Nicholas Weaver ’20 Business Development Intern SafeHiring Solutions – In the past six weeks, I have become a more well-rounded individual professionally thanks to my 8-week internship at SafeHiring Solutions funded by the CIBE at Wabash College. Entering the summer, my only prior work experience was a part-time job delivering pizzas in Brownsburg, Indiana. While working at SafeHiring, I learned many valuable skills in the workplace. I had to communicate with other co-workers effectively to ensure my projects were able to be completed correctly, I took feedback as a way to grow instead of an opportunity to become bitter, and I established post-college career goals which motivated me to give it my all no matter the task at hand. 
Throughout my internship, I have been placed on the business development team, a group whose primary goal was to grow the companies list of clients. Since SafeHiring focuses on background checks and safe visitor management systems schools, churches, and volunteer organization made up a majority of the company’s clients. Most of my projects consisted of finding contact information from prospects and putting all of the data into a spreadsheet to run an automated marketing email campaign highlighting products SafeHiring Solutions offered and educated potential clients on the benefits of working with the organization. One of my most substantial tasks consisted of searching for contact information for all public schools in the United States. While the project was a process, the result provided many leads for SafeHiring.
Once again, thank you CIBE for providing me this excellent opportunity to intern at SafeHiring Solutions. Just by being put into a working environment and given tasks to complete, I learned a wide range of skills that will make me a better employee for other companies in the future. I was never the perfect intern. I made mistakes along the way, and those errors allowed me to grow into a more respectful, understanding, goal driven, and hardworking young man. The most valuable lesson I learned from this experience is to step back and take a breath if you make a mistake, and then ask for feedback so you will not make the same error. I believe Lauren Thomas, the VP of SafeHiring Solutions said it best, “no one is expecting you to be perfect, but employers do expect you to learn from your mistakes.” Thanks to the opportunity the CIBE offered me Lauren’s advice was one of many lessons that will help myself become successful professionally in the future.
