Friday was my last day as a summer intern at Guidance. What an awesome experience! As a high school student working at a big web development company, I wasn’t quite sure how I would fit in and what I would be working on. It turns out that it’s very easy to “fit in” at Guidance. The culture at Guidance is friendly, warm and open. As for the work, I found it to be incredibly interesting.
Beginning on my first day, I was given an itinerary of meetings with the heads of the various departments. I was surprised that these busy people took time out of their days to meet with a summer intern. I soon realized that even though my interests are in coding and programming, Guidance wasn’t just going to ask me to code. I got to work with all of the departments and my projects touched everything from marketing to finance to quality assurance to project management.
I especially enjoyed getting to attend project manager meetings. It was eye-opening to watch these talented project managers identify issues, move projects along, and interact with clients. Website development projects have so many moving pieces! In addition to attending project manager meetings, I was given the task of compiling the weekly project reports from all of the project managers. This really made me appreciate how much work is getting done at Guidance each week.
As much as I learned about the inner-workings of the business of Guidance, probably the most important lesson for me is that the company is really about the people. Not only does a company need smart and talented people, but for the company to do great work, it needs to be a great place to work. It’s worth repeating. I found the culture at Guidance to be friendly, warm and open. People are happy to be working here.
Soon, I return to being a high-school student on summer break again and leave for a week-long camp in Big Bear. Instead of projects and meetings, there will be hiking and campfires. I’ll miss the people here at Guidance and hope to stay in touch. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity Guidance gave me this summer. Not only did I learn a lot, but I had fun and really started feeling like a part of the Guidance family. Thank you Guidance!
