An Experience I'll Never Forget

Tomorrow is my last day with Equity Trust. I've experienced so many things here, and I honestly could not be happier and more thankful for this opportunity. Going along with what Monica said, I will be more confident going into interviews. Through the projects I've completed and the obstacles along the way that I overcame, I've learned a lot that will benefit me down the road.

The things I'll miss the most are managing the company's social media, meeting up with the Elyria interns, the marketing department, and my mentor. If it were not for my mentor, I would not have the amazing guidance and support that I did to help me grow. Equity Trust went above and beyond my expectations for an internship program, and I know I will always remember this summer for it.

Farewell

I can't believe tomorrow is my last day here at ETC. 12 weeks may sound like a long time but it truly did fly by. Tomorrow, we will be giving our final individual presentations, going to lunch, and having our final evaluations. I am so grateful for the time I've spent here at ETC over the last three months. The experiences I've gained will no doubt help me in my future career. It's amazing how much you learn and adjust without even realizing it. I remember the first day, coming in wide eyed, without a real clue of what to expect. Now, I feel I have learned so much and feel at home here. It will be weird not seeing the faces and hearing the voices I am accustomed to, but I surely will not forget them. The internship was everything they said it would be and everything I could hope for. Besides the job, I am going to truly miss all of the people here. From day one, everyone has been so friendly, helpful, and supportive and I wish the company and everyone I have met here the best. I am glad my first office experience was at ETC and can only hope wherever I go in the future will live up to the fine example that ETC has set.

Final Day

Today is my last day at the Elyria office before Final Presentations tomorrow in Berea. It has been a bittersweet day. The morning started off as usual with the Daily Line Up at 9:30 AM with my fellow interns. My morning flew by with work on Succession Planning and my final presentation PowerPoint. At lunch, the ice cream truck made a visit to our office!! Everyone got to enjoy an ice cream treat before they got back to work. It was such a nice start to the afternoon. This afternoon I am finishing up my final presentation and tying up loose ends with my managers.

Tomorrow all the interns and their managers and mentors will meet in the Berea office for our final presentations. The final presentations will be viewed by the executive team, all managers, and mentors. All the interns will complete an exit interview with Human Resources to receive our final evaluations and review our resumes. Equity Trust is treating us to an Italian lunch tomorrow, as well. I'm very excited for tomorrows festivities, but I will miss everyone tremendously.

Final Blog :(

I cannot believe this is the final intern blog from my ETC internship. The past 12 weeks have been full of learning new things, meeting new people, developing new skills, and having fun while doing all of it!

Today we had a fun celebration for all the people with birthdays in June, July and August… The Ice Cream Truck came to ETC! It was great to see everyone excited for a mid afternoon treat!

Tomorrow we have our final presentations in the Berea office in front of our managers, mentors, and the executives. I’m sure that everybody will do great! After that, we will all be going out to lunch together and then concluding the day with final evaluations.

This internship has gone by so quickly, but has very much prepared me for my future.

I am so very grateful to have been given this opportunity and I cannot thank Equity Trust Company enough for all they have done for me! Having this internship, I know that I will be confident going into any interview in the future because I have learned so many new things and am confident in all the projects I have completed and skills I have expanded and/or developed.

I am so lucky to have had the manager, mentor, and other team members I had. They have really helped me get a better idea of what a career in accounting is like and taught me many things that will be helpful in the future. They never hesitated to go out of their way or explain things or show me how something works; I’m so thankful to all for them!

In addition, the other interns that I met here have been awesome and I hope I will keep in touch with them in the future! We were a great team and my days won’t be complete when I don’t see them everyday (especially during lunch and in the morning for Daily Line Up!)

Thanks for everything Equity Trust!!! It has been a great time!

Home Stretch

This Friday is the last day for all the summer interns at Equity Trust. The time has just flown by! I've been working on tying up loose ends here at the Elyria office. I have been meeting with members of my department to pass on my daily tasks. For example, I am meeting with my manager, Tiffany, to transition the Careers social media over to her. I have had such a great experience at Equity Trust and will be sad to leave.

Time Flew By!

It’s so crazy to believe that this is the 12th week of my internship here at Equity Trust. Time flew by so quickly! All of the interns have been preparing our final presentations which we will give on Friday to the executives, managers, and mentors at the Berea office. As I was creating my PowerPoint, I began remembering all that I have learned and accomplished throughout my internship. It is crazy to think of all the knowledge I have gained over the past 12 weeks. I have come a very far way since week one and am so grateful for this opportunity!

Although this technically is not my last week (since I have agreed to extend and extra week), it is still the last week that I will be with the rest of the interns. I am so thankful that I was able to work with the group of interns that I did and it is going to be strange when I don’t see them everyday! All five of us got along so well and I know that we will stay in touch!

Final Week

When I look back and reflect on my first day here with Equity Trust, one of the things that stands out the most for me is the warm and friendly employees. I didn't feel like just an intern. Of course, that was just my first day, and I didn't know how the next 12 weeks would play out. One of the nine core values at Equity Trust is 'Welcome Home,' and during my internship I continued to witness it each day following my first. This is something I love about ETC, because I really believe it impacts your whole day. You need to build genuine relationships with your co-workers in order for your day to run smoothly. I've really gotten to know my co-workers in the marketing department, and it will be a sad day this Friday to leave them.

Equity Trust has also provided me with the opportunity to see the daily operations of the marketing department. Through my social media project, I've gained professional writing skills. Through my collateral project, I was able to implement a new filing system. From holding meetings, creating an in-depth project plan, and planning for our Tax-Free Wealth Seminars, I have learned invaluable project management experience. One of the most important things that will help me down the road is being versatile and knowing how to balance multiple tasks at one time.

When I found out I would be an intern at Equity Trust, I felt excited, nervous, and knew I would learn things that you can't in a classroom setting. I don't think I quite realized, though, how much I would appreciate it, how much I would mature, and the memories I would make with those working around me.

Week 11 Completed!

Week 11 has come to an end and now we are moving onto the last week of our internship. However, my manager has asked me to extend my internship! Unfortunately, I will be only able to extend one more week, but it is good to know that I have been able to help the Accounting department enough that they want me to stay longer. This will allow me to help them with the entire month close for July, along with just wrapping up everything I have been doing throughout my internship.

There are several projects I have been working on that the accounting department needs to learn; FRx is one of those projects. It is important that everyone can utilize FRx easily and properly. In addition, updating procedures for my streamline report and supporting schedules also need to be taught.

I hope that everything goes smoothly over the next 2 weeks!

Presentations

Our intern presentation went really well yesterday, but we still have one more presentation to make! Next Friday (our last day!) each of us is presenting the individual projects we have been working on in our various departments. The executives will be there again as well as our mentors and Human Resources. I'm excited to show them what I've accomplished these past 12 weeks and how this internship has prepared me for future endeavors. Presenting in front of management can be a scary thing, but as long as I have been preparing ahead of time, I know it will turn out a success. Having the opportunity to present to them is something I know will benefit me since this is probably not the last time I will have to deliver a project or results to managers.

