Personal Contributions at LBC

Stepping into this role as an intern for a financially focused firm was incredibly daunting at first. This nervousness was primarily due to my lack of experience in any sort of financial realm. When I first stepped through the doors of Lowe, Brockenbrough & Co. I was incredibly nervous and unsure as to how I could contribute to this environment having little to no knowledge of the financial world. I quickly came to learn that attitude and work ethic can prove to be just as beneficial as having specified knowledge. Ultimately, as I continued to grow more comfortable each week I am here, I began to recognize areas in which my outside perspective and insights on leadership seemed to aid in efficiency of various projects. 

As I reflect on my work with LBC thus far, I realize that I have been able to develop an ability to organize a massive amount of information in a manner that is easy to read and to sort through. While tasks like this can be daunting, being able to work with my co-interns and fine tune what strategies work best with a particular scenario has been rewarding. I think that my background being outside of the typical business or financial background has allowed me to bring a more creative perspective to our assignments which has given a little sparkle to some rather dull projects. 

As I finish my sixth week at LBC, I am able to recognize and appreciate the influence of leadership studies in various aspects of the business world. I have been able to reflect on my experience with Jepson for the past three years and make connections between what I have discussed in class and how it can be applied anywhere from small talk with co-workers to discussing the best course of action for LBC to tackle some of their weaknesses. For instance, one of the greatest weaknesses of LBC is their ability to utilize technology, particularly as a marketing tactic. Their website is incredibly outdated and difficult to read. After sitting in on a conference call with a potential client, this aspect of utilizing the benefits of technology came up and we were immediately tasked with creating a list of items we thought would improve the site. In order to do this, my co-interns and I navigated our way through a few websites for some of our competitors and compared it to our own site. This allowed us to recognize what is appealing about other websites and how we can take the philosophy at LBC and translate on an easy to navigate website. I felt my insights of leadership allowed me to be successful at this task as I have experience building a website in my critical thinking class. This assignment taught me how to create a page that is easy to navigate and not too overwhelming with information. 

Ultimately, these past six weeks have taught me a lot about myself and how I can use a leadership studies perspective in various scenarios in the business world. As I have three more weeks left for this internship, I am looking forward to continuing to learn about the world of finance and to begin honing in on potential career paths that will best fit my skills and interests.