1 Summer Semester Internship Neetu Yadav Westcliff University INT 706 Concentration: Change Management and Knowledge Management Online Internship Schahrzade Rezvani June 25, 2023 2 Internship at Merkle According to Fredrick (2012), an internship is a great way to get experiential learning and enhance a student's capabilities. The training also significantly benefits employers as they see great results from the students working in their company (Nghia, Nguyen Thi 2018). I currently work as an analytics manager at Merkle, a subsidiary of Dentsu. Merkle is a leading marketing agency firm providing clients with data, technology, and analytics services. The company also provides customer relationship management, direct marketing, customer research, audience strategy, customer strategy, advertising, loyalty solutions, testing, and optimization to Fortune 500 companies. As an analytics manager, I provide clients with audience strategy and customer analytics solutions. I delivered a baby in February 2023, so I took parental leave to care for my baby, but I resumed work in the first week of June. Journal Entries Merkle went through a structural organization while I was on parental leave. Dentsu, the parent company of Merkle, is working to create one Dentsu, which brings all the subsidiaries under one umbrella, Dentsu. The transition to one Dentsu required migrating all the software and technologies, including emails, from Merkle to Dentsu. When I returned from maternity leave, I spent my first week working with the information technology support teams to migrate my emails, Microsoft Teams, and office applications to Dentsu. I set up my Microsoft Teams and connected with my supervisor to discuss new projects and assignments I could be working on after coming from a break. We discussed a couple of new clients I would be working on, but my supervisor shared that he needed to gain more knowledge about the work I would be doing for my new clients. He suggested I finish all the learning assignments and data migration work in the meantime. Dentsu assigned compliance training to all the employees, which I spent completing 3 in my first week. I also spent time catching up on all the important emails I missed during my break. In the second week of June, my supervisor and I discussed my roles and responsibilities for my new clients. We also discussed the expectations of my clients and my allocation for the new clients. Currently, I am working with two clients; one is a retail company selling furniture, and the other sells liquor in the United States. I setup up introductory calls immediately with the Merkle colleagues to learn more about the clients. The introductory calls went well, and I learned more about the client's expected deliverables. I will work with a senior analyst for the retail company selling liquor to deliver budget forecasts for its search engine marketing and share performance reports of its previous marketing initiatives. I will replace another analytics manager, who is moving to another role. I set up another meeting for us to connect and learn more about the work. The analytics manager I am replacing is very supportive, and she helped me set up my accesses for my day-to-day work. During our second call, she walked me through one of the biweekly forecasts they share with the client. She also shared more about the weekly meetings with the client. I would completely take over her work by the third week of July when she officially moves out of the project. Until then, I would connect with her for knowledge transfer and project handover. I set up meetings for the other client to discuss the client's work. The other is a retail client selling furniture, which wants analytics solutions for its Canada operations and wants to maintain its existing relationship with Merkle for its United States operations. I would work for the client's Canadian operations while another analytics manager looks into the United States operations. I would be working with an analyst to deliver projections for leading key performance indicators for the client. However, the role may change, and I could be asked to 4 work on other analytical solutions. I connected with the analyst and the analytics manager to learn more about the day-to-day work. Summary While I have returned to work after a break, I also care for my four-month-old baby, who needs my support for healthy brain development. With this new transition in my life, I am learning to manage my responsibilities at work and home. The initial days at work were difficult to cope with a lack of sleep and mental exhaustion, but I hope the coming months will be brighter as I learn to manage my personal and professional life. 5 References Fredrick, T. (2012). Internships: Theory and practice. Issues in Writing, 19(1), 68-72. https://co20gbct3-mp02-y-https-www-proquest-com.proxy.lirn.net/scholarlyjournals/internships-theory-practice/docview/1346937985/se-2?accountid=158986 Nghia, T. L. H., & Nguyen Thi, M. D. (2018). Internship-related learning outcomes and their influential factors: The case of Vietnamese tourism and hospitality students. Education & Training, 60(1), 69-81. http://doi.org/10.1108/ET-02-2017-0030
