Tracey Zaleski's Intern Journal

Tracey Zaleski completed an internship with Thomson Tax & Accounting (Creative Solutions) during the 2006-07 school year and kept a diary of her experiences. Zaleski is majoring in business management and earned her BBA in June 2007.  Below is her journal on her experiences.
 
Sept. 21, 2006 -- I applied to the Thomson Creative Solutions internship as suggested, and they called me back today. I am very excited! I'll keep you posted on what happens.
Oct. 2, 2006 -- I had a phone interview last week for the internship. I also just went this morning for an interview with them. I went on a tour of the facility (very nice), was able to sit with a former intern to listen in on some calls, and then went for two interviews with the management team for the interns. I think it went very well. They said they would be letting me know very quickly. I'm very hopeful that I got it, and hope to find out within the next few days since it starts on Oct. 16. I'll keep you posted!
Oct. 3, 2006 -- They called me today and made an offer over the phone! They are mailing out the official paperwork for me to sign. I'm very excited!!!!
Oct. 19, 2006 -- First Week of Work -- I LOVE MY INTERNSHIP!! It's great! The company is really great. It will be a lot of hard work, but I'm a Cleary student, so I can take it. I really like the group I'm with and am very excited to continue with training.
Oct. 23, 2006 -- I still love it here. I just sat through a meeting with the president of creative solutions. He was doing a dry run of the presentation for our users conference. I really do think this was an excellent move for me to make. It is taking some adjustments to make myself more of a morning person. It's been tough changing my sleep schedule around so much. I'll keep you posted as time goes on.
Nov. 16, 2006 -- I am still doing well here at Creative Solutions. I have settled into my cubicle and have most of my personal stuff up now. I'll start taking calls from users on Monday or Tuesday. We had to take a test over what we learned from our training last Thursday. It was a pretty intense test. We were able to use our training manuals, online resources and any other documentation we could get our hands on. We just could not consult our fellow interns or any other employees. We got the results on Monday afternoon. I was worried about it. I got a score of 77.1%. There were only two or three other people who scored higher than me! I was very excited to be towards the top of the class!! Especially being the only woman to get that high of a score. I'll let you know how my first days on the phone are. 
Nov. 20, 2006 -- I was one of the first people to get launched on the phones this morning. So far, I have taken 13 calls, and had someone sitting with me helping me and listening to my calls. Now, at 2 p.m., I'll be all on my own. It's a scary feeling. I know the program and what needs to be done, but being on the phone seems to make it more intimidating.
Dec. 19, 2006 -- Things are still going very well. My new focus is to improve my call statistics. I have next week off so I can go to Florida. I sure am glad I mentioned going when I was interviewing, so it was not a huge issue when I asked for the time off. My calls are going more smoothly and I find that I am able to answer other interns' questions about basic things. The next group of interns will be starting on Dec. 26, and it will be interesting to meet them all. 
Jan. 26, 2007 -- Things are still going well here with the internship. After the new group of interns started, I had three of them assigned to listen in on my calls for part of the day as part of their training. It is getting busier here now that we are close to starting tax season. The new interns are in the process of being launched on the phones, and seem to be doing well. It's nice to have some more reps answering the phones now that call volumes are increasing. I am finding it a bit more difficult to get all of my course work done with working about 60 hours per week. I'm realizing that my time management skills are going to be put to the test in the coming weeks. I'm sure I'll be able to come out on my feet, but will just need to multi-task more than usual. I'm also excited because I only have about six more required classes to take before graduation, and just need to test out of a few more. It's exciting getting closer and closer to graduation!

I am able to take one lecture class every 6-week term. I leave work early that one day, and work my regular hours the rest of the week. Luckily, they are pretty understanding here when it comes to needing time off for classes. They prefer if you only have to miss a few hours once a week to attend your class. I am finding that it is more of a struggle to take classes and work so many hours, but am still managing to get all of my course work done so far.
 
Feb. 22, 2007 -- Things are still going well. I'm continuing to improve my call statistics. Also, we've been getting more and more calls every day now that tax season is upon us. I'm interested to see what it's like towards the end of March and in April. So far, the questions have still been manageable, and I am learning something new every day. It was a bit more difficult to get all of my final coursework done than usual, but I was able to complete it all on time (just with some lack of sleep). 
April 3, 2007 -- The pace has picked up here, and we are in the midst of tax season. There are a few down times, like now when I have a few moments to breathe. For the most part, the entire day is a flurry of calls and asking for help for odd questions from our users. I had my first review, which went well. I am looking forward to my second review, and hope to get hired on after the internship is over. The suspense is eating away at me, but I understand why they don't release the results in the middle of taking hectic calls all day. I have done very well on my call evaluations. Overall, I've had nine of them. I do expect at least one more before the end of the internship. I have also been volunteering for late shifts and am working this Saturday and the entire weekend the week after. It doesn't seem like I've been here since October. I'm a bit surprised to know that the end is almost here. It seems that in keeping us so busy, the time seems to have flown by. As much as I am looking forward to having time to sleep again, I almost don't want it to end. I'm enjoying the pay and the learning experience as well as working with my colleagues; not just other interns, but the full-time staff as well.
 
April 30, 2007 -- The internship is over, and I was offered a part-time position with the company with the possibility of full-time employment at the end of June. Overall, about 30% of the interns were hired on after the internship, which met our expectations. The internship was challenging to say the least. I learned a lot and made a lot of new friends. If I had everything to do over again, I would definitely recommend taking fewer classes during the internship. While I was successful in completing the internship and my classes at the same time, I had no time to spend relaxing or hanging out. I would have also considered a co-op opportunity during the internship had my situation allowed it. Taking so many classes and working so much drained a lot out of me. I am back to work this week after a much-needed week off. I enjoyed my time away from work being able to relax and work on my coursework and take some Cleary exams. I would definitely repeat the experience, probably doing the same things as the first time. I would try to be more attentive to when to take calls and when to research for users. I would have also driven myself to get more calls every hour. I would still take a full course load so I would not delay my degree at all, but strongly recommend that anyone else considering the internship understand that will a full course load and working 60+ hours every week; there will barely be enough time to sleep and eat.
 
July 16, 2007 -- I was offered a full-time position with Thomson Tax & Accounting as a product support representative. I am very excited and relieved to have a full-time job given the current local economy. I enjoyed my experience during the internship. I learned more than I ever thought I could have. There were times when I wanted to take a break from school and just work instead of trying to do both, but I knew that I could pull through it and be successful at both. Also, during my internship everyone at Cleary was a great source of support. I would like to thank everyone for helping me through during those tough moments. I really appreciate it!! I do highly recommend the internship to Cleary students. You get excellent training and support when going through the internship and it is a paid internship, which is very rare. Also, at the end of the internship you will be able to have a well respected company listed on your resume. What Cleary student wouldn't want that??