Stephen Alsobrook- Systems Intern

As my internship begins to wind down, it’s crazy to think about how much I have learned and accomplished so far, and how much I still have ahead of me. The first week was a great way to start getting to know some of the other PKM employees in a fairly relaxed setting since we just got to sit and try to take in as much as possible without the stress of needing to actually get anything done. They also treated us to lunch every day, which is always nice! I was able to remember a lot of what I learned in the training, but for anything that I forgot it was still ok, because there was always someone ready to help me out. My internship is with the Systems group (the IT auditors), which travels a lot, and so I haven’t spent much time in the office since that first week of training. They try to finish up most of the work at each client by Thursday so that Friday can be spent in the office each week, but their busy season starts in the summer and so sometimes that isn’t possible. I have gotten to work on several different types of clients, and while it seemed a little overwhelming at first since I didn’t know what I was doing, everyone is so helpful whenever I have questions, that I have been able to handle most of it. I have gotten to sit in on several meetings with the clients so that I can see how it’s supposed to go, what types of questions to ask, and what we’re looking for. This has been a great learning experience, and has helped me get a better understanding of the big picture for the audits. Going out to the client sites for work isn’t all work though, there’s some fun too. The team that goes out to the client will all go out for lunch together, and with all of us stuck in a small conference room all day some joking around is obviously bound to happen too. Through all of the work, I’ve also been playing on the PKM softball team, which has been a lot of fun! Everyone is very encouraging and helped me feel like I belonged there even though I was really just meeting most of the people for the first time. Our team has struggled a little with some tough losses, but earlier this week we had a big win in extra innings which was really exciting! I’m looking forward to our next game and hoping we can continue that success. Speaking of things I’m looking forward to, in just over a week I’ll be flying out to San Antonio to work on a job for a couple days. It’s going to be just me and one other person out there, so it’s pretty exciting to think that I’ve learned enough in such a short time that they trust me to go out and get that things completed since I’ll have to do a lot of it by myself in order for us to finish on time. It’s been a great experience so far and no doubt will continue to be as I finish up the last few weeks before going back to school in August!