Time to exhale

We did it! Our intern group project has been completed. Yesterday morning, we presented our crisis management plan to a room full of the company's top executive. Our initial nerves gave way as soon as we began to present. We had practiced, practiced, and practiced which made it easy to relax and deliver our proposal. As with most topics, the more you know, the more comfortable you are talking about it. We had worked on this crises management plan for so long that we knew it inside and out. This allowed us to be loose and deliver our points effectively. More importantly this prepared us to answer the questions the executives threw our way. It could be quite intimidating to sit there and try to defend your proposal to high executives, but I think we all did such a great job preparing that when the questions came we were able to answer them with very little trouble. I was real proud of the way everyone performed.
Now all that is left to do is continue to help out with little things within my department, tie up loose ends, and put together my individual presentation. The individual presentation is on the last day of our internship. We are expected to all the interns' managers and mentors on our experience at ETC this summer. It will be fun to see what all the other interns have been up to and hear their thoughts on their experience here at ETC.

Presentation Day

Today was presentation day! FINALLY! :)

But, before I get into that, This morning we had our quarterly meeting at Lorain County Community College (LCCC), Jeff Desich was the main speaker during this meeting; however, most of the executive board did get up and say a few words about how the quarter has been going for Equity Trust as well as where we are going for the second half of the year. Although it was at 745 this morning it was a really good experience and really was quite fun.

Now, back to our Crisis Management Presentation; even though I was a bit nervous it went really well and they really appreciated all the effort we put into our project as well as our recommendations. I believe the presentation really opened their eyes to the posibilities to what could happen if Equity Trust is not prepared to the best of its ability for a crisis. From the information we have given them I believe they will pick up where we left off and implement our recommendations to help make Equity Trust more prepared for any problems the company many encounter in the future.

After our presentation all of the interns went out to lunch together and talked about how fast these past 11 weeks have went and about our indivdual presentations next Friday. It is crazy how fast the internship program has went and how much we have learned in such a short period of time.

Great Job Interns!

Today was the day that all the interns presented our group project on Crisis Management. We have been working on this project since the very beginning of our internship and we did a GREAT job today! The sense of accomplishment that I had after we presented was amazing.

Although it was nerve-racking at first, we all delivered our parts perfectly and I believe that the executives were very impressed! Our group manager Joe and the Corporate Recruiter Tiffany were impressed as well! I'm glad we were able to make them proud. Afterward, all the interns enjoyed a lunch together at Applebees!

In addition to our presentation, we also had the 2nd quarter meeting today at Lorain County Community College (next to the Elyria building). There was a great sense of company camaraderie and pride. It was nice getting together with everyone to discuss all of Equity Trust's accomplishments, along with recognizing all the employees who have gone above and beyond in the jobs!

Ten Weeks Down and Only Two to Go!

There's still so much to be finished up in just two short weeks!

My main priority has been my social media project - managing facebook, twitter, and the company blog. Seeing how important it is to stay up-to-date with these, I'm so happy we have a new member of the marketing department - our copywriter! She just started at the end of last week, and in addition to her other roles, she will be taking over this job after my internship ends. I met with her and we reviewed what I do on a day-to-day basis.

My second major project involves the marketing collateral. The finishing touches are being put on this. Our graphic designer is getting some final webinars converted for me and then I will be uploading the rest of them onto the Equity University eLibrary. After spending some time on them last week, the physical files we have here in the office look much more organized and no longer crowded together. Working closely with the collateral has given me a chance to see the different pieces they have used over the years and how the department has improved upon some pieces while creatively coming up with new ones.

Our final intern presentation is in 2 days!! I can't wait to see what the executives think!

Ready to Present

Work has been flying by these last few days. I've been busy collaborating with several other employees here at ETC to put together a report for the executives to use to make decisions on the company's future. It was a great experience having to get information from different employees, from different departments and then pull it all together to present to the VP's. I was able to see first hand how important teamwork can be in the work place. Everyone was so great to me, sending me their information as soon as they could and offering me a great deal of help. Everyone really is on the same team here at ETC, working together to get the job done. Once we were able to complete the report we had a meeting with one of the executives and supervisors to discuss the data and talk about options for the company moving forward. Once again this was great experience for me to be in an environment like this, giving me invaluable experience for the future.
Tomorrow is our last day of practice for our crisis management plan. We are all very comfortable right now with the project we have completed, now it is just a matter of being comfortable when we are placed in front of a room full of executives. After tomorrow, there is no turning back. We present Wednesday morning and then our long crisis management plan will be complete. In addition to our crisis management presentation on Wednesday, we also have Equity Trust's quarterly meeting. This will be another experience to add to the list of valuable ones I've had here at ETC.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Week 10 is now over and we are into week 11! I have a feeling that the next 2 weeks are going to fly by! A lot of last week was spent practicing for our group project presentation on Wednesday. The interns from Berea were here on Friday and we all went out to lunch at Panera before coming back to Elyria to run through our presentation! They will also be here tomorrow to run through everything a final time before our presentation for the executives on Wednesday! After going through it a few times with everyone, I feel very confident that we are going to do great! I can't wait!

I also will be beginning my final presentation which is a review of everything I have done throughout my internship. This will be presented our final day here at ETC.

It's hard to believe my internship is almost over, especailly after everything I have learned. I will really miss Equity Trust!

Cedar Point Outing

This July, Equity Trust is having an outing at Cedar Point with employees and their families and friends. We have over 300 employees attending! Our outing allows employees to have a discounted ticket and free lunch in the park. This week I helped our HR Generalist, Carly, prepare the tickets and information for all attendees.

Preparing all the information for each employee has taught me how to prioritize my time. I have divided up the work I need to accomplish into manageable portions so I can finish on time without feeling overwhelmed. I have enjoyed helping Carly out and seeing the exited looks on employees' faces when they receive their tickets! This event is going to be a great way for employees' to meet each others family and friends, while having a great time at an amusement park!

Corporate Challenge

We are half way through the events for the Cleveland Corporate Challenge! As first year participants, Equity Trust is doing well. We are currently in the top 10 teams for our division. This weekend we participated in Cornhole and Soccer. Each team gave it their all to make our Equity Trust family proud!

Tonight begins the three-day basketball tournament at the Ohio Nets Sports Complex in Parma. Equity Trust has two teams playing in the games tonight because several employees expressed interest in playing. I wish both teams the best of luck tonight! I hope they can bring Equity Trust home a win (or at least top 3)!

Events Projects

For the past week or so, I have been helping out with the planning for our 7 Tax-Free Wealth Seminars that will be held from August through December. We already have the cities set (New Orleans, Baltimore, Newark, Brooklyn, Orlando, Atlanta, and Cincinnati). I've researched hotels that are within a certain distance from each of these cities' airports so that we have hotel options already available for guests to make reservations at. It's important that they're both easily accessible for guests as well as affordable and have good standards. Our Events Coordinator is calling the list of hotels I gave her this week to finalize details. Another task I just finished up is finding the area codes within these cities as well as their surrounding cities and bordering states. I made sure maximum drive time is only around 2 hours or so. I then sent this to our Database Coordinator who will be taking these area codes and pulling clients and prospects located within these areas. The marketing manager will then be sending this final list of people information on the seminar so they can plan to come. Of course, anyone has the option of attending as we keep our events page on our website up-to-date with these events! It's easy to see with this project how it takes multiple hands to help out and complete a final project.

