Business Development and Operations

Summer 2021

Position: Area Manager Operations Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations

Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce companies that sells a variety of products, produce and media. I found this internship through LinkedIn as one of the Global Recruiters reached out to me and encouraged me to apply. Through my ten- week internship, I was tasked with an intern project along with shadowing my manager through the daily Amazon Prime sorting and dispatch process. My responsibilities included completing daily safety, social distancing and data audits while observing and managing the associates in the operations path. My favorite parts of this internship were getting to interact with so many different individuals and being encouraged to push myself out of my comfort zone to grow in many aspects of my career and personal life

Position: Network Planning Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Senior

I am currently interning with Network Planning at American Airlines, the world’s largest airline. I initially joined the carrier’s College Mentoring Program last year and was invited to apply for an internship role after completing the program. The mentorship program, however, is not a prerequisite for an internship at American. Within the Network Planning organization, I work on the Charters team. The charters team operates an airline within an airline that shuttles sports teams, honor flights, and other ad hoc customers across the country. Given the fast-paced nature of the business, I’ve had the opportunity to assist with marketing, communications, analytics, and flight operations during my internship. While working with an airline, you have the privilege of traveling the world. Whether it’s a weekend in London or Buenos Aires, there are endless travel opportunities.

Fall 2018

Position: Business Development Analyst
Student: Economics Senior 

Aptitude Media is a small business that started in 2012. According to INC., it is ranked 1105 in the fastest growing companies in the US. That is very impressive for a company that only has five employees. Because of the small size of the company, as an intern, you do learn a lot.

I initially started out in the client side of the spectrum. It was pure sales as I was asked to contact lifestyle bloggers that attract attention mainly from females aged 18-49 which is the market aptitude primarily serves. I had to prospect myself so I just started googling to find bloggers that would fit that criteria. After that, I would reach out to these bloggers and see if they would be interested in generating extra revenue by working with us. How it works is, the blogger would have a banner placed on their blog in which we would run the ad of the various companies we partner with. Simply put, it just a way for the blogger to generate extra revenue without having to put any additional effort.

I did that for about a month or so which did get quite repetitive. After that, I was then asked to start handling the business to business side. That meant, I was dealing with various advertisers whose campaigns we run. Actually, I was even able to bring on a few new advertisers and manage those accounts during my internship. The second half of the internship had me finding advertising offers that would be a good fit for us at the best possible rate. It is important to note that different advertisers could offer you the same exact advertising campaign at various payouts. It is key to be able to make sure you have the best one. That is why a lot of decision making is needed for this part of the role. There was a lot of back and forth emailing with advertisers and shortlisting the best offers that advertisers would be offering.

Overall, the digital marketing industry is still very niche but has a huge potential. To be honest, it is a market that I didn’t know existed, but because of this internship, I have learnt a lot.

Fall 2018

Position: Development Intern
Student: English Junior

 Austin Bat Cave shares a space with Warby Parker on South Congress near downtown Austin. The space is an open work floor and is conducive to collaborative work. Anthologies of student work throughout ABC’s operating years line the walls. Adult workshops are occasionally hosted at ABC’s space, so white boards, paper, pens, and other necessary supplies are found throughout the office. The fact that this space is donated to Austin Bat Cave by Warby Parker speaks to the strong community connections and impact of ABC throughout Austin. The strong relationships Austin Bat Cave has worked to form since its beginnings in 2007 speak to the power of its mission and the dedication of its staff.

Although Austin Bat Cave is looking to expand its capacity within the next year, as of now, its staff remains small. There is an Executive Director, Programs Director, and part-time Grants Manager. There is synergy throughout the office, and biweekly staff meetings ensure that we all remain on the same page concerning what our independent tasks are, if anyone needs support on any, and what our goals are for the next week.

