Day 12 and 13

Today was the last Monday of my Proctor career.  It started pretty similar to the last few weeks, however today I was going to help box signs to ship to Dalbello reps across the country.  I was given a list from Sarah about where and how many each box should have then I got to work.  This project took all of Monday and Tuesday morning.  When I finished with this I had a meeting to close out my internship and then went to lunch.  I was really happy to have completed my internship with VMD and am I excited to see what opportunities are in front of me after Proctor.

Week 3

This week I learned about how to handle a lot of items on my plate.  I have been practicing this skill at Proctor for the last four years here, but today I got to apply it seamlessly.  During this week, I had a playoff game, about 1,000 social media pages to find like and document,  and all of my senior project blogs and paperwork.  I also want to spend time with friends because of the distance I live away from my peers I am going to miss spending time with them so I want to spend as much time with them as I can.  It was hard to juggle all these ball in the air, and in the past probably would have led to a meltdown, but this week I was able to accomplish most of them.

I loved every minute of this week.  Its hard work, and I'm not getting payed but I love this type of environment and freedom.  The classroom has always been a struggle for me, and learning through experience has always helped me.  I feel like I am thriving here, and at school. I feel as though I am prepared to leave.

Thinking back on it, I know that the original task Sara assigned me would never have been attainable.  I wasn't able to finish the Facebook let alone the Instagram or the twitter.  But though doing this I learned how distributors, reps, and stores all work.  I've learned about how the ski industry works from the top down, and I also learned what its like to be given a lot of work, 

This week everything went pretty much the norm,  I however don't think I will be able to finish my assignment from Sarah, witch is expected.  It was an incredibly stime consuming task, and it is a bummer I couldn't finish it.  I did however like about 1,200 pages as well as document there activity and there following.  I focused on the major areas of sale for VMD, I just wish I could have done more.

This week,  I learned that I am ready for the real world, I can handle my time and I can get my work done.  I think that if I didn't have sports and worked here from 9-5 every day I could have easily accomplished what I needed to do.  I am ready!

Day 11

Today was the last of senior project, but I still have a bunch of work I need to do for MDV.  I also really want to finish turning my lamp in wood-shop.  After four years I can finally feel the end of my time here is close.  I am sad to leave, but I am ready to take the first step of my next journey.

Day 10

This was a typical Tuesday.   Not very much interesting happened today, I needed to get work down so I sat down and worked for about 4 hours.  It was hard to be focused and diligent in the office today, my mind was racing because high school sports are now officially over for me, along with my body being very sore.  I am really thankful to Chris and Kelly for helping me make it through the entire year with my injuries.

Day 9

Today, I woke up the same time as always and headed to work.  I am now feeling the pressure of having a lot of things that I want to accomplish before school ends.  I really want to finish my wood shop project as well as my senior project along with the work Sarah wants me to do.  Having all these thoughts floating in my head made work really distracting and it was tough to focus.  I need to focus to finish my work for Sarah by next Tuesday. I then got back to school and had to focus my brain for a big pregame practice to prepare for the first round of Lakes Region playoffs against New Hampton School.

Day 8

Day 8, was a typical Monday for me.  I woke up around 7:50 showered and got ready to go.  The drive to VMD is still super easy.  Once in the office, I put my head down and got to work.  I am behind on what Sarah asked me to do, and I think it is much more work then she and I both anticipated.  After I finished work I headed back.  Here I noticed how much I really enjoy driving in New Hampshire compared to California.  The highway is much more scenic, as well as the drivers are much less aggressive, and seem to be not in any type of rush compared to those in California.  Just another great day!

Week 2

This week I got to go watch a boot fitting and go to the warehouse for VMD.  I have had my own boots fit for ski racing, but it is interesting to see the slight differences that Dalbello is doing that other companies are not.  It is also interesting to notice the similarities.  I also helped move last years skis back into the warehouse and helped bag and load this years skis onto a truck.  The warehouse is probably the largest collection of skis boots bindings, and other accessories that I have ever seen in one place. 

Working at VMD is in some ways harder than actually going to school.  The work on social media is tedious and has made me longer enjoy spending time on Facebook.  Still up in the air whether or not this is a good or bad thing. However I left at the end of my second week just as stoked about what I'm doing as I did after my first day. 

I worked in the warehouse and got to watch the boot fitting as well as see how the rest of the warehouse looks.  I had never thought about warehouses for ski companies or where they would be located.  I've visited surf brand warehouses, and they are normally located in southern California because its close to the market so I assumed the ski brands would be the same.  In my mind that would be Colorado but it was interesting to learn that they are placed in NH.  It makes sense because even though the conditions are not as great in New England,  but the market is still really big. It was cool to relate some of the concepts I learned in AP human geography to make sense of this.

• Did everything happen as you expected or were there surprises? 

This week went pretty much as I expected.  I had to take my AP exam for Human Geography.  It was nice to finally get that off my shoulders, and it felt even better because I felt confident on my performance.

Each week I gain more and more experience working in an office.  It is different then sitting in school all day, and while it's harder I enjoy it more.  However at the end of the day I am more tired.  I have learned that if your working around something you really enjoy that working really isn't that bad!