Go Time

We have a date for our intern group final presentation! A week from Wednesday, us interns will be presenting our crisis management plan to the executives. The project is a long time in the making and it will be very rewarding to present to the top executives of the company. It's amazing to think back to when we were assigned this project and how lost we initially all felt. At that time we all barely knew each other, and had no idea where this project would take us. Now, we have become one cohesive unit and have created a thorough plan that I'm excited to present. The Berea interns will be traveling to Elyria one more time to practice later in the week. We'll be able to fine tune our presentation one last time before it's game day. This group intern project has been such a great experience for me over the last several weeks. I no doubt will have great experience to rely upon during my future job hunt, which is exactly what I wanted out of an internship.
Along with the Crises Management plan I putting together a report and making a recommendation for the company regarding their processing service levels. I really enjoy the processing of taking data, analyzing it, and making a decision based off of the analysis. ETC has provided me with several opportunities to do this throughout the summer which makes me a very happy intern.

Week 9

Week 9 ended on Friday. Time is flying by! I cannot believe that I will only be here at ETC for 3 more weeks!
Last week was busy with various tasks for the accounting department including comparing published financials with those generated with FRx. In addition, I have been reviewing and documenting various services agreements.

In addition to that, the other interns and I have been practicing a lot for our group presentation. Our presentation date will be next Wednesday, July 27! I know that we will be ready and give a great presentation to the executives.

This week, my mentor Loretta will be on vacation. While she is gone I will be doing some of her day to day tasks including the Stratification Report which is completed every morning. I will be putting this report together for both ETC and finishing the report for Sterling Trust. I'm glad that I am able to help out while she is gone!

Well, back to work!

My Projects

As our internship at Equity Trust Company comes to an end, I am tying up loose ends on all of my projects. Before the interns depart, they will present to the executive team the projects they have worked on throughout the summer. In order to prepare myself for final presentations, I must finalize all of my projects. In particular, I am finishing revisions on my social media content schedule and I am formulating two proposals. The first proposal is a new hire on-boarding package, and the second a culture project.

This internship has been extremely beneficial because I am sharpening many skills and developing new ones. I have made very few formal proposals in my lifetime so it is great to be able to practice this skill. I am so glad I've had the opportunity to grow at Equity Trust.

Network and Take Advantage of Your Resources

This being my 9th week here as an intern at Equity Trust, I've come to the realization through my various projects that it's so important and really pays off in the long run to set plans and due dates as soon as a project is being implemented. It takes both time and often preliminary research, but having something to look back on and reference for minor details makes everything easier. Some people might find project plans tedious but I actually enjoy putting them together and keeping up-to-date with them. This has lead me to an interest in some sort of project planning. Although I've already met with my mentor to talk about her role in the marketing department as a project specialist, I decided to seek out another employee here at ETC. I had the opportunity to meet with the project manager in our ETS (Equity Technical Services) department. Still having one more year of college, it's difficult to fully know yet specifically what I want to do after graduation. But he provided me with a lot of valuable information from his professional experiences that I wouldn't be able to fully understand from an ordinary job description. The employees here are always willing to help others out and the interns are never excluded from this. They want us to take advantage of the resources provided to us, and I really value this.

Moving Along!

This week I found that I am really starting to get a hang of everything that I've been doing over these last 9 weeks! Things are beginning to come much easier and I am able to do a lot more things by myself. At the same time, my internship is coming to a close with only 3 more weeks left. I cannot believe how fast time has flown by!

FRx was used to publish statements this month. We did find a few kinks that I had to fix, but now I think that everything is going to go very smoothly!
In addition, I was able to code and post all the credit card entries this month by myself. Last month I was having some issues and had to ask a lot of questions. I was happy that everything worked out easily this month!
I also have posted June data to our new unit accounts that I helped set up!

Looking back at all of the things I have gained experience in throughout this internship, I am so thankful that I am with Equity Trust Company!

Mid-Year Survey

As the Human Resources intern, I have been working in all areas of the HR department. Last week, I was working heavily to recruit for positions in our new Sioux Falls location. This week, I am helping prepare our 2011 Mid-Year Survey.

Equity Trust sends out surveys bi-annually to their employees. Our employees are very important to us, so it is vital to conduct surveys twice a year to see how they are doing. I have been working closely with our HR Generalist, Carly, to formulate questions for our survey. As a starting point, we are reviewing the results from the 2010 survey and benchmarking from there. We have identified areas of opportunity to focus on, as well.

Our goal is to make Equity Trust the number one place to work! We can achieve this by listening to our employees.

Daily Line-Up

Every day at ETC each department gets together to go over the "Daily Line-Up". The Daily Line-Up is document created each day providing information on company news, birthdays, anniversaries, fun facts, and highlights an employee exemplifying a company core value. This is a fun way to bring employees together and have everybody on the same page for the day. Although all of us interns have departments, none of us had ever taken part in a Daily Line-Up. Being the highly motivated employees that we are, we took it upon ourselves to create our own intern Daily Line-Up. Each day, at 9:30 the Elyria interns gather at my desk, read through the Daily-Line-Up, and go over what we want to get done for our project. This has been a fun addition to the work day that has brought all of us interns closer together. The other day, we were fortunate enough to have the Berea interns join us for the day and take part in our Daily Line-Up. It was great to feel like one big family.
The intern project is basically ready to go, we are just putting finishing touches on our presentation and waiting to get the final date of when we actually present. On my own, I am working on a report that will help ETC make a decision regarding the future of their fees that they charge customers. Along with that, I am also creating a survey to send clients to gauge their interest in selecting their service level. These are both interesting projects that will hopefully help the company make some changes for the better.

Recruiting for South Dakota

Equity Trust announced that they will be opening a new call center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The office will be opening in September so HR has been busy recruiting! On Monday, three Equity Trust employees are traveling to Sioux Falls to conduct interviews for their new office. Equity Trust is hosting a Career Open House where they will conduct on the spot interviews.

This expansion has given me the opportunity to try my hand at recruiting. In order to prepare for my co-workers arrival in South Dakota, I am helping get the word out about our positions. Everyone has been working diligently to advertise our open Client Service Representatives positions in Sioux Falls. My co-workers are preparing newspaper ads, radio ads, and more. My task has been to recruit through social media. I have been posting on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to advertise the position openings.

I am quickly developing recruiting skills which is great experience for me. Our VP has set recruiting goals for us that we are on our way to meeting! I am excited to see the results. Time to get back to recruiting...

Presentation Planning

Our intern project presentation is coming up quick! Within the next week or so, we will be presenting our ETC Crisis Management Plan to the executives and management team here at Equity. All of us interns have been working hard to get everything that we need together and finalized!

We have divided up the presentation into several parts (one for each of us to present). We each made slides for out topic/topics and are in the process of merging these together into one presentation.

The interns from Berea will be in the Elyria office either the end of this week/beginning of next week so that we can all practice together in front of our project manager Joe and recruiter Tiffany.

Hopefully everything will work out as planned!

