4 killing Behaviors of Interns!

Before I settled at my current job at the finance department, Palestinian telecommunication, I had the chance to do three internships both paid and unpaid. At that point, I used to judge the employees (trainers) based on  how they should train  and deal with interns. When I sat on the other side of the table and I became the employee, no doubt, it was totally different experience.  I started to understand why such actions have been provocative to the employee. From my experience as a trainer, the interns usually conduct irrational behaviors. For that reason, I thought I should devote sometime to summarize the most critical behaviors that we face in the finance department:

1.    College Books Are The Ultimate Right.

We exert tremendous efforts to teach interns that the college books are right, but also, there are other methods and approaches that are right too. This is the real world; this is not  college where marks are the only evaluation tool. Now, it is the place where our approach is entitled as" All roads lead to Rome"

2.    They know Zilch About Communication Skills

We hold ourselves back from negatively reacting to the actions of the interns. Ironically, they still think, dress, talk, and behave, as if they are still students. They forgot that after 2-5 months they would be released to the real world.

3.    Unnecessary Details. 

The interns assume that in a few days, they are going to  master everything in the finance department. Of course, they will not. From my experience, we should emphasize on the general and broad aspects of the business and try to connect that with their college books. For example, we are recording on the Oracle finance program. In the training, I will not focus on the accounts and the recording on the program. I will only focus on the recording process and the fundamentals; for two prominent reasons:

1. The chart of accounts contains hundreds of accounts. No time for that!!

2. The program and accounts are only designed for our company, if they will work for other companies, it will not add up that much of knowledge to them. However, the recording process will do so since it is going to be very similar.

4.     Immature questions:

I still remember an intern asked my colleague "How much is your Salary?"  They can be smarter and say" what is the salary scale for entry level accountants?"

Please be aware of that if you want to become a trainee.  That is why we encourage every student to look for internships so they can be prepared  for the crucial market.

Let's hear from you now, did you face something similar  at your workplace?

Quintessential Interview Question

Either in the interviews or applications, I often stumbled with this question: "Describe a situation in which you demonstrated your leadership skills to solve a serious problem in professional life”. From my point of view, it is a very important question requiring clarity, precision and concision. The following is my answer.

It had been only three months into my being hired at the Finance Department at Paltel (Palestinian Telecommunications) as an accountant, when the HQ Finance Department assigned me a task for the first time. This task was to be the head of two sales centers’ stock-taking committee; and one of the centers is the largest sales center in the company. By the way, this was my first job after having done three internships. Here are the steps I took:

1. Read the guidelines of stock-taking and the responsibilities of the committee leader and understood them clearly.

2. Researched the profile of the team members.

3. Looked for any documentation related to the task that I had to perform.

4. Had an informal meeting with the key members to go through an overview regarding the activities of the task.

5. Consulted my colleague who has tremendous experience in this area.

After that I discovered the actual challenge: I was leading a team of 3 members, each one of which had at least 5 years of experience in the sales centers, one of them having been the head of a sales center stock-taking committee before. The simple fact was, I was the youngest in age with no previous experience in this job. In addition, the time was limited and I had only one day to finish work at the two centers and send the reports to the HQ finance Department. Moreover, there was pressure on me since the department had assigned me the job, even though there were other skillful employees. Also, I didn't want to let them down, I need to take this chance to prove that they can trust me.

Here is what I did: breaking the ice, as a team leader, was my first action. I am responsible for making everyone feel that he/she is part of the team and is not excluded. I already had a defined plan in my head. However, I asked them about their experiences over the past year, asked them for any suggestions, and asked them what roles they wanted to perform in the plan. By doing that, I made them feel that my plan is their plan and gained their trust. Then, I delegated the tasks to the team as per each one’s experience and skill. 

At the stage of execution, I introduced myself to the employees since I was new in the company; I found that the employees were very nervous, since the report I was making would affect them either positively or negatively. So, even though I didn't want to be the bad guy, at the same time I had to fulfill my duties. For that reason, whenever I found drawbacks and deficiencies, I encouraged them to be open about it; I convinced them that this process is only for evaluation purposes rather than scrutiny. 

All in all, I accomplished the mission successfully: I had demonstrated my leadership skills, along with my delegation and communication skills, my ability to work under pressure, leading a team with differing levels of experience, reporting and social intelligence skills.

Now, what about you, have you ever been in a similar situation? How did you overcome it?

