My final two days working in the social selling department, I worked on finishing my projects and continuing to get a feel for environment. It was really cool to be able to collaborate with Alli and Courtney to understand their experienced perspective. While the project of analyzing 1500 professional LinkedIn profiles seemed monotonous at first, it did end up very interesting in the long run. After Courtney’s explanation of how using social media can be such a building factor in business, it was really surprising how underdeveloped most of the employee’s profiles were. Pulling up each profile brought a sometimes very surprising profile picture, for a corporate setting. Not a day went by that I wasn’t overwhelmed by the incredibly welcoming environment of SAS. I didn’t run into a single person that didn’t match the friendly and personable traits that seemed to fit every employee. Aside from learning about the specifics of Courtney and Alli’s jobs, it was very interesting to learn about the social selling/marketing department as a whole. It’s very much a team atmosphere – what one person manages for a personal account, there’s a whole team of employees working on a company’s online presence. I didn’t really have an expectations going into my first day in the social selling department, and I’m very happy with the experience that I ended up with!
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The Necessary Evils – Day 3, Reaghan
Today was relatively laid back with not as many meetings to attend. Most of our day consisted of editing & uploading the video from Courtney’s social selling class, which has to go through an approval process before being sent out to all of SAS’s social selling department. There were a few meetings after lunch with Courtney’s co-workers, but it was really interesting to hear how the team is putting the program together. Social selling is a fairly new department for SAS, so it’s a building process. SAS locations all around the world have social selling reps, and one of Courtney’s responsibilities is to travel to these other locations. She uploads really cool pictures of her travels to the Facebook page linked, it’s definitely worth checking out!
New Week, New Mentor – Day 6, Reaghan
Today I started working with Alli Soule. Alli works on a different level of social networking than Courtney, whereas Courtney’s expertise is in social selling. I really appreciated Alli’s interest in what I do with social networking and how she can help me grow my platform. Alli is a trainer for SAS and teaches employees how to use social media to their advantage, and to the advantage of the SAS reputation. There are 6 people on her team, each with a specified job; one is in charge of posting on the SAS social media platforms, one is considered the “graphic designer” and creates picture tiles for the online sites, and so on.
Working with Alli has me on the 6th floor, close to Dr. Goodnight’s office. It’s quite intimidating, but also serves as extra encouragement to put my best foot forward. Coming out of the elevators, the “lobby area” for this floor are lined with Dr. Goodnight’s unique rock collection. I wish I could have gotten more pictures to show how extensive this display is, but I didn’t want t
o disturb the conference rooms that they were next to.
Aside from continuing my project of analyzing the 1500 profiles belonging to social selling employees, Alli started me on a new project to help write the “what it is” (example for twitter shown) for the social media help center on “Slide Share,” which is a type of social media that is owned by LinkedIn which allows users to search and find a presentation on any subject. The Social Media Resource Portal gives a description and help to employees looking to use social media.
Today was a really exciting start to the week, and I’m looking forward to finishing my internship with Alli!
Employees or Family? – Day 4&5, Reaghan
On Thursday, I was able to experience the incredible manner in which SAS treats their employees. Courtney and I made our way over to the food truck rally, where there were many options for different food than the delicious choices that are normally offered in the SAS cafeterias. It was wonderful to be able to eat outside and people watch to see what else was going on, such as a dance class and a mapped run through the campus. I have come to realize how SAS treats their employees so well and suits them with a very positive environment, and in return the employees are happy to work there. A few weeks ago, SAS also celebrated 40 years with a spring festival that was a few hours of giving back to the employees. SAS is very compatible with their families, and I think that’s what creates such positive employees!
We were also able to eat at a different cafeteria from the normal building we go to on Friday, and it was really cool to see how different options of foots are offered at different buildings.
Thursday and Friday consisted of more meetings and videos to be pushed out for oncoming sales students to SAS, and Courtney getting prepared to leave for her trip.
Links & Connections – Day 2, Reaghan
We started today at SAS’s other location, 940 Cary Parkway. Courtney led a “workshop” on social selling to new SAS marketing employees and helped them use LinkedIn and other social networks to their advantage. I was in charge of recording the video for the workshop, which she would later put online for a bigger audience across the world. The employees were newly hired to the marketing /selling teams at SAS, and are given hundreds of companies that they need to try to sell the SAS technology to. They all made comments about how amazed they are about being able to connect and find people on a new level through social media. One of the most interesting things that Courtney talked about was how to connect with people through social media on a personal level, rather than just through an online presence. Through LinkedIn, she was able to pull up connections that she shared with her potential “targets,” as she called them, which would make it easier to make a direct and personal contact. For example, one of the students in the class was working on closing a deal with Pinterest. Courtney was able to pull up an employee of Pinterest who had experience working with SAS and had worked at Target, another business that uses SAS technology. There are so many tools to use in social media that enhance the ability of sales employees, it was very cool to learn about it today!
