The Spirit of Boston

Boston Skyline - Photo courtesy of Mary Alice Hewitt

 WEEK 19 (October 17-23)

Monday finds my boss out of the office. In his absence I keep busy with a slew of activities.

I attend our department's bi-monthly Team Time meeting and hear about some recent company hires, financial status reports and new initiatives.

When I return to my desk I begin work on my move to a new cubicle. A recently-hired employee is coming in and has requested our current location. To accommodate the request, I set about coordinating with the site furniture movers and clearing out the cubicle I will inherit.

I take a break that afternoon and stop by the cafeteria building for my free flu shots! While I’m not fond of needles I am fond of the fact that this service is free. Heaven’s knows I wouldn’t have gotten one otherwise. Here's to hoping for a relatively healthy winter.

I spend the rest of the afternoon working on the PowerPoint presentation I will deliver Thursday on behalf of Northeastern to several recruiting coordinators from other GE businesses. I’m a bit nervous about it so I want my pitch to be perfect. Luckily I’ve received some more information from Northeastern’s Career Center Director to enhance my pitch.

After work it's straight to campus for my Market Research team's first meeting with TRU Chocolate, the new company we will be conducting research for. We spend an hour hearing about the early years of the company, its past marketing strategy and, best of all, taste testing the product (success!). We discuss the CEO's goals for our work and the managerial problems they would like us to help solve. I leave feeling excited to be working with a company that is so responsive to our project and with a product that seems like it will sell itself.

After the meeting I stop at the Career Center to pick up some marketing materials for my Thursday presentation to GE. Included in my packet is the brand new employer book and student co-op book. I excitedly flip through the pages. I can't wait to show them off on Thursday!

Then, it's off to the South End for dinner with a (very) long-time friend. She's back in Boston for a short vacation so we decide to meet at Giacomo's. We fill the next couple of hours with delicious Italian food, inexpensive wine and great conversation. It was such a nice treat to see her and hear how well she is doing out in California.

Tuesday morning I hold a catch-up meeting with my boss. We review what I’ve completed in his absence and he mentions the potential for working on some F414 marketing slides with the JOLP in our department. I’m super excited to be branching out into more marketing type tasks!

Around noon I take a break from my day for lunch at Panera with my Women and Technology (WAT) mentor. While we don’t discuss anything too earth-shattering, it was nice to catch up on the happenings of the past month. I leave promising to see her again at the WAT mentor reception later that week.

Back in the office that afternoon, I work on a transmittal letter to Malaysia to request a renewal of a DSP-5 license. It came to our attention that the license is nearly expired and must be renewed. It is of the utmost importance to keep them current so that GE can stay in compliance with government regulations.

Wednesday I am invited to attend a ‘Careers in Commercial’ panel during lunch. I hear from four representatives from across GE businesses who have spent years climbing the commercial ladder to impressive positions.

But the fun and food is not over for the day. Soon after the panel closes it’s right to the WAT mentor reception. I catch up with several ladies whom I now recognize from all of the events I’ve attended and listen on as some of them receive awards for their efforts in mentoring.

I leave work around 4:30 pm that day with my cube-mate for the first ‘Fun Team’ happy hour at Tavern in the Square in Salem. It was such a blast to see everyone loosen up and enjoy each others company outside of a work environment. I had so much fun that what I anticipated would be a stay of one hour turned into three and half! I leave super excited about the next event.

On Thursday I bid adieu to my cubicle home of four months in exchange for a new, smaller space just around the corner.

After I finish arranging my items just so, it’s time for my pitch to GE Capital and GE Corporate. Luckily it goes quite well and I get a ton of leads on how to proceed. There is still a lot of work ahead of me but I’m glad that the pitch I worked so hard on, my WebEx presentation and the conference call were all so well received and went of without a hitch.

After my call I meet my boss for my mid-term appraisal. As part of the GE corporate residency program each student is required to complete an appraisal workflow, beginning with goal-setting during our first week. I go over how I graded myself across the categories and am happy to report that my boss graded me better than what I gave myself. He takes plenty of time with me. It’s nice to see that, since that large international proposal is winding down, that I might be getting more face time with him.

That night in my Marketing Research class my group proudly submits our research proposal for TRU Chocolate. We're still playing a bit of catch up since our last company fell through but I think we all feel pretty confident in our efforts with this new company. During class I also get contacted by my third and a fourth first-year student to interview me regarding my corporate residency at GE! I love being able to talk about my experience there and help them decide if it's somewhere they might like to apply.

I spend my Friday trying to reconcile my cancelled Six Sigma Green Belt training course by contacting Black Belts in my department and asking if they would mind serving as a mentor during my project process. While my project won’t be ‘officially green belt certified’ I’ve decided to try and align it as much as possible with Six Sigma teachings.

I round out the day working with the JOLP (Junior Officer Leadership Program) on some new marketing tasks. He gives me an overview of what my boss is having him work on and agrees to let me help out on data sheets that provide quick overviews of our engines and their applications.

Friday after work I'm meet my Northeastern MBA mentee at Parish Cafe. I feel like it's been forever since I've seen her so I'm excited to catch up and hear how she is surviving the program.

Dinner! - Photo courtesy of Mary Alice Hewitt

Saturday evening it’s time for my dinner cruise on the Spirit of Boston! As part of my friend’s (belated) birthday celebration I purchased a Groupon ticket to a three-hour dinner on the boat. I'm particularly excited for it because my MBA program went on the very same cruise in May as part of an end-of-the-year celebration but I was unable to attend as I was (literally) on a plane to India. The cruise is fun and the food delicious and plentiful. While I don't know that I would have paid full price to do it again, the Groupon discount made it worth it and I think everyone had a good time.

Sunday rounds out my week with some working out, homework and general errand running.

*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.