Pulling Together

I hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend! So far this week, I've been working a lot on our Equity Trust Company blog. Even though my mentor and I had set up a content schedule for topics and when to post, there are always other things that come up. For instance, we like to incorporate various articles into general information to make it more interesting and provide something that clients and prospects can hopefully relate to. But there are times when a blog was not planned, and someone finds a really useful article to take advantage of using. Yet, other times, I have a plan to find an article that ties in with a certain topic, and it's not always an easy task to find one. Not being as familiar with the company as my mentor and manager are, sometimes it is a little more difficult for me to know the best sources to use. Thankfully, though, they are really helpful and keep an eye out for news stories and articles that will be useful for these blogs. I enjoy keeping up with our company's blog as it teaches me different approaches to use when writing for the public to read.

Home Stretch

Our intern Crises Management project is coming to an end. We have put in a great deal of time on this project and it is very rewarding to see it all come together. It can be very challenging to work in a group at times, but we have really learned a lot along the way about the most efficient and effective ways to work as a group. With any group project, we have had our share of disagreements, but the work and insight each team member has brought to the group is invaluable. We have the project just about complete and are looking to start practicing our presentation at the end of this week or early next week. It has been such a fun experience working with all the interns. When I was being interviewed I wanted to know if the internship at ETC had interactions between the interns or if you were more confined to your department. I was told that the internship would feature both and am pleased to say that is completely true. I love working on tasks or projects for operations, but our intern meetings are always something I look forward to.
I was able to get some clarity on my new project. Currently ETC offers an same day service to its clients for a fee. What we want to find out is if it would be beneficial to offer our clients different service levels such as two day service, three hour service, or things of that nature. This will require a good deal of research and some data analysis which I am looking forward to. It should be a little challenging, but after our intern project is complete, I plan on diving head on into my new project.

Crisis Management coming to an end

Today is going to be a busy day for the Crisis Management intern group project. We have a group meeting at 10:30 to go over any final problems or questions and then a meeting with our project manager Joe at 3. Today, we also have a deadline to turn in our powerpoint slides to the HR intern Leisa so she can put all the slides together in an orderly fashion and finalized, and then tomorrow Casandra (who is also in the Berea office) and I are going to the Elyria office to practice our presentation with our fellow interns and then later in the day with Joe and Tiffany (who is in charge of all of the interns) before our big presentaion next week with the executive board. The final product is really coming together and I am excited to present tomorrow for the first time!

Week 7 Update

The celebration of ETC’s 50 NPS score was wonderful yesterday! We all enjoyed all of the things that were put together for us. There was a piñata, cake, candy, and lots of food! Always a great time!

Today, I have been helping out with the month close by entering bank transactions for the reconciliation, along with updating the streamline and the payroll database with June data.

Currently, I am doing some research for our intern project. We are beginning the process of putting together our presentation for the executives and managers. We are going to start rehearsing next week! This project has required a lot of time and effort, but hopefully it will all pay off in the end!

The new accounting system that I have been implementing since the start of my internship will now be utilized in full force starting on Monday to create our June financials! I am very excited and hope that everything goes smoothly!

Hope everyone has a Happy Friday and 4th of July!!

Recognizing our Employees

In the HR department, the VP of HR has assigned all of us to increase communication and recognition at the offices by utilizing the white boards for company announcements. We will have two boards in the Elyria office, one for employee recognition and another for community announcements. The employee board will consist of employee celebrations, new hires, and department of the month. The community board will display all the events going on in and around our community. For example, we will post about Relay for Life, which we are participating in this weekend and any department announcements. The goal of the boards is to increase communication and recognition across Equity Trust. After we developed the boards themes we are now diving into the fun stuff- decorating and distributing bios. Each employee will fill out a biography filled with fun facts and questions to display on the board! I'm really excited to see how these turn out!

Presentations

As was already mentioned, ETC had an NPS score of 50.7 so we got a delicious catered lunch today! I personally really enjoyed the pinata as I love candy!

In the midst of all this excitement, I've also been diligently working on both my individual projects and the group intern project. The days and weeks keep quickly passing by, so we don't have too much longer before we present to the executive team. I plan to do a couple of practice rounds to ensure the presentations turn out as planned. Even after all of my projects are complete and the presentations have concluded, the presentations will be useful to keep as a summary of the 12 weeks I was here.

Tomorrow, I will be giving a free promotion offer to all of our loyal Facebook fans. I'm looking forward to any feedback we receive from it! It's great to see not only clients and prospects becoming fans of our page, but also interacting and networking with each other.

Projects and Lunches

My next few weeks are going to be very busy (as im sure the rest of the interns, in our last few weeks here) working on my sales and service excellence project which is pretty close to being finished as well as my project for our retail sales turnover rate where I will be sitting down with different behavioral assessment companies and finding out ways they can customize an assessment for us to help reduce our overall turnover ratio. As far as the group intern project goes its getting down to the end and I think its coming along rather well, we just need to get our presentation together. After getting all the information together for all of the projects I have been working on I am excited to see what the final brings!

Also!!!!!!!! I cant forget to mention that we get lunch today for having Equitys NPS be over 50, which is the highest it has ever been. And then tomorrow my department is having a pot luck! :) Im excited for lunch during these next two days and am glad to be an intern at such a friendly company.

Congrats ETC for NPS over 50!

Every other Friday here at ETC, the operations manager makes an annoucment about our NPS score. The NPS is a score that is determined by surveys customers fill out. However, since many people are taking Friday off for a long holiday weekend, the annoucment was made today! ETC's NPS score reached over 50, the highest it has been! Everyone was very excited for the company and each other. Again, just another way that shows how connected this ETC family is!

Because the score has reached above 50, all employees get breakfast in the morning along with a catered lunch in the afternoon and cake for dessert! ETC really cares about their employees and rewards them for all the hard work that they do.

It's little things like this that make me so happy I'm an intern at ETC!

Intern Project

All the interns are diligently working on our intern group project as our deadline quickly approaches. Our team has been working hard to prepare an excellent presentation for the executive team here at Equity Trust. Our project leader, Ryan, delegated tasks to each intern yesterday to ensure we have everything we need before presentation day! One of my responsibilities for the Crisis Management project is to prepare an overview statement for the executives and our PowerPoint presentation. Throughout this internship, I have learned valuable lessons on how to communicate with all levels of employees and time management skills. After all our hard work, I'm sure we will have a great presentation for the executive team!

Evaluations, Projects, and Research

I had my six week evaluation with my mentor, and it went really well. Even if I complete projects and in a timely manner, it's still nice to sit one-on-one and discuss the specific expectations with her. She's also really helpful in answering any questions I have about landing a job right out of college and useful advice to keep in mind. Although my first job will be a scary thing no matter what, you can never be too prepared and it's comforting knowing that I can always go to her for guidance.

The other interns and I had our weekly meeting today. Our project is really starting to come along and everything is being finalized in just enough time to get started on putting our final presentation together. We only have 2 weeks left until the deadline, and we've definitely come a long way with it. It will be so rewarding to show it to the executives.

