Software Engineering Program (SEP) Internship at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

My STEP Signature Project was a ten-week internship through the Software Engineering Program (SEP) at J.P Morgan Chase (JPMC) in Columbus, Ohio. I worked alongside interns from across the United States from July 6th to August 7th, 2020 in a virtual format due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of the shortened and virtual format of the internship, my team got the chance to develop a product for a local non-profit that has been adversely affected by the pandemic.
I was always aware of the wide reach of Computer Science and technology in the world. For any business or organization to be successful in today’s rapidly changing landscape, they must have strong technology infrastructure. Despite this, I made the assumption that technology at JPMC would only involve critical infrastructure and a few customer facing applications. The depth of in-house technology development frankly shocked me. Instead of relying on third parties, JPMC had entire teams working on native firm-specific technology infrastructure. Every concept I had learned in my Computer Science coursework thus far was well represented. Practically every senior employee that I interacted with remarked how they would never get bored at JPMC because every one of their interests would be represented in one technology team or another.
On a related note, I was very anxious about the affect of the internship’s virtual format on networking. A sizable portion of an internship’s value comes from the ability to interact with long time employees who have had to make important career choices. For me, this is already a difficult process to get used to in person – let alone over video conferencing. Surprisingly, I found the virtual networking sessions developed by JPMC to be quite welcoming. I even had the opportunity to reach out to employees for one-on-one meetings throughout the internship experience.
Overall, the program was heavily redesigned to make it an enriching experience despite the virtual format. The first example of this was the welcome week agenda developed by the program managers. Initial days consisted of speaker series events, workshops on managing a virtual internship, and the ability to network with technology center leads in Columbus. This greatly reduced any nervousness that I had about fitting into the internship.
Managers and Social Good Advisors – full time employees that would provide guidance on the non-profit project – were both important guides during the program. They scheduled weekly one-on-one meetings with me to discuss victories and challenges during the previous week. During these meetings, they also provided valuable career advice and insight into their own experiences. Without these weekly chats, I would have had much less clarity on my future and opportunities at the firm.
Another aspect of the program that made it more manageable was the shift to working on a project for a local non-profit. It would have been greatly difficult to learn JPMC’s internal technology tools in such a short time period. Instead, they made sure to create “assignments” that would act as a basic introduction to technology at the firm. A bulk of the internship was work for the non-profit – which was both fulfilling and very educational.
This experience was incredibly valuable and transformational. As my first meaningful internship experience, I was able to apply concepts learned during my past three years at Ohio State. First, this increased my self-confidence with regards to my mastery of concepts from those courses. The grading structure in some Computer Science classes can be quite harsh, making one doubt their understanding of course content. What this internship experience helped me realize is that I had in fact gained a very strong foundation in course material. The career trainings that JPMC provided throughout the internship experience also helped me build on my “soft-skills” such as communication, leadership, problem-solving, and networking. After the close of the internship, I found myself with increased confidence and motivation – ready to take on the next academic year!

Step Reflection

Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entail.

During my internship I was able to learn from many analysts and directors within the capital markets group. I reconciled financial statements for the multi-housing group, which underwrote a $91MM debt financing for a $180MM-valued property. I also updated and expanded secondary market tracking for twelve different markets through research of key property statistics, outstanding debt amounts, owner, and leasing company information

What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

This project made me realize that I can set myself up to do anything I put my mind to. I never thought that I would be working at a commercial real estate firm as I originally wrote my proposal hoping I would be working for JP Morgan Chase. This experience has made me brave enough to try new things and expand my understanding of the business world. Moreover, I am more confident in my ability to work hard in achieving success. Most of the analysts I worked with are working day and night to be successful and move up in the company’s hierarchy. Seeing this made me want to begin my journey and start working for the success I have always dreamed of.

What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

Throughout the internship program, I met and networked with individuals that were outside of my team. I spoke with the investment sales team, debt team, and the M&A team and everyone was very welcoming. This opportunity made me feel like my work was valued in this fortune 200 company. Speaking with these individuals who come from different backgrounds is enlightening and I came to realize that we are all in the same boat trying to move up in the business world. It’s always great to know everyone on your team and better when you know everyone in the company, and JLL did a great job with trying to get all the interns connected.

Moreover, I went to lunches with many of the senior directors and this experience was mainly what transformed my view on the business world. I made great connections throughout the programs lunch and learns that are now carrying over into the school year. On September the 11th, I am meeting a senior director and an analyst for coffee here in Columbus. Even though my internship was in Chicago, I made an effort to network with those in the Columbus office because my experience meeting individuals from different teams was very influential on my career. During my lunches, I asked about the business, about their backgrounds and about opportunities and everyone that I spoke with understood that I was just curious and wanted to learn more. This made it easier for me to reach out to more individuals and make stronger connections that I will use upon graduation.

