Looking back

Look back, my experience in Jordan was priceless. I really enjoyed my stay over there. Quite honestly, I don't think I will miss Amman as a city, but I will deeply miss the people and the relationships that i have made in that city. I have got to know some of the most amazing people in my life, regardless of the devil that live has brought upon them.

Even though people differed greatly from one to another, there wasn't any discrimination. One of my coworkers, she comes from an extremely wealthy family background with a lot of money; the other one of my coworker comes from Gaza, and a impoverished financial background. In the States, one will automatically assume that those two people will not be friends, and that there will be a social hierarchy between the two of them, in which the one from the wealthier family would have a higher social status. Wrong. Everyone was treated equity in there. This was one of the best things I have witness, in which people are in complete harmony with no discrimination based on the skin color, origin, backgrounds, or financials. I really wish that there is something similar in the United States, and people can really put aside all the negative views on others who are not financial wealthy.

I also vividly remember my first day moving into the house with my host family. They were extremely welcoming with respect to my personal items. Over the 2 months that I stayed with them, I felt like as if they were my families- grandpa, grandma, sister, and brothers. They took care of me when I was sick; they cooked for me when I came back from work; they chatted with me when I needed someone to talk to. It was great to know that they took me in as one of them, and did not treat me as just another tenant.

Once again, looking back in Amman, I have learn so much and started to appreciate what I have a ton more. It is unbelievable to learn how people survive with minimal personal needs, but still maximizing their utilities. I have deep respective for all my friends, and I wish to reunite with them once more in the coming future.

I miss Jordan- just the people.

CEO for a day

If you were in charge of running this organization, what would you change and why? Have fun with this!

I think that I would create a more social working environment, but honestly I don't really want to change anything else. This internship was fantastic and I learned so much and was treated so well. I was very lucky to have this experience, and wouldn't have changed it.

Looking Back

How has your experience at UofM prepared you for your internship?  

My experience at UMich has definitely been helpful. I used a lot of my science classes for the work that I was doing, and it's always nice to know those classes are paying off! Other than that, the research experience I got working in my lab helped me adjust really quickly to my work here. My networking skills definitely grew during the internship, and building off of the little networking skill I had when I got here was something I think will really benefit me when looking into graduate school.

This is my third internship, so I wasn't very surprised by anything. If I had to pick something, I suppose the amount of independence I was given was kind of new, but I thrive in that kind of an environment, so it worked out really well. I guess that also comes with how much experience an intern has. Other than that it was all very straightforward, which was nice for me!

Changing Perspectives

I think my views of New England have definitely cleared up being on Cape Cod for a few months. I guess the only way I can put it is really white, really rich, and really privileged. And sort of rude. It was definitely a shift from Ann Arbor, and I'm not quite sure if I would want to stay there for longer than a summer. It's also really small and very tourist, which I didn't like very much. Driving to work every morning in tourist traffic is not a really awesome way to start your day.

Thankfully, my lab was really laid back and easy going, which was great. That's definitely the ind of working environment I want to be in in the future, I think that I got a lot more out of it.

Overcoming Obstacles

Well I have to say, making this blog post makes me super grateful for how amazing this internship has been.

·       Ask for feedback from your employer! Assess what you are doing well, and what could be improved.
I asked Kendra, my supervisor and mentor, for feedback and her only criticism was that I worry to much and am sort of a perfectionist. Other than that I seem to be doing really well. I always get my work done on time, usually ahead of time, I've got office etiquette down and everyone seems to like me, I always ask lots of questions. It felt nice to be told I'm a good intern.

·       Did you surprise yourself with how you handled a particular task? What was that task? Did you enjoy doing that task? Why?

ItI did sort of surprise myself with how well I handled an animal emergency when none of my superiors were around. Obviously I didn't enjoy the task because an animal was sick, but I was pretty proud of myself for handling it well by calling the right people and taking care of the animal. It turned out to be just fine :)

·       What challenges did you face? How did you handle them? What did you learn from the experience? Knowing what you know now, would you handle things differently? 
I didn't really have many issues at all. Mostly I would've tried to socialize more, it was challenging for me to be put into a brand new place full of people who were already friends. Other than that I think my experience went really well and I wouldn't change a thing.

