Week 10: The Last One

8/2/16 – 8/5/16

Here begins my last week at GK.

On Monday, I was out of the office.

I returned on Tuesday, ready to work a full day to really knock out my long to-do list. I began by fixing up Charlie’s survey to perfect it. Then, I sat in on the Worldwide marketing meeting again. I also finished relinking the IBM certs for the Canada website, meaning that all that is left in the IBM project is quality assessment! I also completed a spreadsheet for Amy, matching unassigned courses to their technology and product types. I finished Zane’s Partner-Delivered Courses update on the website as well. Tuesday was very busy, but I accomplished a lot of things!

On Wednesday, I did the Lead Conversion Summary again for Michelle. I also updated the Partner-Delivered Courses for Zane on Canada’s website. I also completed some background research on how to write a brand awareness survey for Greg. I compiled information on question wording, question type, and analysis for him to get a good head start on his survey.

On my second-to-last day, I QA’d all of the IBM certs, which took up nearly my entire day. I also sent everyone that I work with a request to connect on LinkedIn.

Finally, on my last day, I finished the IBM certs quality assessment. Now, it will be up to Jenee and Caitlin to approve and publish in the next few days. I asked them to let me know when they did, so that I could see my handiwork live on the website. I also sat in on the savings renaming project presentation to sales. The whole presentation went over very well, and the team will now continue their work to get it approved by upper management. I also drafted a new industry list for the salary survey for Greg.

Lastly, I cleaned out my desk, shut down my computer, and left for my farewell lunch. It was an amazing ten weeks, and I leave feeling very bittersweet.

Thanks, GK, for the amazing first internship experience!

Week 9: The One with All the Urgency

7/25/16 – 7/29/16

This Monday marked the beginning of my last two weeks at GK. This week was off to a very busy start. For one, my supervisor is on vacation this week, so I must essentially try to do part of her job and my job. Secondly, I sent out a “two weeks notice” email to everyone in the marketing department, requesting that if they have any projects left for me that I can accomplish before I leave to send them my way. And they did. So on Monday, I knocked the last of the certification linking for Cassie. I also was trained on SalesLogix by Ruth to complete a project for her later in the week. I continued working on my IBM certs as well, and I am nearly finished with them!

On Tuesday, I began working on some web content for Zane. I am updating the Partner-Delivered Courses section of the website. I also further analyzed the flash promo’s successes so that Ruth would have more positive metrics to use in her meeting. As part of my job taking over Wendy’s job for the week, I aided a few people in their queries concerning their purchase orders. Finally, I found a master list of all of GK’s named accounts and began comparing them to the companies found on the Fortune 500 list for sales enablement.

On Wednesday, I worked closely with Charlie and Dave to create three separate surveys for the both of them. This was an urgent task, as all three surveys needed to be sent out on Friday at the latest. I also wrote up a fact-sheet for Ruth to take to here flash promo meeting. Again, all of this was due urgently. It was a busy day!

On Thursday, I finished my IBM certs just in time for my meeting about them with Jenee and Caitlin. We went over some of the more complicated parts, and fixed as many tweaks as we could find. Our next steps with be to copy the entire folder over to Canada’s website, and relink all of the links that don’t convert. I am excited to almost be done with these! Next, I worked on this sales enablement data with the Fortune 500 and edited Dave and Charlie’s surveys some more.

Finally, on Friday, I finished the Fortune 500 list first. Then, I finished Dave and Charlie’s surveys and all of their edits. Best of all, I made a few suggestions of my own to improve the surveys, and they loved my ideas. And I finished the day by relinking the certs on Canada’s website. Overall, it was a tough week that tested my ability to work under pressure- and I believe I did very well!

Week 8: The One with the Interview

7/18/16 – 7/22/16

I was out of the office last week for a family vacation. Now, back to work!

On Monday, I met up with Michelle Bryan to discuss a spreadsheet project. She wanted me to update her Lead Conversion Summary, the document that compiles all the information we need from the Cognos report that tells us how many buys we get from people who met us at trade shows. The spreadsheet was boring, but it was interesting to see how our trade show efforts directly translated into revenue. I also met with Cassie Demeter to discuss a new project in Umbraco to link certifications to the appropriate internal courses.

