Interview with Elizabeth

Source: Google

Name: Elizabeth

Company: Structured Finance Industry Group (SFIG)

Position: Intern (with an emphasis on media presence)

Paid or Unpaid: Paid

Living arrangements: The internship is in downtown Washington D.C., and I live about 30 minutes away (with traffic) in northern D.C., so I live at home and commute.

Favorite at the desk snack: Blueberries

Coffee or tea?: I’m not a fan of either, but there is a Starbucks on the same block as my office so I’ve gotten more than enough espresso drinks.

Summary of the company (in your own words): SFIG is a member organization consisting of banks, law firms, other companies such as Ford, and some individual members.  Structured finance is a very complicated topic, especially for a communications major, but from my understanding, SFIG communicates with these companies who trade debt between one another and work with the government to solidify regulation standards so the companies and the government are satisfied. SFIG was founded on the premise to make sure another financial crisis like 2008 doesn’t happen again.

Summary of your department (in real language): SFIG is a very small company (nine employees and me), so there are no real separate departments, which I enjoy.  Everyone works together to complete our daily tasks, whether it be finding finance articles for our weekly newsletter, or helping to organize one of our annual conferences in Las Vegas.  Because of this I do not belong to a department, but help wherever I can.

Give a summary about what your job entails: I do basic intern things, such as setting up a label maker and filling in our extensive data base (I had to look up information on about 10,000 people).  However, I was hired for the most part to improve SFIG’s online presence.  I have proposed several changes to the company’s website which will soon be implemented, as well as created a Twitter page.  I am also working with a section of SFIG, Women in Securitization (WiS), to help organize their first annual WiS week. WiS week is going to be in mid-August and will feature a daily newsletter with profiles of successful women in the industry as well as conferences in six different cities where women will meet to discuss gender in the industry.

Busy rating (out of 5, can give explanation): Since SFIG has never had an intern before, the first couple weeks were fairly slow, and some days are still low-key.  However, other days I feel as if I don’t have a spare moment to check Snapchat! But since I’m writing this all at 11 AM on a Monday, let’s go with a 2.8.

Interview difficulty rating: 1. Both SFIG and I were late to the intern game, so when I came into the interview they asked me a couple questions and ended with asking when I could start and what my salary should be.  It also helped that I had experience last summer doing the same type of thing with media development.

Involvement with the other interns: No other interns, but my coworkers are all incredibly nice, and we get coffee together in the morning, talk about the news, and I update them on what the Jonas Brothers are up to nowadays.

Office environment:  My office is set up so there are six desks in a clump and there are four offices layered around the desk clump.  However, the people in the offices always keep their doors open unless they are on a call and there is a large amount of communication throughout the office as a whole.  We always talk about our weekends and difference places to get lunch, as well as gossiping about boys.  One of the men in the office just had a baby two months ago (named Elizabeth btw) and we love getting updates and pictures. Sometimes it can get a little quiet when people are absorbed in their tasks, but someone is always quick to say “let me send you all this video, it’s HILARIOUS” (usually it involves a puppy).

Type of workspace (Cube, table, office, etc): I have one of the desks in the clump of six, but it is a huge desk.  I have two monitors, my own phone (although no one ever calls), and enough space for a drink and a Chop't salad with lots of room to spare.

What has been the most enjoyable part of your job thus far?: I really enjoy working on WiS, because although my major relates to media development, through and through, I care deeply about woman’s issues and anything I can do to improve any aspect of women in finance is rewarding for me.

What has been the most challenging part?: The most challenging part by far was filling in the database. For over 10,000 people I had to find their full name (for gender ambiguous names this was incredibly difficult), their company, email, and phone number. Thankfully I finally finished that task last week.

What did you do that had the most impact on the company?: The changes I suggested for the website are going to be implemented (hopefully soon) and that is basically the face of the company, so I would say website improvement.

What did you do to prepare for the job?: My mom is a tax lawyer so she knows a fair amount about securitization and structured finance, so I had her give me a basic explanation about the topics and what SFIG actually does. I also explored their website and thought of initial changes I could suggest.

What do you expect to learn?: What securitization really is.

What did you learn?: What business casual really means.

Source: Google