I wanted my internship project to beneift the business I am working at, UPS if you couldn't already tell, and I belive my goal will be accomplished and do just that. When coming onto this project, I had no idea what I would be doing. What is there to do really at a coorperate office besides paper work and meetings? I was pleasantly surprised when my mentor gave me my internship project for the four week period I would be staying at UPS coorperate offices. It came as a surprise that my mentor had already read up and knew we had to complete a project over the course of the four weeks.
As I arrived to a UPS store in Carlsbad, I knew this location rather well since my father had owned a business right next to it, I was greeted by my mentor. As we were talking I mentioned I had to complete a project. After I mentioned the project she replied, " Oh yeah, the project you have to do over the four weeks right? I read about that on the internship overview document." I was surprised for two reasons. The first being that I had just contacted her a day before and set up the meeting at the store less than 24 hours before, and the second thing was that mentors actually read the overview. So you can imagine my reaction when she knew about it right away. She had already had something picked out for me which I was excited about, because honestly I had no clue about what I would do at a coorperate office for a project. My project is to research digital signs and see if they are worth putting in the front of every UPS Store location. Digital signs, if you did not know already, are LCD screens that show images and play videos to capture your attention. They usually replace basic and generic signs that stores and restaurants have, making it more appealing to the eye. I have already done extensive research on the topic. I do not know why, but for some odd reason, I really enjoy doing research like this. I believe my final project piece will be a presentation to the manager of the office, my mentor and any faculty from HTHNC, showing the research that I have done and why I think it will be beneficical / detremental for the company to use the digital signs. In order for this to be awesome, I am going to need skills based on my presentation skills to sell or negate the digital signage idea. I will also need skills on PowerPoint the program and be able to make it look presentable in a way that catches peoples eyes. I need to really be able to sell the product. This is a huge project. It will cost the company over $25,000,000 if they go through with one sign in every location. I also need math skills to come up with pie charts and bar graphs to really show I know what I am talking about and I have real statistics to prove it. I will need all the support I can get. But my main support will be with my iPad and I will see if anyone in the office knows how to create the example I am thinking of doing. My brother is pretty good at iMovie and Final Cut Pro, so I may be looking towards him for advice. I will also need statistics so I will be relying on myself for that. I will be standing outside business with sample questions made up so I can get real data for my peresntation and project. I have just told my mentor my ideas for my presentation, and she loved it! she is now helping me come up with intercept questions I can ask for my re Today was my first day on the job! It was very exciting for me. I got my own badge that I swipe to get in and out of every building I need to go into. I also got my own computer that I will be getting to use regularly for my work. I even got to sit on on two conference calls that are going on about their upcoming project with Notre Dame.
As you can imagine on anyones first day, I have a hundred questions. But I only have a couple that are really on my mind. The first question, perhaps begin the most important, is how will I make a "final product" for my project. I am doing a lot of research for the company and I have been collecting research and data, so I was considering doing graphs and charts. This seems great, but I found it a little boring to present on, so I was trying to come up with many other ideas. I was thinking of doing a presentation closely related to what I am working on which could be a cool idea in the long run. I am going to be asking my mentor all about it when I go into the office next. The other question I had is what should I wear on what days? On the first day I wore a button down with slacks and a tie, but I wore converse and had my shirt untucked. For the future should I lose the tie and wear dress shoes and tuck my shirt in, or should I just keep the tie and keep the shirt tucked in and wear dress shoes. I also wonder when "casual" dress is appropriate. Is it on Fridays? Or Monday? It is an important question. Well I have done a lot of research that will end up going into a big presentation, like what we did for Mr. Leaders presentation and every history week. I definitely see the connection because you need all the facts, put it into a simple and clean outline / power point and then present on it. I am actually very excited for my presentation. There haven't really been any funny stories. The only funny thing was when my mentor and her boss was on a phone call, they put it on mute and then they just talked about what they should say next. It just makes me laugh because in the business world, you never know when you are being muted and if they're talking strategy about what they should do next. Well UPS' mission is pretty straight forward. But something that they focus and target more is definitely small business owners. They really reach out to them to help both UPS' business and the small companies as well. It is a mutual beneficial business, which is all businesses. You pay them money in return for a good or service. But they focus mainly on that, which is cool, because there are thousands of small business owners all over so it is smart to target them. I am developing research skills, professional attire, and presentation/ professionalism in a workplace. This is like many jobs that are in the cooperate world, and if I end up going into that career choice, I already have this experience under my belt. I am so grateful I get to join the team for a month at UPS and cannot wait to dive into more research! Today was my first day on the job. Unfortunately I did not get to actually go into the office today. My mentor was extremely sick and asked me to work from home. I was okay with this, given the fact that it saved me a 70 mile round trip and lots of gas. So she gave me two tasks to do.