On Tuesday, I finished the Lead Conversion Summary for Michelle. I also met with Zane briefly to discuss the CDFs on the website to get some tweaks fixed. Finally, I worked on the IBM certs, which I am nearly finished with!

Wednesday was a very busy day! First, I worked on some certs as I was making serious headway on that long project. Then, I was charged with an urgent assignment from Dave, the VP. He asked me to prepare a few reports on the most recent flash promotion for him to use in his exec board meeting. I began working on them immediately and continued working on them for the rest of Wednesday.

Thursday was all about those reports. I spent most of the day running back and forth from Dave’s office tweaking, approving, and creating these reports. I loved Thursday because of the fast-paced work (as his meeting was at 11:30 that day) and because I got a lot of time working directly with the VP! I think I impressed him with my work. He loved the charts and said they went over very well in his meeting!

On Friday, I worked mostly on the new project from Cassie. I began linking certifications on our website to their corresponding courses. I also assessed my performance evaluation responses. I was extremely happy with the feedback. I will go into more detail in my paper, but I will report that I received an average 9.33 out of 10 in terms of overall performance.

This week also ended on another fantastic note. Friday, I was fortunate enough to have a lunch interview with Dave, the VP of Marketing. I learned so much about his time with the company, the company’s history, and received great advices from this seasoned veteran. Again, I will go into more detail in my paper.

Week 7: The One with the Fourth of July

 7/5/16 – 7/7/2016

After the long weekend, I return for week seven of work! Monday morning, I finished all of my CDFs. Come July 11^th, they will all be published to our US and Canadian websites. In addition, I continued working on the IBM certs. I was also able to sit in on a meeting to discuss the annual salary survey that GK produces. They were brainstorming ideas to encourage more partner participation in the survey. It was really interesting to listen to everyone’s ideas!

Tuesday was a very busy day. I worked on more certs, and set up another meeting to discuss more questions that I had, as I begin to make significant progress on the certs and need to make more detailed tweaks. Also, IBM’s websites are very difficult to navigate, so working with that has been very difficult. I sat in on another Sprint meeting in product, where I got to witness again how Agile planning is structured and how efficiently it works. Lastly, and most excitingly, I had a phone interview with Linda Chapman today (the woman Michael Harward put me in contact with). I got to ask her many questions about her parents’ foreign service, where she lived, what she knew of the lifestyle, and what my first steps towards that career should be. It was amazing! It was a short phone call, but I quickly learned so much.

On Wednesday, I began the day by writing thank you notes to Michael and Mechelle in the training center for letting me shadow them. I also followed up with Linda Chapman to thank her for taking the time to speak with me. I also got to sit in on a Marcomm production meeting, where I learned that there are many, MANY, frustrations within the department. They are frustrated by the lack of transparency when projects are being passed along, and frustrated with the absence of a formal system that everyone should adhere to. This meeting was informative because I learned a lot about what not to do when setting up a department—transparency and fluidity are a must. I also received a new project from Dave, the VP, today. He asked me to take a look at the new Fortune 500 list and determine which ones we do not have as named accounts for sales enablement.

Finally, this week I wrote and sent out a performance evaluation. I asked my colleagues to fill it out and return it by Monday, July 18^th. Hopefully the responses are good!

Week 6: The One in the Training Center

6/27/16 – 7/1/16

Monday: Happy Birthday to me! I just turned 19.

This week will be unique because my supervisor arranged for me to work in the next-door training center on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So, Monday, I spent time with Mechelle and Carrie, the receptionists in the training center, learning the ins and outs of how we deliver our courses. It was very interesting to see how the courses worked at the ground level, instead of only marketing them or on the product level creating them. I also began to appreciate the level of customer service that is required and how it sets us apart from our competitors. I also got to meet tons of our sales people and instructors who work in the training center. All in all it was an interesting day.

