Week 21 (October 31- November 6)
Monday is Halloween! Though, sadly, my office is noticeably lacking in festive attire or candy. How can I work on Halloween without buckets of candy around? Honestly! So, instead of feeding my inner child I feed my meeting quota for the day.
First up, was my very first monthly Ops Council meeting that ran from 8:30-10:00am. The meeting was a great way to get an overview from all of the directors and managers in my department, plus, a little face time with the General Manager never hurts.
After that I don’t have much time in my cube before an 11:00am meeting to help with a new PM Council initiative. I will be constructing a process map/checklist for a new reclamation contract. Reclamation, from my understanding, is when GE will take used engines, modules or parts off of a client's hands, ‘demilitarize’ them by melting, cutting, etc. and then provide the client with a credit for future purchases. I really enjoy getting to learn about a whole new side of the business and one that, oddly enough, my boyfriend works on at his position as a mechanical engineer for an aerospace company.
After my meetings I am tasked with transferring (many) more engine parts from DSP-5 licenses to a massive spreadsheet I created months ago (do you remember those HUNDREDS of parts I had to manually transfer? It’s O.K., I tried to forget too). While most of these parts for an Indian engine were already covered in my previous efforts, some are still missing.
That afternoon I head upstairs for our Team Time meeting. Among other things, we learn about our holiday party on December 2nd! I’m so excited! I’ve never worked at a company where we had a fancy pants holiday party. After all the excitement over the future festivities dies down I get to help present the posters I’ve been working on for the PM Council. I must admit they look pretty snazzy all framed and I even get a request from another department for my template and suggestions on how they can create their own versions.
That evening I come home to my new Canon Powershot Elph 310HS camera (courtesy of the GE employee recognition program)! Hallelujah! My faithful readers no longer have to suffer from blurry photos from my old iPhone in my posts.
Tuesday is another busy meeting day.
I start out my morning with a great meeting my boss set up to introduce me to a senior marketing manager upstairs in the TSTP Department (Turboshaft/Turboprop). He has a ton of amazing sounding projects I can help with but we decide to start out with some additions to a marketing book using OneNote - a new Microsoft suite software I get to learn how to use. Beyond the OneNote project, in the future, I might be able to help with initiatives that involve using pivot tables to determine market segmentation and more!
Just half an hour later I have to review the PBL contract matrix manual I’ve been putting together with a Senior Financial Analyst. A couple of months ago I had created the matrix for her to outline all of our current Performance Based Logistics contracts (PBL) and now she has requested for me to compose a manual on how I did that so future co-ops can update it as needed.
Just a half hour after that meeting it’s off to discuss some changes that have been made to our international proposal. These changes might involve completely reworking our spare engine/module calculations. I do not envy the Finance department let me tell you!
The rest of the afternoon is spent looking up mounds of part numbers (like, try hundreds) for an India license, plotting out a process map for my new project on engine part reclamation and indulging in far too many leftover Halloween treats.
Before leaving work that day I head over to another building to present my Northeastern/GE pitch to some recruiters who were unable to make it to the original presentation. They seemed pleased with it and I’m glad to be growing my support on the topic.
Wednesday morning is spent finishing the parts look up for the India licenses that I started on Monday. I feel no shame in bragging about the 600+ parts I manually entered. Go me!
Later that morning I have a meeting to review the provisos (parameters) we submitted on a license for Japan. Apparently we had not been specific enough or something did not agree with the powers that be because now we are faced with rewriting the license application. This is giving me a first- hand glimpse into how these processes can take so long. I’m told this rework could set us back an additional two months or so! Yikes!
That afternoon I have a follow-up meeting with the marketing manager up in TSTP. He gives me a great run-down of Microsoft OneNote and the marketing book he has been working on for rotor craft using the software. I’m going to be helping him out so we request access for me to the T700 shared folder. I’m very happy to be practicing some secondary market research skills.
After the meeting I resume my work on updating the question matrix I created to keep track of the questions and answers we received for our international proposal. We recently received a slew of new questions from the country so this task keeps me busy for a while.
In the middle of this question and answer logging I receive the official invitation to our department’s holiday party! It will take place on December 2 at the Black Swan Country Club. I am so stoked because I’ve never worked for a company that hosted a holiday party. Since my boyfriend will, for obvious reasons, be unable to attend, I set about planning who will be my lucky date.
