Learning. And lots of it is what I would use to describe my first week being an intern at IBM. My first day consisted of learning the ropes and how things are done at IBM, along with getting my laptop (COOL) and receiving an orientation, due to being unable to attend orientation in person (why does the quarter system even exist for college?)
Coming in late to the party, I entered the room where a majority of the interns sit all together, and I felt like the new kid in high school all over again. Rather than turning the other way and eating lunch in the bathroom, I introduced myself and got to know the other interns, and slowly gained my confidence. I spent the first two days getting acquainted, especially getting to know my friend Windows, as I am an Apple fanatic. While I felt intimidated, I quickly adjusted to the situation and became comfortable faster than I imagined I would! I have my world travelings to thank for this, as I'm not sure I'd be the person I am today and able to adapt to new situations so quickly without it!
Enter day 3, where I am starting to meet with people on my manager's team and get a bigger picture of what exactly they wanted assistance with this summer. I was emailed the 'to-do list' of the summer and needless to say, I wanted to cry. I had never done anything like what was on this list before and didn't even know where to begin. For about an hour, I let my anxiety get the best of me and wondered if I'd ever get this work done.
After this hour, we had a lunch get together in a conference room for all of the interns, where I met a girl named Ali that had just been through the summit program, and wanted to assist me in getting started. Upon receiving help I began to feel a lot more confident with my work in this internship. On all five of the tasks I had been assigned to at this point, two main things stuck out: prospecting and organizing. Now, organizing is something I am extremely passionate about and enjoy doing very much, assisting in calendar organization, cleaning up documents, you name it and I'll organize it. However, prospecting is something I hadn't had a chance to do before I entered IBM as an intern, so frankly I was nervous. How do I find all of these people and approach others for help on filling in the blanks of my spread sheet with contact info? Thanks to suggestions made by Ali, I began to send out some emails and SameTime messages. My results were mixed, some did not answer me and some did, and those that did were extremely insightful which made me feel even MORE confident about the situation!
My biggest takeaway from week one would be, have confidence and faith in yourself, you are here for a reason, and that reason is because you are a bright, quick learning individual that IBM wants on their team. Never forget why you are here, and what you want to take away from this experience. Work hard, play hard!
Coming in late to the party, I entered the room where a majority of the interns sit all together, and I felt like the new kid in high school all over again. Rather than turning the other way and eating lunch in the bathroom, I introduced myself and got to know the other interns, and slowly gained my confidence. I spent the first two days getting acquainted, especially getting to know my friend Windows, as I am an Apple fanatic. While I felt intimidated, I quickly adjusted to the situation and became comfortable faster than I imagined I would! I have my world travelings to thank for this, as I'm not sure I'd be the person I am today and able to adapt to new situations so quickly without it!
Enter day 3, where I am starting to meet with people on my manager's team and get a bigger picture of what exactly they wanted assistance with this summer. I was emailed the 'to-do list' of the summer and needless to say, I wanted to cry. I had never done anything like what was on this list before and didn't even know where to begin. For about an hour, I let my anxiety get the best of me and wondered if I'd ever get this work done.
After this hour, we had a lunch get together in a conference room for all of the interns, where I met a girl named Ali that had just been through the summit program, and wanted to assist me in getting started. Upon receiving help I began to feel a lot more confident with my work in this internship. On all five of the tasks I had been assigned to at this point, two main things stuck out: prospecting and organizing. Now, organizing is something I am extremely passionate about and enjoy doing very much, assisting in calendar organization, cleaning up documents, you name it and I'll organize it. However, prospecting is something I hadn't had a chance to do before I entered IBM as an intern, so frankly I was nervous. How do I find all of these people and approach others for help on filling in the blanks of my spread sheet with contact info? Thanks to suggestions made by Ali, I began to send out some emails and SameTime messages. My results were mixed, some did not answer me and some did, and those that did were extremely insightful which made me feel even MORE confident about the situation!
My biggest takeaway from week one would be, have confidence and faith in yourself, you are here for a reason, and that reason is because you are a bright, quick learning individual that IBM wants on their team. Never forget why you are here, and what you want to take away from this experience. Work hard, play hard!