Tuesday I moved back up to the fifth floor, and worked on my CDFs. I also continued with the IBM certs, and I created a spreadsheet to track my progress and shared it with Jenee and Caitlin, so that they would be able to view my progress as well. I learned last week that it was difficult to keep track of what was done and what wasn’t, so hopefully this spreadsheet will help to organized the slightly unstructured assignment and lead to a more fluid workflow.

On Wednesday, I was back in the training center. It was a very slow day of general receptionist responsibilities. So, I mostly greeted people, restocked the break room, and worked on other stuff on my computer. Not a lot to report!

Thursday, I returned to my cubicle, and worked on CDFs all day long. This was great because I could really knock them out efficiently for Sarah because there were no distractions or other priorities. I am nearly done with them now.

Friday, I was again in the training center. Although, it was much more interesting because I was lucky enough to sit down with Michael Harward, the manager of all training centers in North America. We had a fascinating chat about the company, its history, his history with the company, and his advices for me. He is such a nice guy, and put me in contact with a woman named Linda Chapman, whose parents were Foreign Service Officers. For the rest of the day, we mostly cleaned up to the training center and set them up for next week’s classes.

Week 5: The One with all the Web Content

6/20/16 – 6/24/16

This Monday was mostly a flurry of emails and pleads for information. The TrainingIndustry.com application is due on Wednesday and we do not have all the information we need, despite my asking for it weeks ahead of time. As information has started to flow in, I have been updating our application. Besides that, I continued to work on the certification pages for IBM and the Course Description Forms for Sarah.

On Tuesday, I finally compiled all of the information that I would need to submit the TrainingIndustry.com application. The app is in and we should hear back in the next few weeks. I really enjoyed this project because it was the first thing they gave me to handle on my own, and I really needed to expand my reach within the business and ask a handful of new people (some vice presidents) for information I needed. It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to grow. Tuesday we also had another worldwide meeting and a meeting to discuss the savings program renaming. Lastly, I read the white paper, “Communicate, Communicate, Communicate” and wrote a new abstract for it.

On Wednesday, I completed about eight more certification pages. However, I have noticed a few holes in my training and need to get some questions answered, so I set up a meeting between Caitlin, Jenee, and I for Friday. I also attended the Sprint Planning meeting with my supervisor to observe how Agile planning works. Lastly, in Tuesday’s worldwide meeting, there was a discussion about creating a collateral inventory to be used globally. Wendy and I took it upon ourselves to start brainstorming a framework for such an inventory. It would be a massive project, compiling all of that data, but it was fun to sit down with Wendy and think of as many facets of this project as we could for the initial planning stages.

Now, Thursday was all about uploading new pages to the website. I was able to work on more IBM certs (I am up to about fifteen now) and got fully trained on CDFs by Sarah, so that I can start working on them tomorrow.

On this Friday, I began knocking out a few CDFs for Sarah. They came along slowly at first, as I became accustomed to the process, but next week should go along much better. The rest of Friday was composed of meetings for updates on various projects, mostly concerning competitive intelligence. I then had my meeting with Jenee and Caitlin to answer my IBM cert questions. Now, those should go along more smoothly, and I better understand GK’s web content manager, Umbraco.

Week 4: The One with the Worldwide Marketing Meeting

6/6/16 – 6/10/16

This week began on Monday, June 6^th, with an assignment that my supervisor made entirely my responsibility. I began work on the TrainingIndustry.com Workforce Development award application. Off to an easy start with me filling in basic company and employee information. Soon, I will gather information on more of the company’s inner workings concerning workforce development and training and be able to fill out more on the application. More to come from that project. We also had a meeting today about renaming the available savings programs. Management believes that the names are either out-dated, not very descriptive, or “too Wal-Mart.” My assignment after meeting was to compile a list of competitors’ savings programs and their names for comparison.

Tuesday was a big day! Today, because my supervisor was out, I had to (got to) sit in on the Worldwide Marketing meeting between the VPs of Marketing for the US, Canada, and EMEA. The meeting was fascinating! I learned that one of the biggest goals for the upcoming months is to collaborate more with our organization abroad, create a more cohesive brand, and formalize more processes so that they work smoother within the company as a whole. I also learned that taking six pages of handwritten notes is painful work, but pays off when the Vice Presidents need to reference them later on.

