On May 15, 2016, I packed my mini toothbrush, all my business clothes, and a bag of Philz Tesora coffee into a large suitcase and traveled to Duluth, Georgia for my summer internship at AGCO Corporation. What I knew was that my formal role was a Global Talent Management intern within the Global Business Services department, but I had no idea how it would feel to live alone in a foreign land (Georgia felt so far away) and I had a lot to learn about what my job actually entailed. I still felt a certain amount of excitement that usually accompanies taking a step in a new direction and braving the unknown. My background was all non-profit work, politics, and government campaigns and here I was getting ready to put on my corporate heels and get down to business (pun intended). Last summer, I traveled to a rural village in India where I lived in an orphanage and conducted research on female feticide and infanticide. In contrast, I was going to spend this summer at a large Fortune 500 industrial manufacturing company in Georgia, which felt like a complete 180. Through this experience, I learned a lot about myself and about what it means to work in a corporate job. Although I came to the conclusion that corporate work is not for me, I did learn many important life and transferable skills from this experience.    Here is a list of things I learned during my summer internship:

What I learned:

1. How to make pivot tables on Microsoft Excel
2. Working on a global team means having to know time differences
3. Making weekly grocery store and restaurant budgets is a good idea
4. You do not make as much money as you would expect (taxes, gas, food and living expenses take up a lot of your income)
5. Making new friends is hard (especially when the other interns have friends and family in the area)
6. Ask people to do things for you! (Ex. give you a recommendation on LinkedIn, talk about their career path, tell you about cool restaurants in the area)
7. People are friendly and like to invite you to their house if you tell them you do not know anyone in the area
8. Go to intern and company sponsored events! They can actually be really fun (I ended up going white water rafting in Tennessee one day and loved it)
9. Try talking to people as high up in the company as you can (I had lunch with multiple Senior Vice Presidents to make connections and learn about the company)
10. To keep my receipts and predict future spending based on what I spent during the first month
11. People can make their internships look super cool on social media, but may not love them so much in reality
12. Going to meet ups or volunteer events is a really great way to make new friends with similar interests
13. You may not love your internship, but you will always learn something from the experience if you keep an open mind

I would love to hear all your comments about your summer experiences and what you felt like you learned during your work/internships!