My STEP Project was working as an SAP R2R Support Analyst Intern at Archer Daniels Midland in Erlanger, KY. I primarily worked on projects involving SAP, COBOL, Excel, and Power Bi related to month end close incidents related to the business process Record to Report and other accounting processes.
While completing my STEP project, the biggest change I saw in myself is that now I have faith I can succeed in the tech-world. Before I had anxiety that everyone I would be working with and competing against for jobs would be smarter than me. Now however, I have seen that I am smart enough to pick up the learning curve, and that in a corporate environment you are not expected to know everything, and that the company plans on teaching new hires a very large portion of what they will expect you to do.
Also, I thought that I would be at a disadvantage because as a Management Information Systems major my college curriculum would not be as heavy in technology classes as people in majors like Computer Science and Data Science. Now, I have the confidence that even if I am not explicitly taught a language or concept, I will be able to pick it up in a quick enough manner to not stick out in a business setting.
Several events and activities helped me identify and achieve this change. The first event that helped me see this change in myself was when all of the interns at my location were giving our final presentations. Our final presentations were the culminations of our summers’ work, where we made a twenty-to-thirty-minute presentation on everything we worked on and learned. The people we presented to were our direct managers, their managers, the teams we worked on, human resources and hiring managers, the other interns, and an assortment of vice presidents and other executives. Throughout the summer I would hear about what other interns were doing and I would get a little discouraged thinking what I was doing less impressive, and I did not have the ability or potential to do what they did. When I actually sat down and saw the entire scope of their work and their process, I saw that even if I couldn’t sit down not and do what they did immediately, I am certainly capable of learning to do what they did if I was given ten weeks like they were.
Another event that helped me identify this change was not something that I did, but something that I was awarded. On my second to last day, I was given an offer to return full-time next summer in a completely different and more complex role. The role I was offered is a security analyst doing threat detection in cyber-security. While I was already ecstatic to get an offer, the fact that they gave me one completely disjoint from what I worked on told me that I really impressed the company with my processes and work ethic. Going even further, my company does not normally hire cybersecurity professionals out of college, so the fact that they are willing to commit to training me fully gives me so much more confidence that I have the potential to be an asset and a high-riser in IT.
One other aspect of my project that helped me see a change in myself was the way my internship was set up. My manager had me spread my time across several different and unrelated tasks so I could learn a greater variety of skills and figure out what I want to be when I grow up. This allowed me to see that I could operate in a real role where my time would be divided among different tasks and roles, because in the real world no one dedicates one hundred percent of their time to one project like most of my fellow interns did. Additionally, I saw that I can learn many different IT-related skills, and that I do not need to worry about finding my specialization just yet.
Finally, the relationships I made with people I reported to and higher, and colleagues I worked with were transformational for me. I was able to learn from and emulate different people in many different stages of their careers and lives. Additionally, ever week we had meetings with all of the interns across all of the locations, where a leader in the company would tell us about their journey to and through ADM, what their job is like, and generally give us advice. These meetings were called Lunch with Leadership. Although I did not form personal relationships with any of these leaders, I saw what it takes to be a leader in a Fortune 50 organization. The most important relationship I forged however, was with my manager. If I accept the full-time offer I was given I will not be on his team anymore, but I know that he will still be an ally for me and someone who I can always turn to for advice. After hearing so many horror stories about bad bosses, the fact that I had one who completely believed in me and did everything in his power to make me succeed was especially touching, and showed me how to lead if I ever end up in a managerial role.
The change that I saw in myself was significant because I now know I can succeed in IT. Before, I somewhat regretted the trajectory I put myself on when I changed my major from finance to management information systems. At the time I was interested in computer science, but due to not doing well in a CSE class I took as an elective as a freshman I worried that I would not be able to compete in a computer science major and professionally. Still, I made the switch to MIS, which I saw as the middle ground between changing schools at OSU to pursue a more technical and expansive major, staying in the School of Business and MIS which was a major I did not know a lot about, or choosing a completely different trajectory. Until my internship I labored over whether I made the correct decision, but now I finally have peace of mind that I can still do whatever I want and that I have a multitude of options, which matters to me because all this time the thing I was most concerned about was that I would close too many doors before I had my life figured out. Now that I empowered and know I can do basically anything I put my mind to, I feel much better entering my senior year and after that the professional world.