Summer 2019
I am on a flight right now. Super bored coz its a super long journey.
I did a 10 weeks internship this summer at T. Marzetti in Columbus, Ohio. This company makes salad dressings, dips, and bread. No one knows about it but is consuming its products via Chick Fil A, Olive garden, etc. I worked as a demand planning intern here.
I came to Columbus on 17th May in the night around 1 a.m. I got a temporary accommodation for the summer with some South Indians. I still remember the day when I reached midnight and my roommate who is actually 17 years older than me came outside the apt and was full sleepy(maybe angry too). The next two days I had nothing to do coz internship was going to start on Monday, 20th May. I just stayed at home, in the evening I just checked out the community. Both the roommates turned out to be super nice to me.
On my first day, I had to go by cab to the office fully dressed in the most uncomfortable clothes that are blazer and formals. I was excited but at the same time nervous as well coz I have never been in a company environment and didn’t know how I am going to do my work. On reaching the company I got some goodies, a laptop, and some free dressings. I met my team, got surprised by my boss as he was looking very different from how I imagined him to be through his pictures. He was a fat guy wearing a polo t-shirt and sports shoes in the office and I was standing in front of him fully dressed in blazer and formals. Later I got to know that I can wear jeans every day and there is no need to wear those formal pants I was so happy. I already had a schedule for my first two weeks so all meet and greets started and my boss Charles started explaining to me what my work is going to be.
The next day started by going to the office by bus. The bus stop was 0.6 miles from my apartment but there was no sidewalk on the main road which made it risky to go there. Gradually I became comfortable going that road which initially felt a long walk plus risky as well. I met a lot of new people during the first two weeks. There was a proper meeting scheduled just for meeting those people. I started learning new things and getting to know how the company is working through my boss, matt and lunch and learn sessions. So matt is another demand planner working there with whom I spent most of my time and I was assigned to learn his product category so I had to shadow him most of the time.
The concept of lunch and learn sessions were interesting. Because of that, I got to meet the other interns every week and also got some insights about different departments of Marzetti through experienced professionals. Our HR was so cute. I still have a crush on her. She took good care of us. We went on a lunch with her once, she took us to the manufacturing plant, organized a store visit as well, took us to top golf at the end of the internship.
Weekdays were fine as most of the time was spent in office but weekends were really difficult. The time zone changed for me again and talking with my friends and family which includes my GF became very difficult. I struggled to find time to call India bcoz of timings and the responsibility that I had. Coz now I started cooking for just me and I had to prepare lunch for the next day as well. I cooked in the night almost every day which was sufficient for me fo the night as well as next day’s lunch. On weekends most of the time, I felt super lonely and on weekdays every evening around 5 to 9-10 was the worst coz I had literally no one. So I used to talk to my friends here. I started to be on calls at least 3 hrs a day in the evening. Later I got fed up of these calls bcoz I really don't like to be on the phone for this long. Cook then sleep then go to the office for the whole day and come home to loneliness. Enter a room where you can just see walls and you don't want to do anything. I tried to see some stuff on Netflix but it didn’t work out to be good coz I wanted someone to talk to me. This was the bad part but I believe I have more good memories as compared to the bad ones.
Charles is a super nice guy. He took care of me at the office as well as outside of that building. he took me to the Columbus zoo which was super big as compared to India. We spent a lot of time there and we went to a taco place called Condados from there with his friends. After that, he took me to his apartment which was a very nice place. I liked his patio very much. We went to his pool where one of his friends joined us and spent the whole day. After that, his friend dropped me home. I was exhausted and at that time I was a little bored with them coz maybe I wanted someone of my age and I was not able to take part in their conversation. But my boss was trying to involve me and took care of me really well. On one weekend he took me to see a soccer game (Columbus vs New York) in which I saw zardes playing. I used to take him in my team when I used to play mobile FIFA. On that day Charles was selected as a participant to take part in a contest to win pizza for the section and he won and became the hero in the match.
The demand planning team was small and sweet at Marzetti. There were just 5 people plus one director taking care of the department. We went to lunch in the last week at a very expensive place called the cheesecake factory.
I am not a traveler but traveling became my destiny. As I said I was lonely on weekends so I started planning trips for the weekend. I completed 3 trips:
Detroit, Michigan
Dayton, Cincinnati, Ohio
Niagara falls, new york.
I did a 10 weeks internship this summer at T. Marzetti in Columbus, Ohio. This company makes salad dressings, dips, and bread. No one knows about it but is consuming its products via Chick Fil A, Olive garden, etc. I worked as a demand planning intern here.
I came to Columbus on 17th May in the night around 1 a.m. I got a temporary accommodation for the summer with some South Indians. I still remember the day when I reached midnight and my roommate who is actually 17 years older than me came outside the apt and was full sleepy(maybe angry too). The next two days I had nothing to do coz internship was going to start on Monday, 20th May. I just stayed at home, in the evening I just checked out the community. Both the roommates turned out to be super nice to me.
On my first day, I had to go by cab to the office fully dressed in the most uncomfortable clothes that are blazer and formals. I was excited but at the same time nervous as well coz I have never been in a company environment and didn’t know how I am going to do my work. On reaching the company I got some goodies, a laptop, and some free dressings. I met my team, got surprised by my boss as he was looking very different from how I imagined him to be through his pictures. He was a fat guy wearing a polo t-shirt and sports shoes in the office and I was standing in front of him fully dressed in blazer and formals. Later I got to know that I can wear jeans every day and there is no need to wear those formal pants I was so happy. I already had a schedule for my first two weeks so all meet and greets started and my boss Charles started explaining to me what my work is going to be.
