In the summer of 2022, I completed an internship as a marketing intern with the Commonwealth Center of Advanced Logistics Systems (CCALS). The internship was described as a marketing/communications internship. I had three parts to the internship: to assist with social media on Twitter and Linkedin, to identify partners for story ideas, and to work in a professional work environment, such as taking pictures, interviewing, and helping out with the website.
The work environment, employer, business, and job role were aligned with my interests and challenged my knowledge and skills. The CCALS business is unlike a traditional one. It is a company that provides a collaboration service for the supply chain industry, government, and universities to help develop improvements to logistics systems. The work environment had an excellent culture.
The best part of the internship was being able to interview and meet a lot of influential people, such as the Chief Information Officer of the Port of Virginia, the Director of the Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems at the University of Virginia, and the president of the Advancing Minorities’ interest in Engineering. It was a great experience as it pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me achieve something I had never done before.
With all my experiences this summer, I learned that company culture is critical. For a business to be successful, the employees need to be in an environment where they can work most effectively. I have learned that when choosing a company to work for, I need to consider the work culture to see whether it suits my personality to work efficiently and enjoy what I do.