First two weeks of internship --→ Analyzing products - Diners Club Young Professional
Last two weeks of internship --→ Publicity
This means that today was practically my last day working directly with the Young Professional credit card.
Being an intern at Diners is not very easy because you have a lot of independent time. My mentor is not always free because he has a lot of meetings during the day, especially the hours I work there which is 9am until 1pm -- The morning hours are the bussiest for them!
However, this is my opportunity to work as an independent learner and use my time efficiently. However, I had a project they had asked me, of brainstorming ideas for possible promotions or discount for the credit card. When I arrived this morning I had already finished this presentation and so I waited for further instructions. There was a problem, though. My mentor was in a meating at that time and left me with no instructions of what I could work on so, I decided to work on my POL (Presentation Of Learning). |
In the past week, I was working with another intern who is currently in college. She guided me and helped me to do the presentation and also asked me to help her.
When she arrived she asked me to go with her to some banks and ask for information of personal loans.
Diners has files of the different interest rates for each bank to analyze the competition. This was very interesting and it was the kind of work I was excited about. I had been researching about each bank on their websites, but as we know, ALL the information is never there. So, we went to different banks and asked them for information.
But, there was a problem! For banks to give loans, the person asking for it has to have a formal job so they can assure that you will pay back the loan you asked for. However, the other lady and I didn't have formal jobs, which meant that the bank was doubtful to give us in depth information. The first bank was Interbank, and we couldn't get information. Next, we went to Scotiabank and it was, unfortunately, the same story. Even though we didn't get enough information as we wanted to, it was a great experience for me because I learned more about loans. It was a more hands-on experience than the other work I have been doing at Diners and I had a great time! We were running out of time so we went back to the office. You have to be ready for EVERYTHING |
When we got back to the office, they asked to present the promotions I had come up with. I wasn't at all ready for this! I had come up with everything and I had explained in the presentation WHY I had chosen these discounts. In knowledge, I was ready, but, it was a lot of pressure because even though I was presenting this to two people, I was speaking in front of EVERYONE who was in the office. | I was nervous for different reasons: 1. I had no idea what their reaction would be 2. If I had done what they had asked me to do 3. What they were expecting from me |
Since I was just learning, there were some questions I didn't know how to answer, but overall, I think the presentation went well.
They really liked most of the ideas I had because they were things they hadn't thought about before and that might work for their business.
I am very happy for how this turned out and I'm looking forward to work on publicity next week!