Encinas Blog Post 2 – Personal Contributions

After having completed half of my internship, I been able to make contribute a variety of things so far. On a day to day basis, I mostly code in order to clean and analyze data. This week was the first week that one of my projects was sent to a client. It was very rewarding to see a tangible project be sent out for feedback. The process of creating the product taught me a lot about the standards of the company. There were no details, from formatting to content, that were not checked on several levels. I typically get to be the first to do this. There have been a couple times where I am able to suggest changes that make it into the project or make corrections. These corrections are often small numerical changes, but accuracy is of course an extremely important part of informing the client and I was happy that I contributed to that. My role has also been changing in what I can contribute to. Specifically, I have started sitting in on meetings with clients. I am not yet at a level where I make direct suggestions to them, but sitting in on these meetings means that I can make suggestions to my supervisor that can help the project in a more contextualized manner. I also believe that my role will continue to change in small but exciting ways as the summer continues.

In terms of what opportunities, I think would help me contribute in the future, I want to take an excel and SQL class. Many of my mentors and supervisors are extremely well versed in these skills and I can see how important it is to being successful with the company. I plan on having a conversation with one of my mentors about how they got to where they are in one of our weekly coffee check ins. I think that Leadership studies has helped me contribute specifically by teaching me how to be an active follower. I know how to take good notes in meetings, and I know how to ask important questions. My hope is that this action shows the growth and a potential path that I can see myself having at BRG.