JANUARY
INTERN of the MONTH
DAVID DURAN
WESTFIELD INSURANCE GROUP
1 Park Circle P.O. Box 5001
Westfield Center, OH
Major: Accounting
Minor: Math
Clubs & Organizations:
IMA, SIFE, ACM: Vice President
How did you find out about the internship?
My brother who was already working there. Also a friend, Toby Stafford previously had the internship and recommended me.
How long did it take you to secure the internship position?
Less than a week.
Did the Career Development Center help you in acquiring the internship? If so, please explain how.
Telling me about the job, no. But working with classes and hosting job fairs did help me. They let me know and gain experience on how to talk to employers and recruiters.
Describe your responsibilities within your internship.
I was the Human Resources Metrics Intern. I ran monthly headcount and turnover reports as well as running quarterly retirement analysis and scorecard reports. I also had to run reports that were specially requested by my supervisor. I had a lot of teamwork experience working with a team to implement a succession planning program. I was able to: test the program in its beta version, help roll it into production, assist with the training of managers, executives, and senior executives, and then help troubleshoot the system when it had an error.
List three to five highlights from your internship.
Working for a great company that treated their employees with respect and offers employees many great benefits. Getting team working experience in a professional atmosphere. Meeting a lot of employees from other interns to senior executives. Increasing my knowledge of excel and some of my accounting knowledge. Getting hired back to work until December.
What is one aspect of your internship that you would have wanted to change?
To be honest, nothing. It was much more than I imagined it would be.
Did your internship confirm your antici0pated career choice or path?
The internship was not in my field of accounting, but it did give me a different perspective of what HR really does. It really interested me finding out how the different business units work together to achieve the goal of the company.
Now that you have completed an internship, what advice would you give students about internships?
My advice is to do as many as you can. They give you valuable insight and knowledge into how a company works. They are also a great way of finding out if you like your major. Also if they give you “grunt work” to do, DO IT! They might be testing how good of a work ethic you have and see if they should offer you a job opportunity when you graduate.
