With two weeks of work in the books, I am ready to talk all about my new internship! I work for a company called Opinno, a global innovation consultancy firm. There are three parts to Opinno: People, Ideas, and Solutions. The “People” division is centered around marketing and events of all kinds. “Ideas” is the consultancy part of the company – they research and problem-solve for other companies who need any sort of technological improvements. And lastly, there’s “Solutions” who creates the necessary technology. It’s a very young, future-focused, and dynamic company that has already taught me so much.

The culture of this company never ceases to amaze me. The set up is very open, with teams at giant tables made up of their individual desks. This allows for a lot of collaboration and socializing. There are post-it notes and whiteboards everywhere you look, full of new ideas. The CEO’s office happens to be right next to our table, and he is very present in the company. This was a little surprising, but it’s really nice that everyone has the ability to build a relationship with him. One of my most stunned moments so far was when he asked me how I felt about cheesesteaks (he had heard that I was from Philadelphia, and had visited a few years ago). This is all just part of the culture at Opinno.

My position is the Talent Management Intern. The Talent Management team doesn’t fit into one of the three divisions, however there is one person from the team in charge of HR in each division. I am helping with all kinds of human resources tasks, but I am mainly shadowing the HR leader of the Solutions department. This is very interesting because I know close to nothing about technology, so I get to learn some things about that as well. So far, I’ve sat in on a variety of interviews, filtered through job applications, posted job descriptions, and done lots of research for how to improve recruiting and onboarding. The interviews are really interesting because there’s so much variety – they can be in person, through Skype, or over the phone, and some are in Spanish while others are in English. The majority of my time has been doing research to help the company improve. This has taught me a lot about Human Resources in a real world setting. I will present my findings to the rest of the Talent Management team in the upcoming week and we will start implementing changes based on my findings. It’s absolutely CRAZY to me that my ideas will be used to help a company grow and improve.

This internship is truly teaching me so much more than I ever could imagine. I am getting such a hands-on experience of my major, Human Resources Management, while immersing myself in the Spanish language and culture. The combination of these can be extremely difficult at times, but everyone is willing to answer questions and help me learn. That being said, I’ve come to see how important it is to ask questions if I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do or the words that someone is using. This is obviously much easier said than done, and I need to continue to follow my own advice. However, I’m learning more and more each day and with every question asked. I already know I’ll be able to utilize this experience in many future classes and job positions.

Hasta luego!