After my big day on Tuesday, the week was pretty quiet. I was trained on Wednesday by Sarah on CDFs (Course Description Forms) and will hopefully start implementing that training and adding these forms to the website soon. I also began planning the TrainingIndustry.com application and requesting information from various financial and product sources. I was also taught how to write an abstract for a white paper and will begin writing those once I return from vacation after next week.

I will return on Monday, June 20^th!

Week 3: The One with All the Surveys

5/31/16 – 6/3/16

Another four-day week thanks to Memorial Day!

No work on Monday.

My week began on Tuesday with an official training session conducted by a Qualtrics trainer. He was able to contribute more professional insight to the program, which expanded my knowledge beyond the tutorial training I previously completed. Also, about a dozen of my colleagues are now trained, so some of the survey migrations will now be lifted off Wendy’s and my shoulders. For the rest of the day, I simply programmed surveys. I also sent out the weekly Open Tickets Report for FootPrints to the whole marketing team.

On Wednesday, I continued migrating surveys almost all day. Nothing very exciting! We did have a meeting with Greg Timpany to further the Brand Awareness project, but the overall conclusion was that the project would be postponed to focus on Qualtrics instead.

On Thursday, I yet again continued migrating surveys into Qualtrics. In addition, Wendy and I caught up with Amy Dethlefsen to discuss the Universal MTM project and catch up on its progress. The questions had been finalized and sent to Marcomm for editing. I was also briefed on TrainingIndustry.com today. TI is a website that ranks training providers according to the services they offer, and for anyone in the market for training, it is likely that they will check here first. Every year, they send out award applications for companies to fill out for their chance to make the Top 20 list. This year, my supervisor gave me the responsibility of filling out this application. It is exciting to be trusted solely with this task! It is due in a few weeks.

Finally, on Friday, I migrated more surveys. However, I also got to sit in on a meeting to discuss a new project that we will be starting that should hopefully increase transparency and efficiency within the office. The process is for Course Description Forms (CDFs). Currently, there is no tracking or formal process for developing these forms for the website. Hopefully, our team can put together a process that will become standard within the department and increase visibility and efficiency. We also had a meeting today to get updates on the current promotions that GK has and how long they will last. Wendy and I also had our one-on-one meeting with Dave, the VP of Marketing, today. We went over our current projects and progress, and he asked for an update from me specifically on what I had been working on. Lastly, I had a meeting with two girls in Product, Caitlin and Jenee, because they have a project that they would like to give me. Starting next week, I will be able to work on uploading some content to our website! They would like me to put together all 40 of the certification pages for all of the IBM training we offer. It is a large task and I am thrilled to be given this responsibility.

Week 2: The One Where I Began Qualtrics

5/23 – 5/26

Now, we begin week two. This week, I am working 8 am to 1pm, so that I could take Friday off.

Every Monday, Wendy sends out a report for FootPrints that includes information on everyone in marketing’s open tickets. This is to allow them to see what’s past due, due this week, ongoing, whether or not they need to respond to an information request, etc. It keeps people moving on their projects too. So today, she handed off that responsibility to me, and I formatted and organized the report and sent it to everyone. Also on Monday Wendy and I learned and standardized the process flow for purchase orders. We drafted the information and put it on SharePoint so that everyone in marketing could have access to that essential information. Now, no one will be confused about POs! Next, I began my training in Qualtrics. Qualtrics is a surveying program that GK is currently in the process of switching to. After this training, I will be able to program surveys for delivery for GK.

On Tuesday, I finished my Qualtrics tutorial and began migrating surveys from C-Vent (the old program) to Qualtrics. I finished five surveys today. Also, we are launching a new project today called Brand Awareness. We sat in on a meeting between Wendy and I and Greg Timpany, the GK survey guru. This new survey will be huge, and its objective is to gauge how aware consumers are of GK, by itself and compared to our competitors. It is a tool that we will build now and then use annually for many years. This is really exciting!

