Week 13: The Overall Experience

           The impact working on WSBN gave me was a glimpse into my future, and that I personally would not like to work in sales.  The door-to-door aspect of my internship was an experience that really took a toll on me.  It was beneficial because it helped my presentation skills since I only have roughly a minute to introduce myself, and the idea of the network, but I just didn’t enjoy it at all.  It was good that I got to experience it though because otherwise I wouldn’t have known. 

            The goals I set out for myself were to stick to the schedule I made myself since it was a flexible position.  I did a good job working at the times I set out for myself and following the guidelines of getting things done.  I always kept up with the spread, and got the brochures made right off the bat. 

            My overall experience didn’t meet my expectations.  I was looking forward to things they promised, like teaching the seminars about social networking and creating something new.  However, it wasn’t organized at all and I felt like I was hung out to dry for months.  They were not sure on what they wanted and a lot of the time they were not open to my ideas.  It was poorly run in the beginning, however I now have reason to believe it will get better because of all my hard work.  Since it is picking up now, I would recommend this experience to other students; it has potential to be really great.   

Week 11: Codes of Conduct

             Since the organization I work for is not a formal network, there is no written code of professional conduct that I am held too.  The understood policies are just the policies that guide society, things such as being honest, hard work ethic, treating others with respect.  The guidelines are followed by all four of us that are working at generating the network.  As far as how ethical concerns are met, it is dealt with in the same way.

            There have not been any ethical concerns since I have been on as the intern, but I would assume that if something were to arise as an ethical dilemma it would be handled similarly to all real businesses.  There would be a certain protocol that would look at the situation and analyze what would need to be done in a professional way. 

The network because it is so informal, holds each of us to our standards and values, meaning we all act as though we are at our other jobs in a serious professional way.  No dilemmas have come between us because we all respect each other and do our own work.  If the problem were to arise though, I’m sure we would all work together and handle the situation. 

Week 9 – Tasks/Assignments and Educational Implications

          

           As previously noted in journal 7, the extent of knowledge I have gained from thin internship doesn’t directly apply to my studies at WSU.  I have demonstrated my skills in Microsoft Excel and Publisher by making the spreadsheet and the brochure as my only technical skills.  I have gained more experience in the communications skills from going door-to-door to all the business trying to generate interest as well.  In the future there are suppose to be social networking seminars in which I will coordinate so then my public speaking skills will increase as well as other presentation skills.  I am looking forward to the seminars. 

            I have not been able to negotiate any of my tasks, but I also have not wanted to negotiate any of them either.  The only tasks I have done I was very interested in completing and enjoyed doing them.  I only wish I had more to do sometimes that would challenge me.  If there are any tasks in the future that I am given that I do not have the means to complete or feel as though it is not necessary I would have no problem negotiating the terms of the assignment.  I would hopefully come up with agreeable terms that would benefit both the company and myself. 

Week 7: Preliminary Evaluation of Internship Experience

            My accomplishments at the WSBN have been forming the brochure, and compiling the contact sheet consisting of business name, contact name, phone number, and email.  Apart from these two things and the time it took to gather the information, I haven’t been challenged to accomplish anything else, which makes the evaluation difficult.

            Since the WSBN is an organization that is in the process of starting up, there isn’t a lot of structure at the current time, and because of this it is not a huge learning experience.  It is a good experience when it comes to a door-to-door sales theory, however that is not what I was expecting when I signed up for it.   In the work setting, I feel as though I am doing what is required but there is little room to go above and beyond because I am not sure what is needed.  I am eager to learn new skills, but I have not been given the opportunity to do so. 

            This internship has given me clarity on what I would want in the future.  What I have come up with is that I have little desire to start a business in the future because it is hard to do so, and I also do not wish to work in a position that requires door to door sales.  This internship had made me realized that I would much prefer some of the other directions I was considering, which would be public relations. 

