By Radha Patel
When it comes to working at a company like Synchrony, there is truly no way to capture the value of the experience you can gain. Within my first summer internship, I learned how to work in a team that I would have otherwise known nothing about. Throughout this internship, my co intern and I were able to create an effective solution that can be implemented for years after our internships ended. During the first couple weeks, my assignment leader provided all the necessary readings and explanations I needed while I started learning about the team I was in and the goals for the summer. As summer progressed, I felt entirely immersed in the virtual work culture and sat in on meetings with executives within the company, where I was even given a platform to voice my opinion.
On top of that, being a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gives you an upper hand because of the accessibility to Research Park. At Research Park, Synchrony has an Emerging Technology Center (ETC) where Interns can come and work on their various projects. These projects can range within any part within the company. That means that no matter what kind of experience you are looking for, whether it is marketing based, coding related, integrated technology oriented, etc., there is a place for you at Synchrony!
The ETC provides a unique experience in that your internship is catered towards your preferences and experiences. This allows for you to change your assignment after your internship if you feel like you would appreciate exposure in different parts within the company. The beauty of this process is that if you spend multiple semesters with a certain project, you can start a whole new project within a company and watch it grow all within a continuous internship.
When reflecting on my decision to work with a company like Synchrony, I believe that it has been incredible to experience the balance between technology and business while being a student who truly involves educating herself at the same cornerstone. The real-world applicability of concepts we learn in classes is a fulfilling and rewarding feeling, that makes me even more excited for this upcoming fall internship with them. So, for the person reading this blog post, if you are someone who has questioned whether they can apply their technological education in a real-world business setting, working at Synchrony’s Emerging Technology Center as an Intern might just be the right answer for you.
Radha Patel
Radha is a Junior in T&M Class XXVII. She is studying Marketing and recently finished up an Emerging Technology Internship with Synchrony and plans to continue her hard work throughout the year.