The next day started by going to the office by bus. The bus stop was 0.6 miles from my apartment but there was no sidewalk on the main road which made it risky to go there. Gradually I became comfortable going that road which initially felt a long walk plus risky as well. I met a lot of new people during the first two weeks. There was a proper meeting scheduled just for meeting those people. I started learning new things and getting to know how the company is working through my boss, matt and lunch and learn sessions. So matt is another demand planner working there with whom I spent most of my time and I was assigned to learn his product category so I had to shadow him most of the time.
The concept of lunch and learn sessions were interesting. Because of that, I got to meet the other interns every week and also got some insights about different departments of Marzetti through experienced professionals. Our HR was so cute. I still have a crush on her. She took good care of us. We went on a lunch with her once, she took us to the manufacturing plant, organized a store visit as well, took us to top golf at the end of the internship.
Weekdays were fine as most of the time was spent in office but weekends were really difficult. The time zone changed for me again and talking with my friends and family which includes my GF became very difficult. I struggled to find time to call India bcoz of timings and the responsibility that I had. Coz now I started cooking for just me and I had to prepare lunch for the next day as well. I cooked in the night almost every day which was sufficient for me fo the night as well as next day’s lunch. On weekends most of the time, I felt super lonely and on weekdays every evening around 5 to 9-10 was the worst coz I had literally no one. So I used to talk to my friends here. I started to be on calls at least 3 hrs a day in the evening. Later I got fed up of these calls bcoz I really don't like to be on the phone for this long. Cook then sleep then go to the office for the whole day and come home to loneliness. Enter a room where you can just see walls and you don't want to do anything. I tried to see some stuff on Netflix but it didn’t work out to be good coz I wanted someone to talk to me. This was the bad part but I believe I have more good memories as compared to the bad ones.
Charles is a super nice guy. He took care of me at the office as well as outside of that building. he took me to the Columbus zoo which was super big as compared to India. We spent a lot of time there and we went to a taco place called Condados from there with his friends. After that, he took me to his apartment which was a very nice place. I liked his patio very much. We went to his pool where one of his friends joined us and spent the whole day. After that, his friend dropped me home. I was exhausted and at that time I was a little bored with them coz maybe I wanted someone of my age and I was not able to take part in their conversation. But my boss was trying to involve me and took care of me really well. On one weekend he took me to see a soccer game (Columbus vs New York) in which I saw zardes playing. I used to take him in my team when I used to play mobile FIFA. On that day Charles was selected as a participant to take part in a contest to win pizza for the section and he won and became the hero in the match.
The demand planning team was small and sweet at Marzetti. There were just 5 people plus one director taking care of the department. We went to lunch in the last week at a very expensive place called the cheesecake factory.
I am not a traveler but traveling became my destiny. As I said I was lonely on weekends so I started planning trips for the weekend. I completed 3 trips:
Detroit, Michigan
Dayton, Cincinnati, Ohio
Niagara falls, new york.
All the trips were great. I had a lot of fun and got to see new places with my old friends. I wanted to explore Columbus also which I was not able to coz I had no one with me. But on my last day of internship, I finally explored it with the help of one of my intern friend. We became friends maybe after the 7th week. She is a nice person. She took me yesterday to Columbus downtown and We went to Khalid's concert. After which she took me to Cannes which is famous for chicken fingers. Now, I have tried that too. It was really a fun day but it was hard as well. While leaving the company in the afternoon I almost cried in front of my team.
Two days ago my roommates also threw me a party. We had a lot of food basically chicken and whiskey. Tried new whiskey called Buchanan's.
There are a lot of things that I am missing to write now. But I can surely say that I learned a lot from this experience. This was one of the major steps of my life which actually is the first step in the corporate world. I am groomed as a professional and as a person as well in these 10 weeks.
If I think about the overall internship now it makes me feel really happy but it was just the beginning. I have a long way to go now.
Here I am sitting on a plane going to San Jose to spend 15 days of vacation before my school starts. But the good news is I am not going to school as I got another internship for fall at Daimler which is a bigger opportunity than Marzetti and I get to work there for the next 17 weeks.
And as I said this traveling is a never-ending journey, After san Jose I am going to Dallas to pick my stuff and the next day I will leave for fort mill, South Carolina where my new internship is. New place new work new life new time zone everything is going to be new again except the same struggle that I am going to have. But this time I feel more prepared and confident to face everything that comes in my way.
Two days ago my roommates also threw me a party. We had a lot of food basically chicken and whiskey. Tried new whiskey called Buchanan's.
There are a lot of things that I am missing to write now. But I can surely say that I learned a lot from this experience. This was one of the major steps of my life which actually is the first step in the corporate world. I am groomed as a professional and as a person as well in these 10 weeks.
If I think about the overall internship now it makes me feel really happy but it was just the beginning. I have a long way to go now.
Here I am sitting on a plane going to San Jose to spend 15 days of vacation before my school starts. But the good news is I am not going to school as I got another internship for fall at Daimler which is a bigger opportunity than Marzetti and I get to work there for the next 17 weeks.
And as I said this traveling is a never-ending journey, After san Jose I am going to Dallas to pick my stuff and the next day I will leave for fort mill, South Carolina where my new internship is. New place new work new life new time zone everything is going to be new again except the same struggle that I am going to have. But this time I feel more prepared and confident to face everything that comes in my way.
Thanks for reading
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