Week Five: Organizational Hierarchy, Management Structure, and Communication Methods

          Since the WSBN isn’t an organization yet, the organizational hierarchy is short.  The three persons who are actively involved in getting it started are: Philip Niddrie, Cathy Walsh, and Bonnie Dang.  They are all equally involved in forming the WSBN and play similar roles in its process.  The only other person involved is myself, and all three of them oversee what I do for the team.  A chart of the organizational hierarchy would look along the lines of this:

Philip Niddrie, Cathy Walsh, Bonnie Dang

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Caroline Early

            There isn’t a formal management structure of the WSBN so to speak because there are only three people actively involved, and they all have the same involvement.  The formal portion of the management would be that they all oversee me because I am the intern that is there to help them.  But the informal management structure would be that Phil for the most part will speak to the city and take care of most of the work involved with the technicalities of getting things done, for example he handled getting all the brochures I made printed.  Cathy and Bonnie work more together as the creative minds that give me more direction than Phil, but are still on the same level. 

            I have found that the informal structure and formal structure are ultimately the same in this situation because of the equality.  In the case of why it works would be that the three of them balance themselves out and work well together to come up with idea to kick-start the WSBN.  There is no direct orders coming from anyone of them, which works well when I am getting direction from them because they are all on the same page and nothing gets lost in translation.  For example, when the brochure was being outlined, they all knew what they wanted it to roughly look like and all the criteria that needed to be in it, so when I was typing it up and getting pictures I knew exactly how they wanted it to be, which left little room for error. 

            For communication, we contact each other through email about available times to meet, and then all four of us will sit down and meet about what we have accomplished since the last meeting and what needs to be done for the next.  Email is the best to reach all of us about meeting times, and then the actual meeting is the best way to talk about new ideas so we are all on the same page.  We also use a “digital drop box” to share files that we work on so we can all see what is being done so decrease overlap or information while we are between meetings.  None of our communication thus far has been ineffective. 

Week Three: Organizational/Personal Goals of my Internship

Upon applying for this internship I had set upon some goals for myself after being hired.  The job description asked for an independent student who can work in a flexible setting to aid in the creation on the West Side Business Network.  The goals I had made for myself were to set up hours around my own schedule and stick to them.  In these hours I would go door to door from each business that falls in the jurisdiction and pitch the WSBN idea.  After the walk around I decided that callbacks needed to be made by myself to follow up with whom I met with.  My ultimate goal after meeting with all these businesses is to create a spreadsheet that’s easily read to be able to contact all the business that were interested in joining the WSBN. 

The goals that were set out for me by the company are similar to the ones I set for myself.  They wanted me to create my own schedule and approach all the businesses in a timely fashion, as well as keep track of all of them.  In addition to just going to the businesses, they wanted me to design a brochure and give it out to all the businesses, which I did.  Along with the brochure, they asked me to come up with a quick pitch to sell the WSBN to the businesses. 

For the most part the goals are about the same, except for the addition brochure.  I enjoyed doing the brochure though because it expanded on some of my communication skills.  Hopefully as the workload progresses, new goals will be formed that I can reach which will expand on my knowledge even more. 

Week One: The Organization and Its Mission

        The internship I am working for is the West Side Business Network.  The purpose of the WSBN is to create a sense of neighborhood in the West Side of Worcester and to make the area more attractive for current businesses to stay in the area, and also to attract more business to move here.  Before now, the West Side Business Network didn’t exist; it is just being created now.

         The newly organized West Side Business Network is comprised of a geographic area roughly bounded by Park Ave. to the east, Mill St./June St. to the south, Salisbury St. to the north, and the Paxton line to the west.  There is no central location that the WSBN is out of but the mailing address is:

West Side Business Network

118A June Street

Worcester MA, 01602

email:

worcwestsidebiz@gmail.com

website:

www.westsidebiz.com

For phone inquiries contact

Cathy at Sprout:

(508) 757-5300

The goal of the West Side Business Network is to build relationships between all businesses on the West Side of Worcester. The purpose of building these relationships is to create and maintain an encouraging business environment to draw in more businesses and to foster current ones. These relations will provide networking opportunities as well as a boost in support of the local community.

The potential happenings of the WSBN are to increase commercial activity in the area, group marketing programs, networking events, business workshops, 5k road race, beautification, and safety. 

The logo of the WSBN has a tagline that reads: “Be prepared – for business.”  The really like the creative tagline because it reflects exactly what the mission statement reads, which is to get the West Side area in its best position to operate successful businesses.  

Mentor Information:

Cathy Walsh- proprietor

(508) 757-5300

118A June St. Worcester MA 01602

www.sprout-flowers.com