This past summer I had the amazing
opportunity to intern for Bealls, Inc. They are a privately owned retail
conglomerate that has been around for over a 100 years. And while my internship
experience did not revolve around entrepreneurship, per se. I did have the
opportunity to work with other interns and re-create a new onboarding system
that could help solve problems relating to in-store turnover and associate
retention. Prior to this internship, I will admit that my experience in the
entrepreneurial field was close to none. None of my family members or relatives
own a business or have ever created a product that turned into a business.
Therefore, going into this internship and having the freedom to use my
creativity and knowledge to create an onboarding and training system that works
was a big eye-opener. There were a lot of “bugs” involved in re-creating
something that would work. There was a lot of research, observations, and
interviews we had to perform throughout our entire internship experience. And
of course, there were a lot of hiccups on reaching a consensus with my fellow
group members. But all in all, we managed to present an idea that went over
quite well with the executive board. And most importantly, we were able to
showcase our ideas on how to solve this problem. It was a riveting experience,
and I am so glad I had the opportunity to learn as much as I did.
Although
there is a plethora of business electives I could have taken that would have
been just as interesting, Principles of Entrepreneurship sparked my interest
the most. Throughout my business career (albeit a very short one), a lot of the
coursework was based on memorization of terms, application of formulas, and
overall monotonous matters. I highly enjoyed a lot of the classes I did happen
to take, but I was extremely excited to take a more unconventional course. The
concept behind creating a business and writing out one’s ideas in a blog format
seemed so foreign to me yet so refreshing. I believe this course will allow me
to think outside the conventional box and utilize my creativity for something I
have never done before.
Hi Roksolana,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story about interning for the Bealls, Inc. retail conglomerate. I definitely can see how re-working the onboarding and training system with your fellow interns could feel like an entrepreneurial experience as it possesses a lot of skills entrepreneurs practice, such as collaboration, problem solving, feedback application and effective creative thinking. I think this class will really help you, and all of us, to hone essential skills for our careers and learn to think outside the box.