Lastly, the work I listed doing in question 1 was work that will be used by many of the analyst at JLL. So the projects I worked on this summer was relevant to the business and is not going unnoticed. This made me feel valued even as an intern. Clearly, the analysts in the company are very busy and work hard so knowing that they will be using my work to help them throughout their deals is extraordinary. It’s great to be a part of a team, even though it was only for the summer, I learned a lot from their guidance and hope to remain connected with JLL.

Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

Prior to this project I was not interested in working at a firm that was not defined as a bank. However, doing the work this summer opened my view on the business world and made me interested in learning about the real estate business. I enjoyed my experience and believe that I have found a passion in the real estate industry. I am currently applying to companies that I have never heard of and am networking with individuals all throughout the country to try to find the right place for me. Real estate is now something I know I will pursue, and I am very excited that I was part of a program to hep me find that in me. Therefore, this program had an impact on the kind of companies I will be applying to post graduation.

PepsiCo Supply Chain Internship

My STEP signature project was a summer internship with PepsiCo. Due to coronavirus concerns, the internship was entirely virtual over six weeks. During my time with PepsiCo, I worked on two main projects which included a cross-functional Shark Tank Pitch and a data analytics project with my site focusing on utility usage. 

My understanding of myself and assumptions about the way large businesses work were transformed over the course of the internship. Going into the internship, I worried about having enough support and contacts to reach out to if I was having any problems with my projects. Knowing that PepsiCo is an enormous company with locations all over America, I thought that I would mostly be on my own and that the employees would be focused on their own work. This assumption could not have been farther from the way PepsiCo runs their business and over the six weeks I worked there I was able to network with several people in functions I am interested in as well as having support contacts I was in touch with every week. All of the full-time employees were open to meeting with me and helping the interns with their projects. With PepsiCo’s focus on networking, I was able to put myself out of my comfort zone and have a few one-on-one Zoom meetings with managers who were former interns. 

My view of the world was transformed by the scale of the projects I worked on. The internship projects were a huge adjustment compared to school projects I have experience with due to the lack of direction and flexibility with solutions. It was interesting to learn about the type of problems that PepsiCo was facing and how to develop solutions. From this internship experience, I feel that I was able to improve my problem solving skills and become more comfortable with some of the typical projects supply chain associates often work on. In addition to this, I became better at storytelling and communicating my ideas to management through report outs on these projects. Overall, my STEP project was very transformative in helping me develop my networking and problem solving skills while challenging some of the assumptions I had about PepsiCo prior to my internship. 

I was supported by many different contacts which helped me to become more comfortable with networking and talking to different employees within PepsiCo. Two of my support contacts were my Challenge Team Coach and Intern Mentor that really helped me learn how to network. My Challenge Team Coach quickly introduced me to her colleague who is a graduate of Ohio State in Industrial Engineering. I was able to set up a 15 minute Zoom meeting with him and got some great advice for what to focus on most in my internship as well as learning more about his career path coming in as a campus hire. My Intern Mentor also strongly encouraged me to network as much as I could in the company and put me in contact with a previous boss of hers who was involved in the Lean/ Six Sigma program. Everyone I was able to connect with was more than willing to meet with me and talk about my future career goals. Without my Challenge Team Coach and Intern Mentor, I do not think I would have been able to make as many connections within the company and become comfortable with having quick meetings to introduce myself to others. 

Another key experience to my transformation of both making connections and developing problem solving skills were the two main projects I worked on. My functional project focused on analyzing utility usages. I worked on this project with another supply chain intern in my division and it was great to be able to talk with someone going through the same experience and work on the project together. The goal of our project was to analyze production data to see if there were any potential improvement areas to focus on that would decrease electricity and water usage. To start this project we were given data for each production run since January with the product, line it was run on and total hours. It was difficult at first to know where to begin and how to break up the data into a way that made sense. Throughout the project, we met with our functional manager and the director of the plant weekly to update them on the direction we were going in and anything that we discovered. It was a challenging project but having the support from the plant helped me to understand how to approach these types of projects. 

The other main project I worked on was a Shark Tank Pitch with my challenge team. This project was also very abstract and our goal was to come up with the best ways to expand and make one of PepsiCo’s programs accessible to more people. I worked with five other interns across different functions and in different areas of the country on this project. This experience was my favorite part of the internship because I was able to meet with my other group members and hear about their internships every day which made me feel more connected to the company despite the virtual setting. Our deliverables for this project were a written report of the main ideas we had to improve this project and a PowerPoint presentation. For both the functional project and challenge project, we had a formal Report Out to managers within the company. I really enjoyed both of my projects and learned a lot about how to approach future projects from the feedback I received.  

