Throughout my IBM internship as a member of the security team, I have grown and learned so much. My host manager has tasked me with multiple projects focusing on opportunity identification.
The most enjoyable (yet most challenging) element of my internship has been reaching out to old leads to generate potential opportunities. Every few days, I am instructed through the customer relations manager to either email or call leads, and if they do not answer, leave a voicemail hoping they will call us back. This has been rewarding because I am calling on real clients, which as an intern I did not think was a possibility.
The second project I am tasked with is to give a presentation on the complete IBM Security Product Portfolio. This, by far, has been one of the most challenging tasks I have had because I have to learn a majority of the portfolio, which has key areas of how the security team operates. My job is to interpret the key points and then make a PowerPoint of what I think the key takeaways are. To display my knowledge, I am going to present the PowerPoint to my whole hub’s security team, and this will be done in the upcoming weeks. Even though I am nervous about it, one of the things I want to work on is my presentation skills, and this project will help me accomplish that goal.
Aside from my host team’s projects, we have a deliverable group project. Our deliverable group project consists of current and returning interns who are put in teams and are tasked with picking a real IBM client. Once the client is found, we find a need the client has, and suggest an IBM solution that will solve that problem. The deliverable project walks us through the entire sales cycle, and allows us to research, find, and execute the plan in front of all our host managers, getting feedback once the presentation is over.
Some skills that I have improved during this internship so far are my communication skills, my attention to detail, my presentation skills as well as my prospecting skills. Everything my team, along with the Summit program, instructs me to do is very intentional for developing these skills.
One of the things I have had to adjust to is learning all of the IBM acronyms used daily. This was so frustrating at first because I had no idea what people were talking about and every other word was an acronym. I felt as if they were speaking another language. Once I figured out all the acronyms it advanced my learning as I was able to comprehend instructions a lot easier and more quickly. If you were to look at my notebook they are full of meeting items that I would later need to go back and lookup.
The Team Leader role at UNC Greensboro’s Bryan School of Business and Economics has helped me prepare for this role more than I could have thought. Being able to articulate clearly and concisely, and presenting myself professionally and confidently speaks volumes in this type of environment, as I am interfacing with high-level executives and managers daily. I email and message many people daily, and being able to communicate professionally is extremely important. Learning how to balance school and the Team Leader program has been helpful because it has taught me how to manage multiple things at once, still doing my best work in all areas. With that experience from the program, it has made balancing multiple tasks in this internship easier.
Overall, this internship has been challenging, but so rewarding as I am learning volumes of information daily. I am very grateful for the chance to intern with this extraordinary company and hope I can continue my professional career with them.
By rising senior Logan Martin, a Marketing and Economics major with a concentration in Professional Selling
