Football!

Yesterday was the first football game of the season-where I was able to go at least! We played Citadel at 6pm, and the day was absolutely perfect for tailgating. I was worried for all of 2 minutes during the game when Citadel tied us at 7-7, but then NCSU went on a run and never stopped. The final score ended up being 52-14.

After a great weekend, I'm back to grind! 2 projects to work on, 3 articles and 4 chapters to read, and a couple hours working for my internship!

2nd year MBA

We’re about a month into the semester, but I could tell the first week of class this year is completely different. The main difference is our classes. Last year, our cohort was together for 15+ hrs per week because we were in every single class together. Only small exception was second semester, we were able to choose a concentration class. This semester we are all together for about 3 hours a week.

Another huge difference is the group structure. Over half the groups from first year have split up or lost a few people which will change the entire dynamic of the group. We also worked with the same group the entire year, and this year I have 4 different groups. Working with 4 completely different groups is a very different experience. In the same group, we would have standing meetings every week and go over multiple projects and classes. Now, I have to work around 15 different schedules.

 This semester is also very concentration specific. I’m in 3 marketing classes, and only 1 core class. All the core classes are extremely important and provide us a basic knowledge of the subject. However, this semester is a little more interesting because its directly related to the field where I’d like to work.

 

Some would argue this as good or bad, but I also only have 1 exam this semester. And its next week. Every class has a huge project, but no final exams to study for. I know I'll be glad when I don't have to spend 20+ hours studying for 3-4 exams in December!

Summer Internship

I spent the summer interning at Quintiles as a Corporate Digital Strategy Coordinator. Quintiles is the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide. The Digital Strategy group is a fairly new group, part of the overall Corporate Communication (CorpComm) department. A big project going on with Digital Strategy this summer was the re-design of Quintiles.com, internally known as Q.com.

 My boss is the lead on the re-design, and I was her "right hand girl". We had a “core” group of 5 people including my boss, another Digital Strategy member, another intern, our outside vendor contact along with myself. We were each assigned sections of the overall structure to own from start to finish.  For each of my sections, I had to contact the department head and set up initial and follow up meetings to discuss and finalize content for each section. I worked with the HR department for the Careers section, CorpComm for News and Our Markets, and Marketing for Therapeutics, Events and Services. For the Careers section, I also helped to design specific templates based on the needs of the site and wrote content for certain pages.

 

In addition to working on the re-design of Q.com, I was tasked with the project of putting together the Digital Content & Style guide. This document would include information on how to write for our site based on our audience and our overall company strategy. It also included branding information (typography, color palette, fonts, and restrictions), template and wireframe examples, interface designs and examples of the live site. It will be added to the Marketing Brand Guidelines for the company, and would be a document to distribute to outside vendors who write for our site or create additional pages for Q.com.

 My internship has been extended through December as of now, because the site has not launched yet. I will help see the site through launch, and then develop a training guide for Quintiles employees and external vendors to learn best practices and ways to navigate through the CMS, Ektron.

 

My team was absolutely amazing from day 1, and I was never treated like a traditional intern. I was treated as part of the team where my suggestions and comments were weighed the same as everyone in the department. It's been a littly busy balancing class and work, but I feel its completely worth the few sacrifices I might make!