Entry #10

Write a final reflection of the entire internship experience.

This internship has given me my future...literally. I genuinely believe that if I had not done this internship, I would've still been on that "medical school" track, and probably wasted a lot of money on some Biology major in college. I feel the biggest take-away I've received this past summer was my confidence in a professional atmosphere. Although AOIT had prepared us well enough through mock interviews and formal presentations, I was still oblivious to the fact that in a professional environment, you have to learn how to be confident in exploring new things everyday.

Town of Cary gave me that confidence.

Starting from my initial days at the Town, I was a little doubtful of my abilities because I originally agreed to do networking, but I was asked to be a part of the Analytics team which to be honest, I had no idea what that even meant. But that was probably the best decision my manager has ever made for me because now I look back and see that the number of opportunities I received in that field was a lot more beneficial in terms of understanding the basics of IT.

The kind of work I received was also one of the more influential parts of my internship experience. What I appreciated the most about the Town of Cary was that they knew what projects they were going to provide us beforehand. That gave me a sense of relief because I knew there would be one project I will be totally focused on. However, from the very beginning, I started experimenting with different kinds of work every single day. I started with some basic technical communication plans, which was actually one of my favorite projects because I could use my organization and writing skills in an actual, professional job. Then I branched off to do some designing, recordings of meetings, making surveys, etc. Finally, I got the chance to lead my team for the Open Data Story project. This was probably the biggest chunk of our internship because it involved all sorts of planning, editing, discovering, researching, writing, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience because for one, I learned some new skills like HTML and project management, and two, I could show some progress for those interested in what I was doing in my internship. There were no menial tasks involved, no boring colleagues, no strict rules we had to abide by, and what I respect the most was that there was definitely no disconnect between the managers and the interns. We all felt like we were beneficiary to the Town, which is what we were all striving for in the beginning of our internships.

The Town has therefore given me an experience that will take me far in the field of IT, which is what I will now pursue in the College of Engineering at NC State.

Thank you AOIT.

Entry #9

What major problems or frustrations have you experienced or observed in your work? How did you handle it?

I initially had some issues in figuring out the correct balance of the requirements for the Parks and Recreation Department and the Public Information Officer when it came to our Open Data stories. Each department had different elements they wanted to add or remove in the stories, and by the time those changes were requested, we only had 2 weeks left of our internship. We had made a couple of drafts of our stories, that had to be edited repeatedly because of either too much or too less of something, which at times was kind of frustrating. So after I learned that things were getting a bit disorganized within our team, I started organizing the tasks needed to be done by each of us based on our best abilities. Our respective responsibilities on this project therefore contributed to the final product in a much more positive and fair way. I feel like that decision of mine made us feel more confident in our own abilities because now when we look back at our work, we can point out the things we specifically did. However, the frustration I experienced during that project actually helped understand more of what the real working atmosphere is like. It's not like school where you take a test and that grade is there for history - work there had more flexibility and communication within a team. Therefore, the idea of good teamwork played a major role in overcoming those little problems that would occur throughout our internship experience. 

Entry #8

What have you learned about yourself and what you want in a career?

This internship made me learn that I tend to underestimate myself at times. There were many times throughout the internship where I doubted myself because like others, I came in with no expectations. I did not know what kind of work was going to be demanded from me, and me being the only girl in the Analytics & Innovation team, I felt slightly unsure of my level of work. But I started to work on a few individual projects in the beginning of my internship which made me discover my own potential as an intern; this greatly helped me for the big group project I worked on later that summer. I've therefore learned that focus and hard work is my strength as an intern. In terms of my career, I've learned that I want stability in my job. In a field of IT, I won't only get the chance to invest my time in a resourceful and useful kind of a job, but I'll also get to live a normal life with good financial support and career success. I also discovered that my leadership skills could potentially help me in my career as it did in my internship; so seeking a job in project management, like my father who works at SAS, doesn't seem like a bad idea anymore!

Entry #7

How has this experience affected or changed your career/college plans?

Prior to this internship, I was pretty serious about seeking a career in the medical field. I wanted to be a Physician Assistant before this internship, and now I have taken a complete U-turn in life and I'm going to do Engineering at NC State where I will study Computer Science. In fact, if you asked me if I wanted to do anything in the IT field a couple of years ago, I would've completely ignored the question because I hated programming. But through this internship, I've learned that the IT field is not just someone sitting in a cubicle coding all day - it's a field that requires skills for a variety of jobs. Communication, meetings, presentations, software, creativity, and efficiency are just a few of the aspects of IT that I discovered through my internship at the Town of Cary. I enjoyed the experience of being in an "office-like" environment as opposed to me running behind patients all day in a hospital. I would've never thought about going into Computer Science, but now that I am, I don't think I could've been more confident with this career decision. 

Entry #6

How have your duties changed since you first started? Have you been given more responsibility?

When I first started my internship, I was given individual tasks that reflected my strengths as an intern. For example, I was given the responsibility of writing a Communications Plan for the Town's upcoming project on data management. I enjoyed this experience because I was comfortable with technical writing and it gave me a great kick-start for the future projects we were going to be given. In a way, this made me understand the style and expectations of the work my supervisor was giving me throughout my internship. Gradually, my responsibilities grew when my supervisor gave me project management type tasks. This reflected my potential as an intern, whereas in the beginning of my internship I was still in my "comfort zone". At first I was a little intimidated with the responsibilities, but at the end of it I felt like I benefited the most as an IT intern. 

Entry #5

What do you feel is your main contribution to your internship? What have you done at your internship that makes you proud? Why?

I feel my main contribution to this internship was the Open Data Story project I worked on with two other interns. My leadership in this group project was what I think brought our team to be organized, which was one of the main requirements for this project. I like the fact that each of us had something to contribute to in this project because we can all look back and say "This is what I specifically worked on". For example, something that I'm proud of is that I learned how to organize the webpages using HTML through the Open Data software. Prior to this internship, since I was on the programming track for AOIT, I did not get the chance to learn HTML, but this internship gave me that opportunity and now I will be prepared for Multimedia this semester.

Another huge reason why I feel proud of my internship experience is that our work is officially published on the Town of Cary website (https://data.townofcary.org/page/storydirectory/). In this way, I have virtual proof of what kind of work I did during my internship. Thanks to the Town of Cary, I am able to feel proud that my name is associated with them on their website.  

Entry #4

How is the internship meeting or not meeting your expectations/objectives and why? Do you have control of this? Explain.


This internship has exceeded my expectations tremendously. Like all new interns, I was also quite nervous for the kind of work I would receive. In the past years, I've heard many interns complain that they were given only menial tasks to do and nothing as exciting. I admit, I definitely had some preconceived notions about the Town of Cary because we were the first set of interns, and I didn't know what to expect--after all, it is a government job.

But I was highly mistaken - my summer couldn't have been better spent. The first thing I noticed about the Town was its environment, and how all of our managers were so welcoming and helpful in our day to day activities. In fact, because of their confidence in us interns, we were able to accomplish whatever we were assigned to do with ease.

I also remember that before I started my internship, one of my objectives was to do as much work as I possibly can. I wanted to discover the IT field through my internship, and the Town of Cary did exactly that. I received multiple projects to work on, which one, helped me achieve my goal, and two, helped me expand my network. Therefore, this internship has definitely met my expectations.