Step 1: Learn the Lingo

Welcome! This blog is going to outline my summer working as a Leadership Development Program intern at AT&T. The LDP internship was set up by the company in 1988 to give MBA students the chance to get hands on experience in one of AT&T’s many divisions. At the end of the summer, I will give a final presentation to the company’s executives explaining my project, my findings, and my recommendations.

The first exciting point about my internship is that I was placed in the Chicago, Illinois office, so I get to explore a whole new city while gaining insight into the largest telecommunications company in the nation. I have been in Chicago for over a month now, and it has been an incredible experience thus far. On my first day at AT&T, I was a little nervous. Would I fit in? Did I have the skills necessary to complete my project? Could I learn all I needed to know about such a large company in ten weeks?

Most of my questions were answered during my first week in the Hoffman Estates office. As soon as I got in my first morning, the other LDP interns reached out to me via AT&T’s internal messaging system, Q, and asked me if I wanted to join them for lunch. When I met them for lunch, they informed me that a group large group of full-time LDP employees were meeting for happy hour downtown after work to offer us insight and advice about the company. I could already feel the bonds forming between those of us in the program.

On the afternoon of my first day, I met with my supervisor to discuss my responsibilities, and we both laid out our expectations for the summer. I am working in the Business Marketing department, within the ICB Pricing division. What does ICB stand for? Good question and one that I will answer in my next blog post.  For now I’ll just say that learning the AT&T “lingo” was the first step in understanding the company and my role in it.