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The changes I have experienced will be extremely valuable to me moving forward in my professional career. It has always been a goal of mine to work for a Fortune 500 company and I am grateful to have been able to immerse myself in PepsiCo’s culture. I was proud of how my projects turned out and having the experience of both the functional project and shark tank project has helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses in the workplace. Networking with employees in the company and going out of my way to set up Zoom calls to meet other people put me out of my comfort zone and forced me to learn how to better connect with others. From the few chats I had, I now feel more comfortable in introducing myself to other people and being more confident in asking for help when I need it. Everyone I interacted with during my internship was so supportive which challenged my previous beliefs that it would be hard to connect with others in such a large company. Participating in the projects has helped me to have a greater understanding of how to approach large problems and where to begin focusing my efforts on. This internship experience has helped me to develop my professional skills and understand my personal strengths and areas for improvement in the workplace.

STEP Post-Project Reflection

STEP Post-Project Reflection

Grace Schuppe

  1. My STEP project was based on my internship this summer at KPFF Louisville. I was surrounded by a group of structural engineers and was able to edit construction documents, input data into a project database, perform site visits and reports, and check shop drawings.
  2. Through my STEP project, I was able to better understand the world of structural engineering. Before this summer I didn’t know exactly what the job entailed or what steps to take to become a professional engineer. Now, I have mentors in place to guide me towards my future goals and towards becoming a structural engineer. What I learned this summer allowed me to see more of the civil engineering world than I would have previously been exposed to just through school. I know myself better and see how my future career could impact the world around me. I want to be able to effect the lives around me through the work I do. Having this internship allowed me to see how impactful structural work can be towards serving the public. Before this internship I did not realize how much I wanted to serve the public and create something to help the lives of those in my community. I am beyond grateful for my experience at KPFF and how it opened me up to understand how important the community is for me and my future career and personal goals.
  3. KPFF Louisville employed each of the interns with a mentor who would help guide us during our summer and beyond. The relationship I formed with my mentor allowed me to feel comfortable asking questions about the profession in general and about my future plans. This relationship allowed me to transform my outlook on the profession and set goals for myself.

I was also able to go on many site visits during my summer, including a trip to see several medical hubs in Washington DC. I’ve never been on site visits prior to this summer, so to be able to go on so many was a great experience. Site visits definitely allowed me to see multiple disciplines and better understand the innerworkings of the profession.

Finally, the ability to develop an understanding of the BIM software, Revit, was another big stepping stone in my education. While I had learned similar software programs in the past it was a nice confidence boost to be able to quickly learn and adapt to the new software. This showed me that while I may not know exactly how to do something at first, I can quickly learn and adapt. This is similar to how I feel about my overall goal of becoming a structural engineer, that over time I will learn and adapt and reach my goals.

  1. This transformation will allow me to make informed decisions regarding my future and my goals. Without the knowledge I learned over this summer I would still be guessing as to what I want and how I should go about getting there. Academically, I know which classes to focus more effort into and know what steps I need to fulfill the necessary education requirements to become a professional engineer. Professionally, I have grown my network of connections and am able to have a better visual for my future career plans. Personally, I took on a challenge and discovered that I love to learn. This summer has truly allowed me to grow as a person and develop a greater respect and understanding of structural engineering.

STEP Reflection Post

1.My daily routine changed as time went on in my internship, but at the beginning I was a member of the Web development team and I shadowed members to learn the general work flow. I then shadowed members of the mobile development team and got more acclimated with them. After a month or so, I spent the rest of my time developing on my own or in a pair for both mobile and web development, until the last week where I learned more about User Experience(UX).

 

2.There were many things I learned about myself, and the computer science industry. Just working with other programmers made me learn how important it is to work in pairs and build off each other. This is not taught well enough in school and so I was not aware of just how important it is to pair program until I saw how much they relied on it at my internship. I also learned lots of different programming techniques and styles and found a few styles that I think work for me. I am going to try to incorporate them more into my programming and find out about what my style is. This is going to determine my programming in the future for years and years to come. I also learned that I really liked doing UX and I now am deciding if I can make a UX focus and this is a huge change in my life as it would determine my career path for the rest of my life.

 

3.One of the relationships that led me to learn quite a bit about the computer science industry is when I was pair programing with a new programmer. He was initially a member of the QA team so he understood the code base, but was still new to being a fully-fledged developer. Since we were in similar situations, he and I learned a lot from each other. For instance, the ways he tried approaching the problems we faced were very different from the ways I approached them and it was very helpful to learn from someone else doing it. He also shared a lot of his experience from the QA stuff and it was very eye opening as the code we write goes to the QA team and it is very important to make the code ready for the QA team to look over and make sure it is documented well for them to do their job efficiently.