USA Internship Journey

" Upstate NY from the plane window that took me back home from the USA to Palestine"
11th May 2012

How can I find an internship? Where should I search? Which sectors should I be looking? From whom should I seek help? How much time does it take to find an internship? These and many more questions were floating around in my mind before I had my internship in the US, and I am sure most students had and will have the same concerns that I had.

In this article, I will share my experience about my internship in the US. I am not going to give advice; I am only sharing what happened in my case.  It is up to you to analyze my journey’s ups and downs.

            It’s August 2011.I arrived at State University of New York in Cobleskill to study my junior year via the NESA cultural exchange scholarship, sponsored by the US Department of State. One requirement of NESA was getting an internship with these conditions:
1. Unpaid internship.
2. Off-campus.
3. In the spring semester.
4. Related to our major.

Given these conditions, this meant I had only four months to accomplish the mission.  And it shouldn’t be on campus. Cobleskill is small town in upstate New York which therefore meant I had limited options.

From my point of view, the most efficient way of getting the internship was through my connections in the school, however, I am an international student who didn’t yet  know even  where to go shopping!  My strategy of finding an internship was based on working in two paths in parallel;

1. Seeking help from an advisor,

2. Working hard to achieve “A” grades at my business courses.  

            The first thing I did was to seek help from my advisor in the international student office at the University. Automatically, in the fall semester she enrolled me in an internship class that was directly sponsored by the career center in the school. From there, they gave us access to a plenty of resources that could help us to build a killer resumé and cover letter. In addition, they taught us the techniques and the skills that  we should acquire to pass the interview, from the greeting to thanking the interviewer. In addition, the instructor held with us a mock interview, which was very beneficial for us because we were given feedback. That was a part of the assistance from the University. Let me say my part now. Take a breath and then continue.J

My strategy was getting an “A” grade in my business classes, this way; my professors would easily recommend me to the internship I am looking for. Luckily, I achieved this. Their responses were:

• 1. My finance teacher “ Well, yes why not, we would love to have you in our company, however, we only offer internships in the summer”. 

• 2. My Managerial Accounting teacher who has a CPA firm “ Are you asking me for job, I am kidding, Okay give me your phone number and if we need one I will contact you” Well, I never got a reply back. 

Let’s see how I did get the internship!!

By the end of December 2011, my advisor introduced me to the controller at Lancaster Development via email. Now, my first move came, I called the company asking them to arrange an interview for me; I got it for 1:00 PM.  Automatically, I went to the company website for any helpful information. Also, I contacted a previous intern from Yemen asking her for information.

At the day of the interview, it felt like  the Day of Judgment; it is the time of implementation.   I suited up with some lovely perfume and a fancy watch. I took the bus and I arrived at the company 15 minutes before the interview. I passed the interview successfully by all means.  Mission accomplished! I got an unpaid internship as per the NESA program policies.

The best is yet to come. At the departure orientation in Missouri, 30th April 2012, three certificates were  awarded to the most successful NESA interns by the US Department of State. And yes, I got the “Inspiring Intern” award!

            But wait a minute, what about my CV??!!  Even though it was ready and all neat-looking, I forget both to bring it to the interview and to send it by email! 

I am looking forward to your comments and thoughts.

The Moment Life Changed

I would like to share with you my first successful personal statement. This statement paved the road for me to study abroad as an exchange student at State University of New York at Cobleskill, US, through a program sponsored by the US Department of State called NESA. Here is my statement as it is since Dec 2010, without any changes.

"Marketing is critical to the success of every organization. People already know about marketing – that is all around them. At home, at school, where you work, and where you play, you see marketing in almost everything you do. The baby when cries, the employee when interviews, the company when advertise, and when you write your name on your bag, are all marketing themselves. I will market myself in this statement to convince you that I am worthy to take this opportunity.

 My interest in this field blossoms every time I do shopping where I miss our national products in the market. We are suffering from a weak economy. I want to contribute to find a solution to this problem. During studying in the faculty of commerce I came to understand that small businesses play an important role in sprouting the economy. Unfortunately we hardly have small businesses, and they are not based on scientific approaches. I hope, after finishing my studies, to generate small businesses ideas adapted to our local circumstances.

I know that the road to achieve my goals is full with hard work, therefor; I decided to finish the bachelor in accounting with excellence degree. I have a big ambition and high motive to get the CPA to be a certified public accountant; Thus, I study hard to understand every aspect in the accounting field.

As I am studying in English-accounting department, I work hard to improve my English, which is important to keep me updated with the developing science of economy.

