Hannah King, studying marketing and entrepreneurship, is working at Jabil Circuit in St Petersburg, USA, as an internal communications intern:The Saltire Foundation interns are nearly finished their internships and here, we hear from two of them about their experience from the beginning of the process to date. You can also read a blog by the CEO of the Saltire Foundation, Sandy Kennedy, on how the organisation is investing in Scotland's future leaders.
Hannah King, studying marketing and entrepreneurship, is working at Jabil Circuit in St Petersburg, USA, as an internal communications intern:
"The process to get the internship was long and quite daunting at times. I definitely think that you need to dedicate a reasonable amount of time to answering the competency based questions and preparing for the speed interviews if you get through because the questions can be answered well if you think about them carefully. Being involved in different groups and societies takes a huge weight off your shoulders during these kinds of interviews because you have a wealth of examples that you can talk about.
"I was ecstatic to hear that I was being offered my internship. Jabil was my first choice, so to know I was going to have an incredible experience with a global company was fantastic. My friend from Strathclyde Uni interned with Jabil the previous year so she had already told me how great the company is and things to do in Florida.
"So far I have been happy with my internship. I am working in the internal communications department which means I work on communicating different initiatives to different plants (Jabil has sites in 30+ countries) and I've been writing content for the intranet which has been good but challenging for me - coming as I do from a business background and not journalism or a writing based degree. It has definitely been a worthwhile experience so far and one that I'm sure I will benefit from once I'm back. I'm not sure that Internal Communications is the field I will go into but experiencing this has provided me with a far greater insight into how successful, global businesses are run. Jabil has a very unique culture and I am very glad to have had the chance to be part of it.
"I'm looking forward to gaining more experience in dealing with people all over the world. I have some regional teleconferences scheduled for Asia, Europe and the Americas which will be really interesting to listen in to. I get new projects each week so I'm sure there will be more interesting work to come. I come from a Marketing background so they have been giving me projects that allow me to use my skills and knowledge; for example, I have been tasked with developing a process to leverage blog content across different platforms to increase the readership within the company. This provides me with valuable experience and the stats for each page view can show if my efforts are working.
"I think I will get a lot out of this experience. Confidence in dealing with senior managers and board members is one huge benefit of this type of internship. The networking opportunities that come with this type of internship are invaluable. I will take a lot from this experience, from both the internship and from living with people that I don't know in a place that I've never been. Experiencing the American culture has been fun. I would say this whole experience is character building and learning to live with people that are very different from you teaches you a lot about yourself and will come in useful in the future when I have to work with people that I don't necessarily see eye to eye with!"
Jamie Cooper-Higgins, studying Business, is working at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management in New York:
"The application process involved an online application initially – probably the most in-depth online application I have completed. It covered everything from personal background and education/work experience to essay-style questions on the impact of certain sectors to the Scottish economy. This then led to speed interviews which really tested on-the-spot thinking and adaptability. If successful, you choose your projects from a list and apply to each role. My project was my first choice and I was selected for it. The final stage is a telephone or face-to-face interview with someone from the host company. Mine was with Todd Commisso who is my main manager over here. At this stage you are up against 1 to 3 other candidates.
"The support of the Saltire Foundation team was great – any time I had questions they were quickly and accurately answered by the team. After being selected, but before I left for New York, I was invited to lunch with Claire Johnston and Sandy Kennedy from the Saltire Foundation, and Letitia Lam - who interned last year with Barclays and is now working for them – and two other Barclays Saltire Foundation scholars to the Barclays Aurora building in Glasgow. We had lunch with senior management at director level from all over the business and it was a great networking event to be at.
"I'm very happy with the internship. I'm a Business Analyst within Global Operations of Barclays Wealth and Investment Management. It was my first choice and was one of the most competitive projects to get for good reasons. The location is amazing, I'm living on the Upper East Side and working in the heart of Midtown. The office and everyone here is amazing, Barclays acquired Lehman Brothers in the bankruptcy in 2008 so there's a mix of Lehman and Barclays staff and everyone is at the top of their game.
"The main project I am working on is one I have the major responsibility for. It's implementing a process used by Operations staff globally in Barclays Wealth but not currently used in the Americas. It's a feedback platform which allows employees to submit ideas which can potentially turn into projects to improve the business, promoting innovation and change. It involves a lot of international collaboration, mapping out processes and working with different internal departments for approval. I actually had a presentation yesterday to three senior managers including Head of Operations for Barclays Wealth Americas yesterday and the project is approved so I'll be launching it in two weeks alongside an internal marketing campaign.
"A side project I'm working on alongside my immediate manager is on changing the way we look at international capital gains tax. It has involved a lot of researching work, creating presentations for senior management, thinking analytically and challenging the way we currently do it. The nature of the project has lots of stakeholders both domestic and international and has involved a lot of communication with tax custodians internationally. Also, it's all been completely new considering I'm a single marketing honours undergrad.
"The HR department has been great at integrating me into the US internship activities so I've had great exposure to senior management. They do events called ‘lunch and learns’ where all the interns have lunch at least once a week with senior management. Highlights so far have been with both COOs of the company Avi Stein and Slava Shafir, and our CIO Hans Olsen (who the next morning was speaking on CNBC about capital markets). The amount I've learned in a month about the industry and myself in general has been incredible.
"I've already got a lot out of this internship with more to come, the main things being networking - I've made so many influential contacts already not just in Operations that want to help me after graduation; Industry Experience - I'm really the only intern here that doesn't study finance so I've learned so much industry specific knowledge; International Experience - the working environment in the US and financial services is very different, I'm working at least 10 hours a day but that's the norm. People approach problems differently and things just get done quicker."
You can read blogs from all the Saltire Foundation interns here.