1. MCI Internship July 2014 – June 2015
James Read
MCI Internship July 2014 – June 2015

2. Agenda What interns expect from placement Learning Curves
Guidance
Experience
Responsibility
Feedback
Patience!
Learning Curves
Competencies developed
Biggest achievement
Becoming part of a team
Outcomes
Recommendations

3. Guidance
Most interns from Universities will not have previous experience when it comes to working in an office or working with clients and the expectations that come with that. Therefore a the beginning, it is important the intern will get a lot of guidance.
Start off with a meeting for expectations, both for the intern and from you to establish how the intern will work within the team. It could be beneficial to ask the intern a lot of questions at this point to see how they themselves fit in and their expectations
How to act in a professional environment
How to complete tasks required
How to apply yourself in the most efficient manner
Given objectives to reach
Allow time for questions
Reaching out to interns when you feel they may need assistance

4. Experience

5. Experience
The main reason for internships on the intern side is to gain experience and learn, and gain as much experience as possible during the duration of our stay. As shown in the last slide I have been lucky to be able to work with many different clients doing various roles which each client has taught me something new. Going forward, interns need to be able to talk about there professional experiences and getting involved in many different projects, or a wide range of tasks within a project helps to make a more complete professional coming out of it.
Personal growth
Professional growth
Transferable skills
Confidence

6. Responsibility
Once experience has been gained and there is a higher level of trust, it would be important for an interns growth to have responsibility in their own roles within a team.
Important for job satisfaction, and feeling valuable
Puts more pressure on an intern which will aid in their development
Enables inters to use their initiative more, and bring different idea’s to the team
Will help to fully integrate the intern into the team
Provides a meaningful learning experience

7. Feedback
Giving appropriate feedback is important for both the intern and the mentor. For the intern, it is important to know what you are doing right, what you are doing wrong, where you can improve, how you can improve and what else you can do to aid in client work. This is then important for the mentor as the intern will then perform at a higher standard and improve on weak areas.

8. Feedback

9. Feedback
In the above slide there are two examples of feedback I have received over the course of my internship for university. I do however think that an intern would gain more from more frequent feedback relating to client work and personal and professional growth.
Monthly meetings to discuss the internship, different jobs and roles undertaken, areas of improvement, areas of concern and to improve
To have a criteria of your own expectations for the intern. Then to go through with them and show them what they are good at and what needs to be improved
Acknowledgement!

10. Patience!
Most interns will have no previous experience in an office or dealing with clients and the expectations with that. It may take time for the intern to get up to speed and to fully understand different clients. During this period, or other times when an intern may frustrate being patient and guiding them in the right direction is vital.
Mistakes will happen
Work may be wrong, or not how you had expected it
It may take time for an intern to develop into an asset

11. Learning Curves
IACC:
My role in IACC was to prospect and bring in Sponsors for the European Conference and Annual American Conference.
This was something I found extremely challenging at the beginning, as I had no previous sales experience, no previous phone or cold calling experience, no previous experience with dealing with potential customers. This may be simple to some people if you have the relevant experience or know-how, but something I found difficult.
I didn’t enjoy the work I was doing with IACC and my standard of work slipped due to this. I had a meeting and was told that in this area needed to be improved and was not up to standard.

12. Learning Curves
IACC: I then knew I needed to work a lot harder on the standard of work I was doing for this client. Although unsuccessful there was a huge change in mentality, and I gained a huge amount of personal and professional growth from the project. I learnt how do react under pressure and targets are not being meant, as well as core skills that will be important for the rest of my internship. In April, I had a similar role for Dscoop in bringing professionals to the Dscoop Conference. Although not selling but inviting, the way I approached the project from the experience of IACC was much more positive and it ended with results.

13. Learning Curve
IPSS: For IPSS I was in charge of the logistics for exhibition at IPSSW Before this project I had no experience managing and dealing with different queries, problems and expectations that comes from managing an exhibition. At the beginning I was heavily reliant on Tanguy to provide me with the information, make sure what I was sending was correct, dealing with the exhibitors and general overlook of the exhibition. As my main job for this client I needed to learn how to manage all these different aspects to managing with also at times a lack of information, and by the time of IPSSW2015 had played my part in the exhibitor satisfaction with good reviews! One moment of note was pushing for signage for one of the exhibitors which became a long process but in the end successful!

14. Competencies Developed
Working in a team:
So far during my time at MCI Brussels I have done work for 14 different clients and each has a different team and objectives. Having the ability to integrate myself efficiently into various teams with different objectives for my work.  In 4 of these clients I have had my own specific role within the team.
The ability to be effective in a team was also benefited with Intern-Com, where along with 8 other members had the chance to create our own team with our own dynamics to successfully improve the Internal Communication within MCI Brussels.

15. Competencies Developed
Time Management:
Having different projects and clients on at any one time can make time management extremely difficult due to deadlines being at similar times and each manager expecting the high quality work.  Despite this however, I have managed to reliably been able to hand in work on time throughout my internship.  

16. Competencies Developed
Belief in my work.
Over the course of the internship the confidence I have in the work I conduct now is completely different to when I started.
Through various positive feedbacks, experience and practise at different roles I believe in myself and the work I complete much more than I have done previously. This is important as I am now able to do my own projects without too much supervision taking up the time of others.

17. Most enjoyable work project
IPSS
The project I enjoyed the most during my time at MCI IPSS. For this client, it was my role to look after the exhibition logistics for the IPSSW in Vancouver.
I had to overcome a few different problems due to differences between this year's event and last year's event as well as a lack of information at any one time to try find a solution. Through perseverance I was able to successfully manage the exhibition and receive positive feedback!
It was a rewarding project, where I had my own role in the team and got to see the results.

18. Personal Achievements matter as well..
MCI Rocks!
Trying to encourage personal growth as well as professional is key to developing a young professional. Something I never thought I would do, or really have the opportunity to do would be to perform with guitar on stage.
If Tanguy wasn’t my mentor and asked and pushed me I am not sure I would have thought to do it. That is the proudest achievement for me throughout the year, and really boosted my confidence being in front of people.

19. Becoming part of the team
Feeling like you belong in a team will be important to any intern, and has been important for me to become more comfortable in the workplace. It is the people who surround you all day, so it’s important for an intern to feel they are apart of that!
Bi Monthly Lunch or drinks!

20. Outcomes MCI Portfolio Experience in: Sales Research Prospection
Cold calling
Phone skills
Logistics
Marketing
Creative
Data base management
Relationship management
& more!
I leave MCI as a much more confident, efficient and professional person to when I started. The most important thing while being an intern is to learn, and I now have experience I can draw one for many situations that will happen in my future career.

21. Recommendations
To give the next intern the best experience for personal and professional growth, as well as get the most out of them in work in the office:
Take a meeting with what your expectations will be
Have monthly reviews, with your own criteria of their performance levels
Acknowledge successful work that has been completed
Allow time for questions, but also be proactive if they needs assistance
Offer a wide range of tasks, including some with their own roles within a team
Involve interns in the teams meetings and to be present during discussions/decisions
Encourage personal growth in any way you can
Keep the BD team close, team build!

22. It has been a pleasure to work with you all..
Thank you!