We predominately work in Google Drive, using Google Docs or Google Sheets, and a donor-tracking database called Little Green Light. A normal day working at Austin Bat Cave usually involves close attention to my task at hand. Usual tasks include conducting foundation research, writing letters of inquiry, and writing grant proposals. I spend approximately 15 hours per week on my ABC tasks, working closely with the entire staff and learning from each of their positions while growing in my professional life.

Summer 2019

Position: Intern
Student: Urban Studies & Humanities 

Black & McDonald’s internship program is only a few years old but they have developed a structured program that offers a beneficial opportunity in several possible lines of business. Departments include engineering and energy; health, safety, and the environment; construction project management; and facilities management. There is also an aspect of business development and I have been able to do research on market growth and strategy pertaining to Internet of Things/Smart Cities programming because I have some perspective on the industry and its socioeconomic implications from my coursework. My role has also included insight into the development of public-private partnerships formed to execute infrastructure and development projects, which are foundational for the work done by the company. Some of the other interns have worked on projects in other areas including electrical engineering and power, so there are opportunities for some varied interests.

The internship program itself is well-structured. Each intern is assigned a mentor with whom they work closely and have weekly check-in meetings. The mentor is in the department you are working with, so they are essentially who the intern does the most learning from. There is a structured Work Plan that cover specific competencies and aspects of the business that the mentor and intern work through together and track their progress. There were many other senior employees interested in talking to me, even in other offices. I had several phone conference calls with other regional officers and got to observe a lot of how the company operates internally.

Spring 2023

Position: Operational Strategy and Network Innovations Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Senior

Crown Castle is a large publicly traded Telecommunications company Headquartered in Houston, that is ran at a national scale. I was blessed to find this internship through a connection my father has with the company. I have been assigned a semester-long project, where I am assessing certain aspects of the company and seeing how they could be scaled differently, rather its up or down, in a way that would positively benefit the company. Also, since I am working with the Innovation team, every day is exciting and something new is going on in the office. My favorite thing about my experience working as an Intern this semester has to be how the culture within the office has made me more self-motivated and driven to work as hard as I can. All the employees I work with are specialized in their own specific niches and it's always exciting to get to learn and hear about new things.

Fall 2021

Position: Business Development Intern
Student: Economics

My internship role was Business Development Intern and the company I was interning for is called GLG - Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc. GLG is a professional learning platform where they facilitate one on one add hop consulting engagements with experts and clients on various topics. To go into a little more detail, they help connect their clients with experts around the world regarding what the client wants to research. I personally heard of this summer internship through my brother, who works at GLG. However, GLG does come to the Liberal Arts Career Fairs and does recruiting at UT. My manager and her team were in New York, but since this internship was online due to covid, that did not matter. My responsibilities included updating the accounts of several account owners according to their specifications. My manager would connect me with the account owner in question, they would tell me what kinds of updates they would like, and I would do so on their SalesForce account. These accounts were basically the accounts of their clients. GLG hosts several events on several topics, both virtual and in person, and we had access to all those events over the years as interns. One of our projects as interns was to pick a topic of our choosing, use the resources GLG has to offer as well as our own, and create a presentation for the department my manager is in. This was honestly my favorite part of the internship because of the vast variety of good quality resources GLG had to offer. Another thing I enjoyed was that I made two new friends (the other two interns) and one of them studies at UT.

Spring 2023

Position: Intern
Student: Sociology Senior, UTNY Participant 

The company I am interning for this spring is Hugo Boss. I found this particular internship through the UTNY internship portal and decided to apply because I have an interest in fashion and was excited to do so. My duties include conducting weekly reports, retail conference tasks, attending meetings with the SVP, VP, director of retail operations, store openings, etc. My favorite thing about the internship has to be the connections I have made and the experiences I have had the opportunity to tackle. I have learned a lot during this internship and I am very grateful for the opportunity.

