester at school and learned to love a possible career path. I made lasting connections from people all over the world and continue to grow professionally and culturally. Below I have attached a few photos from my trip. I hope you all enjoy!
