Maya Safadi: One Summer Internship, Three States
This past summer, I had my very first internship experience, and it blew all of my expectations out of the water. I was excited but also nervous and had no idea what to expect. Plus, due to the fact that I was living at home that summer (my hometown in central CA has very little business internship opportunities) I had to choose a remote internship, which made it seem a bit more daunting to me. But the wonderful people at the company I interned for created an experience for me that I would have never expected.
I worked for HELM Agro, the US subsidiary of a privately held German chemicals company. HELM is a global leader in agricultural chemicals (like fertilizer, pesticides, etc.) with subsidiaries in over 40 countries, and I got the unique opportunity to help one of their newest subsidiaries plan their expansion amid rapid growth and success. Specifically, I was doing data analysis to help management decide how many people they needed to hire, how to redraw their territories, and general strategy regarding new product launches in different regions. The work was amazing because I got to sharpen my excel skills, while also becoming super comfortable with really helpful technologies like Tableau and Power BI.
The most amazing part of this internship was that the company truly went the extra mile to make my experience as immersive as possible, despite me being a remote intern. They flew me out to work in their headquarter office in Tampa, Florida for a week. I got to visit Florida for the first time, and was able to get to know the team really well both in and outside of the office. Later in the summer, I was able to travel with the company again to Lexington, Kentucky for a big conference that Helm was having with a company that they had just entered into a partnership with. At the end of my week in Lexington, I was even able to present my summer’s work to the entire company.
I learned so much about the importance of company culture and loving the company you work for. Not only was my summer so amazing for developing my skills, and a cool travel experience that brought me to two states I’d never been to before, but it also gave me important knowledge that will shape the kinds of companies and jobs I will seek out moving forward.