Summer 2017

Position: Summer Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Sophomore

 This Summer, my hours were 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each morning, I would arrive at the office and settle in at my desk. I would always check my email first, because if there was anything important going on that day, such as buying appointments or special guests at the office, I would need to know. After that, I would re-set and organize the Men’s and Women’s showrooms, as well as organize the sample closet. Organizing the showroom meant preparing it for meetings with buyers, so all of the jackets and accessories had to be in perfect condition, and presented to look their best. I would often steam or clean jackets, as necessary. Keeping the sample closet organized was also important, because it held many jackets, handbags and accessories in a small space. Almost everyday samples would come back from either press or photo shoots, and I was responsible for unpacking the packages, and putting the samples back in their correct spot in the closet. Organizing the showrooms and closets usually took up most of my morning. After that, I was able to take an hour lunch break, and usually met up with friends that worked near by to eat in Bryant Park. After lunch, I would regroup with Mohammed, the Show Room coordinator, as well as the other Account Executives in the office. Almost every afternoon was different, and I was given various projects throughout the Summer. One afternoon I was invited into a buying appointment with Katie, the Men’s Account Executive. Other afternoons I helped organize hundreds of styles to be ready for photo shoots. I also often had work to do on the computer, such as working with excel documents and line sheets, as well as research on potential clients and stores. I also helped send out look books to potential clients. I enjoyed that each day was different, because it allowed me to help out with almost all of the different jobs in the office, as well as get to know the different employees and what their specific roles entailed.

Fall 2021

Position: Operations/Finance Intern
Student: Economics Sophomore

MealMe is a food delivery aggregator, we aggregate all of the food delivery services in the United States (20+) and give you in real-time the cheapest or fastest option for delivery.

I started working for MealMe back in February during the spring semester of my freshman year. I began my internship during regular intern work, anything from administrative work to handling chargebacks. After a few weeks of proving myself, I began working on some more exciting stuff such as building our in-house CRM solution, building pitch decks for our pre-seed bridge round, and taking notes in investor meetings.

In May I was offered by MealMe to move to San Francisco and continue working throughout the summer. During the summer my role grew, and I was working on the seed round pitch decks, expanding our customer support operation, and building financial models for investors. Working on the company pitch decks was by far my favorite duty during my internship. I learned how to raise money, what investors want to see, how to present numbers properly, and how to raise money which is the most important part.

This job was far from easy, it tested me every day and taught me amplitude of lessons. Working at a startup means that tomorrow is not promised and requires long hours of work and even weekends. I have seen many people quit, give up, and accept failure, but I would still recommend everyone to work at a startup at one point in their life, preferably early on.

Spring 2016

Position: Management Intern
Student: Economics Senior

My internship with Miss Murphy Spirits LLC had many different components to it. On a daily basis my schedule was usually pretty simple. Once I arrived at work I would check in with one of the owners and I would have a conversation with them over the past shift; did I complete all my assignments, the quality of work done, what we can improve on, and if I had any ideas for them.

After our discussion I usually began working on my assignment that I was working on at that time. These included researching locations for a new store location, developing an inventory list for a new store, writing out the specific shift task checklists, and assisting in the hiring process. These assignments usually lasted one to two weeks depending on how much work they required. Once I completed the assignments I would present them to the owners and they would critique me as well as give me critical evaluations of my work.

Once I had worked on my assignments I started to work around the store. The owners believed that for me to be a successful manager I had to understand what it was like to do the every day tasks that kept the store running. This included being responsible for receiving inventory orders upwards of $10,000. I would work with the other employees to put these orders away correctly and ensure our entire inventory was out on the store floor. During this time I assisted customers with questions and helped them get any information they needed to make a purchase. At the end of the day I would be responsible for counting the cash in the cash register, ensuring the store was clean, and prepare the store for the next day, and locking up the store.

Summer 2016

Position: Sales and Event Intern
Student: Economics Senior

The internship that I took on this semester, Summer 2016, was very unique to me. I truly did enjoy the internship, but I would not recommend it for everybody. I did an internship with Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille in Austin, Texas, as a management/sales intern. I had previously worked for Perry’s Steakhouse as a hostess, server, and bartender. I did enjoy working in the restaurant industry as a server, but I did not see it as a career. However, I was quite interested in the possibility of making restaurant management a possible career path after graduation. Therefore, my general manager, Jeff Halford, had offered this unique position for me to learn the daily routine of a restaurant manager at Perry’s.

