Intern Impact!

Looking back at the past seven weeks of my internship with FTI, I recognize the impact I have had within my organization. On the first day of my internship I was assigned a project and team to work with. As I discussed in a previous reflection, my team is comprised of myself, a consultant, and a director. Project timelines vary on a case by case basis, however, they typically go on for 3 months to 1 year in length (some projects have been ongoing for several years). The other four interns that I work with were assigned to projects that have been in place for several months. For me, this was a different case.

On my first day I was placed on a brand-new project that my team had not seen or worked with before. Rather than doing typical data analysis, I spent my first few weeks researching about the client and learning about healthcare software, drug prescriptions, Medicaid/ Medicare, and the respective prescription payment system, as this was a new field for not only myself, but also the director and consultant on my team. My team relied on my research and knowledge of the subject and used the information I researched when speaking directly with the client on calls. Often a lot of the questions about the data I raised were similar to the questions that the more senior members on my team also had. This forced us to bounce ideas off of each other to create solutions for the client.

Looking back at leader-follower dynamic within our team, my boss gave me agency and exhibited enough trust in myself and my research abilities to actually use it both when speaking with the client and calculating damage reports.  The consultants on my team would occasionally look to me as “expert” on particular details within the case. This pressure to be accurate and thorough in my work made me feel like I was contributing to the team. More recently, I have been creating models for damage calculations and listening in on client calls.

Tomorrow, I will be assigned a new project and team to work with in order to get a range of experience through working on other cases. I expect this new project to be one that FTI has been working on for some time, and I am interested to see how my role on an ongoing project will be different from the one I played on a brand- new project.

Aside from working on real client work, the other interns and I are tasked with the “intern project” where we analyze different markets in healthcare that the company can dive in to. I am currently researching inpatient rehabilitation facilities, while the other interns look into other areas of inpatient care such as acute care or skilled nursing facilities. Now with only 3 weeks left, we are beginning to bring all of the pieces of the puzzle together to formulate a final presentation for the company on the second to last day of work. This part of the internship really makes me feel like we are contributing because depending on how well our presentation goes, our practice will use the insights that we (the interns) provide. This shows how the leaders in the company, even at the most senior levels, value the opinions of their followers (down to the intern level).