Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

I have no idea where the summer went!  It seems like I just started, but now I’m preparing my final presentation, putting the final touches on my project, and saying ‘bye’ to some amazing friends I made!  It feels like the end to summer camp.  Remember that feeling?  Preparing your end of summer skit, collecting all the crafts you made over the summer, and having to say ‘bye’ to your new best friends?  Yeah, feels like that. 

The end of an experience like this always comes with mixed emotions.  Sad to leave something that feels so familiar (even after just a short amount of time), sad to leave “grown-up” life (yes, I actually like working in a corporate environment), and sad to leave not only the interns I have grown to love, but the people I work with as well.  It also comes with excitement.  Excitement at how much I have learned in such a short amount of time, excitement to actually apply what I have learned, and excitement that my internship experience was worth the 40 hr days (when my friends were on the beach)!  Totally worth it!

My final presentation is August 11th…I’ll let you know how it goes!

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

This year, Amway is a major sponsor for the 2010 U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Tournament at Egypt Valley Country Club.  Because I’m interning in brand marketing, I am fortunate enough to be part of this event.  The tournament doesn’t happen until mid July, but last Friday was the media day – the day where media and Amway executives enjoyed a game of golf.  I’m not a golfer, Amway executive, or media personal, so what did that mean for me last Friday?  Well besides pulling out of the drive way at 5:30am for set up, working with some great people in the special events department, shaking hands with Amway executives, and eating several free meals …it meant a day at the country club!  The weather could not have been better for the event: warm and sunny with a light breeze.  In my opinion, this was the best weather Michigan has offered all summer!

Here’s how the day went: When the players arrived, they went to the Amway tent and were given an Amway gift bag filled with some great Amway products, breakfast was served in one of the country club’s dining areas (very tasty), and then they set out in teams of five to play some golf!  As they traveled the 18-hole course, they came across several eSpring water stations where they could fill up their Nutrilite water bottles.  Nutrilite snack bars and energy bars were also provided at the water stations.  At the end of the morning, three people were crowned winners and given Amway gifts at the luncheon (delicious food!).  The gifts included an eSpring water filtration unit, a large gift basket of Nutrilite products, or a large basket of Artistry products.  The day was a success!

A day at the country club, PR experience, and special events experience…no complaints from my end!

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

My name is Kylie Carlson and I am in my fourth week as a Communications and Training intern in Change Management.  My project is to come up with a brand and marketing campaign for the ATLAS Project Center of Excellence.  I am going to be creating and designing some fun stuff this summer, but first let me tell you a little bit about myself….

I am a senior studying advertising, graphic design and German at Ball State University in Indiana.  I am from Holland, so I am back home in west Michigan for the summer! My favorite hobby is traveling and I have done five study abroad programs in the last three years, including a summer internship at a palace in Austria and two semesters in the UK.  I love to design and create and my favorite parts of advertising are branding, alternative media and guerrilla campaigning.  I also enjoy music, British literature, art, volunteering, shopping and of course spending time with friends and family.

I am really excited to be at Amway for the summer because of all the wonderful things I have heard about the company and their intern program.  Having lived in West Michigan for most of my life, I never realized just how huge Amway is and the impact they have on communities around the world.  I am very excited to be part of it all!

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

It’s another beautiful day in West Michigan!  Well I’m considering it beautiful because it isn’t raining…it’s still cloudy but I came to terms with the cloudy skies a long time ago.  I’m starting my fifth week as an intern with Amway, if you read my first blog you already know that I love working in the lab and that I can’t get enough of this place.

So let’s cut to the chase, I am finally able to work in the lab!  I finished all of the training I had to go through on the computer and am in the thick of various qualifications.  Qualifications, it makes me feel so official….. I mean just think of the dinner table conversation: “So how was work today? Do anything fun?” as I respond “Oh you know, just got qualified on the High Performance Liquid Chromatography instrument and the Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography instrument….no big deal.”  No big deal?!  Inside I’m like a kid in a candy store every time I go into the lab.  I’m jumping up and down on the inside at the thought of finally being able to work on the different instruments!

I may or may not have said this in my first blog but I have a low thrill threshold coupled with being easily amused.  When you put the two of these together you can imagine I get excited about the simple things in life.  For example, last week when I was observing another analyst weigh out a sample (part of the training) she needed 1.2000 grams of the sample but there is a bit of a cushion so you don’t need to get exactly 1.2000 grams.  So she starts weighing it out and ends up at 1.2001 grams…. I am a bit embarrassed to say that I got just as excited about this as when the United States tied up their World Cup game this past weekend.  Things like that happen every day at work and outside of work.  Some may say that I am still a kid inside…but I’m okay with that, I have no plans of growing out of my child like curiosity and excitement for the “every day” things.  It makes life more enjoyable!