 

One activity that taught me a lot was the fact that we had multiple meetings every day. We had a daily meeting where the developers went over the work they did the previous day and what they wanted to get done that day. It was very eye-opening to see that the daily routine isn’t to start the day programming but to start with a meeting. There were also lots of other meetings throughout the day that people would have for various reasons. Some might be to talk about a failure the night before and how to prevent it, to talk about upcoming plans for certain features, to get a better understand of what the business folks wanted the developers to do and there could be many more that an intern developer doesn’t need to be a member of but occurred without my knowledge. I never really thought that there was a need for so many meetings because at first it seems like having that many meetings slow down the work flow, but overall the information gained is more helpful as it can stop people from building the wrong solution due to a lack of information and wasting lots of time.

 

One event that I learned a lot from was from having to deal with Corona virus during my internship. At Northwoods they had already transitioned to a fully remote workflow so the technical side of things was not an issue when I joined. The biggest issue was that it was a hard to learn a lot at first. I had to meet tons of new people, work on a new codebase that I didn’t have any knowledge of where to look for specific functions and do it all while I am stuck at home. I needed to adapt to working from home and I didn’t have the workspace setup at first. Once I had setup my workstation with a monitor, webcam and microphone I was ready to work, I also had to learn who all my co-workers were and figure out a good way of learning while being in an online situation. Once I had I felt like I had become much better at learning online and it seems like an especially useful skill with Corona virus still affecting us and requiring us to learn from home.

 

There were more events, interactions, relationships, or activities during the STEP Signature Project that helped transform me, but I felt that these were the most important ones to mention.

 

4.These transformations are significant because I will use these skills and knowledge I have acquired for the rest of my life. I now know how important meetings in a computer science position are and what I should be saying and bringing to the meetings which is a very important skill to have in the professional side of my life. I also gained the ability to learn better in an online setting which is very useful academically when we are in a pandemic where we are forced to learn online. I also feel like I grew as a person since I was very introverted and now I am way more comfortable talking with new people and achieved a personal goal of trying to get know people much more. I feel like this project, while hindered by the pandemic, was very transformational experience.

 

 

AEP Data Science Internship-Avery Warner

My Step Signature Project consisted of being a Data Science Intern for American Electric Power. Another intern and I worked with the Utilities and Performance Management data science team of four people. I worked on projects for and with the members of the team that related to catching failing transformers, work order cost estimation, and meter event summary generation.

My main revelation had to do with the use of data, and large amounts of it, in the real world. Prior to this internship I did not have an extended idea of how corporations would utilize data information. My time at AEP over the summer gave me more insight into how the use of data can improve a company as well as how essential data truly is to a large company. I saw firsthand how vital data is in day-to-day operations and how real its impact can be to each department. Furthermore, I was reassured that the classes I’ve been through and information I’ve learned are applicable outside of academia and allow me to contribute informative material.

One of the projects that I worked on over the summer involved failing electric line transformers and how to flag ones that are considered to be failing. Through collaboration with others I was able to develop an algorithm that catches failing transformers, and more of them, at a quicker rate than what is currently being done. The new algorithm is already going into tandem use with the current algorithm to get more use under its belt before potentially become the primary algorithm. This project showed me the expedited deployment and usage of data-driven tools, even at a large company. It may not be a revolutionary alteration, but I was shown that data analytics can have an immediate impact if efficient steps are taken. Additionally, while working on this project I was introduced to the vast amounts and types of data that AEP stores, and it’s not an exaggeration to say the surface is just being scratched.

I spent time on another project in which I worked on attempting to predict the cost of work order jobs for customers. This project was interesting because it involved real dollars to the company—which becomes a strong motivator for improvement. Through the time spent on the project I was exposed to the real impact data work has on different departments. I was able to interact with business units who were able to contribute to the directionality of the project’s work because they are directly impacted by its involvement. The value of data analysis was validated to me during this project as well because I got to witness the precautions and attention to detail that are taken in order to deliver meaningful results. These first two projects helped me realize how much data companies have access to as well as how beneficial meaningful data work can be to their daily operations. My last project, however, reassured the fact that the knowledge I’ve acquired throughout school will allow me to be a successful data scientist.

During my time at AEP the projects that I worked on also affirmed to me that the material I learn and absorb in class is relevant outside of Ohio State. I was able to apply data exploration and manipulation tactics to real world data. In particular, when generating a meter event summary table I was able to use general programming and data experience to improve the summary statistic process in a language I don’t use as often as others. Consequently, this was a confidence booster because I felt more competent with my natural abilities to perform data analysis. I was able to bridge the divide between school and work throughout this internship experience and learn about both myself and the corporate data landscape.

The shift towards better understanding industry data usage and the level of my abilities is valuable because it helps prepare me for the next big step in life. It is important to me that I am able to comfortably transition from academia to the corporate world. The transformations from this internship have proven to me that my learning styles and comfort level with course material is acceptable. Although, I would like to be more inquisitive with some content as this should help me become better at motivating my choices. Moreover, this experience with AEP has directed me towards what to be inquisitive about so that I can continue to learn after graduating. My internship involvement this summer initiated the pivotal transformation to becoming a successful data analyst.

