As a management intern at a small financial advisory firm, I was introduced to how management principles are implemented in the "real world." Here, I learned first-hand how companies handle change, how employees relate to one another, and how as a new manager, my role would depend on the business situation as well as on the individuals with whom I interacted. This report summarizes my experiences and relates them to the academic background I have developed.
My responsibilities at the company are many and varied. In some ways, I am office manager; in this role, I supervise and assign work to five staff members on a daily basis. I also ensure that all office copying is done on time and in such a way that clients are billed for their copies. I also prepare reports on telephone usage.
I am also responsible for many of the financial functions which occur at the firm, including preparing daily bank deposits, preparing customer billings, and preparing the weekly payroll and the associated payroll reports. It is also my responsibility to make sure that UPS deliveries and pickups are handled correctly, and to serve as liaison between customers and company management as appropriate.
There are several different types of middle management skills that I encountered as I progressed in the internship. While I had good computer skills going into the internship, and while I considered myself proficient in Windows and many typical office applications (including spreadsheets and word processors), I had to learn the proprietary computer system that the company used in its day-to-day business. This computer system was set up on a small company network and enabled financial advisors to prepare tax returns, run "what-if" scenarios for their clients, and integrate billing into one computer package. As a particular task is completed for a particular client, the financial advisor sends me e-mail telling me what has been done and how to handle ...