CEO for a Day

If I were CEO for a day, I would mainly stick to the existing template that was already in place, but I would have a few changes as well.  First, having worked in the LA office and seeing my colleagues travel to Seattle or Denver to look at different real estate investments on a weekly basis, I would set up offices in those locations in order to cut down on travel costs.  Sure these markets may not stay attractive forever, but it is worth it since employees are spending their time there on a weekly basis.  In addition to this, I would hire outside consultants from real estate markets that we were looking at investing in in order to get someone from the area’s view on the market.  This would help the company stay a step ahead of the competition and form meaningful relationships with brokers that can give us additional insight.  Last, but not least, I would set up a formal internship training program, in which college students could be groomed for entry level jobs in the future.  The company needs to have the highest quality employees and there simply isn’t time for existing employees to mentor someone and be 100% focused on their tasks at hand.  It would drastically increase productivity and would attract higher quality candidates that are seeking a job in the real estate investment industry. 

CEO for a Day

I am starting off with saying the CEO is doing an excellent job leading the organization, however, if I were to run the organization for a day this is how I would operate.  I would allow everyone in the organization to dress totally how they would like.  I would allocate more resources to the technology with out spending more money. For example, I would travel to India and build out a system and hire the top developers and release some of the developers that are stationed in the United States.  I would be able to have 5 more resources working on the software in India because the market cost is 5x less than the current cost for US developers.  Additionally, I would focus on their database of 50,000 contractors and use the power of the Internet to get the contractor database out to all of the small businesses in need of these skilled contractors.  I would also build a piece of software that would be given to the contractors in the database that would allow them to collect payments through our software, for every transaction that happens through this piece of software our company would take between 4-7%.  I believe this is a huge opportunity for the company to monetize off their network of contractors and make money will they are sleeping!! 

Looking Back/ Overall Insight

I have taken a very different approach than most students at the University.  I have been building a company Called SYRCH Inc. since my Junior year of high school when I first came up with the idea and began building out the concepts of the software.  Coming to the University I did not know what I wanted to study exactly.  My interest lies in business and technology.  I took all of the pre recs for the Business School and the School of Information.  Deciding not to apply to the Business School last minute and then a year later rejecting an offer from the School of Information to focus on my company.  I have been taking mostly classes that have help me further my knowledge to move my company forward.  I am now declared in the School of General studies with a certificate in Entrepreneurship.  I believe many classes I have taken helped me with my internship.  For example, in an Entrepreneurship I learned to build a power point to display a business idea.  I pitched an idea to my manager that I used the Bplan PowerPoint framework that I learned in that class.  Although I do not believe the Entrepreneurship class was technically an LSA course, LSA gave me the flexibility to engage and take that course. 

Changing Perspectives

I have not changed my perspective about this environment or myself.  I have built a further understanding of my true passions about the technology business.  Additionally, I understand how I can perform better as an individual in the work force.  For example, I believe I was micro managing when I was working with others. After studying other successful leaders and managers styles I took a step back and realized that I was able to ease off the people I was working with and rather then over seeing every detail I would start to empower them to work towards our goals.  I have also realized how much opportunity there is in this specific industry and that there are many different products that can be sold to the same clients.  This was great to understand because I was able to begin to see problems that the clients were having that were not already mapped with our current software products.  Additionally, I realized that many of the other potential clients did not have these new high tech systems and were in desperate need of them, making the current product extremely scalable.  Currently the company has only broken into 9% of their direct market.  Over the next 4-5 years they want to conquer around 18% of the direct market.  Meaning the company will be growing significantly and faster than it took for them to get into 9% since the software is already built.  This was another thing that really opened my mind about the opportunity for the company that I was not directly aware of. 

Overcoming Obstacles

I received feedback from my employer.  They told me that I was doing well but wanted to make sure I was not spending to long on building out the software before speaking to the clients and getting their feedback.  I tend to spend to much time getting the software to a point where it looks perfect before speaking to the potential users.  I enjoy doing both tasks of building the software and also the task of selling the software.  They wanted me to improve on my sales approach.  I believe I can sell very well but I was not allocating enough time to the sales of the software.  I ran into a challenge when we first began selling the software after one of the first builds.  The problem was I was not doing a good job managing the relationship with the end users so when the software was ready to be released to them I had to spend a serious amount of time speaking to them about why they should be using our application. For the next build I am bringing the end user in at a much earlier point of the build.  WAY before they need to sign up for the application.  I am frequently talking to them and making them feel like they are involved in the process making them want to use it immediately once it is ready to go. 

