By Sarah Rachul
When I sat down to write about a day in the life of a corporate intern, I thought about all the different ways I could describe my day. Do I just mention the important things? What about all those little moments that make my day unique? Those are important too even though they may not all have to do with work. Those are the moments that make my internship so special. So to really give you a true account of a day in my life, here it is….laid out to the minute.
5:45AM – Alarm falls on deaf ears as there’s no way I’m up yet.
6:15AM – Second backup alarm has finally done its job and gotten me out of bed, thus begins the day. The next hour is spent getting ready, checking personal emails and Facebook, packing my gym bag, making coffee and deciding if my feet can really handle wearing 4 inch heels again (they couldn’t, flats it is).
7:30AM – Head downstairs to the hotel lobby to make breakfast and add as much vanilla creamer to my iced coffee as I can.
7:45AM – Carpool to work with my other intern friends and have approximately 10 minutes to bond until we arrive.
8AM – Sit down at my desk and chat with my cubicle mates until my laptop powers on and connects to the network and my virtual desktop.
8:20AM – Start the email checking process. On some days this takes 5 minutes and on others it takes upwards of 30. Here’s a tip for any corporate intern: you WILL get bogged down with emails. Take time every morning to organize and answer all your email in your inbox and when you get emails throughout the day start using a 24 hour rule. Make sure you answer any and all emails you receive within a 24 hour period, no matter how busy you may be.
8:30AM – Finally send the last email…..after staring at my computer screen for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to respond to one particularly surprising message.
9AM – I tend to block off time in the morning to work on my intern projects. These projects range from social media research to competitive product analysis to event planning for the upcoming National Sales Meeting. Today that project is sifting through countless articles on websites pertaining to our healthcare competitors.
12PM – Every intern’s favorite time…..lunch. Because of the size of Cardinal’s campus I don’t get to see many of my intern friends throughout the day. At lunch we all meet in the large West Caféand are able to socialize and on some days, even volunteer. Today we made cards for sick kids in the hospital during lunch.
1PM – The afternoon begins and with it comes multiple meetings and events that can make for a long but exciting few hours.
2PM – Spent the last hour calling speakers bureaus to find the perfect speaker for the National Sales Meeting. But on a side note, several of those calls were interrupted by chats with David (the intern that sits next to me) and walks around the office. Another corporate intern tip: Get up and walk around every once in awhile. Your eyes get tired just staring at a computer and your butt gets big if you sit on it all day. Take 5 minutes and do a lap.
3PM – Finally finished the comparative analysis just in time to send to my manager before the biggest meeting of the day. In this meeting we discussed the future of branding and marketing for a subset of our department. One of the things I love most about meetings like these are the opportunities for learning. I didn’t know much about this area of business going into the meeting but was happy to be able to say I learned something when I left.
5PM – The end of the meeting also brought the end of the day. After packing up my stuff I met some friends in the lobby and went on to run some errands before heading home.
This brings me to sitting down in front of my computer and writing this blog. While this day isn’t the same as every other, it does reflect what I’ve been doing during my internship. If you have any questions about Cardinal Health or corporate internships in general, I’m always happy to answer!
Connect with Sarah on Twitter at @SarahMRachul