- Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
For my STEP signature project I did an internship at Kao USA as an accounting intern this year. I worked with various departments across the finance and accounting teams, including the accounts payable and receivable departments. Throughout the internship, I had the opportunity of learning various financial and accounting tasks using new systems and softwares to complete bank reconciliations and data analysis to gather insights.
- What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
Throughout this project, I noticed how important having good communication and soft skills are. I had stepped into this project thinking about the technical side of it and the different hard skills that I would develop, however I quickly realized how important soft skills are in comparison to hard skills. Working on tasks that I had no experience on how to complete and recognizing that I needed to reach out for help, helped me realize how important communication is even in a office setting.
Also after getting real world working experience in a corporate environment while working full time, I realized how different a job is to being a college student. I realized that in this environment I am responsible for completing my tasks on time and don’t necessarily have a set due date that I need to submit my assignment by. This taught me the skills of self managing my time and prioritizing certain tasks when necessary.
- 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? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
Some events and interactions throughout the project that led to transformation in my life included having the opportunity to jump into things that I had no previous experience doing before and continuously learning and developing my skills. Throughout my project, I also met with a lot of different people, including other interns and individuals who were higher up in the company. Having the opportunity to meet and have conversations with so many new people throughout this project, helped me develop my communication and soft skills tremendously.
Towards the end of the internship, I had to present my final project to a group of senior managers in the finance and accounting departments, and this experience helped me boost my confidence in my presentation skills and public speaking. Being able to answer any questions that they had during my presentation also helped me realize the amount of new learning I had throughout this project. Along with my soft skills, this project helped me increase my technical skills as well.
Also, as I had spent more time with the company I had the opportunity to rotate across the different departments on the accounting side of the company. This gave me the opportunity to learn about the business through various different lenses and helped me broaden my overall perspective. At times I felt a little overwhelmed with all the new information and tasks to complete, however with effective communication and prioritizing certain tasks I was able to complete everything in a timely manner.
- Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
All of the learning experiences I had throughout this project really helped me get a better understanding of my professional goals and future plans. Since I spent a few months at this company I was able to rotate throughout different departments relating to my interests. Having this opportunity helped me realize which parts of departments and the tasks that I enjoyed working in and had a lot of interest in. This related to my professional goals and future plans because these experiences helped me understand which kind of jobs I can see myself doing in the future and truly enjoy after I graduate.