So one of the minor details about my job that I find quite useful is the outside research I do. While posting on Facebook or writing for our blog, I often look for articles that relate to a certain topic I plan to write about. Doing this extra research really helps me to get a better understanding of not only what the company does, but also keeps me up-to-date with news in the economy. Being a business major, I know it's important to stay on top of current issues.

Officially half way

I still can't believe that my time here at ETC is half over. Today, I sat down with my mentor and had my 6 week evaluation. I really appreciate that ETC builds these evaluations into the internship. It is a great opportunity for you to sit down and discuss your performance with your mentor/manager face to face. This way, you know exactly where you stand, and everyone is on the same page. It also is nice to be able to have a moment of your mentor/manager's busy day to talk. They can ask you any questions they have and you are free to do the same. I really like the up front and open nature of ETC.
It has been an eventful week here at ETC. Wednesday, all five of us interns were treated to lunch at Elyria Country Club with executives Jeff and Rich Desich, and Michelle Lee. This was another great opportunity provided to us by ETC. We were able to speak openly with the three executives regarding our projects, careers, and even our personal lives. I doubt that many other companies would give such high treatment to their interns. Once again it really goes to show that ETC is more than a company, it is a family. This became more and more evident these last two days, as two highly regarded ETC employees worked their final days at ETC. One employee had his desk decorated with balloons, streamers, and a ball pit resembling that of Discovery Zone, while the other employee had numerous co-workers drop off cards and gifts to wish her luck. It is great to see that ETC more than just a job, it is a place where lifelong friendships are forged.
Our intern project is now moving along at a faster pace. We were able to delegate some tasks and get some deliverables done this week. It always makes you feel good when you have something tangible to show for your hard work. On a personal note, I was able to complete a small project this week and received another large one which will end with me making an executive presentation. This project should be a bit more challenging, but I'm really excited to take on the challenge.

Half Way Through!

Today is the end of the sixth week here at ETC, which means my internship is half way through! I cannot believe how fast time has flown by! The amount of knowledge that I have gained in the past six weeks is so great, and I am so thankful to have been given this opportunity with such a great company!

On Wednesday, Jeff and Rich Desich took all us interns out to lunch and we had a wonderful time! It was amazing being given the opportunity to sit down and talk with such well respected executives. We were given the chance to tell them about what projects we have been doing, along with informing them about our group intern project. They were also able to give us some good advice and answer questions we had for them. They shared with us the importance of hard work and dedication in any job you do. In the end, it will all pay off!

The second half of this week, I have been testing FRx to make sure it is fully functional. We are hoping full implementation by July 1! Since I have been generating reports, I have found some kinks that needed to be resolved. As I am finishing this project, I have a great sense of accomplishment and cannot wait until everyone can use this new software!

Well, time to get back to work!

Social Media Project

As the HR intern, one of my projects is to develop a content schedule for the Careers side of Social Media here at Equity Trust. Equity Trust Careers utilizes Facebook, Twitter, Blog, and has an RSS feed. It was my job to research several articles in order to develop the perfect schedule to reach Equity Trust's potential employees. In the end, I created two different schedules; one for college students and one for non-students. I learned that timing is everything when it comes to social media, therefore I need to reach the right set at the right time. Students and Non-Students have different lifestyles so they require information at different times. Non-students are generally working 8-5 pm, so it is not effective for ETC to advertise our careers to them during these hours. On the other hand, college students are available during the day and often check Facebook and Twitter. This lifestyle allows us to post to them at all times of the day.

After organizing my proposal into an easy to read chart I am ready to make my recommendation. This afternoon I will be meeting with two of my managers to present my content schedule. I am very excited to share my ideas with them and get their feedback.

Lunch with Jeff, Rich, and Michelle

Today all the interns got to go to lunch with Jeff, Rich, and Michelle at the Elyria Country Club. Not only was the lunch good but it was a great experience and nice to get the chance to speak with them about the company and let them know the specifics of each project we are individually working on for the company as well as our group project together as well as hear what they do with the company and ask them any specific questions we had for them or in general for the future of our career. Yesterday and part of this morning I finished making excel spreadsheets for my retail sales hiring process and how it effects turnover as well as my finalized project plan. This afternoon is our Crisis Management meeting with our project manager Joe, after the meeting all of the interns are going to start on our powerpoint and presentation that is due in week 9 (3 weeks from now). 

Adding on to Projects

This past monday, I had some training on how to use the ETC blog site and I also had a chance to look at some of the blogging we've done in the past. Since managing our company's Facebook and Twitter accounts is a part of my social media project, my manager and mentor both thought it would also be a good idea and good experience for me to keep our blog up-to-date as well with upcoming webinars, events, and topics. As I become more confident in my daily social media tasks, it is easier to take on new ones along the way to reach as many clients and prospects as possible through the various different social media channels. Speaking of events, I've also been diving into our advertising options for our annual Networking Conference this September in New Orleans. Things are definitely busy this week, but I look forward to the challenges.

More Responsibility

I can't believe I'm almost halfway done with my internship here at ETC. Yesterday I worked on sending out all the customer service surveys to our clients. This required a lot of data scrubbing in excel and following specific instructions. It was nice to have this responsibility and to complete a task that it is so important to the company. Today, I also had the opportunity to lead a meeting with the other interns and various members of the IT department. This was a great experience for me as I was able to see how I handled a meeting of this nature, and how I can improve. The meeting was very helpful for our group intern project, which relies on a good deal of information from IT. Our project is really coming along, and it's time now for us to kick it into another gear. We're meeting a few more times this week and hope to really get some chunks of the projects done.
All of us interns will have the opportunity to be together again tomorrow, as the Berea interns will be joining us here at Elyria. We are all meeting Jeff and Rich Desich at Elyria Country Club for lunch. This will be a great opportunity for us to talk with the executives about the company, our projects, our experiences, and our careers. I hear they treat us very well at the Country Club, so I am very excited!
My returned mail project hit a bit of a wall, but I was able to work with a team lead on creating a binder that will make processing return mail go faster and smoother. It is always nice to complete things that you know will have an instant impact, something I have been very fortunate to experience here at ETC. As each week goes by, the better I feel about the experience I'm gaining at ETC.

A Lot to Look Forward To!

So far, this week has been very busy for me as the Accounting Department prepares for the month close. It seems like we were just doing the closing process for May, but we are already preparing to close for June. I have helped develop supporting schedules for the various subsidariy companies of ETC so that the Accounting Department can have quick and easy access to detailed information all in one Excel file!

Today, all the interns had a meeting to again discuss our group project. I cannot believe how close our presentation is already (only 3 weeks away!). Time flew by!!! Tommorrow, Melissa and Casandra (who are the interns located in Berea) will be in the Elyria office, which will give us a great chance to nail down some final details and start the creation of our presentation.

Also tomorrow, we will be going out to lunch with Jeff and Rich Desich. This is a great chance for all the interns to learn from these top executives and ask questions about how they got to where they are.

As always, a lot of things are going on here at ETC!

Cleveland Corporate Challenge

This Saturday was the first event for the Cleveland Corporate Challenge, Softball! The corporate challenge is a 13 event athletic competition against companies across Ohio. Equity Trust competed in the Softball tournament. The games were held at the Nike Fields in Parma. I was fortunate enough to be apart of the team that participated in the event! We played four games in total and were eliminated during the semifinals. We were all very happy to make it that far in the competition! I enjoyed getting to know my co-workers and playing the game!