My internship experience was completely remote so I can’t include any meaningful photos, but I’ll include a picture of the headquarters building in downtown Columbus where I would’ve been located otherwise!

My TA Summer Internship in Review – Isabel Palmer

1. This summer I was the Talent Acquisition Intern for Cardinal Health.  I had a 40-hour work week Monday through Friday.  Throughout the summer I accomplished the following responsibilities and projects:  analyzed benchmarking data and expense reports to update relocation program cost estimate recommendations for hiring managers; completed content review & peer insight analysis for Glassdoor, Indeed, and external career site to update material attractive to both passive and active job seekers; outlined product offerings and current status of pre-employment components for 11 countries in order to present new APAC proposal, including pricing, to Global Security team; created 29 templates on EchoSign to ensure consistency and efficiency for TA team; updated TA overview slide deck, designing new slides and developing new Excel graphs, to be used when giving new hires in HR and business leaders a high-level overview of the TA team and their responsibilities; and supported and worked with a recruiter to oversee the life cycle of a requisition including sourcing, resume and application review, kick-off call, phone screen, calibration report, and offer extension.

2.

I think the two biggest transformations involved my understanding of myself and also my perspective about the business world.  I really feel like my STEP project altered the way I view leadership.  A company is only as strong as its weakest link and if Executive Board members don’t recognize and appreciate that every single employee, even down to that “weakest link” has some value, then they are doomed. I talked to countless professionals working for Cardinal Health whose positions ranged from a P3 level employee all the way up to CEO.  I should first mention that I enjoyed all the conversations I had and every individual I talked to was genuine and insightful.  However, what I discovered after talking with some fascinating employees, was that leadership truly is not about a title or a position, but rather a behavior and attitude.  It’s the idea that instead of trying to fix a chronic employee’s weakness for instance, you have to collectively work to figure out how to tailor their role, so it matches and capitalizes on their strengths.  When I accept a full time offer, I now know that I must rely on a leadership style that encourages and motivates others because only then will I help cultivate a successful future for the organization as an HR professional.

In regard to the business world, my internship opened my eyes to the importance of flexibility, creativity, and connections.  With technological advancements, new federal, state, and local rules and regulations, and competition rising, it’s imperative that any given business, no matter the industry, is constantly assessing how they can be better.  In order to attain one’s competitive advantage, it takes a team effort.  Cardinal Health is a global, integrated healthcare services and products company that works with hospitals, pharmacies, ambulator surgery centers, clinical laboratories, physician offices, and health systems worldwide.  Flexibility is something that isn’t a stranger to Cardinal Health employees.  They must be able to adapt to any given circumstance, like the Coronavirus pandemic, creating, manufacturing, and distributing products and offering services that are unmatched in efficiency and effectiveness.  Flexibility also ties into creativity.  By stimulating innovation and pushing employees to step outside their comfort zones, productivity levels can increase.  Furthermore, when a workforce is forced to think outside of the box and are given tools and resources to help them succeed, they can develop cost-effective business solutions.  This summer I was provided numerous opportunities to network.  After talking with people who came from all walks of life, who held different career paths, and had different perspectives, one thing that remained constant was their emphasis on the importance of forming strong relationships.  The basis behind creating these strong networking channels stems for a multitude of different reasons all of which center around developing an avenue to exchange ideas and acquire new opportunities while gaining support from people who can help you grow and elevate your status.  Additionally, from this network of resources, you can find truth tellers, people who you know you can trust to provide you with objective insight.  These three concepts will always be applicable in the business world.

3.

The whole purpose of our STEP signature project is to have a transformational experience – what’s really neat is that I honestly feel like I have had a shift in perspective because of this idea of transformational leadership that was consistently addressed during educational sessions and networking chats.  Transformational leadership, simply put, occurs when an individual actively inspires employees to look ahead with a positive mindset, focusing on a common mission or vision, while considering the group as a whole (in this case, the entire workforce) instead of just themself.  As a future HR professional, I must have an inclusive, innovative, empathetic mindset that will recognize the individual aspects that make employees unique, while still acknowledging that it is our differences that allow us to collaborate and grow as a single, yet powerful entity.  Despite the fact that I was an intern, every single employee and especially my supervisors, treated me with respect.  They gave me responsibilities and allowed me to lead several projects.  Some of these projects required my communication with other professionals.  It became evident over time the importance of open and honest dialogue, constructive criticism, and the power in diversity of thought.  I tried to embody what I thought transformational leadership was while working on these projects with other people.  And I most certainly saw this kind of leadership emanate throughout my supervisor and her bosses work ethic and way of thinking.  I have a long way to go before I can truly master what is means to be a transformational leader, but I’ve gained some memorable experiences that have helped me establish the groundwork for improvement.

