Jessica Hummer: A Day in the Life of a GET Intern

1/16/2012

Jessica Hummer, Interned at JPMorgan Chase

College of Engineering

The Ohio State University

It is a typical spring morning in Columbus, Ohio. For many students, this means starting a day of class at The Ohio State University. For me, this means a busy day at JPMorgan Chase & Co. As soon as I arrive at my cubicle and start my computer, I know that I have a busy day ahead of me. There are several meetings scheduled – one with my GET project team, another with a subsection of my class, lunch with a Senior Speaker, and finally one with my Senior Mentor. Meetings are usually more scattered throughout the week, but today is exceptionally full of meetings.

After checking my email and reviewing the company’s website for news, I dial in to my GET team’s conference line. Within a minute, the three other members of my team are on the line. It is our turn today to lead the class discussion. My GET team starts our meeting reviewing our roles for the class meeting, deciding who will facilitate, take meeting minutes, and support technology. For the remaining time leading up to the class meeting, we discuss our project. Our project is the focus of the GET Immersion Experience. The goal of the project is to observe our host company and identity opportunities for improvement. As interns just joining the company, we are able to provide a fresh perspective and present our findings to top management at the end of the internship. My own team usually meets once a week to discuss the project or more if there are deadlines approaching.

Soon half of the class is on the conference line, as well as our professors. Last week we collected agendas from everyone, which includes PowerPoint slides from the professors and updates from other teams. These meetings with my team and class are made challenging by the fact that people are all over the country, such as Ohio, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. The last time that we were all gathered in the same place at the same time was in January during our first residency. Despite the location differences, the meeting goes smoothly. Each of the professors gives a lecture, providing us with new information and strategies for our project. We then get to discuss our own progress. The professors are very familiar with each project and each student. They are sure to ask about the results of follow-ups from the previous week, and give specific suggestions on any issues. As soon as the meeting concludes, my team quickly organizes the meeting minutes and sends it out to everyone.

Now that the morning meetings have concluded, I have time to work on assignments from my managers. I have coding assignments to complete, as well as bugs to fix in an older coding assignment. I have updates to make on a project schedule that I am creating. My plate is very full! My manager wanted to give me a taste of everything while I worked there, so that I could understand the applications we support and each of the phases of the project life cycle. This meant that I played the role of project manager, business analyst, quality analyst, and developer. It was a little confusing at times, because I accumulated a lot of sub-managers as I worked on different projects, as each person on the team has a different specialty.

Lunch arrives, so I meet with the other interns at the Columbus location and find the appropriate TelePresence room. With a push of a button, the other JPMorgan Chase interns are on the line, and look just as if they were sitting across the room, rather than across the country. Our Senior Speaker walks into the room and scans the small group of students. Unlike the Senior Speaker Series of the summer internship, we are able to have a more personal and interactive experience. They are usually just as interested in us as we are in them.

I also met with my Senior Mentor that afternoon, part of our biweekly series. She works in a different area of a company and has a very different background than I do, so her input to the project is always very helpful. I am able to bring our project to her, and she is always very familiar with the acronyms and technologies. Without looking at her computer, she is able to list off names of people who can help us with the next step of our project. After some discussion of the project, she is always curious to hear about how I am enjoying the internship and what my personal goals are after the internship. Then I receive more contacts to explore further opportunities!

After a few discussions with my work team about some of my assignments, it’s time to head home. As I walk back to the car, I am able to reflect on the day. I have applied much more than just my technical skills. I also realized that I enjoyed these varying roles, and plan on obtaining a business minor post-GET.