STEP Reflection: Purchasing Intern at Nationwide Insurance

This was my second year back at Nationwide Insurance. I supported the Procure to Pay Department, specifically the Purchasing team. My team was in charge of everything that Nationwide employees needed to purchase throughout all the offices in the nation. Our team created item catalogs, software kits/packages on PeopleSoft, approved employee requisitions, paid supplier invoices, negotiated with suppliers, and so much more.

Before my internship, I was a nervous college student looking to gain more experience in the professional world. Even though I was fortunate to have previous experience at Nationwide last school year, it was still nerve wrecking because my supervisor told me we added 7 new people to our team, therefore my roles would change. The change made me especially nervous since I found out last minute that I would have different responsibilities than I normally had last time. That unfamiliarity made me uncomfortable and scared to start what felt like a brand-new internship. I kept thinking that I would not be capable of the new tasks I would have to do. In the end, thanks to my perseverance and the amazing team, I realized I should have never doubted myself.

Walking into Nationwide on my first day was very exciting and scary at the same time. I was happy to be back but also nervous to meet all these new people on my team that had no idea who I was. I was luckily still working with the same supervisor which helped me stay at ease. Everyone was so welcoming, and they told me that my supervisor had nothing but great things to say about me since my last internship, which actually made me even more terrified because I was scared I wouldn’t be able to live up to those expectations.

I was given the main responsibility of clearing match exceptions. Match exceptions occur when the purchase order price approved does not match the invoice of the supplier, thus preventing Nationwide’s automatic system from paying the supplier’s invoice. The tricky thing with match exceptions is that there are so many different causes of why it is stuck in exception. One of the easier ways to fix it is if it was a re-alignment issue. All I would need to do was request for the Accounts Payable team to fix it. The more difficult causes were when the purchase order was overdrawn by hundreds to even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The protocol for this was contacting the business unit or the requester, depending if it was a physical product or a software purchase. A set back with that is that the business unit or requester would take days to respond, when I had a deadline. In the end, I was able to keep up with the deadlines and was recognized for clearing exceptions dating back since August that the team had been trying to clear out for months.

Even though I was successful in clearing the match exceptions and helping my team greatly, I could not have done it without constantly meeting one of the associates on the team for training and advice. Since there were so many methods to clearing the exceptions and so many issues that would arise, I could not have done it without someone’s guidance. Thanks to my interaction with this specific associate it helped me succeed. In addition, I still had other responsibilities as well, which allowed me to be multi-productive.

The change I see in myself is extremely valuable to my life. Not only did I help my team, but I saw so much growth in myself from this internship more than the ones I’ve had before. I made a huge impact on my team, was productive, and met deadlines consistently. Even more importantly, I grew professionally more than I ever had. I did not know if being a business student was right for me, until this internship. I used to question if I was qualified for the job. When I declared myself a business major, I had fears that I would regret it and not know what I was doing. Now I know that this is something I am more than capable of doing. I far exceeded my own expectations.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *