The Start of HR

Hello! My name is Christie Egan and I am a senior at ASU. I'm originally from England and moved to Arizona when I was 18 and as much as I love Arizona ... no one told me how hot it was ... all the time. This semester I was offered the amazing opportunity to work as a human resources recruiter at a business consulting firm here in Phoenix. Before the pandemic, having an internship during the semester was never really an option for me due to my work and school schedule but it was something that I always really wanted to do. When my manager at my previous job told me there wasn't going to be space to take me back until January 2021 I saw the silver lining in the situation and decided this would be the perfect time to apply for internships and take those first steps into the career I've been wanting. 

My decision to go with this company wasn't a tough one at all. Their organizational culture matches everything that I look for in the workplace. In the few weeks that I've been working here I can see that my management and coworkers have the perfect balance of work and play. They keep an upbeat enthusiastic attitude all the time but are also really passionate about what they are doing and crushing goals everyday Initially I had concerns that I would feel like an outsider, the intern coming into an organization of such a tight knit group... but it was the exact opposite. Everyone has gone above and beyond to make me feel like i'm part of the family and I couldn't be happier that I was able to take this internship. 

When it comes to my expectations of the internship I hope to dive into the world of HR, I've always been interested in human resources but haven't had any experience in the field. It's something that i've felt I would always be good at because I love people but I also love the business side of it. Outside of reading blogs called "Day in the Life of a Human Resources Manager'' and watching youtube videos about the positives and negatives of working in HR, I don't know too much about exactly what HR entails. I don't know anybody personally who works in HR and I havent had any experience meeting HR at my job. Through this internship I hope to learn the basics and then some. I will specifically be working as a human resources recruiter and then move on to start learning the basics of HR. 

In terms of skills I hope to achieve through this internship career management is definitely one of the top ones, since this is the field I would like to work in eventually it's so important that I have this experience and start to learn the world of HR when I graduate from ASU and start searching for my career. Professionalism/work ethic is another skill that I feel I will learn a lot from management and my coworkers. I already consider myself a very organized and punctual person but I've never been in an environment where I have to dress professionally, learn a professional telephone voice and keep professional at all times in the office whilst learning to balance to also be energetic and fun. In my previous job I worked as a cocktail server where people came to the bar side of the restaurant to have a casual happy hour and drinks. I already have a feel for the teamwork/collaboration that goes on within the office and I'm confident that this organization will help me excel in these skills. As I previously stated management and staff are all extremely passionate about encouraging team success as well as personal growth. The entire team partakes in daily energized meetings where motivation and support are at an all time high. The team is dedicated to teaching others and inspiring everybody to become a leader. Minoring in organizational leadership I've learnt a lot about what it takes to become an effective leader and now I've seen it first hand. A great leader isn't someone who fears their followers becoming better than them, a great leader is someone who encourages their followers to be the best they can be, even if that means they become better than the leaders themselves. 

Thank you for reading and stay tuned to see how the rest of my internship goes!

Christie x


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