The internship assignment - Essay Example

?Final Internship Report Final Internship Report Introduction The internship assignment is the means of training junior fortheir practical life. The internships and apprenticeships are offered by the companies in all walks of life for educating the students about the work environment. The featured internship involves working in a software company in the capacity of interdepartmental coordinator. According to experienced professionals, timeliness and efficiency are the core concepts of software development industry. The customers need their ordered products on time and therefore, vendors have to attain a certain levels of synergy and coordination among various departments in order to achieve the desired outcomes of a specific project. The job that was performed during the internship was all about conforming by the deadlines. I managed to perform the job quite well as I was able to promote teamwork and synergies among the entire workforce. It was significantly challenging for me to combine various members from several departments in order to build cross-functional teams. The team developmental process was halted and jammed more than a few occasions. The difficulties were faced because there was a presence of particular distaste and unwillingness towards the notion of working closely among technical and managerial staff. Both of the groups held on to the point that the other group does not have necessary information needed to comprehend the issues. But I with the help top management sponsored a learning environment in the overall organization and therefore, played a significant and important role in the completion of delayed projects. I also kept the new ones aligned with the deadlines. My job as a coordinator in a software development company assisted me to get important knowledge about the global industry of software development and sales. The industry has spread in all parts of the world and due to this reason I have gotten an unforgettable chance to interact and communicate with people from various cultures and nations. As a sales representative, I have also noticed a few marked differences in the behavior of people from under developed and advanced nations respectively. The customers belonging from formerly mentioned group of nations set a premium on cost effectiveness of information technology solutions. The buyers from latter type of countries focus on quality and they are least concerned with the price tag of the product. The clientele of the company where I worked is culturally and regionally dispersed. I have found Americans with very professional attitude and they were extremely lenient in terms of providing extension in deadlines. The Chinese and Russians on the other hand, were very aggressive in handling delays. In short, I have come to recognize that the population of developed nations is far more polite and humble. But the customers from less developed nations are very annoying and they got on my nerves on more than one instances. Yet I remained calm and composed while handling their grievances. More specifically, I have learned that the culture is the software of human mind (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2010) and therefore, people use their cultural and economic experiences for making decisions. The economic conditions of the less developed world have been continuously degrading. The abovementioned trend has forced companies in less developed world to outsource technology to more developed ones. But the companies from less developed world are highly sensitive towards prices and therefore, they always search for the cost effective technological solutions. I have also learned that those companies with poor computer and technological literacy cannot use the solutions to the full extent. Nevertheless, I will propose intensive technological training to all companies that are looking to acquire latest infrastructure. In my view, state of the art technology is useless until the staff knows how to use it. In the case of major number of the companies, technology results in less profitability or even loss because of workforce’s inability to use the new software or hardware effectively. In addition, I have learned many things about organizational leadership and found it as an imperative skill in my potential line of work. Firstly, software development and application is a very tough business to say the least and therefore, leaders have to have an intrinsic ability to motivate people to go an extra mile. The idea is to extract every last drop of energy and creativity from one’s subordinates. Yet it is necessary to create a win-win model among employees and the company. I have contributed notably in the introduction of pay for performance in the company. I also proposed top management to allow telecommuting in the organization. The introduction of modern work practices uplifted job performance in software development unit by significant percentage. In marketing and advertisement unit, I have guided people to work hard in terms of attaining long deadlines so that the time related pressure can be minimized in all relevant departments. However, we worked with a tighter internal deadline. The longer internal deadlines allowed us to debug the final version of the software that permitted us to deliver a near to perfect product well before elapsing of the external deadline. In this manner we were able to increase customer satisfaction and thus many of my clients have become repeated customers by the time my internship got over. On a personal level I have discovered that I have an ability to get things streamlined and done with the help of my communication and leadership skills. Moreover, I keep an eye on human needs when working on the project. Furthermore I have allowed people to go on a break when they are not feeling well or tired and I supported the notion of “Work can wait”. Thus the concept of relaxed work environment helped me in boosting departmental integration that in turn enhanced organizational performance. The decisions were made through participative management style and people had a say in making organizational decisions. Conclusively, it can be said that the sense of family and belonging was prevailing in the organization when I left at the end of the internship. I will like to confess about my weakness in understanding technological aspects associated with software development. But I have lately committed myself towards learning software development in the future as it will aid me in excelling in my professional life. Conclusion This report covers details of my experience at a software development company where I worked in the capacity of project coordinator. The experience was good and I have managed to learn a lot about human behavior, teamwork and motivational techniques. I on the other hand helped the company in implementing reward based management style so that good performers do not feel deprived of encouragement. The job performance increased significantly in the department of software development. The mixed and interdepartmental teams fostered the environment of collective intelligence and integration. The clientele in the particular industry of software development is culturally and regionally diversified. This aspect gave me the chance to understand behavioral differences among people living in separate parts of the world. I have also witnessed application of modern managerial concepts and reaped their fruits as well. After this fruitful experience of working with a software development firm, I have decided to pursue a career in the industry and I feel that I can make a mark in this line of work with the help of my leadership and coordinative abilities. I will be honored to thank my institution and internship provider for giving me this golden opportunity to expand my professional experience. At the end, I will add that I am feeling more confident about performing my duties in the professional arena. References Hofstede, G., & Hofstede, G. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Auckland: McGraw Hill . Read More