My time working as an Intern at Dell Technologies

I couldn’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to work in a place like Dell Technologies. Well for the obvious reasons it may not be the best place to work at if you are a doctor or a lawyer… or a farmer or an actor. Anyways, you get what I am trying to say. Or at least I hope you do. Unfortunately, I was never the best at explaining things so let me try to rephrase. Dell is a great place to work. Yes, I have only been an intern here for like 5 minutes and what would I know about Dell’s workplace environment, their products, goals, organisation structure etc. You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking this at all. Perhaps I am very biased, but I can only go off my own personal experience. I can honestly say that I have really enjoyed my internship, so far and I still have until the end of August before my internship ends. In all seriousness, I will miss the place. The people. Especially, the people. I have also learned a lot. Well, in fact I am still learning new things every single day.

In this blog, I’m going to talk about my time working as an intern at Dell Technologies, why (I believe) one would be a fool not to even consider an internship at Dell and what Dell does that sets them apart from the rest. So, yes if I’m being perfectly honest, I will be just talking about myself and how great I think Dell is!

I guess I may as well talk a bit about my time at Dell, so far. If I’m being honest, there’s so many different things I could mention but I will do my best to keep it short and sweet. Like I said I will do my best but I am not making any promises.

Firstly, I want to mention that I am a Global Products Operations Intern. Most of us just say that we work in GOPO. It’s just easier. Side Note: Everyone working at Dell Technologies uses at least one acronym in every sentence. I don’t even think I’m over exaggerating there to be honest. You may be wondering what GOPO even means. Good question. It’s short for Global Offer Product Operations. I won’t lie to you; I still struggle to explain to my parents what it is I do or what department I am working in. Most of the time I just say that my team deal with all the data for Dell’s products and that we are somewhere in between manufacturing and marketing. Well, clearly, I still haven’t figured out a better way of phrasing that. Anyways, all I know is that everyone is so sound and helpful on my team. I’m not even joking. When I started my internship, I felt so welcome to the group, and I still do. A lot of the team seem to have the same sense of witty humour. What can I say? I got lucky.

All smiles for GOPO team in Limerick ??

I usually go into the Limerick office 2/3 times a week, as much as I please really. I even joined the gym here. That’s obviously not the reason why I come into work. Well, not the only reason. The first day I came on-site, there was a networking event held by Women in Action, where Judith Brown gave a brilliant speech about her career and her Dell journey. Dell’s ERGs (I promise, I’ll explain what these are later on) are always hosting on-site events. They are fun to go to and it’s a great place to meet with other interns/graduates.

Now for a moment I thought, perhaps all internships would be of a similar experience to mine at Dell. However, from speaking with my college housemates, this doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m not here to give out about other internship programs, at all. It’s just interesting to see how all companies have their own way of running their own internships.

So how does Dell’s internship program differ from others?

1.??????Dell’s on-boarding. Working in a new, unfamiliar environment can be nerve racking. For most of us, it was a first proper office job. Well, for me anyways. The first 2 days, the internship core team held zoom meetings all day. This induction was extremely helpful. For example, I learned how to properly set up my own personal Dell account. I know something so basic. We were given an overview on all HR related items like what hours we should be working every day, how to log our hours, what time off we were entitled to and so many other things. We got to ask questions to previous interns that are now graduates at Dell. The induction proved to be beneficial and I felt it was a great way to kick start off my internship.

2.??????There’s no such thing as a stupid question. During my first few weeks at Dell, I received various training sessions. These were mainly to do with what my team does and what I will be doing for my project. I had 1 on 1 meetings as well and I kid you not, every person ended each meeting, saying, “And don’t be afraid to reach out on teams to ask me anything, literally anything.” Well, maybe they didn’t all say this word for word, but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say. Every Friday, there’s an Intern Weekly Call Q&A session held over zoom. Q&A sessions are on for any competitions taking place. Like for the Hackathon. Small tip: for any incoming interns (who realistically are never going to read this blog), I would advise you to participate in the Hackathon as it’s a great way to connect with other interns and it will help you prepare for your final presentation. And if you are uncomfortable coming off mute to ask a question, then you have the option to send in your question into the Chat box. This came in handy for me as there was one week, I practically lost my voice. Let’s not get into that story right now.

James Quigley, Emma Holland, Aishling Guerin and I were in a group together for the Hackathon. We worked well as a team and we had a lot of fun as a group, as well.

3.??????Dell is all about YOU and Building your Brand. Like I mentioned before, Dell holds many on site and virtual events. There was A Get to Grow event, which was held on site in Limerick. 3 Dell employees talked about their extremely different journeys at Dell. One of the speakers, Laurie O’Connor mentioned something that has stuck with me. She said how “You don’t just work at Dell; your life is at Dell.” #LifeatDell There’s so much more to Dell than just your typical daily job. The amount of people that tell me they have been working in Dell for more years than I have even lived is crazy. Work-life balance and building your brand at Dell is really encouraged. As interns, we have access to many courses like Personal Management, Building your Brand, Working from home and so much more. Warning: Next sentence contains an acronym! I found the SMAC training very beneficial (social media and communities). This course teaches you the importance of promoting your image through social media. Essentially, you learn how to properly use LinkedIn. And believe me, when you are starting off in your career, getting your LinkedIn profile right is essential when seeking future employment. As regards work-life balance, mindfulness practices, such as meditation are now being incorporated into employees’ routines. Personally, I prefer going for a walk, listening to some music or looking at Love Island memes. But whatever floats your boat, I guess.

4.??????Opportunities to network and connect with new people. I feel like there’s a wide range of things to get involved in at Dell. But it’s obviously your choice how much you get involved and what you get involved in. You have the ERGs (Employee resource groups), which are very similar to societies in colleges. They create awareness. Oh wait, not everyone knows what clubs & societies are. Right, I guess the proper definition of an ERG would be when someone is part of a group of people/community with a common goal. ?I would advise any intern to join as much ERGs as possible.

GenNext hosted Tour of Limerick Customer Solutions Centre

Then there is the Buddy Program, which gives Irish interns the opportunity to connect with and befriend American interns. I know some interns signed up for the Peer Language Coaching Program, as well and I wish I had gotten involved. But since there are so many engaging activities to sign up for, you may not have the time to do it all unfortunately. I still think it’s class the number of opportunities interns get to connect with other people across the globe. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. A few weeks ago, all interns across the world attended a webinar meeting with Michael Dell for a Q&A session. Nothing major. I just got to listen to Michael Dell answer some questions. I couldn’t believe it was actually him.

Now I think I have been waffling on for long enough. Fair play to whoever made it this far in reading my blog and I hope someone out there has found my thoughts somewhat insightful.

Looking back at my internship experience, I will remember learning an endless amount of useful information, having fun, and meeting some incredible people. I don’t think I mentioned that enough. It is so important to enjoy yourself. I know I have been enjoying myself. That’s a fact. Anyways, thanks for reading.