Things I learned from My First Internship

It has been a couple of weeks that I finished my summer internship at OpenText in S?o Paulo, Brazil. First things first, I am absolutely grateful to this opportunity and amazed by the people, the environment, and how much I learned there. Therefore, I would like to share some of the things I could learn while I was there. I found writing this a good exercise for me to organize in my head the things I learned and saw as an intern. There is a bunch more things that came with the experience, including awesome feelings of taking the first step towards my professional career and the corporate world, and I intend to share those on another post! So these are some of the things I learned from the best first internship I could ask for.?

During my time as an intern at OpenText, I had the opportunity to have an overview of some areas of a global Corporation. I had a brief overview about the Legal and the Professional Services (PS) areas, and I could spend more time learning about HR and Financial areas. In PS I could see how OpenText communicates with its clients, what is a SOW (statement of work) and how it is structured and for what it is used, and also what are the implied processes that have to be followed to be in compliance with the company’s matrices model of operation. My brief passage with the Legal area gave me an simple?- but great - overview on the work of corporate lawyers and how they have to act to make the company to be in compliance with the SEC and the SOX. I was also explained the importance of the Legal area to make sure contracts are solid, and that the company is agreeing with terms they will be able to deliver and follow through.

During my very productive time with the HR, I had the opportunity to understand, in a deep way, the Performance Management Process of the company. I learned about how the company divides the process in a personal assessment, a leader assessment, a calibration process, and then a final review discussion in order to allocate the employees according to their performance. I could also learn about what is and works a Performance Improvement Plan and when it is implemented according to the Performance Management Process of the employee and the company’s calendar.?I was also able to learn about the Merit Cycle and the compensation strategy about?Total Rewards of employees and how they can be composed with a Base Pay, a VC, and Equity pay. Also, I was taught about the OTT matrices model of operation and how HRBP’s work with their specific areas to help planning strategically the HR subjects with the area they are working with. Having the?opportunity to follow the day to day of the LATAM HR Director, made me realized that HR can be very strategic and crucial for a company′s success. I understood about how HR matrices model works, and what is needed to make the difference to business and employees.

During my time with the Financial area I was able to learn about the SEC filings mainly the 10Q and the 10K reports as well as I was shown where important financial information could be found on those reports as well as on the annual report of the company. I could see how a actual Cash Flow Statement of a company is and how it is operated and can be interpreted. I had the opportunity to see the company’s Balance Sheet and Trial Balance. With these knowledge I was taught the beginning of how to financially analyze and assess a company and some of the main metrics to do it. I was also taught about how are the Procurement to Pay and Quote to Cash processes are done and how the Shared Service Centers are used to reduce the cost of operation. I was also able to see how the regional operation in Brazil has to proceed in order to be in compliance with the SEC and SOX, and USGAAP requirements at the same time that they have to follow the regional requirements and procedures for invoices, taxes, and the accounting cycle. I had as well the opportunity to see how the reconciliation process is done for Brazil and Mexico.

I see my time at OpenText as a period in which I could get introduced to the corporate world and see how some academic concepts are applied in the real world. I had the opportunity to learn from different areas and see the different career possibilities I could have in the future. I see this internship as just the beginning and even though it taught me a lot, I felt more and more how much I can and have to learn. The internship brought me much excitement to keep learning about finance and HR, and to apply the knowledge I am getting in college to the real world. I feel like it was a great beginning and it excites me to dream bigger and bigger and to go chase my dreams. I am thankful to OpenText and to all those who took the time to teach my new things. A special thank you to Patricia Franzini (she/her) and Julio Tarifa for making this experience so beneficial.?

I am excited for what the future holds!?