My responsibilities as an intern varied from routine operational duties to unique day to day duties. As a management intern, I was often in charge of performing daily paperwork for server cash outs and different invoices. Something that I found out was very important as a manager at Perry’s was accuracy in daily check outs. They had to ensure that the cash they had on hand matched the amount they should have after calculating cash in, cash out, and server tip outs. I often was in charge of answering regular e-mails to corporate employees or guests e-mails regarding past visits or questions. When I had interned under our sales manager, Misty Montague, for a brief amount of time, I was able to learn to use Compete software for booking private events. I also was able to go to several meetings with local private event coordinators and help analyze different trends that are happening in the local area. Overall, I think that it was an interesting and appropriate internship for me. If you are truly excited and interested in becoming a restaurant manager, I would highly recommend speaking to a local general manager at a restaurant you have worked at or are curious about working for and seeing if they can do something similar for you as Perry’s has done for me.

Spring 2018

Position: Marketing Research Intern 
Student: Economics Senior 

My internship with Petros PACE Finance provides me with a wonderful opportunity to better myself, and opportunity to learn to function efficiently and effectively in a professional environment. Petros is a loan originator for PACE loans, which are special loans for clean energy renovations in commercial properties. These loans are used by commercial real estate firms to lower utilities costs, which outweighs the cost of the loan repayments.

My role at Petros is centered around marketing research. My main focus is creating and managing a database of commercial real estate firms and professionals. These lists are mainly used by the business development team to find potential new contacts regarding these loans and generate new revenue sources. To create these databases, I use a program called ‘CoStar’ which contains massive volumes of commercial real estate data, such as property owners, contact information, and active leases. With this program I can also assist the firm’s principals by pulling up specific property level data for them to reference in their work. I prioritize my time by doing specific research projects first, so oftentimes I complete these tasks as soon as I get to work which is important because they vary in time commitments, so I need to be sure that I finish them that day. In my downtime between specific projects I develop and maintain the commercial real estate firms database until the next project arrives. I am responsible for this database in that I need to correct any errors that arise, including duplicate entries and duplicate files. I am also responsible for small tasks, such as shopping for software rates and helping setup software like Slack and SalesForce.

Fall 2022

Position: Operations Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Senior

Reflex is a gig economy style marketplace that connects retailers with retail professionals on-demand to cover call-outs, inventory and events. I found Reflex through a personal connect. I attended a concert where I met the CEO of Reflex and we talked briefly about my previous retail experience and I was hired shortly after. For my internship, I get to the office at 9am to start the work day in operations. We just moved to an open floor plan office so we have a collaborative environment that allows us to constantly communicate about the day's event. Within operations, you are responsible for maintaining daily fulfillment and everything dealing with the worker. Projects I have worked on in the past have included creative brainstorming session on how to improve our user experience through our app. This can mean cross-functional training with product and engineering teams to provide feedback on what is working well and what needs adjustment. My favorite thing about my internship is the ability to work in a collaborative environment where everyone has the same attitude to succeed. Start-ups often are difficult to land due to their ambiguous job descriptions but this experience has expanded my knowledge of many disciplines within business.

Fall 2022

Position: Intern and Trainee 
Student: Urban Studies Senior

I work as an intern at Riverside Homes, a modern custom home builder in Austin, Texas that builds green, healthy homes in Central Austin since 2001. I found my internship through a lead from a previous Urban Studies (my major) professor, who had placed a graduated Urban Studies student there two years prior. She now works full-time at Riverside as the Director of Operations. My duties at the internship include scheduling, billing, homeowner communications and many more day-to-day operational activities that come up in the somewhat unpredictable industry of construction. My favorite part of working at Riverside Homes is that I learn a lot, very quickly. The team is always eager to keep me involved in the current projects and fill me in on projects they have done in the past.

