Conclusion

My internship experience was very similar to the Loras mission statement. I have become a better reflective thinker, ethical decision maker and active learner because of this internship. Without knowing much about the Publishing Industry, I was able to succeed in the industry and also even received a few compliments and an open invitation to come back to work during the school year. The responsible contributor part of the mission statement was already present in me since I always try my best to represent any organization I am a part of, whether it is Loras College or the Loras College Baseball team.

Although I was not in a classroom, I felt like I learned as much as I would in a classroom and it definitely helps when you have great people to teach you and exchange their knowledge with you. I have become a better student with a stronger vision of what I would like to do and I am definitely confident to continue studying at Loras so that I can gain even more knowledge and get closer to acquiring a job in the corporate world.

In my opinion, gaining knowledge from an internship is better than learning in a classroom. I feel as if I am being watched in the classroom, I don’t have the freedom to do the work at my own pace and it’s just information thrown at you nonstop. Well at the internship I took part in, there was a lot of information thrown at you but they threw it at you a little at a time and they allowed you to work at your own pace as long as you got the job done.

Another reason why I think and prefer gaining knowledge at an internship is better than doing so in a classroom is that I am a visual learner. I have to see how to do something in order to understand it on the spot. I also have to work on it right away so that I can get the hang of it and figure it out on my own. In a classroom, you have to do things the professors’ way, well at an internship, if there’s an easy way to do something you go ahead and use it.

This internship prepared me well for the work world in my opinion. It has shown me how to act in a corporate environment, what to expect in this type of environment, and how to go about an everyday life in an environment like this. It has also taught me how to dress as well as how to motivate myself when I get tired of doing the same thing. Thanks to this internship I now know how to behave in conference meetings, how to behave when I am introducing myself to future colleagues and it has also showed me how to behave when talking to the Vice Presidents, Presidents, CEO’s and COO’s. Last but not least, it has taught me what I have to do in order to be successful in a corporate environment or any other job I receive.

What I found to be most beneficial about this internship is the knowledge I gained from colleagues, my supervisor and from working with different authors/professors. I have a sense of what people like, how people like to be treated in certain situations, what people expect from you on an everyday basis and how to interact with your colleagues throughout the week. I had a couple of situations in were my colleagues placed something on Assembla (our site where our colleagues place projects for the interns) and I would have it done within 20 minutes and the reaction I would receive was priceless.

The most enjoyable part of my internship was getting a chance to work with a couple of my teammates. During the internship I was able to get a lot closer to Ben Cottrell and Mike Pudlo, although we did play baseball together this internship allowed me to get to know them better outside of baseball and vice versa. As far as something school related, another part of the internship that can be considered most enjoyable could be the fact that I got acknowledged for my hard work and commitment to the company by my supervisor as well as other colleagues. During one of the conference meetings, Billee Jo announced to the team that if they needed any videos or media files that weren’t working that they should send them my way because I was now in charge of videos and media files.

The most frustrating part about the internship is a tie between authors who don’t know what they want and the “gossip corner”. I had a few scenarios in were I had to deal with a couple of authors that did not know what they wanted and were real picky once the work was completed. It was very frustrating because I had to make the changes using html coding and sometimes the changes they wanted would change everything else around it which made it real difficult for me to complete the task. There was another situation in were the author complained about certain material on the web page that I created but when I took a look at what they were complaining about, it was something that they had written in their manuscript and wanted us to place it on the web page. That made no sense to me and really angered me. The other part of the most frustrating part of the internship was the “gossip corner”. The “gossip corner” was what we, the interns, called a group of women from the Kendall Hunt team that all they did from 7:50 AM until 9:30 AM was talk about nonsense. Their topics were scrambled all over the place and did not make sense whatsoever. For example, their topics would go from soccer practice to blow drying hair to making their own garden to high school times to weather; it was by far the most obnoxious time of the week because they would do it every week from Monday to Wednesday and they would leave Thursday and Friday for working until 6 PM. The interns and I came up with a little game in were we tried to write down as many of the topics as we could and share them with each other during our lunch break. Although it was extremely frustrating, it definitely made our lunch break more enjoyable.

