The Intern Diaries (Week 7): If you can believe IT, you can achieve IT

Week 7 was sent straight from heaven, and I’m not just saying that because of the grand return of the brown bag lunches! (Rumor has it the cookies are “rock solid” at some of the other internships around town, but you didn’t hear that from me…) Thankfully, our lunches have really been up-to-snuff, so everyone’s staying nourished – only the tastiest treats* for Hightower’s up-and-comers.

*Sorry, I need to stop writing these at lunch time…

It’s a beautiful day in the Loop neighborhood of Chicago, where our office is! This time we’re visiting a new borough called the IT department, as well as getting an inside look at the training sessions. Could it BE any more dazzling in here? (Don’t answer that).

“Live, Laugh, Love, Sarah Musante” – HR Intern Sarah Welch

The brown bag this week was with one of Hightower’s longest-standing employees: Chief Human Resources Officer Sarah Musante. Sarah’s years at the company just reached teenager status (13!), which just goes to show that free snacks really can guarantee employee loyalty (sorry, last time I bring that up).

Sarah’s brown bag talk really checked off the “know your audience” box perfectly, considering HR intern Sarah Welch thought it was “one of the best.” She says, “I might be biased, but it gave me the opportunity to ask her so many questions and get so much insight into how the HR world, and even how HR at Hightower, has changed over the years. Sarah helped me feel so much more connected to our HR team!” Ah, A Tale of Two Sarahs: One of my favorite stories.

The Write Stuff

This week’s training session was very practical, but sometimes those are the best kind! Hightower’s recruiters Colleen Savell and Brandy LeCoure did a session on Resume Writing 101 to give the interns some solid guidance on how to format their resumes to appeal to hiring managers. Says Technology Service Desk Intern Kaylee Riffer, “The resume writing session was very helpful, as it gave us tips about how to create a resume specialized to students in college looking for internships or their first job out of college. They gave us advice about what they look for in resumes and how to give us better chances of getting ours seen when applying for jobs.” Yes, Kaylee! I hope you always feel seen.

Field Supervision Intern Virginia Hiteshew was also in agreement on the session being an 11/10. She adds, “I really enjoyed the resume writing workshop – probably one of my favorites. I found it extremely insightful and applicable to us as interns. The information and tips that Colleen and Brandy shared showed me the mind of a recruiter and the best way to make yourself an appealing candidate. It also provided me with lots of edits for my resume!”

Each week they come away with new tools to put in their career handy-belts! What kind of house they build with it is up to them… As The Hills Theme Song Musician Natasha Bedingfield would say, “The rest is still unwritten.”

James Kim Enters the Chat

“IT’s” about time to explore another facet of Hightower’s service offerings – the technology department! Software Development Intern James Kim stepped up to the plate to share with us his projects, and I gotta say, the dude is crushing it. So much so that I think he’s earned Intern of the Week! Your prize is a motivational quote:

“Cupcakes are muffins that believed in miracles.” – The Internet

James Kim is majoring in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (I think he also has a minor in Being Nice) and is expected to graduate in 2025, which doesn’t make me feel old at all.

We wanted to know what kinds of things James has been working on at Hightower, and he’s spilling the tea! He shares, “I’m really enjoying my project at Hightower, which is to model the IT infrastructure of the company. This means I get to interview people throughout the IT department to gain a good understanding of how each application plays a role in the company’s main functions. Furthermore, I was able to learn in-depth about the underlying technology used to build Hightower’s IT applications, as well as the data flow that exists between them. It has been such a valuable experience, as I was able to obtain practical knowledge in technology and learn how to approach problems from different perspectives.” Let it (data) flow, James!

A Man of Many Talents

Get to know resident IT boy James through some cool facts about his life outside the 9-5!

1. He learned how to juggle last summer.
2. He was a tennis player throughout high school, but now he just plays recreationally.
3. Now that he’s mastered the juggling, he’s been learning how to play guitar this summer.

Is it too late to pick a summer hobby? Sign me up for underwater basket-weaving ASAP.

Logged On for Learning

James probably already knew that you can’t run a Windows software update during the workday without serious consequences (this is my only IT knowledge), so I’m sure his internship learnings were far more sensible. Here are his biggest takeaways:

• “Learning how to communicate better. For my project, I reached out to many coworkers within the IT department to get their help. These meetings were valuable experiences in that I learned how to express my ideas clearly and concisely and how to ask good follow-up questions to gain as much information as possible.”
• “Being able to understand at a high level how enterprise technology is developed and maintained. Through my projects, I got to see how different technologies worked with each other to ultimately support Hightower’s business needs.”
• “Learning how to coordinate time. With multiple projects, I learned how to divide up my time for different tasks. I also learned how to effectively schedule time for cooperation.”

Love to hear it! Asking good questions is an invaluable skill to develop. Almost as invaluable as the basket-weaving.

Thanks, James, for giving us a taste of what this internship experience has been like for you! HAGS.

Week 7 has sun-setted and I’m running out of alliterations…. Come back later to see what the interns are circling back to and following up on.