Back in September, after a previous internship with Target (as an Executive Store Intern) and another round of interviews/tests, I was offered a position for this summer as a Business Analyst Intern at Target Headquarters in Minneapolis, MN. The whole thing seemed so far away until a couple weeks ago. It wasn't until I got back from all of my travel adventures that I realized the eminent was finally here, and that I desperately needed to start packing (and schedule gatherings with all of my friends from home one last time).
Last Saturday morning I found myself at the Southwest check-in counter with 5 bags of luggage. I had packed practically everything that I owned (because I would never want to leave anything behind) and set off for 10 weeks in Minneapolis.
Saturday was filled with un-packing and meeting my new roommates, and Sunday consisted of tours of the city and continuously meeting more people. This week was dense. So dense. There is a lot that I could talk about. We'll stick to the basics for now:
Living Arrangements
So Target hired about 350 interns, of which 200(ish) are not from the area. Anyone who isn't from MSP was placed in special Target intern housing, which happens to be these sweet fully-furnished apartments right of the U of M campus.
I'm living in a suite with 3 other girls, in which we share a kitchen and living room area. Then each of us has their own bedroom and bathroom. The apartments are pretty nice, there is a fitness room downstairs (which I probably won't use because I'll take advantage of the mild summer and gorgeous Mississippi river trails to run outside as much as possible) and a media room, along with a lot of "common" space. So basically I'm at college, but I have a job instead of class. And no papers or homework. And I'm getting paid.
Transportation
For those of you paying attention, you might have noticed that I said I flew up here. Despite it only being a 10 hour drive (I realize that's a lot- but completely doable), I opted for the plane ticket instead. At first I didn't want to even entertain the idea of not having a car all summer but as I thought about it more... I realized that it might be kind of interesting to see what it's like to not own a car. Ideally, my first couple of years as a "grown up" will be spent living in a city without a car. (I'm going to spend my first couple of working years setting aside money for my Mini.)
So yes, for the summer, I am the proud owner of a bus pass... which I'll figure out how to use better this week *hopefully*. As of now, I know how to get to work, the lake, uptown, and the Mall of America. So I have the basics covered. The only thing that is a slight pain is grocery retrieval... but I'm finding that you just have to alter your shopping behavior to fit the situation.
Target HQ
Target Headquarters is located in downtown Minneapolis, on Nicollet Mall (which is a large outdoor center of stores, eateries, and corporate locations). About 15,000 people work in Target's downtown HQ so it is a really exciting atmosphere. There isn't an anti-picture policy but I didn't want to look like "that" intern taking pictures of everything... so I don't have a lot of photographic proof to show how incredibly awesome the building is. But it's a fun, fashion-forward atmosphere at HQ. There's a caf and a Starbucks (with a forever-long but oh-so-worth-it line), an extravagant central meeting location called the Grand Hall, a Target history museum, and of course floors and floors of offices and tons of fun Target things.
I am on the 13th floor working in the Dry-Dairy-Frozen department and I am specializing in frozen foods, particularly healthy stuff like frozen vegetables, veggie burgers, and health conscious single serve meals. But of course I found some random frozen pizza boxes (sigh... how fun would THAT be).
Internship Structure
Target pretty much has the internship thing down. It's one of the most structured internships programs out there, and is usually recognized as being a top opportunity for business students. But with that comes a lot of expectations and hard work, which I'm super excited about! I love a good challenge ;) Throughout the internship, orientations and trainings are mixed with personal mentorships, leadership development, group projects, career exploration, job shadowing, and job execution.
My title is "Merchandise Planning Business Analyst Intern"... blank stares, right? What a MPBA does is basically support the buyer for their department and actually place the product orders at the right time and in the right quantity for each of Target's 1700+ stores.
This first week was training heavy- there are a lot of computer programs to learn, as well as being coached on the Target culture and way of doing things. After becoming acquainted with the business, MPBA interns embark on an in-depth group project to improve an opportunity that exists within the department. My project involves improving the efficiency of the supply chain of Lean Cuisine and SmartOnes dinners for "diet season" (the month of January). I've been paired with 3 other fantastic interns to work on this project, which we will present for our division director during the first week of August.
When we aren't working on our project, we will take on the role of a full-time MPBA by job shadowing, scheduling "coffees" (Target lingo for "Get-to-know-you's"), attending meetings, and learning as much about the business as possible. It's a great introduction to the role of a full-time employee, which is a definite possibility for next year (so exciting!!).
Fun, Fast, Friendly
Target's culture is fun, fast, and friendly (FFF). Through this culture, Target aims to the "Best Company Ever" - for its employees, guests, communities, and shareholders. I think that's a pretty solid mission. I'll probably address this as the summer goes on, but I'm excited for a lot of the FFF events that Target has prepared for us, including dinners, community service events, baseball games, etc..
But the best part of FFF are the people. Everyone working for Target this summer is amazing. I've had such a great time getting know a ton of cool people so far! Minneapolis is an amazing city with so much to explore. This weekend, I ventured to Lake Calhoun to lounge "beach"-side and to the Mall of America (I'm going to have to make a couple more trips back there....)
The weekend sure does fly by fast though! Now that I feel more settled, I'm totally ready for week 2!
Stay fabulous!
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