Getting to Know Your Colleagues

The colleagues at the company are all great.  Everyone is engaged and passionate about their work.  There are a couple different people that I look up to and want to further understand their career paths.  Their passion, focus, past and current accomplishments make me admire them.  I took some time to speak to them about where they started and what they had to do in order to get to this spot in the professional world.  One is the CEO who has built the company from the ground up. It came from an idea in the car to reality and years later, to having major clients and a big system that is growing everyday.  To follow the career path he suggested to work within an industry that you have passion for and understand it inside and out.  There are many problems that arise in the work place.  Look for the one that will be solving the biggest problem for the people that work with in the industry.  Once you find this problem begin building software solutions around the out dated process, while maintaining, and building a very good relationship with potential buyer of the software.  Listen to the problems that they run into everyday.  These potential buyers will give you feedback about your software helping you evolve it. 

Environment/ Initial Impressions

The company has around 300 employees internationally.  I am located in the New York City office for the first 2 weeks.   I will be switching to the Ann Arbor office after the first 2 weeks, however, I will be talking about my experience in New York.  There are around 50 employees that are stationed here.  The work place is very open and there is a lot of communication between the different departments.  The departments are broken down by marketing, sales, account executives, customer support, data analytics, back end software development, front-end development and usability, financials, and the board.  There is a clear hierarchy within the company based on respect, meaning that if someone of a high standing requests something from someone with a lower standing it is done immediately and without excuse.  Additionally, I am able to see hierarchy because the environment is all about learning and the less experienced members in each department look up to their leaders and ask lots of questions.  The environment is friendly, creative, inspiring and hard working.  

The dress code is professional/ casual.  Most people wear jeans and a button down.  The CEO and Founder wears whatever he wants.  

The company is very diverse they have men, women, college students, creative minds, engineering minds, business minds, highly experienced industry experts with 25+ years in business, their are people coming in from all over the world.  For example, the Vice President of customer support and data analytics has the majority of his team located in India and travels back and forth between the two countries. 

Blog 6: A look back

Now that I have had time to reflect on my internship from the summer I feel truly grateful for the opportunity I had been given. I think the most valuable part of participating in an internship is to be hands on in a particular field of interest. Based off your experience it is easier to decided if you are truly interested and passionate about that line of work or if there is something else out there waiting for you. I was able to work with some truly inspiring and driven people. I was also about to create new relationships outside of the office with fellow colleagues and clients. I am excited to move forward with both new and old relationships with the possibility of some day leading me to a new journey. 

CEO for a Day

     If i was in charge of running this organization i would plan many more opportunities for colleague interaction in the work environment. Corporate law firms are very quiet and isolated as workers prefer to remain in their individual offices in order to efficiently complete contracts. This dedication to isolation truly leaves an empty feeling in the office space during the week. Therefore, if i was CEO of Troutman and Sanders, i would make enforced weekly colleague peer review sessions, so partners can sit down and review each others work or even just negotiate ideas. Furthermore i would make weekly lunches, dinners or even drinks in order to ensure a day of relaxation and interactions.

Looking Back/Overall Insight

        My experience at the University of Michigan has greatly prepared me for this internship for it has provided me with the tools necessary to thrive in a professional environment. Due to the size of Michigan, students are forced to learn how to take matters into their own hands in regard to organizing schedules, requirements, meeting teaches etc. Time management is vital to the success of a student at Michigan and also vital to the success in a work environment. I was always on time, prepared and efficient in completing my work at Troutman and Sanders. This method is very similar to my study habits at school. Also i am a psychology major and therefore have taken many courses on Social Psychology and Cognitive Psychology. I've studied the effects of social interaction in all environments and this awareness of human instincts aided in my further success at Troutman and Sanders. 

Changing Perspectives

     My experience at Troutman and Sanders has definitely changed by perspective in regard to a career in law. I always had many preconceived notions about the environment in a law firm, and many of these notions included employees with aggressive, loud personalities and competitive instincts. After my internship this summer, i now know that law firms vary across the profession, truly depending on the type of law one wants to pursue. Corporate law firms, as opposed to the rustle of financial corporate life, is relatively calm. One can honestly go a full day without interacting with other personnel and just remaining  in ones office. Contracts are tedious and take individual time to organize and create, therefore a corporate law firm must be quiet for this process to succeed. It is truly inspiring how everyone in the office understands the unwritten code of law in regard to ones actions and appearance, and this loyalty to the system has made Troutman and Sanders a success. Although i respect and admire the corporate law life, this experience did steer me in a different direction. I see myself as more of a sociable, extroverted person and thus i would want constant human interaction throughout my day at my job. I do not think i have the patience for such isolation necessary when creating a corporate contract.

