Part of the Team

As I considered joining the IMLP program, I wondered about the experience of having four different jobs in the course of two years. How would such transitory employees be viewed by everyone else? Could I really get involved in the course of just six months?  Would I be taken seriously?

The answer to these questions has made itself clear over the course of my first rotation: IMLPs are viewed as part of the team. Beyond the scope of internships or co-ops, IMLP rotations include full responsibility for real projects, with real business impact. This responsibility comes with the collaboration and respect of other employees. IMLPs are in the same meetings, phone calls, and projects as veteran employees, and are expected to participate and contribute to the team efforts.

I have experienced this fact first-hand in both my first rotation and my upcoming second rotation. In my current role, I am managing a migration and upgrade of several SQL servers. Over the past few months, I’ve slowly become the resident expert on the Transportation SQL servers, and questions from other teams are now filtered to me. Even better – I can answer a lot of them! I am truly amazed at how involved and informed I have become in just a few short months.

Beyond that, the team for my next rotation invited me to join them last week to visit a company from whom we may purchase software. I had the opportunity to travel to the headquarters of this company and attend several days of meetings on the subject. Although I had absolutely nothing to contribute to the discussions, my inclusion in the process helped me understand the project in great depth and feel like a true member of the team.