HUMP DAY! On Wednesday, I continued migrating surveys. I also got to sit in on a meeting down in the product department. Every other Wednesday, their department gets together to discuss and update each other on their various projects. My supervisor loves to sit in on their meetings because their project management is amazing and she learns a lot from them. For me, it was fascinating to see another facet of Global Knowledge and I gained a lot of insight into what we really produce. It was fun to see.

Thursday, I mostly just continued migrating surveys. Not super exciting, but important to keep this project moving for Wendy.

 No work on Friday!

Week 1: The One with the Welcoming

5/16 – 5/20

Welcome Week!

This week, I took my first steps as a Marketing Intern for Global Knowledge in Cary, NC. My week began with a wonderful and extensive tour of the Global Knowledge facilities. I was guided by my sweet supervisor, Wendy Magee. We explored the office space in the 9000 building and saw the sales, marketing, product, HR, and finance departments. We also visited every cubicle in the marketing department so that I could introduce myself to 30 or so of my new colleagues. We then visited the next-door training center where GK hosts its courses. This center is where GK products come to life and reach the consumers. Lastly, my supervisor organized a “Welcome to GK” lunch for me, so she and I, along with 8 other marketing employees, all got lunch together. All in all, it was a great first day!

My supervisor, Wendy, works for GK as their Marketing Projects Coordinator. Her job is to organize and carry out whatever operations projects the department needs to accomplish. This could mean she does work in purchase orders, surveys, collaboration, research, process improvement, etc. She is incredibly organized and oriented, and operates as a jack-of-all-trades. This is especially fortunate for me because serving as her intern will mean that I will get my hands on many different areas of marketing in the form of these projects.

My real work began on Tuesday. They wasted no time and I began working on Wendy’s projects immediately. My first task came from another employee, John Mark (social media manager). I gathered an extensive list of quotes for him to use in his “Wisdom Wednesday” campaign. And he used one the very next day! Next, Wendy and I needed to take care of a few survey incentive-winners. Before I came to GK, Wendy had forwarded two surveys, called Market Pulse and CTE, under the agreement that lottery winners would be chosen and those lucky few would receive $50 American Express gift cards. It was my job to email each of the winners and collect their name, phone number, and address for us to delivery the gift cards. In addition to those emails, Wendy and I needed to also visit the GK Shipping Center, also known as LSI. Brian over at LSI was in charge of these logistics, so we paid him a visit to get his approval to send these cards. It was great visiting the shipping center because I was able to see where all of GK’s memorabilia came from. I also left with a free t-shirt, hat, coffee mug, blue solo cup, some pens, and a notebook, all with GK’s logo on them!

On Wednesday, my next task began. I was asked to do some competitive intelligence research on three of Global Knowledge’s strongest competitors: CBT Nuggets, Pluralsight, and Lynda.com. For each one, I put together a document called a “battle card.” These battle cards are for internal sales use, and include basic company information of the competitor, inventory of the competitor’s features and amenities as compared to our own, and suggested answers to commonly asked comparison questions. So, I scoured the Internet for all of this information, and this is what occupied the majority of my workday. I also gathered more address from the incentive recipients.

The next day, I continued my competitor research. We also continued to collect the incentive recipients’ addresses. Wendy then allowed me to write the thank you emails to each of the incentive recipients for after they gave us their address.

Happy Friday! On this day, I finished my competitor research and sent the battle cards off to three sales managers. All in all, they asked for a few tweaks but they got good reviews! I was very glad to see that I was able to handle those on my own. Next, I was able to sit in on a meeting to discuss survey changes in the marketing department. Over the last decade, GK has drafted more than two hundred survey questions for virtually the same few topics. My supervisor was involved in a project to pare them down to three universal surveys. This meeting was for the finalization of the post-survey questions. I was also introduced to a new program called FootPrints that GK uses to track work request tickets to the Marcomm team. Any time someone needs a marketing tool built, reviewed, edited, etc it goes through FootPrints. And finally, every Friday at 11 am, my supervisor has a one-on-one meeting with Dave Knier, the Vice President of Marketing and my boss’ boss, that I was also invited to. We went through and discussed each ongoing project and he specifically asked for an update on what I was working on.

Overall, it was a great first week! I am looking forward to the rest of the summer.