This summer I had the opportunity because of STEP to take an internship in New Albany, Ohio with a financial planning firm called Columbus Capital. My main responsibilities included learning from the different experts in our company about the six pillars of financial planning, preparing data for presentation, and engaging with clients.
Everything I have done in the Fisher College of Business to this point has been mostly academic exercises. That is to say, I have learned things related to business that have little pertinence to how the business world operates in practice. I have learned things in the classroom that were scoffed about on my internship site this summer because of their lack of relevance to the “real” world. It was a refreshing reminder for someone who does not particularly enjoy school that the workforce does not operate in the same way that the classroom does. It was good for me to learn this summer about the ways things work from a microlevel in a small business. I got to watch employees in small business juggle different responsibilities and wear different hats to make operations work. I realized it requires many moving parts to form a well-oiled machine that is the harmony of small businesses that can get it right.
I came to learn the ways I am motivated this summer. I was in the first couple of weeks motivated to do good work because of the pay that I was receiving. It was not until a couple weeks in to the internship that getting paid merely became a compensation for the work I was performing rather than a motivator for productivity. It reminded me of what one of my favorite business professors, Lawrence Inks, told me about motivation—receiving a paycheck is only motivating for a short time before it simply becomes something you are owed. When work was slow and there was not a whole ton for me to do on certain days, I found myself losing motivation besides getting paid the same hourly wage through the summer. It helped me internalize this idea that money is not the sole motivator for success and that there are other components that go into job satisfaction.
I noticed that money aside, I am remarkably influenced by workplace culture. I have been affirmed this summer that I have no desire to work in a mega-corporate environment, because of the often lack of intimacy with coworkers. Obviously there will still be worthwhile relationships with coworkers in a corporate setting, but to me I really got to see the members of Columbus Capital lean on each other’s strengths to promote the good of the company. As I referenced earlier, I got to see team members juggle different tasks and compliment one another’s gifts and talents. It felt cohesive and tight. Every quarter, a member of the six person team gets to choose a “fun day” designed by them that it to promote team-building, cohesion, and friendship. I was fortunate enough to experience one of them and sit through a morning of yoga, Heads Up, lunch, and a happy hour with my coworkers. I noticed that I became very close with a couple of my coworkers and it meant much more to me than the paycheck I was earning. I even got the privilege of playing in a golf outing with one of my coworkers after the internship ended.
On top of the jovial relationships I got to experience with my coworkers, there was a particular individual named Andy that I got to grow in Christian faith with. I learned early on that he does mentorship with Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and does outreach to college students to share the Good News of the Gospel. He was the man I got to play in the golf outing with a few weeks after my internship—we even took first place atop 28 teams competing! I was very impressed throughout the summer by his friendliness and willingness to mentor me in more than just the work I was doing. I would pop into his office throughout the day for fun banter and the occasional serious conversation about our mutual faith and our families. It helped me realize that the workplace environment I am looking for goes beyond just the work that is being done in the office. The necessary component of cohesiveness and friendship play a huge role in the makeup of what I am looking for.
There was another woman in the office named Kristin that I would frequently discuss my life and faith with. She was exploring a new spiritually this summer that engaged a wholistic, inner-spiritual approach to faith in “the divine.” There were quite a few times I would challenge her newfound exploration and we would have good conversations about what she is actually searching for in her new spiritual journey that she was not finding in the Catholic Church where she was initially baptized and confirmed. It was cool to have conversations in the office that were of weighty matter and included closely held beliefs/opinions, and to do so rationally and understandingly taught me about conflict resolution in the workplace and agreeing to disagree. That was unique and showed me that exercises in the soft skills of the workplace are of crucial importance. There was never any animosity or ill-will, just cordial discourse and a level-headed desire to get the other party to see one another’s point.
The president of the company was far and away the most impressive businessman I have ever worked for. Jim completely blew me away in his capacity to live a life of passion, completely rooted in doing meaningful work for his clients. He did his work almost completely out of passion and love of what he did. He was also one of the smartest men I have ever worked for. His mind was so vast and deep that it was almost hard to comprehend. It happened on multiple occasions that I would ask him a question and get an hour long response. What made it tolerable was that he was also a great teacher and storyteller. I remember learning offhandedly from one of my coworkers at the end of the summer that he paid himself something in the range of $50,000 a year in total compensation just so that he could pay his employees more. All of them earned more than he paid himself even though he was a 62-year-old 40 year veteran in the financial planning industry. Talk about an exercise in leadership.
All things considered, my summer work taught me that a career is not entirely and solely about the work you do. It certainly aids towards a satisfactory career, but it is not everything. What I am most looking forward to doing in my career is doing something I am passionate about. If I can achieve the intersection of pay, passion, and people in my career then I am doing something right. So now as I am looking at career options and am applying for jobs, I am asking pointed questions to interviewers about what their workplace culture is like.