This weekend officially kicked off the games. The next event is Mini Golf on July 5th. Me and the Accounting Intern, Monica, will be playing on the Mini Golf team together! I am very excited for this event. Check out our Facebook and Twitter for updates on ETC's performance throughout the games!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Equity-Trust-Careers/92682859589
http://twitter.com/#!/ETC_Careers

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday! Its the beginning of week six and we are almost halfway through our internship! Most of all my research for my projects are finished except for a few minor details and now its time to start analyzing the information and putting it into my powerpoint and reports. I am looking forward to presenting my information to the executive board when all analyzing is finished (just not quite yet) :)

My Mentor

In addition to the weekly meetings I have with my mentor, I had an additional one today to go over her position here at ETC. Since I work closely with her everyday, I had a pretty general idea of what she does. Seeing it first-hand made me more interested in finding out the specifics of her job. As a project specialist, she is extremely organized and is not afraid to approach people about the parts of a project they are completing and being sure deadlines are met in a timely manner. She really has to have a grasp on every detail of what first starts off as the creative brief. If there's something she's not clear on, she makes sure to meet with the person or department who submitted the brief and solidify their ideas before executing her project plan. Being someone who is also organized about projects I carry out, I can definitely see myself holding a position similar to this one. I know my mentor will be a great resource for me to look to.

Feeling at home

After five weeks here at ETC, I feel like I've worked here my whole life. All of us interns were treated to lunch earlier this week by our project manager Joe. It was great to be together with all the interns again, everyone brings their own unique perspective on things. Then, again today, us Elyria interns took a trip to Olive Garden for lunch today. We really have come a long way as a group since our first days together as shy newcomers to ETC. Along with the relationships here at ETC, my work has also been progressing. All week I have been preparing to take over the ETC client surveys which I will work on sending out next survey. ETC takes these surveys very seriously so I made sure I will be as prepared as possible come Monday. Also I was assigned two more smaller projects this week that I have been working on. The projects are for two different departments within Operations. I enjoy getting to help out all the different teams here in Ops. It allows me to see many different parts of the company, as well as get to know all the great people here. The weeks continue to fly by, and my experience here continues to get more valuable.

End of Week 5

Today is the end of week 5! I cannot believe how fast this internship is going by! I've been very busy this week keeping things updated for June. I got a head start on entering bank transactions and then clearing them for our bank reconciliation which should help out at the month close! Also, I have been updating my Streamline project as well as various other reports which need to consistently be updated with the most recent data.

As I've worked on all these various projects, I've noticed that I have been learning a lot about the company accounts and have most of them memorized.

I have also began a new project of defining the various rows, coloumns, and report trees that we use in our financial report generator program. This has been interesting to see the different was we can report our accounts. Some reports break each account down seperately, where others consolidate the accounts. Different reports are used depending on what type of information the user is seeking.

Well, that's all for now! Back to work!

Elyria

As Casandra (the marketing intern) said previously we got to take a trip to the Elyria office yesterday (we are located in the Berea office) and spend some time with our fellow interns and our manager for our project, Joe; who took us to a nice lunch since we all were finally together (thanks Joe!). It was nice to see everyone since we are in different offices and get to work on our project as a team. We will also be going to Elyria next week to have lunch with Jeff and Rich Desich and seeing everyone for the day! Now.. back to creating my sales excellence report.

Getting to know each other!

Today the interns' Project Manager, Joe, treated everyone to lunch. The interns have been working hard on our Crisis Management project so Joe rewarded us with a nice meal. It was great to get out of the office and enjoy time together. After our lunch, we had a meeting scheduled to discuss the progress of our project. During this phase, each intern is contacting a supervisor from their department to determine critical areas and positions. Joe is impressed with our work thus far and thinks we are right on track. We will have our formal presentation in mid-July.

A 'Sweet' Week at ETC

The past couple days have been filled with delicious treats here at ETC! Yesterday, to celebrate the Dallas Maverics winning the NBA Finals, ETC got cake for all of their employees. ETC has a location in Texas who were celebrating, so they decided that all of the locations should celebrate with them!

Today we had the bake sale fundraiser for Relay for Life. Many employees baked delicious bakery to raise money for this great cause. There was everything from cookies to brownies, to cakes and pies! It all looked great!

Also today, the interns from the Berea office came to Elyria. It was great seeing and catching up with them. We all went to lunch with our project manager for our intern project, Joe. It was a lot of fun!

This week has been very sweet so far :)

Off to Elyria for the Afternoon!

I'm really excited because this afternoon, Melissa (the sales intern) and I will be going to work at the Elyria office. It will be nice to go there and see everyone I haven't seen since the first day of orientation. Melissa and I usually call in to our weekly meetings with our project manager and the other interns, but today we'll all get to be together! This morning, though, I have a meeting with Equity Trust's Director of Education to learn more about what he does and the company webinars he hosts. I also have a universal training to attend. This afternoon I also have a webinar that will help me to more successfully manage our social media sites. It will be a busy day, but I'm looking forward to it...Off to meet with Edwin!

Busy Week Ahead

Week four is in the books, and I'm looking forward to a busy week five that I have ahead of me. I have several meetings regarding our group intern project and am also getting put on a couple new projects. In addition to all that I will be filling in for a co-worker who is in charge of the customer service which are the backbone of this company. I'm excited to have this responsibility and looking forward to the challenge. I have a meeting all afternoon Monday, where I'll be getting a crash course on how to do these surveys. It's exciting to know that I am being trusted to do something so important to the company. I also doing things that can help other people out here at ETC. I see other co-workers helping each other out all the time, so whenever I get a chance to take some weight of somebody's hands, I love it. With how great the people are here, it makes it hard not to enjoy helping others.

Being Creative

One of the things I enjoy most about my internship is how creative it allows me to be. Yes, I'm given daily and weekly projects to complete in addition to my long-term projects and they are all delivered to me with directions and a due date. At the same time, though, I'm able to incorporate my own ideas into them. Posts and tweets on our social media sites are are brainstormed ahead of time by my mentor, manager, and myself. But the way I decide to draft them is mainly left up to me. I was also able to come up with various different ways to reach out to more clients and prospects in promoting our social media. It takes both research and knowledge of our current practices, but also creativity on my own part. It's also important to present my mentor and manager with many alternatives in case they know right away that some things just won't work for our company. I love that being an intern here does not just mean "complete this project and get it back to me." It also means provide us with your thoughts and suggestions on what you think will work best for us and then we can start implementing them. I really value this in my internship program.

Weekly Touch Base Meetings

Here at Equity Trust, they have implemented an excellent internship program that strikes a balance between responsibility and learning. One aspect of the internship that I really like is the Weekly Touch Base meetings I have with my managers. These meeting give me a chance to check-in with my managers to discuss my progress, address any questions I have, and go over expectations. It is great to be able to touch base with my managers to show them my project milestones and ideas. Our meetings often turn into lively brainstorming sessions where we truly get ideas churning! It's awesome to be able to sit down with my managers and brainstorm ideas about how to make Equity Trust an even better place to work.

