Hello blog readers, this is my second blog from sunny hot and sweaty Tampa, Florida, where I've just completed my first (and should probably be sleeping in preparation for my second) week working as a Finance Transformation Intern at Jabil Circuit.

So... I feel like I've got through a lot in a week! I've come out of it with many a new friend, a love/hate thing for debit card-friendly vending machines, the ability to use two extremely important finance reporting tools, and a happy stomach that has been very well fed!

Stacey and I's week begun on Monday at 8am as we set off for Jabil; a mere twenty minute drive from our apartment which is great. After going through security and getting our passes etc, we parted ways for the day, with Stacey heading to the Learning & Development dept, and me to the Finance Transformation area. This is where I met my mentor/go to person for the next eight weeks, Kristin. She, despite being relatively new to her position in Jabil, had been working closely with them in years previously as a consultant, and so is very familiar with the inner workings of the place. She has made herself completely approachable in this last week, which has been a real blessing. Shortly after my brief introduction to the team, Kristin showed me my rough schedule for my time here. The biggest task I have been given is to test and create an instructional document for a new financial reporting tool, which to my current understanding, collates the financial statistics and presents them in a better and more efficient format than the current one does. The success of this tool will save everyone in our department a great deal of time in attempting to understand what these statistics from the various Jabil plants mean or represent, so they can spend the better part of their time diagnosing (if you will) the problems or inefficiencies in the processes. This means that they will be spending a greater amount of time adding value to the company. This is a term I am getting used to hearing around Jabil. The instructional document I will eventually produce for the new tool is something that will go as far as the CFO, Forbes Alexander (who is Jabil's global Scot). It is incredibly challenging and exciting that this project has so much weight, and I am really grateful to Jabil already for throwing me in at the deep end in this respect. It's very motivating!

So this week has incorporated lots of getting used to these two reporting tools, as well as the jargon Jabil likes to throw around. I have also been introduced to the various departments contributing to the corporate part of Jabil, including Tax, Auditing and Programming. Forbes himself has even held two meetings with Stacey and I just to introduce us formally and have some good old Scottish banter with which has been great. Everyone I've been introduced to has been open and honest, which has really helped me ease my way in to the Jabil culture. I've also found that another part of (certainly in Finance) Jabil culture is to go out for lunch on a very regular basis! So this week's lunches have incorporated Italian, Thai and Mexican food, as well as a healthier version of McDonald's with 'air-baked' fries, the name of which escapes me. Food is good!!

What else have we been up to? Taking advantage of the 24 hour gym here at our apartments, shopping in discount stores, KAYAKING, getting bitten by many a mosquito and experiencing some home runs as Tampa Bay Rays beat Boston Red Sox on Friday evening! With a drinks service from your seat, a buffet beforehand and a permitted pitch invasion at the end, USA knows how to do sport!

That's Stacey and I with fellow Jabilers Steve and Carla, two premium season ticket holders and committed fans of the Rays! Very hospitable couple.

I've been fascinated reading all the other Saltire Scholars blogs, keep writing!! Hope you're all well everyone. I'd better go nurse some mosquito bites...

Aidan