Weeks 6 & 7- Personal Contributions

Personal Contributions

Final Reflection- Weeks 6 and 7

After my last two weeks working at the Dover Group, I think that I truly can say that I have made many contributions to this business. While it might be hard to make major changes as an intern, I think that I definitely have changed mindsets about certain aspects of the company to a few of their managers. I have shown them a younger point of view about the world of business and how their traditional values of working definitely need to change. For one, having only male general managers, whether it was conscious or not, is not okay. The general manager that I am closest with did not even really realize that there were no female leaders and that is an even bigger issue. Although the company was not intentionally being sexist, the fact that they did not really know or think too much about it is definitely a problem. Additionally, I think that showing the mangers how they can better relate to their part-time student employees to make them want to work harder and actually come back to this job was one of the key lessons that I explained to some of the higher-up employees.

As far as my actual tasks in the job I also think I made good contributions to the site. I helped plan many events for the group, everything from business parties to eating contests to wedding dinners. What I really enjoyed about my internship is that it was not at all boring. I had different tasks each week that contributed to many of the different venues that Dover has. Although I did work longer hours some days (which was okay because they paid me for any overtime hours) I think that this really was such an amazing site to intern at. I did not sit in an office job and do paperwork all day; I actually went out and got to do amazing things for our customers. Although I did some of the classic paperwork stuff like planning schedules and taking inventory for the venues, I mainly got to figure out how to plan all different kinds of events. I think that while I contributed a good amount to the company, I also got a lot out of it in terms of looking at what I want to do when I graduate. I am not in the business school and I had honestly never thought too much about going into the business field. However, after looking at all of the stuff that I could potentially be doing in the future it had made me rethink my career path. I am very glad I got the opportunity to see what the restaurant and event planning business is like from the inside and I am glad Jepson gave me this opportunity.

Although my internship has come to a close I know that I will definitely be visiting the Dover Group’s venues in the years to come. Since I have a few weeks left of summer, the general manager of Peter’s actually offered me a job waitressing, which I did last year, until I go back to Richmond in order to make some more money. I will most definitely be taking him up on that offer and it will be even more interesting to see how my perspective is different now that I have gone through my internship.

This experience has been great and I look forward to sharing it once I get back to Richmond in August.