A little while ago I also ordered two pieces of equipment called columns, one is 150 mm long and the other is 250 mm long.  When they came in, I again was very excited…to the point that I feel like I should give them names.  Leave it to guys to name inanimate objects like cars, boats, etc….so why not a piece of analytical equipment, right?  I was kind of leaning towards Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss as possible names…but I am open to suggestions.

Quick recap since I bounced all over the place this time around, I still love it here as a matter of fact I like it more and more every day.  The lab is amazing and so are the people that work in it.  This week we have West Michigan Intern Olympics and a Whitecaps game with our mentors.  I have high hopes of bringing home a trophy for Amway to be completely honest but I suppose the real goal is to just have fun right?  Well I am a bit competitive so let’s do our best and hopefully bring home the gold!

Until next time, thanks for reading and I have a bit of a challenge for you:

Can you find your inner child, that unexplainable curiosity and enjoy the simple things in life, if even just for a day this week?

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

I just learned a valuable lesson in a project brief meeting:

Do you ever have to type a paragraph in a portal that doesn’t have spell check, so you type it in Microsoft Word first then copy and paste it?  Well if you do, make sure you erase it out of the document you typed it in BEFORE printing said document, and BEFORE you hand said document to your mentor and colleague for review.  Just saying.  But seriously, they were good sports about it!

Embarrassing intern moment aside, my project is going well.  So well in fact, that I actually acquired a new but related project from another department.  Right now I am writing training curriculum for Welcome Center tour guides that focuses on different audience segments.  For example, what a distributor hopes to gain out of a tour is different than what a government official hopes to gain out of a tour.  It is my job to figure out what each group wants, and then identify which aspects of the Welcome Center are best utilized to suit that audience’s unique needs.  Once I know all that, then I will turn it into training material.  Make sense?  The new project I got is similar, but actually has a launch date in place…exciting!  More on that when I know more!

Bye for now, but remember, proof read everything!  (to avoid embarrassing moments)

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

Howdy!  Before I start blogging about my experience as an intern, let me use this post to introduce myself.  My name is Esther Looker, and I am from Dallas, Texas.  No, I did not ride a horse to school, but yes I do still say ya’ll.  I attended Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!) my freshman year and half of my sophomore year.  In January of my sophomore year, I moved to Lansing, MI where I am currently a senior at Michigan State University (Go Green!).  I come from a very diverse collection of majors; in other words, I have a hard time making up my mind.  After working at a veterinary hospital for years, I went into college majoring in pre-veterinary sciences, which changed to psychology and business, to English and secondary education, which changed to nutritional sciences, and finally communications with an emphasis on corporate/organizational communications.  Finally, I am in my “happy place” when it comes to majors!  I truly enjoy the diversity the corporate world has to offer, especially in a company like Amway.

This summer I am an intern in the Global Amway Brand Strategies department.  When I am not in my office, I am working with John Faye giving tours in the welcome center.  This summer I will be giving tours of the company as well as creating curriculum for tours tailored to different groups of people (i.e. distributors, VIPs, government officials, etcetera).  My goal is to understand the experience each group hopes to obtain when they come visit Amway, and to create tour curriculum that will best provide them with that experience.  I also believe I will be working with my team on a few PR projects throughout the summer as well (still not 100% sure on that one).

Given my wide array of majors and what I will be doing this summer, can you guess my hobby or passion?  It’s okay if you can’t, I understand that I’m a little all over the place!  Animals-I’m very interested in animal rights, vegetarian cooking, and playing a good game of “tug-tug” with my pup.  Before I embarked on college, I was active in training and showing horses in the English show ring.  I also enjoyed participating in equestrian endurance races as well.  One day I hope to get back into the horse world.

So that is a little about me.  I look forward to blogging and sharing my intern experience.

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

Our first Virtual Corporate Presentation was a success!  I owe a BIG thank you to everyone who participated!  As promised, I am going to answer some of the questions we didn’t have time to get to during the presentation and some that I thought would be beneficial to repost here.

So let’s dive right in…

How do you describe the work environment in the Ada, MI office? In one word collaborative.  At Amway we are focused on what benefits the overall Amway brand and our consumer.  We work closely with many different departments on a regular basis to achieve our strategic objectives.  We are a “we” centric environment versus a “me” centric environment which you may find in other organizations.

What skills do Amway interns gain that set them apart from interns at other companies? It’s not so much a skill as a way of thinking.  Since our internships are project based and tie into the companies’ overall objectives, interns learn how to think strategically and often on their feet.   Interns learn how to see a project through, communication skills, and how to manage the change that often occurs in projects.

