A Casual Organization

I am working at Cavi Consulting this summer, a small tech-focused consulting company that aims to help businesses streamline and consolidate processes within their daily operations. I work mainly with a small team of interns and two of the main partners at the firm. The norms of the position were very clearly and honestly set out for us during the first week of accepting the position: we were to work collaboratively as much as possible, communicate via text, Slack, Zoom, or email, often, and just try to absorb as much of the company as possible in order to understand the foundation of the company which we were building. With five interns jumping into something completely new, anxiously excited to get our hands dirty, and make change, we first had a lot of learning to do. This learning was mostly independently driven but also pushed by our bosses and their willingness to open their work and their minds to us. As well, we were given the chance to participate in some or all of one of the consulting courses they sell in order to see first-hand and understand where we were coming into. Within this norm of beginning with learning, us interns learned how we were to interact formally (quite informally) and communicate within our remote internship. We quickly got the hold of participating and beginning Zoom meetings, check-ins, and brainstorming sessions. As well, we joined the company’s Slack and Monday.com pages for more informal or faster questions and messaging. It was portrayed to us very early on the informal nature of our bosses, their care about our summers and wellbeing, and their want to incorporate us into the ever so casual communication streams that they were already comfortable in. Our first few days were filled with ‘Happy Wednesday’ gifs amidst the consulting-based questions streams. I appreciated their honesty and integrity in getting us to their pre-established level of professional comfort. The organizational culture of Cavi is similar to two young professionals building independently, yet cohesively toward a common goal – sharing laughs and personal anecdotes along the way. I look forward to becoming both greater friends and coworkers with my fellow Richmond interns and with our bosses!