Internship Spotlight: Abigail Bishop, BerryDunn

Abigail Bishop '23 BSBA (Management Information Systems) was a Management and IT Consultant at BerryDunn in Portland, Maine.

What was the process for getting this internship, job, or summer experience?

I applied for the internship of December 1st and immediately got heard a response 2 days later. After 3 virtual interviews, I got a call with an offer. It was super nice how quickly everyone responded because I was studying for finals at the time. I was super happy to come home for Christmas with the news that I got my first internships. 

What was a typical day like?

I left the dorms at 6am with 4 other BerryDunn interns who I carpooled with. At the office we would use the basement gym before work began at 8am. I would check my emails and communicate to any team members I would be working with that day to. Between 8:30-9:30am I would have a team meeting to organized multiple clients at once and break up the work. Then I would spend my time before lunch working in Excel, Word, or PowerPoint. Our clients were higher-ed institutions like UofA and we would consult between their task forces and IS vendors to find the best solution (ex: D2L is a system we would compare against competition systems). This resulted in me summarizing survey results into presentations to explain quantitative and qualitative information between clients and vendors.  I would get an hour lunch at 12pm and would leave the office at 5:15pm. 

What was your favorite part of the experience?

I got to use Qualtrics for the first time which is a survey creator. I had fun mastering the best way to build surveys for clients to extract key information about what system will work best for them. I liked learning new things and since my work did not contain lots of IS work from me directly, I felt this challenged my brain the most. 

If you worked on a big project, please describe it below:

I had a month long capstone project I completed by myself over the course of my internship. Even though most of my intern work was for higher-ed, my team also consults to help businesses create well-being strategies. I was tasked with using my A-Z library database from school to research the financial competitive advantage of companies with a culture of well-being. I wrote a 12 page business case for well-being and gave a 45 minute presentation to my entire team at the end of my internship. It went great and I think it was the best research project that I have ever written. 

What did you find most challenging?

The most challenging thing was this was my first internship so I had no idea what to expect. My experience has always been in a restaurant so I am used to running around to help my clients as soon as possible so they have a great experience. That is not the bets course of action at a consulting firm. There was 2 other interns on my team and I heard that at the end of my internship I had a substantial lack of billable hours comparatively. My supervisor found that extremely odd because I worked so hard and had few errors. I also started working on my capstone project right away and helped do other research for the well-being practice and none of that was billable.  My lesson learned is to slow down and take the time to go above and beyond for clients. 

What did you learn?

I learned to speak up in team meetings because I had a fresh perspective that was often recognized as valuable. I learned to communicate better on Teams. Half of my team worked remotely so this was a new challenge that sadly but true Covid prepared me for. 

What advice do you have for other students looking for a similar experience, or advice for future students to be successful?

If you are going to a new state all by yourself, make sure you are living in the city area or bring a car. I think bringing your own skill set to the team is important. I bonded with my team members the most when I reached out to them about my own interests and they would show me how I can be an asset to the team. 

How did Eller prepare you for this experience?

For my capstone project, I utilized my presentation template that I learned in BCOM. I had SBAR and clickable agenda timeline which I learned in class. My team was impressed with my natural eye for presentations. I also built a simple gantt chart that BerryDunn managers can utilize for smaller projects. I learned how to build a gantt chart in OSCM. 

Did you feel supported by the company or organization you worked with?

I was assigned an advisor and supervision that were concults on my team. They supported me so much and grew my self confidence as a consultant. I felt they trusted me with biggest assignments because I was able to show I can accomplish things with minimal instruction. It was also great to set up luncheons with senior managers to get comfortable working with them and understand how they got their position within the company. One of the key features of BerryDunn that stood out to me is the CEO and one of the COOs are very educated women. My first time in the corporate world, it was important to see women represented and looked up to. 

Anything else you would like to share about your summer experience?

Maine is a beautiful east coast state that made me feel safe at night. I would definitely go back there because the people are nice and the food is amazing.