Along with the projects I was assigned, flexibility was expected of me.  Deadlines shifted, there were communication errors with outside vendors, new decisions from higher up altered my vision, and so on and so forth.  All of these changes forced me to think on my feet.  I tried to keep a positive attitude, overcoming adversity whenever I encountered it.  I tried following what I had seen other professionals previously do and what I had learned in my courses at OSU.  I put 110% effort into everything I did in order to produce the best work possible.  I asked questions because I was eager to learn and understand the knowledge at my disposable that I could utilize to work around barriers.  Cardinal Health serves the healthcare industry, but with that comes immense responsibility associated with safety.  Considering the opioid epidemic, the company is often caught in crossfire despite the fact that they do NOT produce or distribute opioids – they simply provide safe transport to pharmacies.  Considering this particular instance alone, you can understand why flexibility is necessary.  The compliance team must be able to fight for their freedom from repercussions.  On top of that, the company as a whole is constantly altering their Generation Rx platform policies and practices.  Generation Rx is an evidence-informed prevention education and awareness program that was founded at OSU and has been powered through a partnership with Cardinal Health for years now.  The campaign is constantly adapting to the current environment in order to provide resources that are interactive and create initiatives that touch the most lives.  I learned about the program and the Opioid epidemic through meetings and training modules.  My engagement with my summer projects and the Generation Rx and Opioid epidemic training modules and meetings are just three instances that led to my appreciation for flexibility.

Creativity in business is a differentiator.  Companies today are operating in a highly competitive, global environment.  One of my summer projects involved me scoping out Cardinal Health’s competition and analyzing what they offer via career sites.  I had to assess what tactics they use to attract talent, how we are different, and what we could do to become an even more attractive and favorable company to both passive and active job seekers.  This particular project forced me to think outside of the box.  Another project I worked on involved completing creative briefs for recruitment marketing materials.  I reviewed 3 different documents and then assessed the information in order to provide a list of updates, additional compelling statements, information about the target audience, tactical messages, and deliverables.  These types of materials are important to update, especially when Cardinal is focusing on new initiatives like the Employee Value Proposition.  It is imperative that the messages included on the recruitment marketing materials are unique and persuasive enough that in a mere few seconds, potential applicants feel compelled to further engage with Cardinal Health or at the very least, remember the company in a positive light.   I made sure to consider creative, yet effective ways to get important points across.  This project also showed that when any individual does try to implement creativity, the possibilities are endless.  Throughout my networking opportunities though, I also had a chance to see how creativity comes in handy.  When discussing compensation plans, benefit initiatives, branding and marketing, and performance management, professionals consistently discussed the power of diversity of thought.  They touched upon the importance of helping employees work as a cohesive team, one in which engagement, interaction, and morale is high.  It became clear that creativity makes employees want to learn more by seeking multiple solutions and ideas for business goals and this is propelled by creating a collaborative, happy environment.

Finally, throughout my internship, it was engrained in my brain that life really is about the connections.  Networking is everything.  People want to help one another and it’s important to reach out and leverage your connections in an unabusive way.  You can learn so much from interacting with people who have a different experience and background than you.  By being yourself, showing empathy, and embracing authenticity, you can form strong connections that can ultimately help you prosper whether that’s in your current role, in a different role, or even a different company. Furthermore, by establishing a core group of folks who you know want what’s best for you and will keep it real, you can trust them to listen to understand and not just to respond.  It can be so helpful to find your truth tellers – to find people who you know you can trust, not only mentors and family members, but also friends and coworkers.  Your truth tellers can help you make hard decisions as well as easy ones by providing their objective and honest insight.  Connections can last a life-time and relationships that you nurture can help form mutually beneficial partnerships.  People who share some importance in your life can not only help you with life decisions, but also career decisions.  I feel fortunate enough to have met some incredible individuals whose opinions I do respect and absolutely will reach out to in the future.

4.

This transformation will be significant and valuable for the rest of my life.  Some of the main reasons why I want to work in Human Resources is because a career in the field is constantly changing, there are so many different functions within the field that you can navigate, the work centers around people, you have the opportunity to ensure C-suite level employees understand that every single worker is not just a number but brings value, and there are endless opportunities to grow your wealth of knowledge with certifications and additional degrees.  With all that being said, the experiences I will remember from my internship, which altered my views on leadership, adaptability, creativity, and connections, will allow me to become a more well-equipped, well-rounded professional.  I have tools and perspectives that I’ve learned over the course of the internship that will only benefit me in the future.  I can take the knowledge I’ve acquired and use it to help the employees that are relying on me to be their advocate, teacher, and/or mentor.  I can blend what I’ve learned as a student in regard to the technical knowledge with the transformational concepts I’ve learned through my internship to work effectively and efficiently with customers, business professionals, coworkers, applicants, and candidates.  It is my hope that this mindset, founded on my new views, will allow me to strive for higher level positions throughout my career and will also help me adjust if my career trajectory should shift.

