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What was your day-to-day like?
Outside of working on my role specific projects, every day was different. My schedule was consistently filled with insightful meetings, informational programming, educational training, or new responsibilities. At Travelers my days were spent amongst leaders, innovators, and genuine people.
Here are just some of the ways I was engaged day-to-day at Travelers:
- Educational programs with VPs (e.g. Data Lakes, Panel Q&A)
- Knowledge Mapping Training
- Networking Events
- Intern Lunches
- Mentor Meetings
- Peer Advisor Meetings
- Excel Training
- SQL Training
- Innovation Events
- Working on security/protection of data
- Data Quality
- Industry/Travelers Knowledge
- Kan Jam (Work Hard, Play Hard!!!)
The list can go on and on! On a day-to-day basis I was constantly exposed to new areas of the company, projects that full-time employees were working on, and new ideas leadership was implementing. Every day was a learning experience.
How would you describe the culture at Travelers?
Several cultural attributes I experienced at Travelers include:
- Employee Engagement — see my answer to question one!!
- Collaboration — with interns, manager, peer advisor, mentor, VPs, etc.
- Learning opportunities — knowledge sharing, trainings, programming, and events
- Opportunity for growth — I met with individuals who moved across LOBs, departments, functions, into leadership roles, etc. I also had the opportunity to apply for full-time while completing my internship.
- Diversity — Travelers has Diversity Networks that are supported throughout the Travelers Community (e.g. Veterans, African American, Disabilities, Women in Analytics, etc.)
- Passion – No matter what level an employee was, if I was interested in learning about their job or a project, they wanted to share it with me and made the time to do so – every time.
How has your internship shaped your career goals?
My experience at Travelers confirmed my desire to pursue my masters in Management Information Systems. I aspire to be what is referred to as a “purple person”, someone who is a blend between business and tech. “Purple” people can speak business and translate that to the IT department.
I want to be able to find the information needed to help answer business questions. Continuing my education will help me achieve this goal and succeed within Business Intelligence (BI).
How were you compensated?
Travelers offers a competitive pay rate! I was happy with my paycheck. I was also pleased to hear I could invest in Travelers 401k plan, which I did! I was surprised at the end of the summer seeing how much I contributed to my 401k.
How did Bentley prepare me for my internship?
Some of the courses I found to be incredibly useful were, GB 310, GB 320, CS 150, and IPM 210.
GB 310: Business Processes & Systems
This course introduced me to terminology and concepts pertaining to data warehouses that I needed to know in order to be successful in my role (data management).
GB 320: Integrated Business Process
The project completed in this course requires me to analyze a company at a granular level and from a holistic stand point, which is essential when making decisions. My final internship presentation was very similar. I learned from this course to take a step back and to see how my project impacted the company as a whole.
CS 150: Introduction to Data & Information Management
Within this course I learned how to use Access, which I applied on a project. In addition, the concepts behind Access that were taught (joins, relationships, foreign key, etc.) helped me better understand my SQL training class.
IPM 210: Information Security & Computer Forensics
This course helped me understand information security management issues and how organizations can address them. The analysis of prior real-life scenarios involving security gave me a wider perspective when completing my security project at Travelers.
**Aside from my specific coursework the team projects and presentations we, as students, are involved in every semester prepared me for the collaboration and communication skills I needed to succeed during my internship.