In my leisure time, I keep in touch with the society. Now I am a member in al-Wedad, a social rehabilitation organization, in which we undertake various activities such as supporting woman rights and building capacity of the youth. In addition, I keep upgrading myself by taking different courses. Recently, I finished training of trainer course – TOT, preparation course for the TOFEl and advance level -12 English course. Beside that, I am active and energetic person because the sound mind in the sound body.

I would like to be in this program because it will help me achieve many of my goals. First, I will experience the strongest economy in the world and the successful businesses that will help me to generate new ideas. Secondly, I will be with highly qualified teachers and competitive students that will encourage me to study harder. Thirdly, I will have the chance to improve my English skills. Finally, I am very enthusiastic to deal with people from different cultures.

To conclude, I assure you that if I take this opportunity, I will prove myself a capable and dedicated student. I know that I am highly interested in Accounting as a subject and the potential for success in order to achieve what I want. Finally, I believe that I have the commitment and the determination to complete this program successfully and fulfill my ambitions."

I hope you like it, and that you get the most out of it. Also, you can use these ideas in the future. I am looking forward to  your comments and opinions.

Islamic Relief Through An Intern’s Eyes.

        This article will describe my internship experience at Islamic Relief Worldwide in its Gaza office. First, it will give a brief introduction about the internship and the intern. Then, it will describe the characteristics of IR from the point of view of the intern. Lastly, it will mention the personal gains from the internship for the intern.

Internship Overview

Location: Islamic Relief Worldwide - Gaza office.

Department: Finance Department.

Position: Intern.

Internship type: starting as unpaid intern, then evolved into paid internship.

Period: Feb - May 2013 unpaid; June-Oct 2013 paid internship

Intern Overview

Education: bachelor of accounting – best student 91.5%

Study abroad: exchange student for academic year at State University of New York at Cobleskill, GPA 3.55, Dean’s List.

Experience: Internship, Lancaster Development Inc, New York, USA; Volunteer, Muslim Hands International, Gaza, Palestine.

For more information about the intern you can visit: www.linkedin.com/in/ahmed6/

How I See IR.

I will describe the IR organization from my point of view.

1. Enabling environment for training.

• As an intern, IR gave me an organized schedule for training. Moreover, I almost have all the accommodations, tools and accessories that other employee have in the organization; a nice desk, telephone, email, etc.

• The finance manager gave me the priority over other employees to participate in training and workshops. 

• I have the chance to participate in the weekly social activities; such as IR staff soccer, and I also joined two trips for the IR staff.

2. Vision driven.

The employees work with the IR mission at the forefront of their sight. I asked some employees about the positives of the working environment. They said that when the work get tedious and the numbers didn’t balance, they healed themselves by remembering that this work is for the needy people, orphans and community.

3. Well organized policies and regulations.

You can easily find manuals, guidelines, and policies if you feel lost.

4. Islamic environment.

I experienced the Islamic environment within the strategy and policies in the workplace. For instance, there is a one hour monthly lecture by an external Muslim scholar. Also, it is permitted for the employees to pray in the nearby mosque. The praying will take 15-25 min.

5. Rotational training.

The finance manager planned a training schedule in which I sat and trained with 5 employees out of 7 in the FD. This training included; processing 10 purchase request; reviewing and recording 5 Murabaha and soft loan transaction; 3 days review of the financial transaction; and processing 5 bank transfers.

Personal gains from the internship:

• Relevant practical experience

From my friend’s testimony, who is a trainee at an accounting firm, he says “almost all his time goes into photocopying, typing and, if he is lucky, recording routine invoices". As for my experience, it was a completely different case. On the first day, I was given my job description and training program. Of course, I learned many things that I cannot mention here due to space constrictions.

• Strengthen my communication skills

I had the chance to communicate with different lines of authority and external parties such as auditors, suppliers and partners.

• Widened my professional network

• SWOT analysis

I had the chance to dig deep and discover my skills, education and personality. I discovered that Microsoft Excel skills could ease my work, so I took an advanced Excel training course. The training really met my expectations.

• Paved the road for my new career

My supervisor at Paltel said to me "your description about the procurement and finance cycle in the job interview was well said and detailed enough". Well, I have to say that without my internship at IR, I could not have gone that far in the interview.

      I hope that I presented an inner look about Islamic Relief and how I, as an intern, perceived the organization and what is the expected environment for the coming employees. I am grateful for everyone that helped me to excel during my time in the IR. IR does not only give experience, it also spreads values.