Wednesday continues to be busy. That night when I return home I begin pursuing part-time work for spring semester (it is never too early to start!). Unfortunately, Financial Aid is working against me. I recently discovered that because I was awarded the Stephen Riley scholarship last semester, I now no longer qualify for work study. How ridiculous! You’re really going to punish me for getting a scholarship for academic achievement? Seems odd… Since I am trying to get back into my old position this could cause some serious issues (my job last year was a work study one). Cross your fingers that something will work out for me.
After shooting off some e-mails I rush to the AT&T store because, drumroll please…. my new iPhone 4s has arrived! It is quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever owned and the complete opposite in terms of usefulness compared to my sorry 3G version.
Alas, I don’t have too much time to play with it because I have to cram my case write up for class tomorrow and complete my questionnaire edits for our TRU Chocolate consulting project. Phew!
Thursday morning I get an e-mail from a Northeastern Alum now working in Supply Chain at GE inviting me to join a monthly NEU recruiting conference call. After I presented my pitch to him on Tuesday, this former Husky offered to let me in on these calls that he attends. I hope that this will give even more weight to the Northeastern recruiting cause.
After that I continue my work on my newly-appointed reclamation process map task, breaking at lunch for another manager luncheon, this time with Engineering Executive for military propulsion. I’m loving the Fall series of manager luncheons because there are fewer co-ops at GE so we are able to sit at round tables with these higher-ups and get a more intimate feel from our hour with them.
After my break I return to working on the question matrix I set up for our international proposal. I review all of the files, discuss some answers with team members and make sure the matrix is as up-to-date and accurate as possible.
While doing this I get permission from my boss to attend a co-op field trip to GE’s Global Research Center (GRC) in Niskayuna, NY. I’m so excited because, as I mentioned previously, this is where all of the cool, top-secret research and development for GE happens. It will be a long day of driving but it’ll be totally worth it.
After some more afternoon meetings, including one for the PM Council, I’m off to campus for class.
In Market Research that night I hand in my Communispace case write-up and pray that I was able to accurately remember how to compose those from last year. In addition to this deliverable, my team hands in our final questionnaire for TRUChocolate after having incorporated the edits our classmates provided last week. Since it was a homework-rich class, our professor kindly lets us leave an hour early. Thank goodness!
Friday I join the quarter century club. Yes, that’s right, I’m finally 25 years old. Oh the wonders; I no longer have to pay incredulous fees for car rentals! Yes!
The day even starts our great: I get serenaded on the T by a woman who shares my same birthday. The song lasted a good minute and definitely got me some funny looks but it put a smile on my face (tough to do at 6:30am).
At work, my cube mate was kind of enough to bring me an entire box of Dunkin’ Donuts munchkins (heaven help me) and another co-worker brought me in a little gift as well. I love birthdays!
But, alas, I am at work so my birthday cannot be all fun and games. I take some time to finish up my draft of the reclamation map I’m working on for a manager from the PM Council and hand it over for my cubicle mate to review for accuracy. I want to make sure I interpreted all 19 pages of that legal jargon correctly.
That night I meet my friend for a celebratory birthday drinks dinner at Parish Café followed by dinner at KingFish Hall in Faneuil Hall. We meet at Parish at 6:00pm for a blood orange and mango margarita (delish!) before hopping on the T to Faneuil Hall for dinner. At KingFish I order up some smoked pork gnocchi and we share a delicious vanilla caramel bread pudding for dessert.
That night I also get to open my gift box from my family. I pull in a pretty good haul, among the items is a new Kindle, shoes and perfume! Excellent!
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| So posh at the Four Seasons Boston |
Saturday the birthday fun continues as I celebrate my 25th with afternoon tea at the Four Seasons right on the Boston Public Garden. I fall in love with their royal tea that includes a flute of Kir Royal, an aromatic pot of Rooibos Vanilla tea and a tower of finger foods ranging from hot cranberry sugar scones with devonshire cream to walnut pear bread drizzled in honey. I even get a chocolate cake brought out to me. Gotta love service at a hotel like that.
My fabulous tea session is followed up with a casual dinner of New York Pizza and movies with friends. What a great birthday weekend and may my coming year be just as amazing as my last.
* The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, either's staff, employees or affiliates.
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