Congratulations Anna! After finishing her Blind Applying internship last year, Anna joined the team at T-Systems in Chicago as an HR Generalist. After a long and busy winter, we caught up with Anna to ask how her internship compares with her full-time job. Her internship was about to start almost a year ago!
Hello Anna, what's up?
Great to catch up! I am doing very well here in the US and can’t wait for the best season in Chicago –summer- to start. I was pretty lucky and could –after extending my internship for 3 more months- directly continue as a full time employee here with T-Systems North America. Blind Applying really was a door opener for me and what should I say, I love it and I’m very grateful for having the opportunity to continue working here.
Can you give us a short overview of your current role and daily responsibilities?
I started my full time professional life with T-Systems North America as HR Generalist/HRIS specialist. I work closely with management, departments and employees and have the chance to get to know a lot of different HR tasks. My daily tasks contain HR Reporting, maintaining our SAP database, display organizational changes, accomplish compensation benchmarks and much more.
How is being a full-time team member different than being an intern?
My team here is great, they gave me a very warm welcome right when I started as an intern. But, obviously as a full time employee you become even more involved in all HR tasks and get a bigger picture.
“Give your best! Be curious and try to learn as much as you can in the new corporate environment. Also, build up a professional network and make yourself visible in the company.”
What is the most exciting about the position you are working in?
As T-Systems North America is a smaller entity of the Deutsche Telekom Group, we combine the advantages of working in a flexible, agile, medium-sized company with the possibilities that come as part of a well-known, huge european corporation. I really enjoy working in this international environment and having contact and knowledge exchange with colleagues all over the world.
What advice would you give to an intern who wants to turn their internship into a full-time job?
As always - give your best! Be curious and try to learn as much as you can in the new corporate environment. Also, build up a professional network and make yourself visible in the company.
What are the most important skills a student can build to prepare themselves for the workplace?
From my experience I figured that a certain cultural sensitivity is mandatory to be successful in today’s business life as it gets more and more international. Besides that, healthy self confidence backed up with professional know-how are the most important skills to be ready for the workplace.
“Cultural sensitivity is mandatory to be successful, as business life gets more and more international. Healthy self confidence, backed up with professional know-how are the most important skills to be ready for the workplace.”
Thank you Anna for the small interview. Keep being curious and all the best with your upcoming plans!