Account Services Intern with Recovery America

(1) Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project.

For my STEP Project, I interned in Account Services with Recovery America. During my tenure, I learned how to navigate client relationships and how back-offices processes and logistics affect front-end services.

(2) What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project?

During my STEP Project, I learned that relationships are truly one of the most important things in the business world. Professional relationships, be it with co-workers, superiors, or clients and customers, are some of the most formative and insightful interpersonal connections for professionals of any age, but especially young professionals who are just stepping into any industry. This experience opened my eyes to the daily battle between providing a highly rated service and doing so cost-effectively. I have grown to appreciate my ability and willingness to do more research, ask more questions, and spend more time making an educated decision because I saw how that was able to positively impact business processes, as well as the bottom line, during my experience.

(3) 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?

While at Recovery America, I spent most of my time working independently: analyzing reports, doing research, and proof-reading & annotating client documents sent to the department. I would report at the end of every other week to my supervisor. My supervisor was a true gem and gave me plenty of insight into daily operation, even outside the scope of my internship. This allowed me a more holistic picture of how a business operates and what must be done to maintain consistent performance.

I also was given the ability to sit in on calls with clients where new business opportunities were presented, such as private expansion and government contract work. While I never had much to add to the call as I wasn’t tasked with garnering new business, I was able to catch a glimpse inside the world of contract negotiation and gleam tips on strategically building rapport with potential clients. Client relations can make or break almost any deal and it was eye-opening to watch other individuals, with seemingly little effort, begin to construct a professional relationship with clients. Even during the pandemic, when in-person meetings were replaced with Zoom conferences or phone calls, it was very easy to see how impactful a person’s approach can be to the success of a deal.

Growing up, I was always told that I had a vibrant and outgoing personality. I now see that I can use this to my advantage in the professional world. This will allow me to build strong connections with future co-workers, bosses, and clients and will serve me well in my professional life. Additionally, when I can best understand and communicate with individuals I encounter in my career, I will be poised to quickly and effectively answer their questions they may have or address concerns that may arise. This communicative aspect, combined with the attention to detail I garnered reading and annotating pages of reports further emphasizes skills employers enjoy to see in candidates, which gives me an edge as I prepare to graduate from college and embark on my professional career.

(4) Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life?

My ultimate goal is to get my Master of Science in Nursing and become a Nurse Practitioner who specializes in women’s health. After gaining experience in a hospital setting, I one day hope to open my own practice that focuses on women’s health. It is for this reason that I believe my internship will be of most value—I will have a better understanding of what it takes on a daily basis to run my own place of business. While I am no expert, my internship experience showed me that working candidly and openly with others creates most pathways to success.

Working in Account Services also showed me how important an eye for detail is. While having a grasp on the big picture is important, I learned that the biggest gains are often made by understanding the smallest details. Being able to adequately gather, decipher, interpret, extrapolate, and communicate complex information to those who might not have the background to understand it in its raw form is a highly valuable and desirable skill. I am not an Information Sciences or Data Analytics major, so I spent a great deal of time making sure that the information I was presenting in my reports was quantitatively sound and that I was able to apply it to the situation as specifically needed by the company. These skills will continue to be invaluable in my professional career, wherever it ultimately leads me.