Well… the half way point has approached us all with a bang!

The first half of my time in America has already overestimated all of my expectations in all aspects. As mentioned in my previous blog my culture shock has shifted my personal interpretation of the American Culture. The informalities that occur in the office are a shock yet such a professional standard remains on a high level in my office here in Liberty Mutual. The executive assistant to the head boss in my department has gone out of her way to make myself and all the other interns feel welcome here. She has regularly spent time with us outside of work and assisted in any work related problem I have had.

Last week I had a meeting with my manager to review my progress which was nerve racking, however I have regularly had lunch with him and he is genuinely interested in how I am spending my time here in Boston – not just interested in my workload. In this office – you are treated as an individual; employees do not just address me as an intern.

Orla, Cat and Alan and I had the privilege of being invited to attend a “Senior Forum” event with another 150 interns from all over America that are currently interning at Liberty Mutual. We had the honorable pleasure of meeting the CEO of Liberty Mutual – Ted Kelly and many more VIP employees of Liberty Mutual including Helen Sayles. We attended Leadership workshops, attended meetings in your individual department – the agenda was very impressive. After the whole experience, I feel extremely inspired and honoured to have attended such an amazing event. It has made me realise that the Interns working here at LM should be very appreciative of all the opportunities and additional extras that LM have given them, they would all be foolish not to accept a job with LM.

Competing for a graduate job next June is going to prove extremely hard in this current climate, graduating in an economic recession in 2010 is a big worry for me. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has recently completed a survey, Dr John Philpott, chief economist at CIPD states that:  “Employment will keep falling. Unemployment is still on course to top three million in 2010 - and it is far too soon to rule out another avalanche of private sector redundancies later in the year.” (source: sky news.com)..

I then began thinking, how lucky the four of us are, how many people can say they had the opportunity to work for such an amazing company in America, the Saltire Foundation has provided us with a lifetime opportunity that will not only be the crème de la crème on our CV’s but an experience that will help us all develop professionally and as an individual. This is no ordinary stepping stone we have embarked upon… this stone is tainted with gold.