The first week of my internship was fascinating to say the least. As soon as I arrived, I was welcomed with a glimpse into a life most of us, if not all of us, have been preparing for our entire academic career.

Back to Basics

Despite walking in at around nine in the morning for an informational meeting regarding the structure and processes, the first step was actually learning how to make coffee. From there, the pace increased.

As a new employee in any company, the majority of the day revolves around learning and getting used to how they communicate, what tools they use, and getting yourself setup to be a part of the workflow. For me, that ranged from logging into various accounts, to troubleshooting the steps missed when connecting to the Gensler Network.

Every individual I have encountered thus far has been extremely helpful and friendly. So far, the internship has provided me with the ability to practice skills taught in my classes, while also learning how to handle continually developing situations with other projects.  Most importantly, I am learning through “on-the-job-experience” which the classroom will not be able to provide to me.

Goals for the Summer

In the short three months I will be experiencing the real-world work force. So I hope to be able to actively participate in managing and handling situations without being supervised or needing help. I understand the necessity of putting myself out there, and falling on my face a few times in order to learn through my mistakes. This is the only way I will gain useful experience.

Overall, I want this summer to be a summer of improvements: this means academically, professionally, mentally, and physically.

One of my main goals outsides of Gensler would be to practice and revisit much of the work and self-study I did last semester in order to improve my skills with programming languages, as well as to better maneuver and utilize the Command Terminal.

A second goal would be to update my LinkedIn and resume so that I will be prepared when returning to school in the fall to begin to look for a job after graduation.

Third, I would like to get more physically active, as this will help build confidence and help make myself into a healthier individual.

Something New and Something Old

Throughout the summer, Gensler will be going through a move to help consolidate and expand their workspace and work-environment. During this time, the network needs to expand to coincide with the company’s expansion.

As a result, I received experience handling and learning about the “dos” and “do nots.” In other words, I learned what steps need to be taken in order to allow the server to connect to the rest of the network as well as the physical setup of the bits and pieces of correlating devices.

For example, some of the little lessons I picked up through “on-the-job experience” include which certain types of lights need to be used in a server room to ensure the devices in the room are functioning efficiently, or what the varying colors of the CAT cables mean.

Understanding a lot of the processes of the setup was possible only because of IST 233 – Introduction to Computer Networking. Despite the challenge this class posed to me, without it I would have been utterly lost and unable to properly understand the purpose of how the setup was being done.

Beginning of the End

As I move towards my last year at Syracuse I am excited for the upcoming experience. I hope to acquire the most from this internship by either helping build my professional career or learning new fundamentals that are necessary in my field.