All Things Must Come to an End

As you can probably tell by the title, today is the last day of my Equity Trust Internship. It is very bittersweet and I cannot believe that the summer has gone by so fast. I remember my first day here, completely overwhelmed when my mentor gave me three large projects to work on. I didn’t think I could do it. But if there’s one thing that this experience has taught me, it is that I can do anything I put my mind to. Whether its learning about Windows Movie Maker, presenting in front of our CEO, or completing all three of those projects on time, I know that I can accomplish anything by working hard and pushing myself to succeed.

For this last blog, all I want to say is that this is a great internship for anyone looking to gain real-life experience at a company that will treat you like a person and friend, and not just an intern. All of the interns were given tasks and projects specific to our education, allowing each of us to gain a foundation for our future career. If you are a person that wants to challenge yourself and learn a lot about a company, the world of business, and your field of study, Equity Trust is the place for you.

Hopefully you have gotten to see the types of projects we have all been working on and use this as a guide for the potential work you may be doing as a future intern here. The best of luck to everyone, and make sure to follow Equity Trust Careers on Facebook and Twitter ;)

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

For that past 12 weeks I have had the greatest experience of my life. I have always wanted to get into an internship where I can prove myself with the knowledge that I have gained in school. Here at Equity Trust Company I was able to do just that. As mentioned in my past blogs and interns blogs we all have had certain projects that pertain to our "expertise". I have done three projects that I feel that have made an impact with Equity Trust. My first project was a Channel Analysis through Database Consolidation, where I took two databases and consolidated them into one relational databases. The purpose of this project was to gain a historical prospective on how to maintain customers. My second project was to create a incoming call profile over a four month span. The purpose of this project was to use this data as a staffing model and a tool to plan meeting times. My last and final project was to complete a fee analysis to better understand the types of programs that our customers are a part of.

Other than working on projects being an intern has improved some other skills such as project management, time management, teamwork, and communication.

If your looking to be apart of a family and enjoy a small business like atmosphere then working for Equity Trust Company is the right place for you!

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.

You Know You're in HR When...

This is now week four for me, and I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of things. When the Recruiter asks me to do a reference check on someone, it’s no problem! And on the plus side, I found out that I really do like doing Human Resources work…listening in on phone interviews, doing reference checks, reviewing resumes, etc. And it’s pretty nice to find that out since I’ll probably be doing it for the rest of my life…well, at least for the next 5 years I’m guessing. And you definitely know you’re in HR when the other interns start coming to you about the company dress code and when they give you a hard time about the blogging and social networking policies you write. Oh well…all part of the world of HR!

As for my projects, this week has been almost entirely focused on the new applicant tracking system that Equity Trust will put into place next month. It’s a great system that’s really going to help the recruiting process by consolidating all the candidate, requisition, and user information in one place. However, like any new system, it’s definitely got some kinks. And I’m the one who’s assigned to figure them out, which is pretty exciting. Like I mentioned before, the staff here at Equity Trust really does trust you to be a problem solver and help the company. As long as the tech people from this certain company call me back, we’re good to go. If not…someone is definitely going to be leaving a lot of messages on their phone lines. Respectful, professional messages…but still.

To keep me busy while waiting for the company to call back, the HR team and I are sitting in on 3-4 hour training sessions on the system. It can get long, but here and there I find some really helpful information about the system. We’ve also started to upload resumes into the system and although it doesn’t sound that exciting, it’s a recruiter’s dream come true. And if you’re worried about the earth, be happy, because this computerized system is going to be saving some trees too.

On another note, once again Equity Trust is putting on another fun event for the intern and leadership trainees tonight. This time, we’re going to enjoy a happy hour with the Leadership team at Champ’s bar and grill. Although I won’t be partaking in the “happy” part of happy hour, I’m still looking forward to networking with the leaders and a nice, refreshing Diet Coke (or maybe a virgin piña colada….I haven’t decided yet).

In the Life of the Sales Intern - Week 6

This week I really got going with this real estate training project. I was approached by one of the sales reps to conduct some research and find agencies for our up-and-coming continuing education program for real estate agents. I received an excel sheet with about 400 potential agencies. I had to do research on them. Some were not even qualified (investor firms, agricultural, etc). Out of the 160 that I have researched, I found about 60 confirmed leads. Next, I had to call those confirmed leads and get the email addresses of the people who are in charge of the continuing education. I sent a list of confirmed email addresses to marketing, and they will be taking it from there. I am going to be finishing that list in the next couple of weeks. I am excited that I got asked to do that. It really shows the respect and confidence interns get here at ETC.

Aside, from the project, Wednesday we went out to lunch with Rich and Jeff Desich at the Elyria Country Club. They are phenomenal individuals. The way they spoke just motivated me and inspired me to succeed in life after college. It is remarkable that someone of their age can be so determined and successful. I really enjoyed lunch and would love to go back to Elyria Country Club and shoot 9 holes with them!

Tonight is the Indians game. I am very excited and since it is warm outside today, employees were allowed to wear shorts and flip-flops with their Indians gear. I cannot wait for the all-you-can-eat buffet!

The Start of Something New

It's already the beginning of my third week here at Equity Trust, and I can’t believe how quickly time flies! This is going to be the first post about the internship experience at Equity Trust Company, and I’m so excited to get it up and going. This blog is actually a part of my project, so bear with me as the other interns and I figure out all the secrets to blogging. To quickly introduce myself, I'm Lauren Romance, the HR intern here at Equity Trust. To put something worthwhile in this blog post, here’s the blog I wrote last week to sum up my past two weeks:

“So it’s the end of my second week here at Equity Trust. On Wednesday, our CEO, Vice President, and Director of HR took us all out to lunch at the Elyria Country Club. It was a really great opportunity to ask them about their jobs, how they got to where they were, and their advice for us. Not every company gives you the chance to chat with the CEO about his college days and where all the Vice President has traveled in his work career. The best part was, yes, the delicious lunch, and the fact that they were all great people who were really interested in what we were doing.

Besides going out to lunch with the executives, I’m working on my three large projects for the summer: enhancing the Equity Trust career site, learning about and writing a manual for Taleo – the new applicant tracking system, and creating Facebook/Twitter career pages to use in the future as a recruiting tool. It’s a lot on my plate now, but Equity Trust is a really supportive environment. Our webmaster has already met with Ryan, the marketing intern, and me about Facebook and Twitter and showed us a lot of great info about how the company uses those sites already.

The one thing that’s truly great about working as the HR intern here is that my effort and work is really valued in the company. I meet with my supervisor a great deal and update her all the time with what I’m doing for the project. Also, I get to see how some of the functional, day-to-day HR work is done. In the past two weeks, I’ve reviewed resumes, done reference calls, and helped enter in payroll information for newly acquired employees.

Another thing everyone should know is that Equity Trust is notorious for the fun activities it puts on for all its employees. Tonight we all get to go to the Indian’s game. Although our team isn’t doing so hot right now, we’re going to have an Equity Trust dinner on the house, meet Slider, and get free tickets to the game! And we get out of work at 4:30 today to get ready….very nice.”