First Day in the Social Selling Department – Reaghan
The first day of shadowing Courtney consisted of mostly meetings, but I was able to meet some interesting people including someone who was in the first graduating middle school class from Cary Academy. Courtney travels every other week of the month, so it was cool to see her planning with people all over the world for her upcoming travel plans. She filled me in about her current focus being on setting up public profiles on business-type accounts such as LinkedIn and how businesses and individuals connect with it. I was then set on a project of analyzing the 1,500+ employees involved in the social selling aspect of SAS, and considering how professional their profile looked. It was surprising to see how many people had a very sloppy profile but a very important title, and Courtney reinforced how much those individuals might be missing out on because potential business investors will look for their information online and not find it.
The entire SAS environment is very welcoming and I’m looking forward to the week ahead!
Just Because You’re a Murderer Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Have a Dog
Last Day!
At WRAL, I followed around the incredibly busy Amanda Lamb for a day. The first thing we did was drive to the hue courthouse in downtown Raleigh, because as a crime reporter, it’s Amanda’s responsibility to go through overnight search and arrest warrants to see if there’s a story or an update on a case that she could add into the news broadcast. The only thing she could find was a repeat pedophile from Scotland–she told me the only way they could make it a story was if he had a job where he worked around children.
The picture is the view from the third floor of the courthouse, where the heavy crime courtrooms are located. There were no trials going on at the time, so I didn’t get to see that action.
After that, it was pretty similar to my day at ABC-11, until Amanda got the go-ahead to report on a story she had pitched about dogs in Franklin Correctional Center, so we had to drive about half an hour to that prison. The story was centered around a program in the prison that matched new service dogs with inmates so they can train them in four-month cycles to be service dogs for disabled people around the area. That day was their graduation-of-sorts, and Amanda was excited because it was a unique opportunity for a feel-good story .
Unfortunately, after that my day ended a little early because I began to feel really sick on the drive back–but it was still a very informative day and I’m glad I could end the WEP on that note!
Liza Day 8: Don’t Cry Because It’s Over, Smile Because It Happened :)
All good things must come to an end, but I sure am glad I got to spend my Discovery Term Internship at McKinney!
We started off our morning in a conference call with other Production members, Habib and Chau, who were in LA working. As our focus for today was HB2, we reviewed the possible cast list, script, and location options. I enjoyed observing how a story board/vision can come off paper and become a reality.
Later in the afternoon, I had the opportunity to research the cast and locations to create a presentation board for the team. This was posted on one of McKinney’s magnetic boards, which can be found all over the office to give the staff the opportunity to pin up their ideas and collaborate with one another.
By the time I finished doing this, it was time to head home. I said my goodbyes and thanked everyone for giving me the opportunity to experience their life at McKinney and introducing me to the current projects. As I was heading out, I had the chance to meet with Nick (editor Nick) and ask him questions about the programs he uses to cut and create movies. I’m planning on making a documentary this summer on my trip to Europe, so it was helpful to have a professional to discuss the best way to execute this. He even gave me his contact info and said he would be happy to help me in any way needed. 🙂
This was a great way to end the day, and hopefully I’ll be able to come back and spend more time at McKinney again!
Day 8- necks, backs and needles oh my!
Today was my last day shadowing a physical therapist at Dunn Physical Therapy. Today i got to see a very wide variety of patients. I saw a patient that had a hurt neck and needed dry needling on his neck. Another patient I saw today had a hurt back and got dry needling done to relieve the stress on the muscles.
Today I also learned how to make a hot pack. A hot pack is a thick pad that has been in hot water in order to heat it up. It is then covered in a blanket like thing. It is then covered in a towel and then another blanket. They use this for loosening muscles and for receiving the pain after an appointment.
Thank you so much Dunn Physical Therapy for everything you did for me! It was a fun and educational two weeks!
Day 7: Granite and Goodbyes
Last day interning! It was a pretty bittersweet feeling, considering we’d been working in the “real world” for the past two weeks! Today, we filed even more paperwork (is that even possible?) and then helped out Vandana with making sure account balances matched. Grace and I actually found a pretty big logistical error and we were happy to have caught something that otherwise might have flown under the radar and cost the company lots of money. After the morning paperwork, Sunny, Vandana, Grace, and I all went to lunch at a new Italian Eatery called Positalia, which was surprisingly yummy! On the car ride there, we learned more about the company, including the types of trucks used to transfer the granite, as well as learning that there are two more CRS locations in India and Brazil! In addition, here’s a link that explains how granite goes from the mountaintop to your countertop! http://crsgranite.com/your-slabs-journey/
After lunch, we finished filing and then it was time to go home! Overall, the two weeks of work experience were interesting and enlightening, and I definitely got a better understanding of possible career options related to finance.
– Khushi
The insane amount of paperwork that Grace and I got through in only three days at CRS!
The scrumptious lunch that I ate at the newly-opened Italian Eatery!
CA Work Experience Program 2016 