My newfound knowledge about the importance of the four aspects I’ve talked about above can even extend into helping me become a better person.  I truly do love interacting with others and the people in my life who matter to me are my world.  Nevertheless, when I say I want to make a difference in someone’s life every single day even if it is a minute difference, I want to be able to extend that thinking even beyond my friends and family.  I want to be able to learn from others, to take on challenges, and to share what I’ve learned through my experiences, like my internship, with other people who are eager to learn and take on whatever life throws their way.  I will seize opportunities to be reflective and I will pounce on any chance to offer some pieces of advice about leadership, flexibility, creativity, and connections to any individual who is willing to hear.  I will try to spread messages surrounding these concepts that are broad so people recognize, just like I did, that they aren’t strictly meant for a work environment – they truly can help you in daily situations whether that involves giving back to your community, nurturing a relationship with your someone who seems lonely, and so on and so forth.  I feel fortunate to have had an internship that changed my perspective and way of thinking about topics that are pervasive and essential.  What I learned throughout the summer not only will assist me in my professional goals and future plans, but will also help me grow to become a better person.

NOTE:  I am unable to include many of the pictures I have of my work this summer since I am not at liberty to disclose the associated information.  However, I included two screenshots of updates I added during one of my projects that are visible to the public via Glassdoor.

Summer HR Internship

  1. My STEP Signature Project this summer was being a talent management intern at Greif. My main projects involved implementing a global training program, analyzing survey results, and oversight of the learning management system.
  2. Throughout this entire internship, I learned more about myself each day. This was my first official human resources internship, so I went into this ready to learn new things. Before this internship I was timid and scared to ask questions. Within orientation at my company, they dived into their philosophy of servant leadership and how our leaders will help us on our learning journey. I was immediately launched into over seeing meetings and thinking for myself. Originally, I viewed human resources as a linear career path, but now I see it as an avenue to many different areas of business. I learned that I did enjoy talent management, but I have also developed interests in other areas of human resources. My view of the world has really changed as I consider my post graduation plans. When at first I thought that I would be stuck in one career for the rest of my life, I now know that there are so many different paths that I can explore and develop myself in. Also when I am interviewing with companies, I now know what specific questions about human resources I need to be asking to understand their organization in greater detail. At the end of my internship, I have gained presentation and critical thinking skills. This has really changed the way that I think about myself because I now feel confident in my ability to speak for myself after this experience. I also now realize that I get out of it what I put into it, ad that not everything or an answer I may need will be handed to me. I now feel more confident in my self view to obtain a job post grad and contribute meaningful work.
  3. One experience that helped me become comfortable with asking questions was our bi-weekly meetings with our chief human resources officer. Every two weeks me and three other human resources interns met with him virtually and discussed his path in human resources, leadership styles, and how to create value for our company. This gave me the opportunity to grow comfortable with my leaders and ask questions that are important to my development. Another experience that helped me see how expansive a career in human resources could be was by having one on one meetings with other human resources professionals not on my talent management team. I was able to set up time with colleagues in benefits, total rewards, and operations. This helped me to spike interest in other areas that I may not have been directly exposed to in my day to day tasks as an intern.    Lastly, a positive experience of my internship was getting to know my supervisor Kelly. We had weekly touch-bases where we got to know each other personally but also professionally. She was the one who encouraged me to volunteer to present at the global human resources town hall, which gave me valuable presentation skills. She also was always there for me when I was confused about an aspect of my project and would always offer to help. She really showed me how valuable it is to have a good mentor in your professional life to help guide you.
  4. This experience was incredibly valuable to both my personal and my professional life. Before this internship, I hadn’t really found my passion for human resources. But now I am more interested than ever, and I am so thankful for that. This internship spurred my professional creativity and makes me want to think out of the box for my future career. I am actually continuing with Greif part time this school year to continue my professional learning. I am getting valuable information on recruitment and what other potential employers may be looking for. I would love to pursue a full time position with Greif and will be including them in my job search this fall.HR Intern Summer Blog

Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Internship

Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.

My STEP signature project fell under the Internship category. I interned for The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. as a Global Supply Chain Technologist. The internship lasted for 6 weeks, fully remote, and I was able to gain a lot of insight of what I wanted for a future career. It was fun, challenging, but most importantly, transformational.

 

What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

Initially going into college, I wanted to be behind a desk all-day and code for 8 hours straight and then go home. The thought of little interaction during the day sounded exciting to me, especially when I would be able to do what I love. However, very quickly throughout college, I realized that was no longer what I wanted; so, I picked up a Communication Technology minor and hoped that would benefit me along the way.

This internship solidified the idea of me wanting to bridge both a technical and business side in my career path and that someday I would do Project Management. I was able to start projects from scratch and be both super creative and linear. I learned so much more about the business side, and my sponsor taught me some valuable advice about PM.