Reseach, Research, Research

I have learned through my time here so far how important it is to research things before you actaully do it. I have found myself researching a lot throughout my internship so far. For example, before I began implementing a new report publisher, FRx, I researched for almost 4 days to get a better idea of how the program worked and good tips that other users have had. As I was implementing it, I felt very confident in what I was doing, and I owe that to all the research that I did. I still had to ask some questions along the way, but overall the implementation of the program and creating the first report went smoothly.

I have also been reseaching new things to use in Excel. Excel is such an amazing program and it can do so much, but a lot of people only use it for basic functions. I have found a lot of cool new tricks via reseach that has saved me a lot of time when using Excel.

I'm sure that by the end of my internship I will be an expert in using Excel and hopefully, other programs as well!

Wellness at Work Symposium

On Tuesday, June 7th I attended the Wellness at Work Symposium at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The seminar consisted of HR professionals from across Ohio that gathered to learn about strategies to improve employee well-being. Equity Trust sent three employees from the HR department. I was lucky enough to be apart of our ETC team and attended the event. The seminar was an all day event that included breakfast and lunch networking opportunities and speakers. My co-workers and I had a chance to meet with fellow HR professionals to share best practices in Wellness. The speakers we attended offered insight into a wide range of Wellness topics such as, how to begin a Wellness program at your workplace and how to maintain a successful program. We found this symposium to be extremely benefitcal. Now that we are back at the office, we are hoping to put what we've learned into action by developing a brand new Wellness program for Equity Trust!

Fun Events!

Yesterday evening after work, the marketing department headed to downtown Cleveland for an Indian's game. Not only did they win, but it was a perfect night for a baseball game! It was fun to spend time with co-workers outside of work. But this morning was back to work! I met with our manager in the department who is in charge of our annual Networking Conference. It's the biggest event we do, and this September it will be held in New Orleans. I'm really excited to be a part of it and help with the planning as much as I can. The various projects I am given definitely help me to get a better feel for what aspects of marketing I am most interested in pursuing a future career in.

Moving Along

Yesterday, I had a meeting with my mentor Rachel, and my manager Dan, to discuss my returned mail project I was working on. I was able to lead the three of us in a discussion regarding the topic and show them my findings and possible solutions. This meeting alone, was a great experience for me. Not only was I able to get a good look at how Dan and Rachel act within their meetings, I was able to be a part of it and drive the conversation. Just like a job interview, the more prepared for the meeting the better. All my research benefitted me a great deal when a question would be brought up that had not been covered, yet I knew the answers. Despite all my research and knowledge I quickly learned that there was still a lot more work I could do on this project, and a lot more questions that needed to be answered.
We had a minor setback in our intern group project but now appear to be on the right path. I really enjoy working with the other interns, and look forward to when we have our meetings. Everyone is so fun and also a good worker. We don't have any problems with anyone slacking off. I feel as if we are motivated people and no matter what challenges we face, this project will get done and it will be well done.

CrossRoads - 3 Little Known Secrets To WOW Them On Your Next Job Interview

This is a great article to ready--- For those of you who are looking to apply for a position with Equity Trust READ THIS- play close attention to #2~~~ CrossRoads - 3 Little Known Secrets To WOW Them On Your Next Job Interview

Getting Things Done!

So far this week, I have been getting a lot of things accomplished! I have almost completed one of my bigger projects, creating a Streamline Report for Finance and Accounting to utilize monthly and during the year end close. Also, all of us interns are getting deeper into information for our Crisis Management Project. The main thing that us in Elyria are focusing on is how to get in contact with our customers, employees and other stakeholders if a crisis were to occur. In addition to that project, I am almost finsihed posting entries for one of our company credit card accounts.
I have come to find that I am getting the hang of things! However, I still ask a lot of questions. I hope that soon I will be able to complete these monthly processes on my own, without having to ask for help (although it's never bad to ask for help).
Also, as part of the Community Service Committee, we are getting ready for Relay for Life. There are a lot of fundraisers planned for the coming month to raise money for this great cause such as bake sales, quarter roundups, and cookouts!
I am looking forward to all of these exciting events and of course, the actual Relay event!

Getting Into the Swing of Things

My 3rd week at ETC is over today. I can't believe how quickly it went by! Yesterday I had a touch base with HR to go over how my internship experience has been thus far. I still love it just as much as I did the first day! This program is truly one of a kind and I cannot believe how much I have learned already. I also met with my manager for a 3 week evaluation and she told me that I have been a great help to the Accounting Department so far! She also told me that the tasks that I have been doing are things that Accounting Professionals do a lot. It makes me feel awesome knowing that I am getting experience in things that I will be able to take to future jobs.

After being here 3 weeks, I feel like I finally am getting into the swing of things. I know where everything is, I've gotten to know a lot of my co-workers, and I feel completely comfortable asking questions and being at work. However, I know that there is still a lot more to learn!

Never be Afraid to Ask Questions

One thing I realize each and everyday is how important it is to ask questions. I tend to be someone who is hesitant to ask questions when I am unsure of something. Sometimes I think it might be a dumb question when people are really knowledgeable at what they do or perhaps I might be bothering them if they are too busy. It's actually far from that, though. The marketing department that I work with everyday knows everything is still new to me and they expect that I'll have questions. No one begins working for a company by already knowing everything about it. My department also genuinely cares that I learn and get the most out of this internship that I possibly can. And for this to happen, I need to ask questions that I have. Not only this, but asking questions will actually save time in the end rather than to assume I'm doing something the right way and have to go back and change everything. On to another topic, I've been researching my disasters for the crisis management project. I have power outages and natural gas leaks, and I'm making sure to cover all the necessary precautions and procedures in case Equity Trust Company ever has to face either of these (hopefully not, though). I can't wait to see the final plan all of us interns put together. It's interesting to think we are putting together a procedural plan the whole company will learn and reference.

Core Values

Equity Trust Company- Core Value #9 Welcome Home "We are a family..."

As my internship progresses, I am able to see each one of Equity Trust's Core Values in action. Each Intern at Equity Trust has incremental touch base meetings with their Manager and Human Resources throughout their internship. This summer we have a three and six week meeting with our Manager and Human Resources. Yesterday, I had my three week touch base meeting with HR. It was great to be able to check in with someone to have my questions answered, gauge my impression of the internships thus far, and see how I'm doing. These touch base meetings are reasons why my internship at Equity Trust has been great so far. The family oriented culture at Equity Trust shines through making my internship more meaningful.

This week I have been busy with several different tasks which has made the week fly by so far. Also it is really helping me learn how to manage my time. My two bigger projects at the moment are Returned Mail and the intern group project on Crisis Management. I'm really excited to be working on projects that I can put on my resume and talk about in future interviews. It has only been three weeks here at ETC but I already feel as if I would be much more prepared for an interview than I was three weeks ago. Some places have interns run around and get coffee but not here at ETC. I feel like I'm contributing and helping out as a valued team member, which is thrilling for me.
Both of my main projects have been challenging for me at times since they are so open ended, but are extremely satisfying when it "clicks" and you can start rolling with the project. The open-endedness of the projects is also nice in the way it allows me to be creative and really put my mind to work. ETC continues to impress me with how helpful and friendly everyone is. If you are stuck on something, people are eager to help you or point you in the direction of someone that can. ETC's core value "We are all on the same team" really holds true. Once again it is refreshing to see a company who doesn't just say what they believe, they show it. I'm looking forward to our intern meeting next Tuesday to see what everyone has come up with. It should be fun to put all of our research together and start making this Crisis Managment Plan a reality.