Spring 2022

Position: Business Analyst Intern
Student: Economics

This spring, I’m interning at SailPoint Technologies, Inc as a business analyst within the professional services group. SailPoint is a leading software company that provides identity management and governance solutions to governments and enterprises. I found this internship through Alex Bachelor, who worked in the Liberal Arts Career Services at UT. He’s a close mentor and recommended the job posting during one of our conversations. During my time at SailPoint, I was tasked with charting the profit and losses of our historical consulting projects to benchmark and forecast future growth. We’ve been able to investigate underperforming consulting projects to ensure we find the discrepancies. Besides that, I’ve been working on another model that charts the utilization rate of each employee within my division to track our hiring needs. My favorite thing about my internship comes from the people. I love how friendly and welcoming each employee is and how transparent our open-door policies are. To give some examples, during my first week at SailPoint, I managed to schedule a 1-on-1 coffee chat with the company's president. Besides that, our CEO always comes dressed for the theme for office events. It’s great to see someone running a billion-dollar company dedicated to making these events fun for his employees.

Summer 2019

Position: Sales and Operations Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Junior

The Sherwin Williams internship allows college students to receive real work experience. As an intern for Sherwin Williams, the company allowed us to choose a store location that we desired to work from. During my time with the company, I spent the majority of my time between the district office and my assigned store location on South Burnet. My first introduction to the corporation is a specific conversation with the executives regarding the standard on which they would like us to uphold. That standards that we discussed were completing the final project and meeting on Mondays to provide an update on the status of our project. From the start, Sherwin Williams placed their interns into stores so they could learn the business functions of the company. The way the company expressed their expectations and how they wanted us to comprehend was strictly based on entrepreneurial attributes. My manager explained that she would teach me how to run a business and point me in the direction to access information. This is not an occupation that you have the privilege to sit at a desk for eight hours. There are many times where you will need to get your hands dirty and help individuals with various paint orders. I made it my responsibility to get involved with the logistics of different paint requests and customer service. Sherwin Williams provided all their employees with an immense amount of training materials and other resources to help prepare us for the interactions we encountered.

Throughout the internship, interns were required to complete training that pertains to finance, product knowledge, customer service, communication, safety and many other things that affects the Sherwin Williams brand and business. Interns were also required to complete twenty-eight hours a week of work at the assigned location. There were times you may do a bit more than twenty-eight because of the foot traffic during that time-frame. Once orders were completed, I work on the material that Sherwin Williams provided during the onboarding process. The booklet and workbook consisted of an extensive amount of information that was required to be completed by the end of the internship. After work is completed in the book, I made sure that the inventory was updated. Each week, there was a shipping director that delivered paint from the distribution center in Dallas. Although all this work was overt and efficient, I still learned a lot quickly.

Summer 2016

Position: Hotel Intern
Student: Economics Junior

The internship at Sonesta can fluctuate greatly somedays it may be a chaotic place and the next it could be a calm and quiet place. Working at a hotel you never know what’s going to happen or what you’re dealing with when you walk in for the day. It’s a very unpredictable place. Your schedule is done weekly so one week you would work in one department and the next your working in another. Working here gives you a lot of hands experience in many different kinds of work places. This includes working up in a restaurant to dealing with guest services and all the way in the back working with housekeeping. The first couple of weeks for me they wanted me to get my hands dirty and experience all the jobs as just a regular worker. You need to know the job to manage it. Which helped when I would go around helping people because I myself had experienced the work they were doing. Your responsibility tends to be do whatever is needed that day typically help in whatever department is the busiest and be able to be lenient. Later on they allow you to take the reins yourself and see for yourself just what it’s like to manage a department. With time depending on where you work is the time you will be in that week so it’s always changing which like I said you need to be very lenient and flexible to be able to do this internship. You may come in thinking one thing but actually have a whole other deal going on that day. Towards the end they will stick you with a department that typically needs the most help at least for me that’s how it went because housekeeping was low on management they let me stick alongside and help manage out that department.

