How It All Started
This summer was full of innovation, creativity and enjoyment. Why? Because I am proud to say that I used up every last bit of summer to the maximum. It all started around June when I started to do a brainstorm of the different places that I wanted to do an Internship in. I was gathering up all of my ideas of the things I wanted to learn about, when I realized that the one I was looking for was in a company called Saúl.
One of the things that I like about Saúl is that it’s a very innovative, creative and inspiring company. That is why people keep coming to their restaurants and shops all the time, because they are always looking for something new and different that makes them stand out from other companies. I loved that they already included an Internship program and in many areas such as marketing, bistros, fashion, shops, brand architecture, production center, kitchen, food cars, café, innovation, etc. The one I had first decided to apply for was marketing. I was really interested in marketing because I heard many people talking about it and I knew that it was related to business. But most importantly, I believe that Internships are a way in which we can learn and gather different skills in a certain area that we are interested in. This helps us see what we like and what we don’t.
The Process
I decided to start my process by sending an email to one of the general directors of the company called Emilio Mendéz. In the email I was taking full consideration that this was going to be the first impression I was going to give him about myself. So I decided to write a brief email explaining a little bit about myself and my interest in taking an internship in Saúl. I included my CV and blog to give him a preview of my work and my past experiences. In only two days, he replied saying that he would be glad to give me the internship! So he put me in contact with one of the coordinators for internships called Wilson Rodas.
With Wilson I began the application process. This was one of the things that I learned about which they do to each person who applies for a job (or in my case, a internship too). This involved several online exams that help to measure your intelligence, aptitude, and personality. This was very interesting to me because I had never gone through a process like this. There were three exams overall timed. They took about two and a half hours to complete. After, I wrote back to Wilson to tell him that the exams were done. The next step was to meet with him personally to have a interview! I was really nervous about this because I didn’t know what kind of person Wilson was. But then I reassured myself that I needed to be myself, and not make another person like me by faking myself. So the next day, I made a phone call to Wilson to agree to have the interview.
The interview was way easier than I expected because it was just Wilson asking me questions about myself and my past experiences. The next move was to wait for his reply and to get the dates to take the internship. A week later I got a reply saying that they were happy to have me do a Internship with them but there was one tiny problem. They were redesigning their internship program on marketing, which meant that marketing was off the table. At first I was really disappointed because I really wanted to do the internship in marketing but thats when another opportunity popped up. When Wilson told me that marketing wasn’t available he suggested Human Resources. This area hadn’t really interested me but after I thought about it for a while I realized that it was something different and it could give me skills that would help me later on for other things. So that’s when Wilson contacted me with Rina Zelaya, the general director of Human Resources. When I called Rina, she was thrilled at the idea of having me as an intern. And just like that I would be starting on August 20th in Human Resources.
Human Resources
Wilson called me to go again to the cellar to meet my other boss Jennifer Seijas. Jenny was the one who taught me all about the structure and the role of Human Resources in a company. Through this I got to learn the importance of Human Resources and that it actually plays a big role in all of the companies because it’s the department that is responsible for all the hiring, applicant tracking, personal sourcing, skill development and tracking, benefits administration and compliance with associated government regulations. So basically, if Human Resources didn’t exist, there would be no one to hire all of the employees, do legal things, etc. That is when I started to understand how important Human Resources was. In Saúl they had four different areas in Human Resources. One of them included the people who looked over the legal and governmental papers. Another, at the hiring and interviews of the new staff. The other at developmental activities for staff and the company, and the last one in archiving records .
Going On Action
My schedule was to work from August 20th to August 31st from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. This was another challenge because I had never worked a really full work schedule. It was an experience I had never had before. On my first day, I had a meeting with my two bosses Jennifer and Rina. They were going to give me a huge responsibility by handing me over the whole anniversary party. And the way this worked is that they gave me an budget of how much they were planning to spend on everything for the party including the theme that was a Guatemala Fair. Now I had done budgets before, but not as huge as this one that included music, audio, transportation, food, stage, beverages, cutlery, table linens, beverages, gifts, sponsors, entertainment such as games, and most importantly the place for the event. One of the most important things I learned to make a professional budget were:
- Having a clear budget
- Know what you want and the quality you want
- Know exactly or a really close approximation of how many people will be at the event to help calculate everything else accurately
- Be pushy with people so that they can give results ASAP
- Know how to use Excel or Google Sheets (best programs for using numbers and doing quotations)
- Have many options, not just one
- Be organized
- Check and update data all the time
- Check in with your team to be on the same page together
- Have deadlines to be on track
- Divide your quote into three areas: Quantity, unit price and the total
- Have the contacts of the people who are assisting you
All of these things helped choose the exact place and services we would like for the event. I spent an average of four days doing the budget. This involved calling people, changing the proposals, adding more things, creating the sheet, contacting over six different places and negotiating prices. Every day I asked Rina and Jenny for a 20-minute meeting to check in on everything and to see if we needed to add or change anything. I noticed the importance of clear communication among everyone because that is why some mistakes happen if someone is not on the same page as the others. Organization is key to everything. Keeping track of everything and being organized helps others understand your work.
I also helped organize an event for people who had been in the company for a certain number of years. A friend from school and I helped the day before with the packaging of the gifts, decoration and the day of the event we got up at 4:00 a.m. to help set up the event at L’Osteria. During lunch, I got to meet people from other departments such as storage rooms, delivery, administration, advertising and other areas. I loved to hear about them and their experiences at work.
The second week was full of organizing, folding uniforms, counting, unboxing, packaging and overall doing inventory. Rina introduced me to Jackie who was one of the workers in Human Resources. Our job was to organize all the uniforms in the storage room and to do an inventory of what was to be discarded , laundry and neither. Keep in mind that all of the uniforms for everyone in the company are located in this storage room, so there was a lot of clothing to organize. Together we spent over four whole days organizing the racks and boxes with all sorts of clothes. At the end I was really satisfied because we left the storage room really organized. In all those days I learned how to do an inventory and the importance of it. The inventory helped keep track of what was where and what quantity of each thing there was. At the end we put all of the data into a system in the computer to help keep the orders and numbers clear. That way we knew what we had and what we didn’t.
Goodbye
During the last couple of days I helped the new people that were going in for the induction with their ID’s. That involved taking a picture and putting some info into the ID. I became a master at printing approximately 300 ID’s per day. Throughout the two weeks I got to bond with people older than I, but I got to make good bonds. On my last day the whole Human Talents team ordered cake for me to celebrate my birthday which was the week after I left. I loved that I got to meet new people, learn different skills and go out of my comfort zone since the very beginning of the process. I did a total of 88 hours for the Internship.
Victoria Morales 