Ryan Murphy
University of Alabama
Financial Planning & Analysis Intern
Gladly will I take every opportunity that I have to acknowledge one thing that I find more incredible than most. Despite having started in different ways, with different families, from different parts of this world—despite every decision, every mistake, and every hardship—here we are: apologetically ourselves. As we near the end of our third week here, learning from one another and from our differences has been just as significant and rewarding as all that the Tech Data family has taught us. A lot of the focus has gravitated toward two ends: one with regards to self, one with regards to others. Of the many quotes, I’d love to share a few that
“Did your final product look like your initial goal?”
For many of us, this is our first time in an intensive corporate environment. We have our various comfort zones, but what has generally held true is that projects or assignments have had specific parameters, instructions, and due dates. What is perhaps one of the biggest changes we’ll be adjusting to is that this will not always be the case. Some of us are already seeing that our assignments are vague, loosely defined, and have deadlines which are not concrete dates. With an added degree of autonomy, it will be necessary that we pace ourselves and set smaller, more achievable intermediate goals.
“If you can speak, you can influence. If you can influence, you can change lives.”
When walking down the aisles of the office spaces, take a look at how many plaques that read “10 Years” or “20 Years” or perhaps even longer, to mark the impressive tenures of the employees as well as the bragging rights for instances of high retention and low turnover in the company. But for newcomers like us, entering an environment where our lack of experience is so apparent might be extremely intimidating. But as we have been told, “the world is big and no one is like you.” Each of us here brings something unique to the family, and pretty much all of us are cringing at the thought of public speaking, we are required every week to participate in the Toastmaster program here. In my opinion, that’s great and all to get us to speak up, but more importantly we have such an unbelievable opportunity to absorb one another, to hear our stories and our reasons. We’ve laughed, we’ve been brought to tears, and *one of us* even had to leave the room for snorting too loudly. All in all, we really lucked out for being forced away from our comfort zones and for having the chance to share who we are.
“I like the people I work with.”
This is a direct quote from SEVERAL individuals, but it is also my truth. Throughout my life, I’ve heard a mixture of “you won’t get to choose your coworkers,” and “who you’ve got will make it or break it.” I suppose they’re both true, and having heard this fact from several people here—including employees and executives alike. When family or friends ask how my program is going, I tell them the place is great but the people are even better. The days have been absolutely flying by but what I look forward to most is seeing my friends here. I never know what to expect, except that in just a few short weeks it’ll be a hard goodbye.
As for now, I’m looking forward to the rest of the addendum. Today we’ll begin the Reading Pals program through the United Way, where we will get to mentor children by helping them through reading. We also have a large project that is in the works. More on that later, though, I promise!
Intern Blog 