Summer 2017

Position: Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Junior

The company I interned for this summer is called Swish Beverages. Swish specializes in a variety of wine products, with their most popular product being rosé (the pink wine.) A day in life for an intern at Swish beverages begins with a 9-9:30 start- if you’re needed earlier it’s probably because there’s a lot more on the schedule for that day so it’s better to get to the office before everyone else arrives. When you first get to work, it is your responsibility to make sure the office looks tidy and clean before the rest of the team gets there. Next, you check your email, as should be doing as frequently as possible especially if you’re not busy, and see what’s on the schedule for the day. The morning usually consists of placing orders online for office supplies which requires you to walk around and ask everyone if they need anything. Another thing to make sure you do every morning, if not every other morning, is an inventory count. This includes not only product, but merchandise as well. Swish doesn’t carry wine but other items like hats, straws, tote bags and many other products that display the remarkable brand. It is important that all the inventory in office is accounted for at least every other day so that if there is ever need for an access amount of a certain item, it’s guaranteed that there is enough of that item to be collected in such a big amount. When the afternoon comes around, that’s usually when you start to go through Concur (to log expenses) or social media. Concur, although difficult to learn and understand at first, is a way for the company to keep track of all its expenses in an efficient and organized manner. It also gives anyone in the company access to go back and look at the expenses for the month which is a great way to keep track of everything especially when a bunch of people are spending money on different things for the company. Social media is another task that must constantly be covered, looked at and maintained especially for Swish. What I realized after just a week of work at Swish is that their wine product is all anyone wants to Instagram, snapchat and evidently show the world what they’re drinking. Whether a famous person is posting a picture of the product, or an article is being written about any of the Swish products, it is your duty as an intern to make sure you capture the photo/article and create files tracking all the press for Swish. At the end of the day it is very important that you write, clearly and concisely, exactly what you did that day to the person you report to. If you couldn’t get to all your tasks that day you simply put them under the pending section of your email. Some days you may not get to everything, but that’s okay! It goes to show how hard you were working and how busy some days may get. However, by the end of it all the tough days seem irrelevant because working for Swish is an unbelievable experience and something you will remember forever.

Spring 2016

Position: Operations Intern
Student: Economics Senior

My internship with Time Clock Plus was a pretty interesting learning experience, allowed me to participate on some great projects, and most importantly taught me about how incredible it is to work for a company that has a strong and unifying culture. Time Clock Plus is a time and attendance software company that provides payroll solutions to companies large and small. They have many divisions but I primarily worked with the operations management team under the supervision and guidance of the Chief Operating Officer. While my internship experience was incredible, I can only imagine how much better it will be for the next cohort of interns because they are currently in a state of transition with their Austin office and will be upgrading soon. 

My schedule was pretty flexible. It was mostly based around exposure to the daily tasks of my superiors which were pretty broad. I would be tasked with individual projects such as helping find commercial real estate for the office switch. The main focus with that individual project was focusing on the many intricacies of a new location, size, cost, location, neighbors, and even demographics of surrounding neighborhoods. 

I think the part of this internship that I would emphasize most is that you will most definitely get out more from this internship than what you give to them. It is a learning experience. That is because the leadership focuses on teaching you how they do business, how they operate as a team, and how they encompass a culture that cultivates the strength and inclusion of many rather than competition or one particular superstar individual. You will learn what it is like to learn from a company that is focused on what appear to be all the right things. The people are the happy, communication is clear, and everyone is consistently moving forward.

Summer 2017

Position: Claim Professional Development Program Intern
Student: Economics Sophomore

My title is Claim Professional Development Program Intern at The Travelers Companies Inc. This is usually a two to three year program. You spend your first summer at the company rotating through the different lines of business which would consists of Auto, Operations, Property, General Liability, Workers Compensation. Not all office locations will have all lines of business. The next summer you spend it getting licensed as a professional adjustor in the state you want to work in. After getting your professional credentials, the company will then offer you a full-time claim professional position at the location you interned at. The company is looking to hire bilingual people due to the large Hispanic population.