 

What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you?

Since the internship was virtual, I had the freedom to schedule a lot of my own 1:1, which I gained the most from. We would have speed networking events, presentations of the different areas within IT and coffee chats. After those events, if I heard about someone that I was interested based off of their previous experiences and current role, I would contact them to connect 1:1. Everyone I spoke to was super genuine and friendly, so I never felt nervous about contacting people that were super high-up in their career. This led me to be more confident with speaking to different kinds of people and learn more about what I want to do in the future.

 

Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

Every Monday, we would have ELC Education days filled with informative and engaging presentations. The first presentation would typically be about a certain brand; for example, we had presentations over Estee Lauder, Tom Ford, Clinique, and MAC. ELC has over 25 different luxury brands, so it was hard to keep track of all of them and make sure I was getting all necessary useful information.

We also had Inclusion & Diversity events where we learned key terms and went into breakout rooms and shared our own stories and challenges. I was so happy to see how much of an importance ELC put into this topic. Being a minority and in MSP, I thought I already knew a lot, but these events made me realize there is so much more to learn and room for improvement within and outside of the workplace. In addition, we had LinkedIn presentations where I was able to change up my profile and make it look better. We also had access to LinkedIn Learn, which was great because I learned a lot about different catered topics throughout the program.

In addition, outside of the ELC education days, I got to work on a group project with three other interns and a POD sponsor. I learned a lot from those four individuals. Each intern had a different skillset and my POD sponsor was patient and knowledgeable in multiple areas. I gain valuable insight on how to manage a team and work in one. I also worked with my personal assignment manager, and we did a performance review at the end. He said I was a critical thinker and very poised. He mentioned that I can notice patterns really fast and digest the information while asking the right questions. He suggested a Business Analytics role for me, which I was so happy to hear because it would allow me to work in both the business and technical side. Along with my assignment manager, I had many meaningful conversations with my back-up manager and my mentor along the way.

 

Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

This transformation was valuable to my life because I got to experience a culture in a company that I didn’t think was possible. It was so easy to connect with other employees, and they were always eager to learn more about me and share their knowledge. With my assignment manager’s suggestions, I am now heavily considering working as more of a Business Analysts as opposed to a Software Engineering role. In addition, I would love to work for ELC, and I hope I could do that upon graduation.

Danaher Internship-STEP Maddie Maurais

This summer I was an International Tax Intern at Danaher Corporation. I spent the summer completing tax returns for Danaher’s various other businesses and completing other smaller projects. I was able to gain a lot of different experience by completing this internship.

By completing this internship my assumptions about myself and how I see the corporate world has changed. Coming into my internship, I was wary about whether or not I would actually be successful at my internship. Though I have taken tax classes before, most of my classes brush over the international side of taxes. Therefore, I was nervous if I would be able to keep up and accurately complete the tasks I was expected to do.In addition, my preconceptions of large, successful businesses consisted of them being extremely competitive, and sterile. Danaher is a huge, successful conglomerate, therefore I was nervous about my supervisors, and the others who worked there would be very cold and hard to talk to.

After completing my internship I was able to prove to myself that I can be successful at trying things I don’t have a solid understanding about. As I mentioned before, I didn’t have a lot of prior knowledge of international taxes, therefore I was forced to learn new information so I could correctly complete my tasks. My first few weeks were overwhelming because there was a lot of new information I had to learn and remember. However, as my internship went by I began to easily apply the new information I learned into my work. I discovered I retain information better by ‘learning by doing’.

Plus, my supervisors and the other interns were instrumental in helping me gain confidence and become successful at my internship. My supervisors were always willing to answer my questions and walk through examples with me. Also, the other interns and I would constantly be on Zoom together giving each other tips on completing our projects. I’m so lucky that I was able to have so much support from my supervisors and the other interns. With their additional support, I was able to prove to myself that I can easily adapt and learn new things.

As I mentioned before, I was nervous that my supervisors and the environment of my internship wouldn’t be very friendly. However, everyone at Danaher was extremely friendly and willing to help. They constantly checked in with all of the interns and went the extra effort to make us feel comfortable. Even though the majority of the internship was remote, I still felt I was able to gain valuable relationships with my supervisors and coworkers.

The new insights I gained from my internship will overall be very valuable for my life. It’s so important to have confidence in your life. Confidence is so key any every endeavor you complete in your life. This internship helped further develop and solidify my confidence. It showed me that I can be successful when I take the next steps in developing a career. I doubted myself and believed I wasn’t ready to get a career. However, this internship allowed me to see that I am ready.

In addition, it was important for me to see that work environments aren’t always as negative and unfriendly as they are portrayed to be. At Danaher, the work environment was extremely friendly and open. When I look for a job I want to work for a company that also has a work environment similar to Danaher. Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience than what I did at Danaher.