INTERNSHIP INSIGHT: Mackenzie Brown's Interest In Design Thinking Grows At IBM

BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott College is a pioneer in requiring comprehensive internship experiences in every program of study for undergraduate students. Endicott women's ice hockey junior forward Mackenzie Brown (Chester, N.J.), who is a business management major (minor in business analytics) at Endicott, is currently interning remotely at IBM. Here's a look into her internship experience.

1) Why IBM? 

I chose IBM because of there values and care for its employees. IBM is always about making sure their employees are happy and continue to have the skills necessary to perform their job. When they hire interns they look for people who have the potential to have lifelong careers with IBM. 

2) What was the process like to obtain your internship? 

I was lucky when it came to obtaining an internship with IBM. One of my friends had mentioned that his godmother talked about interning for IBM as she worked for them. I asked my friend to reach out to her about the possibility of me interning with IBM. She then set up an interview for me with Eric Dahling, who is a Global Sales Incentives Transformation Manager for IBM. Through our conversation, Eric asked me to describe what it was that I wanted from an internship. From there, I filled out an application and was offered an internship position two weeks later. 

3) Describe your overall internship experience. 

My overall experience at IBM has been excellent. I couldn't have landed a more perfect internship. At IBM they are focused on giving interns the experience they want. So, to my surprise, when I first started my internship my supervisor helped create a path that was geared towards my interests. Currently, I am working on analyzing data from IBM's GIA chatbot users to help improve the quality and content of the chatbot itself. This part of my internship has taught me a lot about user data and how companies manage and run their chatbots.

4) What have you learned from your internship? 

From my internship, I have learned a variety of things from analyzing data in Excel to working with other employees, which are two areas I was really interested in when landing this internship.

I've also found working with a Global team has been particularly fulfilling because we have members from different countries (Austria, Brazil, Germany, France, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, India, and Japan). It's been great to understand how everyone from different countries operates and despite any barriers there have been we all are able to understand data and complete daily tasks. As far as Excel, even taking both business computers 1 & 2 I feel like I have continued to grow my skills and understand how businesses implement tools like excel to analyze data.

Additionally, at IBM they want their employees and interns to have the constant ability to continue to learn. This is why they offer free courses and badges that can be taken and earned during your time at IBM. So far I have obtained a badge in Design Thinking (definition below) and AGILE, which teaches you how business meetings are organized and run. 

From IBM: Design Thinking is a scalable framework to help teams understand and deliver—continuously.

You begin by making a conscious commitment, as a team, to prioritize your users over other, sometimes competing, business concerns.

In order to move fast, you put in place a well-rounded, multi-disciplined team. This is essential to move faster and work smarter in service of your users. When empowered whole teams can reject or commit to ideas in real-time, possibilities become reality.

And finally, you consider that everything is a prototype. Everything. This means your daily work artifacts and released, user-facing solutions. You restlessly reinvent, always keeping your focus on users' needs and the ever-changing technological landscape as an opportunity to re-think how a problem can be solved.

5) How will this internship help you in your career moving forward? 

Interning at IBM has given me an opportunity to network with full-time employees and other interns. I have made connections with multiple people that can help me obtain future positions within IBM or even with other companies. This internship has helped me understand what it is I truly enjoy within a business. 

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(Photo Credit - Mackenzie Brown)