The company has a flexible work schedule so there is no set time you have be at the office as long as it is between 7am to 9pm. I usually come in at 7:30am since I like to go home early. The first thing I do is log on to my computer then I go talk to mentor to say good morning. In the morning, sometimes I have my weekly meeting with the claim center vice president to see what projects I have been working on. I usually work on the project on hand or I will be attending meetings or I could be going out to the field to do investigations, visit claimants, or to court hearings. The projects I work on could be compiling data and analyzing trends or quarterly financial audits or legal processing. I would do whatever was needed around the office. I spent quite a large chuck of my time with the staff attorneys. I would help prepare documents for hearings and mediations; I would do similar work to that of paralegals. Meeting often consisted of going over quarter/monthly financial or operational results or continued learning classes or planning new office initiatives. I would often end my day by meeting with my manager to update him what I had done for the day.

Spring 2017

Position: Logistics and Supply Chain Management Professional     
Student: Government Senior

As a graduating senior, and as a seasoned veteran in finding a job, having submitted a plethora of online job applications, I could confidently advise – get yourself an internship. Yes, majority of the companies are looking for high achieving scholars that have obtained their bachelor’s degree from prestigious universities, such as the University of Texas. However, if you look at 90% of the job requirements, they are looking for ‘experience’ more than anything. So, how does a full-time student gain much needed ‘experience’ while studying to get their bachelor’s degree? Easy, find an internship. As a graduating scholar, I wanted to find myself an internship – outside my major – in order to diversify my background. Moreover, I chose to intern at Zero Industries, LLC – because they were offering me an internship that would encompass various departments. As an intern, they had me traversing department-to-department gaining valuable insight. When I first started, I was working with the logistics and supply chain management side of the company. But, when I finished, I was promoted to serve as the company’s marketing director and program manager. I literally learned each position the company had to offer. However, gaining much needed insight to a company’s day-to-day operation is not easy. On an average day, I would arrive at the office around 10 am – and would be summed to a ‘briefing’ with the company’s chief executive officer (CEO). From there, I would ask any questions I had from my previous work day, which the CEO would happily answer. After that, we would brain storm about new projects that Zero Industries could work on – while discussing how we could improve customer and employee relations, sales, and communication with our suppliers. Yes, as an intern, I would have a stentorian voice in the office. Almost 80% of the time, my ideas would end up becoming actual – tangible – products on the market. Usually by the end of the work day, I would be asked to rover around making sure the company’s employees are happy. I would do this at the end of every shift – because the CEO said, “Happy employees are the most important aspect to running a successful company. They are the heartbeat and backbone of this establishment, and without them – we are nothing.” Although interning with Zero Industries, LLC is extremely difficult, it is truly a rewarding experience. Your day will never be the same. You must be flexible, constantly evolving with the dynamics and politics of the company. Even as an intern, you’ll be treated as a full-time employee, while only actually working part-time. At Zero Industries, you won’t be treated as a student, but instead you’ll be treated as a mentee. You will work directly with some of the best and brightest in business. You will gain experience as a sale associate, a general counsel, a marketing director, customer relations specialist, and many more. So by the end of the internship, you will be confident in your ability to apply to any job in the market. Best part, you’ll have the ‘experience’ box checked in bold! Actually, I lied. The best part – you’ll be paid! But, in all seriousness, you will be able to present yourself to any employer as a ‘seasoned’ candidate for their employment. However, let’s not be fooled. You won’t gain valuable experience if you don’t put the time and effort into the internship. This internship was designed to give back what you put in. So, if you give it all you got, it will reciprocally give back just as much. But, trust me, it is all worth it. Thanks to this internship, I was able to apply to several jobs with ease and confidence.