The first was to moderate a blog, much like the Absolutely True Diary blog we did in Dr. Patton's class. I had to read through several hundred comments, and reply to them. I got to log onto my mentor's account which keeps in contact with many small business owners and people who UPS, frequently. I replied to all of their responses on the blog, to maintain the relationship with the online consumers. Then Sara, my mentor, gave me a job to research display screens. When you walk into places like Pei Wei, you will see the menu is no longer a sign made from materials such as cardboard or wood. Instead they have LCD displays. I did not know much about these until I started researching them today. The results from the research actually amazed me. These signs are so easy and beneficial for many companies, including UPS. All of the messages are easily changeable and they can even send messages directly to your costumers phone. Another benefit is that it is theft proof, shock proof, and even weather proof! It is truly an amazing product and will be my internship project for the duration of my internship! Like I said, I did not get a chance to go into the workplace yet, however I will update this blog when I get the chance to tomorrow. I did get an overview from my mentor explaining it is very business casual. Very few people wear ties, and most just wear jeans. However, I am planning to dress to impress. I will be out dressing everyone in the office. I will wear nice dress shoes, slacks, a nice button down and a tie, for my first day of work. At least my attire will impress people. I did go into work today and my first impression was good! The thing that strikes me most was that no one had a full suit on. This is a cooperate office, and most of the dress was just a nice button down and slacks or khakis. I was honestly expecting nicer dress, but I like it because it is very comfortable. All my colleagues were super welcoming and friendly! They all greeted me with open arms and said if I needed anything it would be available. My Mentor told me about a couple of the colleagues I will be associating with during my stay at UPS. Two individuals truly stuck out when she told me about them. First being a man who works next to her at the office. She tells me he is very serious and gets all of his work done without talking to anyone else. I got a bad vibe from this, not because he is a hard worker, but because I will be working next to him as well and I am afraid he will not appreciate my humor. The second person is also a hard worker, but also my mentor's boss. My mentor told me that she was extremely intelligent and that it is going to be a treat to work with her. I am much more comfortable and excited to meet her because I like to think of myself as smart also. I think it will be a great environment to work in and I get my own cubical which is awesome! The thing that strikes me the most about the job that I am doing is probably how much research has to go into a project before even starting it. The project that I am working on now involves a lot of accurate research that will ultimately benefit the company or lose it millions of dollars. So it is a lot of pressure but I am excited about it. I am both excited and nervous about the project I have been given because if it ends up failing, then the business could potentially lose a lot of money. I am also nervous about the types of people I will be working with. My mentor is extremely funny and out going but I am concerned about the others in the office. I have no idea if they will be as nice as Sara, I guess I will just have to wait and see. Q: What should I know about you before I start working here?
A: Well, you should know that I am very easy going, but I have high expectations. I do not mind if you joke around once in a while, but you have to get your work done. At the end of the day, I don't need to know your process of how you got things done, I just need to see good work come out from you at the end of this internship. Just do not mess up and be diligent with your work, as long as you put effort in, you will be great! Q: What is your job title? A: Marketing Services Supervisor Q: What are your main duties and responsibilities? A: Everything. I do things like manage an online community of small business owners, I supervise television shoots and go on location. Recently I got to meet Barbara from shark tank while filming something on for a UPS promo. If I find I am out of work, which is never the case, my boss likes to give me other work on top of mine, so I work very hard. Q: Why did you choose to work here? A: I loved the opportunity as soon as it presented itself. It was a major brand offering me a job where I could do something that I loved and studied for all through college. However when I first got to the company I was just answering the phone for the first year. After that, I worked in a different department for 2 years and finally settled with my position now. But I definitely had to work my up the ranks. Q: What skills and raining are necessary for your position? A: I received a Bachelors of Science Degree from Boston University, in communications. To work here you have to be a diligent worker, pay attention to detail, and just have a keen eye. Of course you need to have people skills since you are marketing a major brand to people everyday that you need to cater towards. You also need to be analytical, you see so many statistics and need to know what to do with them an deb able to think on your feet and be adaptive. Q: How do you acquire these skills? On the job, or through school? A: On the job. Definitely on the job. School and textbooks only prepare you so much for the real world. But when you get to work and notice that you didn't learn it in college, you must adapt, and through that, i've learned and acquired most of my skills. Q: Do you consider a career in this field satisfying? A: Absolutely. You're able to see everything come together and your hard work finally pays off. After you see all the work you put in, and then sales goes up, you jest get a good feeling from it. Q: Is there anything you wish you had realized about the world of work when you were my age? A: You get what you put into it. I just wish I did not have such a big sense of entitlement. I wish I got even more experience than I did. Q: What is the purpose of this organization? A: The purpose is obviously to get people mail. But it is much more than that. It brings people together, it allows people to make copies, send anything. It makes it easier to send in your broken phone or send your kids who live far away a package that will brighten their day. Connecting people is a wonderful business to be in. Q: What does it take to be successful? A: Work diligently and do not slack off. Those are honestly the biggest things. Q: Other advice when working here? A: I cannot stress how import an it is to get things done. At the same time, I want you to have fun with it. It should be an enjoyable experience where you get skills out of it as well. Q: How important is it getting along with people in your career? A: It may be, if not, the most important thing. This is a business with a lot of interaction with people and like I said before you have to be able to market to a wide variety of people. I work with hundreds of people every week and I had to talk to over 5,000 different owners at one point about their businesses. Without people skills, I would not be here today. Q: What other personality traits, skills, or knowledge are important here? A: Like I said before. The same skills apply, hard work, diligence, focus, attention to detail, people skills, out going and just be yourself. Q: What questions Have I not asked you yet that I should have? A: Why did you agree for me to intern with you. |
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