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INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
One of my curriculum core classes required me to engage in an internship during my last semester of college for at least 125 hours. My internship experience site was at Principal Financial Group under the direction of Ms. Seitz.
One specific skill that I developed, maintained, and practiced during my internship is language and communication skills. This applies directly to my concentration area of Spanish because not only was it necessary for me to converse with clients and co-workers in English, but also very often I was translating and speaking with clients in Spanish. It was great to have a weekly place to practice my Spanish skills outside of a classroom setting and in the real world.
I did face times where I could not understand some of the native Spanish speakers because of their heavy accent, but it was a good learning experience for me because I am now more familiar with hearing different types of accents.
The second specific skill that I learned during my internship is management skills. This applies directly to my business concentration area. For example, I paid very close attention to how my mentor interacted with her manager. This manager was a good role model for me because he demonstrated the skills of planning, decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling, which are all essential to being a good manager.
I believe that with some hard work I will make an excellent manager some day. In addition, this was my first time in a real office/business position, and it taught me many things about time management as well. I had to figure out how to get as much done as possible in the allotted time before the deadline.
Something I learned from my internship experience is that the insurance/benefits industry is a very competitive field. Even the difference of a penny or two can put you ahead of your competitors in the bidding war for customers. Also, it can be a very well paying job/career if you have the proper sales skills and personality. In addition, women are becoming more and more important because it seems that the clientele who use Principal Financial prefer and feel more comfortable interacting with females.
This semester’s internship was a good experience for me because it made me realize that I would be good manager material some day. It takes a lot of work and many years of working up the food chain in my company to become a manager but I if I am willing to put in the time, I think I have the same qualities and character traits that my managers possess. I guess you could say that my career goals changed from just wanting to be a stay at home mom to wanting to be a part of the business world.
MEANING OF WORK
Through my experiences at my internship site at Principal, I have determined that the meaning of work is to provide products or services to a company in exchange for monetary compensation. Work includes customer service, product preparation, and manual labor.