Week 3

It's hard to believe I am already in the third week of my internship at Equity Trust Company. This week I held a Captain's Meeting for the Cleveland Corporate Challenge. We ironed out details about t-shirts and events and are gearing up for its start on June 16th! My social media project for Equity Trust Company's Careers Facebook and Twitter is progressing. I met with the Marketing team yesterday to brainstorm Check us out on Facebook and Twitter to see the changes we will soon be making! In addition to my individual projects I am been meeting with the other interns to discuss our group project. It has been great to spend time with the other interns and hear about their projects from their departments.

Getting Involved in the Community

This morning was my first meeting since being on the committee for Relay for Life. Some of us Berea employees called in to the rest of the Relay for Life Committee at the Elyria Office. We discussed the time line for this next month involving raffles, a bake sale, and a spirit week that will be leading up to Relay for Life in July. I really like that ETC is more than just a job - they offer opportunities to get involved within the community and give employees fun activities to participate in and to do together.

Intern Project Planning

The last couple days, we interns have been putting together our project plan for our intern group project, a Crisis Management Plan for ETC. After speaking with them, I realized how much time, effort, and information is going to be going into this project. However, in the end, I know it will be a great accomplishment! In addition to tasks I've been working on in the accounting department, I have been researching for our project, specifically for information on fire and medical emergencies. There are so many preparations that must be in place to protect employees and the surrounding community for either of these events. I think that our project will be very helpful to ETC so that everyone can be educated on how to react to all different types of crises.

Back to researching!

Crisis Management

Today was our one week mark to our Crisis Management intern project. Our project plan looks great and everyone works very well together. We have some great ideas of what we would like to do for this project and assigned each individual seperate tasks to be completed by next meeting (Tuesday). I am looking forward to see what everyone brings back next week research wise!

Happy Friday!

I got a lot of things accomplished today here at ETC. I was able to generate a balance sheet using our new FRx system (I was very excited!), enter invoices to pay some of our bills, print out the checks for the invoices, and I finished my first draft for one of my projects. Along with that, I have been researching for our intern project, which is to create a Crisis Management plan. I am looking forward to working with all the interns and hopefully developing a plan that ETC can use after our time here this summer is over. As our project manager Joe said, this is a great chance for us to make our mark at ETC!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Working Together

I can honestly say I leave work every single day having learned something new that I know will benefit me even after my internship ends in August. In addition to the intern meeting we had yesterday afternoon that Ryan and Lisa mentioned, my mentor invites me to several other meetings throughout the week. I've been to ones with both ETC and Sterling sales, as well as with IT and Client Services. Being a business student in college, I knew the various group projects professors assign would somehow be beneficial. Finally working for a company and seeing how employees interact both within and across departments truly gives me perspective on this. Not only is it important for individual employees to offer their expertise, but they also need to be skilled in communication, time management, and taking the initiative to follow up with team members. Having the opportunity to sit in on these meetings gives me insight into daily operations that have the ultimate goal of producing satisfaction for our clients.

Learning Something New Every Day

This week has been going great so far, but I have definitely been busy! I am learning something new everyday, whether it be general accounting knowledge, things about ETC, or more recently, software! I have learned so many new programs already such as Quickbooks, GP Dynamics, FRx, and of course, Excel. I use Excel everyday for many things and my manager has been teaching me new tricks along the way. It's crazy how many things Excel can do for you to make your life easier.

I am still loving the corporate culture here at ETC. There is so much planned for all the interns to do this summer including participating in Cleveland Corporate Challenge (I will be doing minigolf!), Relay for Life (our team is 'Marching for Madagascar), a trip to Cedar Point, and so much more. There is a great sense of community at this company.

Also throughout this week, I have got to know my fellow interns more. We all get along great and it's really nice to be able to go over and visit them throughout the day or eat lunch with them in the afternoon.

I am looking forward to the rest of my summer here at ETC :)

Intern Project

This afternoon all 5 interns met to receive information about our summer long intern project. Our project is to develop a crisis management plan for Equity Trust Company in case of an emergency. The end result will be presented to the management staff at ETC during week 9 of our internship. This is a really exciting opportunity to be part of a team that will develop an important procedure for ETC. Our project manager has given us the freedom to assign ourselves roles, schedule meetings, and complete the project. I am excited to begin working with all the interns because we have skills from all areas to bring to the table. I have confidence we will really produce something great!

Flying By

These last few days have been flying by, I can't believe week two is almost over. Since I last wrote I have been very busy completing various mini projects. I started out researching our competitors, looking for fees or services that ETC could adopt to increase revenue. Also since one of ETC's core values is "The Client is Our Ultimate Boss", I spent time researching the top customer service companies and why they are regarded so highly. I crafted a report with suggestions for ETC to look into to increase their customer satisfaction. I was excited to complete projects where my results might actually be used to make the company better. It is that reason that I'm looking forward to completing my major project which is to try and improve the return mail process here at ETC. Right now ETC is getting flooded with return mail which costs the company money and also takes a great deal of time to work through. The project will be very challenging but hopefully upon completion of this project I'll be able to say that I helped save the company some money. Besides being satisfied with the work I have been doing, I continue to be thrilled about the people here at ETC. It makes work so much more enjoyable when you are around people who enjoy their job. Everyone works very hard but still is able to keep a positive, upbeat attitude. Although I've only been here a week and a half, I'm starting to feel at home. My mentor and manager have been nothing but helpful and friendly to me which makes it much easier to wake up and go to work in the morning. All of us interns have a meeting this afternoon regarding our group project. It should be fun interacting with everyone again and the meeting should give us more insight on what other great challenges we'll face this summer.

busy, busy

This week has been flying by. I can't believe it is already over half way done! I've been adding items on to my social media plan and finalizing dates. I have also started adding some upcoming webinars on our ETC facebook fan page so be sure to check them out! After a couple of training meetings this week, I am ready to start on my second project, which involves organizing our e-Library and make things easier to find :)

Junior Achievement

Today Equity Trust Company partnered with Junior Achievement to teach for a day at Franklin Elementary School in Elyria. Roughy 15 ETC employees spent their morning teaching 1st-5th graders the importance of business in society. I taught a 1st grade class and we discussed family. Students also learned about the difference between a need and a want. I now have a greater appreciation for teachers because I am tired! It was so nice to give back to the community and ETC hopes to form a lasting partnership with Franklin Elementary and Junior Achievement.

This week has been pretty great thus far! Monday was my birthday :) and everyone made sure to tell me happy birthday and Melva left me a nice birthday message! Yesterday was my last day of training in the Berea office and I am now working on the NPS survey results to view responses and comments from our customers and find ways to make sure everyone loves us! ;)