What has Amway done to promote a healthy lifestyle among its employees? We have the Optimal You fitness center at Amway! It’s $8/month for a 24/7 fitness facility that includes classes such as Yoga, Pilates, and Spinning.  We encourage our employees to participate in our many Optimal You including cycling club and work/life seminars to name a few.

How are interns evaluated throughout the summer? Interns are given two formal evaluations during the summer at 5 weeks and 10 weeks.  In addition, interns meet with their mentors on a weekly basis receiving constant feedback on projects.

Do internships consist of one large project, taking the duration of the internship? Interns typically work on 2-3 projects during their time at Amway however the projects are scalable so as not to overwhelm the intern.  We find with anything, that there can be down time in a project, so having multiple projects alleviates the boredom factor.

How many people typically work on projects and are they primarily interns? The number of individuals who work on a project varies based on the scope of the project.  Typically interns work with full-time team members, not necessarily other interns.

What is the most expensive project you had an intern do? Great question…and I don’t know!  Interns have impacted the bottom line in numerous ways. Again, this depends on the scope and department the project occurs in.  Regardless, each project has a valuable impact despite dollar amount involved.

As a sophomore in mechanical engineering, how can I make my resume look more attractive to you? Don’t forget to include your project experience!  While you may not have any internship or work experience yet, tell us what you have learned in class.  Use group projects and any experience you may gain in your professional organizations.

During a summer internship are their opportunities to travel internationally? Unfortunately not at this time.  Since interns do not receive benefits (i.e. healthcare coverage) we do not feel comfortable allowing our interns to travel outside of the US.  However, we can provide opportunities to interact via phone or video conference with our offices outside of the US.

When do internships start during the summer? Whenever!  We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks to start and finish your project.  However, since we pull students from universities all over the US, we are flexible with start and end dates based on your school’s agenda.  Roughly speaking, end of May through early September.

Do you consider juniors for these internships? Yes!  We consider students from freshman to master to PhD candidates.  Internships are project based, so we look for individuals with the skill sets necessary to successfully complete the project.  If that means you have them at sophomore level, great!

Do we hire F-1 undergrad interns? Yes, like any candidate we are looking for the specific skill sets that are needed to move our company forward and of course we must follow government regulations.

What is the time frame to hear back after we apply? When you apply for an internship with Amway your resume is automatically forwarded on to the manager who is hiring for the position.  Each resume is then closely reviewed.  As we identify candidates we set up first round phone interviews with the manager.  If skill sets are still a match, we set up second round “face to face” interviews.  From there decisions tend to move quickly.  This process can take several months, especially during the fall semester, our peak recruiting season.

So there you go! If you have any questions about our questions, let us know!

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it….have you ever heard that saying before? I have heard this a few times while growing up, but lately I have spent some time thinking about it. It seems like most of the things people want in life do not come easy. Hard work isn’t necessarily physical. It can also be mental, like having a positive attitude. Since graduating college back in April I have been reflecting on how I got to where I am today. I don’t believe anything is a coincidence. Everything happens for a reason.

Even going back to high school I think about when I was involved with sports and how that has shaped my attitude and work ethic. I wasn’t the best athlete. I had to work hard for my playing time. Also, I moved to a new high school my sophomore year. That helped me to understand that life is going to throw you curveballs, and sometimes the ball will hit you…hard. It was not easy to leave my friends since middle school and I was quite comfortable of where we were living at that time. From this I have learned to adapt to change. I believe this helped me when I set out on my college journey and when I studied abroad in Barcelona.

Throughout my four years of college, it was definitely a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Some classes were easy, some seemed like it consumed my life. Even being involved with different organizations was a blast, but at times I felt like I stretch myself out so far that I thought I was going to break. During these times I had some awesome accomplishments and met some amazing people. In fact, being involved in Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), led me to land my internship at Amway Global. During my time here I have worked hard and helped out anyway I can. This past summer my efforts were recognized because my team surprised me by nominating me for the 2009 Public Relations Student of Year Award, which I ended up winning!

I am grateful that I have my job here because I know some of my peers are still on the job search. I just want to tell them to keep trying and working hard. It will pay off.

Have you ever worked hard on something and achieved your goal? What was it like? What was your goal? How long did it take? I would love to hear from you!

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

<!–[endif]–> Everyone had a blast at the Intern Olympics last month! It was a great event to get to know other young professionals in the West Michigan area. Check out the video for intern interviews and clips of games.

Click here to read an article about the event.

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

Last month, a bunch of interns came together with Urban Family Ministries to host a carnival in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich.  It was beautiful day and the kids had a blast. Check out this video to see what how the interns contributed. You can also read Aaron’s post to learn more about the carnival.

If the video does appear for you, please click here.

Enjoy!