During the summer of 2023, I was living in Chicago, IL working as a Business Consulting Intern for Ernst & Young in the FSO Division I will be working 40+ hours per week, in a company within an industry which intersects business and technology. Throughout this internship, I experience ongoing professional development consisting of collaborating with team members to set goals and responsibilities, contributing ideas/ opinions, and learning how to interact with firm clients.
There were multiple internal changes of myself that took place while completing this STEP Signature Project. I think I would categorize the three types of growth I experienced into personal, social, and professional growth. The personal growth I experienced was a result of experiencing a new location and culture in Chicago. Surrounding myself with the diversity of a big city, enhanced my knowledge and diversity of thought. The social growth was a result of my internship being extremely invested in my social wellbeing. I was placed in an intern group with 10 other people that facilitated my social wellbeing. I also was pushed to network within the firm and go on “coffee chats” with my older coworkers. The professional growth was a result of knowledge I learned that apply to a professional setting. I gained an immense amount of technical experience along with client interaction tips.
There were several interactions, relationships, and activities during my STEP Signature Project that led to the transformation that I discussed in question #2. The first type of growth I would like to highlight is my personal growth. I grew tremendously in a personal sense over my time in Chicago and at EY. Most of my growth came from my exposure to experiences that were not “normal” or “comfortable” for me. These experiences resulted in me gaining a diversity of thoughts and perspectives that I did not have coming into the internship. The first experience I would like to highlight involves my living experience. My whole life I have lived in Ohio (whether that be my home-life in Cincinnati or college life in Columbus). The STEP Project helped me live within walking distance to my office, and walking to work through the city of Chicago each day was a transformative experience. Whether it was taking a subway for the first time, meeting a new person on my walks around the city, or exploring city restaurants, I learned so many new perspectives of people, culture, and food.
Another area of growth I experienced was social growth. As mentioned earlier, I grew my social skills through multiple situations the internship presented. I was placed in a social group with 10 other interns from all over the country. It was difficult to interact socially with this group of interns because I didn’t necessarily have the factors in common with them that I have had in the past (Attend Ohio State, from Cincinnati, Finance Major). Most of these people were studying different things than me and from another part of the country. However, after a couple awkward interactions, I learned how to become friends with this group of people through developing conversation starters. I also learned how to initiate group hangouts. I initiated an after-work get together with this group at a pizza place that we all had a lot of fun at. Another area I grew socially was my ability to talk to people older than me. Working as an intern at EY, it is common to go on 30 minute “coffee chats” with coworkers of all ranks and ages. Over my two months at the firm, I ended up going on over 30 of these “coffee chats” where I asked questions to get to each person, their job duties, and their experience at the firm. These coffee chats helped me develop my social skills tremendously.
My last area of growth I experienced was professional growth. Over the course of the internship, I was provided with several experiences that helped me develop a professional mindset and a professional skillset. In terms of a professional mindset, I worked on projects with a team as well as work independently to develop my sense of ownership, resourcefulness, and creativity. I see myself learning how to be a stronger team member and developing my leadership style. In terms of tangible skills, I grew my technological abilities by working with tools such as Excel, VBA Developer, Access, PowerPoint, and Forms. I did this working on Project Management projects that required data querying into excel from other sources. I automated several steps in the querying process using backend VBA Developer code. Finally, I presented the project management to clients through PowerPoints.
This growth transformation is extremely significant and valuable for my life. It has given me much clarity on my life trajectory along with developing intangibles to help me be successful in my personal and professional life. I now know that I want to live in the city of Chicago and work in the Consulting industry post-grad. After talking in “coffee-chats” with several people, I now know that I want to pursue my MBA in the next 5 years to even further my professional aspirations. Having this knowledge right now is a huge benefit because I will start studying so I can take the GMAT during my summer before my full-time job starts. I also grew in the social and professional aspects to help me be successful in my future professional goals of becoming a CFO for an environmentally friendly company. I will use the new social abilities I have learned to build stronger relationships in my future professional aspirations. I will use the skillsets I have developed to go above and beyond in my future jobs by automating their processes using coding tactics. In retrospect, this STEP Project experience has been extremely beneficial to me and has accelerated my personal, social, and professional growth tremendously, so that I can achieve my future goals.