Independence Day

The summer associate role is quite different than the typical idea of a summer internship. Throughout our 10 weeks, we perform the day to day tasks of a full time employee and eventually gain independence to act in a less supervised way. Last week, my trainer was on vacation and I went from having constant supervision to almost none at all. Something I had been having trouble with in this internship was my lack of independence and the constant feedback/criticism that sometimes inhibited my work efficiency. When Molly went on vacation, I set my own priorities for my days and worked at a comfortable pace. I had my manager and other trainers to rely on if I needed help or had a question, however, for the most part, I was on my own most of the day completing various tasks. I made it a point to ask other trainers if they needed help with any of their projects and would often take on some of their responsibilities to improve the efficiency of the team without Molly there. In one circumstance, I took one project off the hands of one of my team members entirely, something that is quite normal to see full time associates do. I managed to create the project, do all of the research, and find people who would fit the project. Ultimately, I also scheduled some calls with our clients and closed out the project. This experience really improved my internship in general because after everyone on the team saw I was capable of taking on this much responsibility I was trusted to do more work than arguably the other interns on the team. Also, when my trainer returned, she checked in with the other trainers and my manager and got a progress report from them. According to their feedback I had had significant improvement in areas that Molly and I had identified as focus areas for the week she was gone.

I would like to continue building this trust within my team so that I can take on more projects and earn more credits. Specifically, there is one associate on our team who does not have an intern. Going forward, I am going to offer her more help on projects so that I can take on more responsibility and  have more opportunities to gain credits. The additional practice and experience running a project will undoubtedly benefit me for short term goals on the desk and long term to secure an offer. I also have taken lead on organizing our team’s monthly event. In doing so, I hopefully will be able to contribute to the social element of the workplace and our team. This is important because one of the values of the company is strong employee experience. Organizing the team event will help me to contribute to this value and prove to my team that I can plan a successful event as well as perform on the desk.