Day 7

Today started off very similar to the last couple.  I grabbed my keys and headed out at around 8:15.  I sat down worked on the project Sarah has assigned me.  While doing this I also helped show Sarah a few things about Snapchat, and how each page has a QR code.  This code is a way for the app to add people by taking a picture of each persons individualized QR codes.  I explained to Sarah that they could market them by putting the VMD logo on the code with the help of Snapchat then placing the code on their other social media's as well as printing it out and giving it out with apparel and having a poster to display at their events.  This should help them raise their following on Snapchat, and make it a more cost effective form of marketing.  I stayed a little bit later this day because the next day I would have an AP exam so I wanted to get as much work done as possible.

Day 6

Today I got to go to the warehouse for the entire USA market to watch a boot fitting, and help move around skis.  Truthfully,  this is probably the single most skis I  have ever seen in one place.  Rows and rows of skis, poles, boots, clothes, and bags.  In VMD's office, there are displays of the years current ski models for that season.  I was tasked with helping load the next seasons skis onto a truck and taking this past years models and loading them onto warehouse carts.  I also got to watch boots being fit and see how they are trying to advance the technology in there race boots.

Week 1 Reflection

This week was my first experience working in an office setting.  I learned a lot about how VMD wants to market on social media and how there competitors advertise.  It was interesting to learn how a corporate office works, as well sit in the meeting with the executives.  I learned that not all companies are like my dads, and that working is actually fun if you are passionate about what your doing.   I found that most of the people in the company seem really happy and it made me excited for the future.

This week I worked really hard on the project Sarah assigned me.  It is a lot of work but I really enjoyed it.  VMD is a really cool company, and I want to find a place similar to work after college or maybe try and work for them after college. 

I was assigned to go through all there distributors social media pages and see whether they follow VMD's social media pages and if VMD follows them.  There is about 2000 pages and so far it has been a lot of work.  It is a time consuming process that they need to do, but Sarah doesn't have the time to do it so it is the perfect job for me to do. 

I had very little expectations going into this week, so basically everything was a surprise to me.  The biggest surprise for me was being able to sit in on their meetings and that was probably the most interesting part of the week.  

I learned a lot about being in a corporate environment and I think that next year I will have a leg up on my peers in the business school at University of Colorado.  Having an idea how a corporate office as well as how they advertise and how to interact with executives.

Day 5

Today I got to sit in on a meeting with Volkl Marker and Dalbello's marketing meeting with Whitney their marketing firm.  They talked about their digital adds and the cost per click of each add.  It was interesting to learn about how they can track the number of clicks directed to there website from online adds using google.  The second part of the meeting was social media related.  They talked about the cost off adds on Instagram Snapchat and Facebook.  It seemed like Facebook was the most effective form of marketing for the demographic they are trying to target.   They asked me a lot of questions about Snapchat and how my generation uses it because my generation is the next that they are trying to target.   They bounced a lot of their ideas off of me and it was cool to be engaged in a corporate advertising meeting.  

Day 4

Picture I took when I left 

Today started off pretty similar to the last few, cloudy and overcast looking like it was going to pour any second, but today it never came.  I however was not going to see very much outside time today.  Between 9 AM - 2 PM I worked on the list Sarah gave me I, and I finished about 120 pages.  It wasn't an easy day by any stretch of the imagination, but its interesting to see how VMD markets on social media, along with their competitors all the way down to the local family owned ski shop.

Day 3

Today Sarah gave me the day off as it doesn't necessarily make sense for me to drive to Lebanon on Wednesdays because most of the time I have a game and need to leave around 11:00 to go back to Proctor.  Today I was able to work on the task Sarah gave me, catch up for sleep and set up my email for University of Colorado.  Nothing really exciting happened today, but I am excited to head back to MDV to see what is in-store for me.

Day 2

Today, started of very similar to yesterday except today was just a work day.  I worked on the social media project Sarah assigned me yesterday for an hour or so and then went over my schedule for the upcoming week.  I then went over the data I had collected so far on the distributors pages I had seen.  I then sat down and worked away for about another 3 hours then drove back to Proctor.  It wasn't the most exciting day in the office, as much of the staff was away at other meetings.  The work is pretty tedious, but its interesting so I don't mind it at all.

First Day

Senior project started with a 7:45 wake up, earlier than I wake up for school on a daily basis.  I got a quick breakfast, and then headed out.  It was a stormy day, but the 40 minute drive to VMD headquarters was very easy.  Upon arriving, I met my mentor Sarah for the first time, and she showed me around the office.  I then sat in on a meeting where they were buying display for their product from a vendor.  It was fascinating to learn about how they wanted to maximize display of their product and their logo.  After the meeting I was assigned a task from Sarah.  She made me the admin of Marker's, Dallbello's, and Volkl's Facebook Instagram and Twitter pages.  My job is to go through a list of vendors, and see if they like each others pages.  Its tedious work, and I managed to go though about 60 pages, along with noting the followers and their social media activity.  At that point it was about 1:50 and I realized it was time to go.  I headed back to Proctor with a quick detour to Subway for a bite to eat.  I got back to Proctor around 2:45, then quickly changed into a suit and tie and headed to my game against Holderness.  We ended up losing 11-10, after being down 8-3 at half.  Holderness went ahead with 10 seconds left.  Despite the loss, I enjoyed the start of my internship with VMD.