- My STEP signature project involved working in an intern role at Whitehouse Group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Whitehouse Group is a management consultant firm, but my role focused primarily on financial planning and analysis. Working at a small business allowed me to experience a wide range of learning opportunities that may not have been available working at a larger corporation.
- One view of the world I had that was changed through this experience is how important the relationships you have with others is, especially in a professional environment. There were instances I noticed where sometimes collaboration between individuals allowed them to achieve so much more than if they were just to split the tasks up and do them separately. Positive synergies between employees can improve the efficiency and ease of the work that needs to get done. However, if the relationship between coworkers is unhealthy, it can have a negative compounding effect that prevents anything from getting done.
Something else that was transformational that I experienced over the summer was the importance of quality work. This may seem very apparent but producing deliverables that are “just good enough” are never truly good enough. Producing work that routinely exceeds expectations creates a reputation that can take you far in the professional world.
- One specific example I had with this was when my supervisor went on vacation, and it forced me to work with some of the other employees. They helped me out a lot when they didn’t have to, and my work wasn’t necessarily their top priority. However, a little later in the summer when they were swamped with work, I wanted to help them out and was able to save some of their time since they went out of their way earlier to help me. These relationships can enhance the overall productivity within a company.
Since the Whitehouse Group is a relatively small organization, one of the benefits I got from it was direct access to leadership within the company. As an intern, I understood that the principals of the company had a lot of responsibilities that were not related to me, so I didn’t want to waste their time with meaningless questions, but when I wanted to gain a deeper understanding on some topic or event, they were very helpful. They have been running the company for almost 20 years, so they have lots of experience and history that they were able to use to teach me with.
The two main projects I was working on during the summer included creating a couple page long reports responding to clients’ questions and then telling a story of how I got to this answer. My supervisor during this time was the head of the quality assurance division and whenever I thought I had created something perfect he had always managed to find a whole lot of improvements that could be made. At the time, this was pretty frustrating but when I finally got to the final products, I was glad of all the different rounds of proof checking that took place. Then when I finally presented my projects to the clients I was working for, they were shocked at the level of work that I was able to produce.
- Overall, this internship was a very transformational experience, allowing me to grow both my personal and professional skills. It was my first real job working in a professional environment, but it was also at a relatively small firm where I was able to get hands-on experience with many different aspects of business.
