The Summer I Turned a Building Performance Novice

Professors and parents alike have been preaching about the importance of an internship for years now. Many college students, like myself, stress about obtaining one every fall, and many students only have one by the time they’ve graduated. As the summer draws to a close, I wanted to reflect on my internship experience and some of the lessons I’ve learned.

College to Corporate

Going into this internship, one of the most daunting hills I anticipated climbing was the adjustment from college life to corporate life. College is almost regarded as the final frontier before you resign yourself to a monotonous adulthood. In the media, corporate America is depicted as boring, redundant, and soul crushing, dressed up in conservative clothing. I feared the cubicle, the slacks, and the harsh overhead lighting. But the office culture I experienced defied expectations. The very first day I walked into BranchPattern, I was met with a beer fridge in the kitchen and a Shrek tapestry hung off someone’s desk. I didn’t see the stiff, bland caricature of the white-collar lifestyle. This was compounded by the near-constant presence of dogs in the office. Dogs have strolled under my desk, wrestled and played in the empty walkways, and even sat in my lap, bringing an extra spark of joy to the office. This experience has been so far from what I anticipated, and I’ve learned that office culture is not only unique to a company but is cultivated by its employees. Keeping an open mind has been crucial to adjusting to the environment, even when reality was better than expectation. My biggest concern changed dramatically from adapting to a new culture to my dwindling step count. Thankfully, Kansas City has quite a few parks and neighborhoods to stroll around.

Cross-Country Collaboration

Most of my life, I had collaborated with my peers face to face. Although I’ve coordinated many a group project through group texts and email chains, there’s always been the guarantee that I would see my teammates between classes. BranchPattern’s analytics team spans over two time zones, creeping all the way from Florida into Canada. Even though I was working out of the Kansas City office, I was working with my team purely through Microsoft Teams, not an analytical soul in sight. After driving through the pastures of Kansas to make it from Colorado to Missouri, I was a bit concerned. Why had I come all this way to sit on calls all day? But as time went on, and the regular adjustment period ended, my concerns were alleviated. Not only did I frequently interact with the people in the office, but my team was welcoming and easily adjusted to a new face. I didn’t experience any awkward adjustment to this new form of collaboration, as my team’s experience and attitude toward the work structure made everything run smoothly. I just had to trust the professionals in the office and go with the flow.

A Two-Month Learning Experience

“Internships are a learning opportunity, not just a job.” This sentiment had been drilled into my head for months, if not years. It’s never been a surprising thing to say; engineering school teaches a lot, but the classroom is very different from the cubicle. Most engineering students can’t put into words what they do, even as upperclassmen; and assignments are typically directed by rubrics and instruction sheets. When handed a blank PowerPoint with a general description, I felt that I was out of my depth, unsure of what to produce. But the expectation wasn’t to create perfect, polished work that checked off every mark; the expectation was to highlight the key takeaways and demonstrate how well I could communicate the data. With my lack of industry expertise, asking clarifying questions and applying feedback became crucial. Learning by doing became the name of the game; I had to be unafraid to fail and prepared to edit or even scrap my work.  

I wish I had taken more time to interact with other teams in my two months tenure. With one year left until graduation, I’m in a privileged position to explore my options and experiment with potential career paths. Although I did obtain some understanding of the company and its different positions, I wish I had managed to make time to learn more. However, being surrounded by other interns provided opportunities to compare notes and taskwork. Although we are all still inexperienced, I heard a lot about the different departments and their responsibilities through the other 4 interns at the Kansas City office. There is lots to learn in just two months, so asking questions and talking with my peers has been incredibly valuable.

Network, network, network!  

Speaking of the other interns, their presence entirely changed my experience through our camaraderie and similar perspectives. Knowing that others were experiencing similar challenges made me feel more grounded, eliminating potential spirals and imposter syndrome. We jokingly said that we move in a pack, but to some extent it was true – we’d go to lunch together, we’d gather around each other’s desks, and we’d leave at the same time. As someone who took on Kansas City solo, the other interns softened some of the growing pains. However, I felt afraid to step outside of this comfort zone and, with my whole team working remote, some of those organic interactions and introductions were limited. I really had to make a conscious effort to talk to and connect with the full-time employees. I’ve realized that this internship is not only a learning opportunity, but also an opportunity to practice professional relationships and make lasting connections with industry experts.

In Summary

Just like every article, parent, and professor has said, my internship has been an invaluable experience and a peek into the mystifying corporate world. I’ve learned that it’s better to focus on making the most of your summer by learning about the industry and determining whether the company is a good fit, rather than worrying about failure or being inexperienced. This internship has been much more than just another line on my resume – I’ve learned, I’ve grown, and I’ve made many wonderful connections in the process. Going into my final year of college, I’m excited to utilize some of the skills I’ve acquired and connect what I’ve learned at BranchPattern to topics covered in my classes.

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