My main contribution to GRT was a combination of my fast and great quality work as well as mastering messing around with videos and getting them the way my colleagues or the authors wanted them. I could tell by the expression in my colleagues faces that they were extremely pleased and impressed with my work. Sometimes people might think that getting the job done fast might not be the right way to do it but the thing with me is that I know I can get the job done no matter how long I take and by finishing fast, I am allowing time for the person who assigned me the project to review the project and send me back suggestions so that I can place it in the content.

In fact, I believe that this internship was the perfect choice for me. I learned a lot of things that I would have not learned in the classroom. By being a Business Management major and Mathematics minor, I probably won’t learn about the Publishing Industry. That right there is something that I feel is good to know because it is expanding my knowledge and once future employers see that I worked at a publishing company they will be curious and it will leave them wanting more.

Also, this internship has opened my eyes into what other classes I would like to take once I start school again and after thinking about it, I have a few classes in mind. By working with html coding I am interested in taking more computer classes at Loras. I almost want to pursue a CIT minor at Loras alongside my Mathematics minor. Having said that, by seeing how much business is in the international side of things I am eighty percent convinced that I would like to pursue a Concentration in International Business as well. It is a tough choice since I have this upcoming semesters classes all figured out which means I would have to fit some classes into my Spring semester in 2014. We will see where this goes but I am very excited.

This internship definitely excelled my expectations since I had no idea what to expect and what I was going learn regarding school but that changed in a heartbeat. I learned a lot while doing this internship and I am extremely grateful about it as well as blessed.

I would definitely recommend this internship to my friends. I am actually in the process of talking to John Vail about getting one of my friends a job at GRT. Hopefully it works out. With the experience I had and the people I met, I would recommend any of my friends to take a job or do an internship at GRT. I think it is necessary for everyone to have an experience similar to the one I had and it will also help boost their value when they go and apply to different jobs.

If my best friend was contemplating an internship I would look him in the face and smack him and tell him that he shouldn’t even think twice about doing an internship. This internship has been one of my favorite experiences of my life and I will tell anyone that asks me about it how well I was treated at GRT. An internship is not something you will get a chance to do every once in a while so you have to take the opportunity when it is presented to you. An internship is a great thing to do before graduating from college and it is something that will make your job search that much easier; let’s not forget about how much networking can be done at an internship.

I was pleased with the overall results of my midterm and final evaluations that were completed by my supervisor. I expected all of the results I received since Billee Jo made it clear about how she was pleased with my work and she would let me know through emails. Sometimes she would even come to my cubicle and tell me in person. We would also go through our progression during our conference meetings  and Billee Jo would let us know what we needed to do the upcoming month as well as what things she wanted us to keep doing.

          When it came time for the final evaluation Billee Jo was sad to do it. But that did not prevent her from filling it out. Billee Jo gave me all 1’s and her reason was that I did a tremendous job working at GRT. She was beyond pleased with my work and even asked me if I would like to come back and work during the school year. That was a huge sign that I accomplished my objectives in the Learning Plan and I was shocked that I made such an impact on my supervisor.

I was surprised at how much praise I received at GRT, whether it was from my supervisor or my colleagues. I was also surprised at the fact that I stated that I need to work on my communication skills a little more but Billee Jo said that I did not have to work on my communication skills at all since she thought they were phenomenal. She also stated that my communication skills improved throughout the internship and that she noticed me getting more comfortable with the people at GRT as well as Kendall Hunt.

          During the evaluation I felt confident and poised that I had done all I could to make my stay at GRT memorable. Once I started talking and answering Faye’s questions I was extremely confident about myself and knew that I had indeed accomplished my goals. I kind of wish that Billee Jo would have brought up the possibility of me getting a future job at GRT after graduation but the fact of the matter is that she did bring up that she wanted me to come back and work during the fall and I am extremely thankful for that. Billee Jo said that she was beyond pleased with my job at GRT and that she would take me back in a heartbeat. Hearing my supervisor, who is the Web Development Manager at GRT, say those things was truly amazing and beyond humbling.

 As far as the comments Billee Jo left me, I was truly appreciative of them and it definitely goes to show how hard I worked while working for GRT. Billee Jo’s comments basically said that I was a great addition to the team and that I worked well with my colleagues as well as with her. Billee Jo definitely gave me a great experience by hiring me for the summer and providing me with some valuable knowledge that I will most definitely use once school starts and once I get my real first job out of school.