....or at least that's what I feel like!

The second week at Bayer is now over and already I feel so comfortable working here! The life in Cologne is fantastic! As i'm sure you'll have read on my fellow intern Rob's blog we went to a funfair on the Rhine yesterday. Log flumes, rollercoasters and many attempts at shooting to win prizes later we ended up the day in Dusseldorf city centre which like Cologne is a thriving business hub on the Rhine.

In terms of work i'll give a little overview on the project i'm working on. Whilst i'm still not sure regarding what I can disclose it's a finance project which is affecting every sub-group of Bayer around the world. So the scope is certainly massive! Once I find out how much I can say then i'll tell a little bit more! The majority of the work is working with slides which i've come to learn is the bread and butter of a consultant's life. Another part of the project is supporting the consultants in whatever they do. So some days this could involve checking their presentations, or carrying out some research on certain topics to ensure that their presentations run smoothly with no hitches.

One thing i've definately learnt is keeping an attention to detail. A consultants work is all about confidence so one formatting error or spelling mistake could mistakenly convey incompetence (everyone at Bayer so far has been incredible in terms of attention to detail!) to the client. This week my project manager was on holiday so I ended up working with a principal (think partner level...) and was working on a section of the project which also involved client interaction. At first it can feel a little daunting being an intern going into a meeting with a client and a principal and being expected to give ideas that will really make a difference to the project. That said it's been fantastic working with both of them and i've relished the extra opportunity to make an impact on the project that could potentially be used around the world.

This week involves working further on that section of the project as well as an onboarding (introduction) to Bayer Business Consulting's knowledge management database which is a collection of reports based on business theory and how it's applied to real business situations. So for example there might be a theory of branding that a consultant has been using and might want to add to the knowledge database about it. I'll hopefully be supporting a consultant on one of these situations carrying out more research and adding to Bayer's collective knowledge! In my next post i'll expand a bit more on my role regarding this as well as some more details about the more academic side of consulting.