Over the course of the Business Immersion Program, we discussed many different areas of business that intrigued the business-related workforce. We went over business consulting, advertising, private equity, investment banking, finance, accounting, insurance, and many more. Throughout the program, we also took various business-related field trips to further wrap our heads around the professional business environment. One of my favorite field trips consisted of traveling to the company, True Essence Food. There we met up with alumni from the ’17 class, Jake Budler. He sat down with the group and gave us a Q&A. While answering a question, I caught a quote that shifted my focus on the internship. Jake Budler stated, “Find what you like about business because everything is a business.”
After I heard this, I realized that I had some self-discovery to do. While looking for my business-specific place of interest, I leaned toward my strengths to help sort out the various fields. Taking the CliftonStrenghts strengths assessment really allowed me to figure out my top five strengths. With these top strengths come balconies and basements. You may have many of the strengths displayed but the assessment hones in on your most effective and efficient ones. You might even surprise yourself with the results. Many of my strengths came back, I never really knew that I had them until I took the assessment. Also, you won’t be on the balcony for all of your strengths; you might be more in the basement than the balcony for many of your strengths. But that’s not the end of the world. Just means that there’s more work to be done. Throughout the internship, we were instructed to listen to Theme Thursdays and take notes on our strengths, including what we do well on the balcony and how we are still in the basement. I really liked this project because it allowed me to wrestle with my strengths one-on-one. The Theme Thursdays help draw a better picture of what common people do in the balconies and basements. They give you a general idea of your strength. All strengths are valuable in a teamwork environment whether they are overdeveloped or underdeveloped.
