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Summer Semester Internship
Neetu Yadav
Westcliff University
INT 706 Concentration: Change Management and Knowledge Management Online Internship
Schahrzade Rezvani
June 25, 2023
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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
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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
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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.
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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