Overcoming Obstacles

Overcoming Obstacles

        I received feedback weekly from my employers because i was constantly working on important projects for the company. I was in charge of summarizing hundreds of employment agreements between clients of Troutman and Sanders. I have never seen a corporate contract before, so it took me awhile to understand certain phrases and how it is all organized. The first week my boss personally sat down and described the structure of a corporate contract and also specified which parts of it are of most importance. This process aided in my success later in the summer as i was able to summarize contracts and only include the useful, necessary information. I summarized about 20 different employee contracts and was truly surprised by my efficiency and ability to organize it all. My employer did tell me i did a great job, while obviously adding some constructive criticism in regard to my wording of the document. I felt productive and helpful by completing these tedious projects.

Getting to Know Your Colleagues

Getting to Know Your Colleagues

         The people i worked with at Troutman and Sanders were truly invaluable to my experience this summer. I worked for a partner at the firm who was always available, energetic and sensitive to my lack of experience as a law firm intern. I felt immediately welcome in the office by all staff mates, and each day different HR personnel and secretaries would come to my cubicle just to say hello. The effort put into colleague relationships is one of the more appealing qualities of this law firm. The partner i worked for, Mr. James Kaplan, has become my mentor of sorts. I felt comfortable asking him about the law school process, as well as his advice on which law career i should pursue. He was completely reliable and willing to give me advice, and i know for my future as i apply to law school i shall make an effort to remain in contact with his office. I believe the relationship to HR personnel is just as valuable as relationships with ones immediate boss. The HR personnel at Troutman and Sanders went above and beyond to provide support for my internship this summer. They were willing to help the growth of my resume, give advice on conducting interviews and in general talk about everyday life. I felt as though my colleagues at Troutman and Sanders were consistently professional yet personable at the same time.

Environment/Initial Impressions

Environment/Initial Impressions:

           This summer i worked at the corporate law firm Troutman and Sanders. From the minute i entered the office i was overwhelmed by the serene, calming environment. In my mind a law firm always consisted of chaos, yet this office thrived on organization and silence. Office protocol is an important part to the fabric of Troutman and Sanders as it reflects the attitudes of all employees. Unwritten rules were immediately apparent such as respecting colleagues, never causing distractions in the office, and always conversing in a calm manner. In particular the dress code was strictly enforced in order to uphold the image of Troutman and Sanders. Everyone in the office was required to dress appropriately, wearing subtle colors and always sufficiently covering ones body. I believe this dress code successful projects the corporate side of Troutman and Sanders to all clients, it upholds the professional aura and also removes the concept of competition in regards to office mate appearances. The diversity in Troutman and Sanders was also valuable to its success as a company. There was a wide variety of people from all different age groups, genders and races. I was an intern for a male partner, yet constantly worked with his female secretary. There was balance in the office and respect for any/all individuals.

CEO For a Day

If I were the CEO for the NCSA, I would first try to change the structure of the organization; namely, to add more structure to the organization. There needs to be more interaction between all of the employees in person, not just by phone or email. One workspace and designated meeting dates/times would get the job done. Check-ups by the bosses every other day when working remotely would help the flow of information and keep the work moving forward. I've been very confused as to what exactly what my job description was, and more interaction with my boss would allow me to clear that confusion. Additionally, I think the company has plans to move too slowly while trying to expand their reach. As of now, only 4 schools are planned to be a part of the NCSA's reach within the next year or 2, and it won't reach the midwest for 3 more years, and the west for at least 4. Who knows what the state of phone apps is going to be in 5 years? Also, if the NCSA's idea doesn't catch on fast, it would be hard to convince schools in 4 years that the idea is still profitable. Lastly, I think the advertising could be done better. As of now, the company has a small facebook page, twitter feed, and instagram with very few followers. The NCSA should try to partner with bigger groups to advertise their app. Overall, I just feel like the entire company is moving very slowly and expecting too much success without having much structure within the company. If the company took just a month to set up their structure, then they could move much more quickly and efficiently to hit their goals.