My Internship: Half Way Through!

6 months at Siemens has come and gone, and with the second half of my placement ahead of me, I wanted to reflect upon some of things I have done recently.

As I thought about starting this blog, and the concept of being half way through my placement, I pondered upon the 'Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty' analogy.

If we imagine my remaining time at Siemens as the water in a glass, I realised I could either have the attitude of; 'aw, I only have half left' or 'great, I have another half still to go!'

It's a very cliche example, however it fits perfectly to my emotions on this topic. See, when I started University I wanted to be a student forever. "I'll Graduate, then do a Masters, then maybe even PhD..anything to stay a student", this mindset has now very much become one of "I really enjoy working, I want to stay and develop my career."

So, what's made me want to start my career journey more than live as a student for as long as possible? While the early nights and early mornings are perhaps less enticing than the non-existent and not-needed sleeping pattern of student life, there's something about having a routine (a.k.a normal sleeping hours) that makes you feel good, funnily enough.

Not to mention that I am learning and doing so much here. I really feel like I am being pushed stretched and challenged every week, even day, that I'm here - but in the best way.

If you read my last blog post, back in November, then you will know that I had done a fair amount of things. And another 3 months later - the opportunities are still ever present.

Ready for another list? Here we go.

🌟 I mentioned in my 3 month overview blog that I had been brought onto a team in DI (Digital Industries) to help with a 'Must Win' customer. Well the good news following this is that, after some blood sweat and (almost) tears - we did WIN! Following this, I have become somewhat of an adopted member of the OEM team and have picked up the role of Project Management for the opportunity going forward. I love working with the team as they give me so much responsibility and allow me to get exposure in the form of attending and running meetings, contacting the customer directly and organising presentations, visits and 2-day events. In January we visited the customer with the technical and marketing team, to begin discussing their marketing techniques going forward and what their key visions/objectives and goals are for the future partnership. I really enjoyed this meeting as it has been my first marketing strategy meeting with an external customer. It also gave me great insight in regards to how my degree would fit into the real working world.

🌟 Going back towards the middle of November, I offered my help at the Smart Factory Expo in Liverpool, and was asked to be on the Siemens stand. What I didn't realise is that I would be one of those people with an iPad, talking to passers by at the event about Siemens products and trying to get a lead from them.

Initially, my thoughts were "get leads from people on a Siemens stand showcasing Digital Twins and Virtual Commissioning...how am I going to do that?! What do I know?!"

My next action was to run to Saad, Anubhi and Dan, also on the stand, and ask something along the lines of "If you had to explain Virtual Commissioning to a dummy (i.e me) how would you do it?" I adopted the same answer they gave me into my own conversations with customers, and I have to say - by the end of the 2nd day I felt like a pro.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/dbf4ae_23c56f127c664a0eb063079f3fb3c688/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

🌟 In Novembers NEXT UK meeting, we discussed what our next educational/development event would be. After discussing a few ideas we settled on the idea of running a series of developmental sessions, from 'your personal brand and networking' to 'diversity and inclusion.' At the end of the meeting, they asked if anyone would be willing to help organise and run the sessions, and, if you know me, you know I volunteered myself for this.

This month we ran the first of the sessions on Diversity and Inclusion. Rav and Yasmine, and myself ran this session by delivering an activity addressing privileges. In groups, participants were asked to look through a list of 23 privileges and decide amongst themselves which ones were most important, and which ones they would buy with their limited amount of money. Each privilege cost £100, but the most any table had was £800 in total. Examples of privileges they could buy included; "Walking at night without stares, fear or anxiety about my safety" "Having enough food at home, so my family does not have to skip meals" "Applying for a job without worrying that my identities (race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability) will hold me back."

Once the groups had chosen their limited amount of privileges, we discussed what struggles and challenges they faced when deciding what they would purchase. I really enjoyed running this session, and felt like it brought out some great discussions among us all.

🌟 NEW ROLE : I have recently become the 'Communications Chair' for NEXT-UK, this involves writing monthly newsletters about NEXT-UK activity and what we have been involved in, and what's coming up. I also ensure that each time there is an event ran by the group that I post about it on our internal social media and on LinkedIn.

🌟 In November I attended a ‘Lean-in’ circle on ‘impostor syndrome’, this can be briefly explained as the negative voice in your head telling you that you are only in your current position because of luck, not because you worked hard for it. This was a very insightful experience and a great networking event, as I met the new CEO of Siemens and was also able to speak to the women leading the event and let them know I would be happy to help run future Lean-In's (keep you eye-out for that). The final task of the event was to write on a yellow piece of card “what you would do if you were not scared” and I wrote ‘post my blog’. So, after the circle had finished and I had some encouraging words from the CEO himself, I went back to my desk, read through that "3 month overview" post one more time - and posted it! (Carl, if you're reading - thank you, I cant stop blogging now).

🌟 In my 3 moth overview blog post, I mentioned that I had attended a water management event in Ipswich, "Innovate East." In December they contacted me and asked me if I would write a blog post on my experience there (which you can read here) and also if I would be happy to speak on camera about the event. In January a producer and a videographer came to the office and I had a great time being interviewed all about the event, I just hope I look as cool as I felt in the final product...

🌟 Recently I have joined a section of Siemens that goes by the name #IdeaCompany. This is a group of Siemens employees who volunteer some of their time during the working week to work on innovations and tools that can be used within Siemens to help the every working day. For example, they have developed a Car sharing app, an app called ‘be my guest’ which is like Air BnB, but for Siemens employees and more… I have been asked to help out with a new tool called 'eBoarding'. This system will improve the process of getting a new starter ready for their first day, and is a place where managers can see any outstanding tasks that need to be done to get the new starter ‘Day 1 Ready’. I have been asked to help with the Marketing of this tool and to help increase exposure, so that more managers start to use it and attend training sessions happening. So, managers of Siemens - keep an eye out!

🌟 I attended an Emotional Intelligence Lean in circle ran by one of my colleagues, Yasmine. As a group we were asked to think about how we would react in certain situations such as; "you are presenting an idea in a presentation at work, another colleague points out flaws in your idea and says it is unrealistic…what do you do?”. We were then asked to split off into pairs and talk about how we would initially react, and then again how we would react again if we were actively being emotionally intelligent. This was very insightful into the different ways you can manage your emotions and how, as hard as it may be, we always have a choice over our reactions!

Okay...I am well aware that this blog is turning into more of an essay, so i'll end it here.

What does the future look like?

❎ At the end of the month I will be presenting at the Digital Industries Sales Conference taking place here in Manchester. I have a 45-minute slot alongside Simon Keogh (Manager - Factory Automation) to talk and present on SieSales (our CRM) and the lead management process. It will be the biggest audience I have ever spoken in-front of (120 people to be exact) - I can't wait!

❎ I have recently become involved in the Project Team for the upcoming "Earth Day festival" which will take place in April here at the Siemens site.

❎ I'm also really looking forward to attending the UKWA National Conference and the Digital City Festival, both in March.

As you can see, I am doing a whole range of things - and I even had to go back and delete some activities just to stop this going on forever.

So while at times I feel somewhat like this...(but hopefully don't look as crazy)

...it is absolutely with a smile on my face.

I love the challenge of working on more than one project at once, visiting events, volunteering my time to help with internal projects and just being the most active Siemens employee I can be.

Final 6 months, here I come.