All by myself.....(kind of)

So at the beginning of week 9: Although I was pretty much done with taping the testimonials for the career site and editing them on Windows Movie Maker, the recruiter and I have decided to go back and re-tape some of them. Knowing that I may have to redo everything is a bit daunting, but re-working projects is business! Also, Amanda (Equity Trust’s corporate recruiter) and I have finally put the Taleo Applicant Tracking System live! It’s really exciting for us, since candidates are beginning to apply online. Once they do that, they are automatically put into our system instead of being emailed straight into Amanda’s inbox – a HUGE plus for her! I’ll be monitoring the system over the next few weeks and putting the finishing touches on it.

However, the biggest thing going on last week was the intern’s final presentations. Max and I will go in 2 weeks nearer to the end of our internships, so we didn’t present with the other 5 interns last week. As you may have read in the other intern's blogs, a few of the interns left last week, while a few more are leaving this week, and I’m very sad to see them go. They’ve become my friends and it’s odd to think we’ll be going our own separate ways after this. However, I know we’ll try to stay in touch (yay Facebook and LinkedIn!) and that they’ll all end up successful in whatever they choose to do.

After watching their final presentations last week, I realized how much work we have all contributed to this company, whether through a sales call, brochure, accounting process or new database. They all did a great job with their projects and assignments and I know they’ve got only good things ahead. Congratulations to Lauren, Josh, Jeff, Ryan and Emily. Good luck in the future!

Pinning the Tail on the Donkey...

These past two weeks have been crazy. All of us have been running around in circles getting our Universal Training Presentation set up. We presented our project, “Setting the PACE,” yesterday and two days ago, amounting to seven, hour long presentations. Everyone in the company ended up seeing the presentation and I believe the end result was a great success. We based our program off of a survey that was sent to all the employees a little over a month ago. They claimed that they would like to hear about communication, leadership, teamwork, accountability and Sterling Trust. We tied it into the topic of PACE (People Achieving Common Excellence).

Emily and Max did a terrific job on Sterling Trust. Emily’s tidbits on the background of the company were very informative as well as Max’s explanation of the institutional approach that Sterling takes. Max really held the audience in the whole time and I think he did great! His presentation was neither too short nor too long, but just right. Lauren explained what it takes to be a leader in the workplace and I think everyone came out thinking that no matter what position you hold, everyone has an equal opportunity to step up and lead. Lauren Gates, the other sales intern, explained accountability and how it can cost companies billions and billions of dollars each year. All the employees now take accountability a little bit more serious as they contribute to the endless success that Equity Trust continues to have day in and day out.

I feel communication is a huge factor in “setting the PACE” inside of a company such as Equity Trust. I was able to pick up enough information to educate the employees on not only how to be successful in the workplace, but in social and personal relationships outside of Equity Trust as well. Lastly, Ryan and Josh put together a great teamwork activity where everyone participated and had a blast. It is hard to believe the imagination that some of the employees over at the Elyria office have! Ryan also tried extremely hard to spark the crowd with his humorous jokes. I am proud of him, because some of his jokes got shut down as everyone was silent after his punch line. But, Ryan, you never gave up, buddy. You are a true soldier and one of these days someone is going to laugh until they wet their pants.

Overall, we pinned the tail on the donkey with all of the employees of Equity Trust. Our mission statement was to make a long last effect on them as well as improve our presentation skills as students still in college. We drastically were able to enhance those skills, but were not able to do that without the undivided attention that each and every employee gave us. From the feedback that we received, there is no doubt that with the help of Amanda Thompson and all of the employees I can candidly say, mission accomplished.