Personal Contributions — Practice Management Team

POST #2

Although it is relatively early on in my internship program, as it is an eleven week long program, I have been given a considerable amount of responsibility early on. Whether it be access to large company calls, smaller projects for my Practice Management team, among other assignments, I feel as though I have been given a great deal of trust and responsibility to complete my assignments and tasks, and contribute to the team and Lincoln at large.

There have been several specific ways in which I feel I have contributed to various team events, projects, and the overall objective of the team. Upon my arrival at Lincoln, returning for the summer after completing my Corporate Communications internship last summer, I felt as though more was expected of me maybe than the other interns, since I had a prior knowledge and understanding of the company culture and their values at large. With that said, I was eager to take on more responsibility and projects than I had during my previous internship, where I felt underwhelmed at times and was longing for more involvement on the team. Already, I have been given projects such as creating booklets with LFA DFP Intel for consultants to utilize during practice management training, with each booklet totaling over 200 pages for five employees, and one spare copy, as well as researching at great length about the duties and details of investment specialists, para planners, practice managers, and administrative assistants to financial advisers. With these responsibilities, I know I am contributing to the greater success of the Practice Management team, as well as the day-to-day understanding and duties of the team as well.

Another project I was assigned was being elected to the role of Social Lead for the Social Committee of Interns this summer. This entails managing a budget of around $5,000, delegated amongst around 30 interns over the course of three events over the summer. These events are to encourage bonding amongst the intern, and create a culture of fun outside the office, attending athletic games, bowling, and various other activities. After receiving this role, I was included on conference calls with head recruiters and financial advisers to learn how to go about policy and scheduling these events, as well as managing this budget responsibly and ethically amongst the interns. I am excited to see how my ideas for these events will manifest over the summer, and I know my contribution will be felt across the internship program.

Finally, there have been several moments on my team where my perspective has been valued and contributed to a change on a project or during a meeting. Being younger than most of the employees on my team, I bring a fresh, gen-z perspective to all interactions, including business matters and consulting meetings. With that said, I saw during one of my projects involving reading up on various job posting websites and their costs to post, that the existing database (Microsoft Word), was a confusing and inefficient way to maintain and keep track of this information. I offered to make an Excel spreadsheet, with filters and various colors to assist employees in locating and utilizing this information, of all the job posting data. Due to my skills in these programs and ability to make these databases more efficient as a result, my observation resulted in a change that hopefully will contribute to the speed and quality of the work on my team.

I hope to continue my contributions to the team throughout the next few months, and make a positive change on the Practice Management team.