Cisco: Two week mark

So, the internship begins. I am one of 7 interns for Cisco's Human Resources Leadership Program (HRLP) program. It's great to meet like-minded people from different schools because we get to exchange ideas about the projects that we are working on. It's an all female group this year so it's definitely a HUGE change from the business school environment. Another great thing about the summer is apart from our individual projects, we also get to work on "suitcase" or team projects with a few of the other interns. Fresh out of my MAP experience, I think that I could apply a lot of what I learned in the past term to this team exercise.

I am still in the process of getting to know Cisco. So far so good though. My project meets all of the objectives that I set out to achieve for the summer. The environment is a lot like Ross - people are smart, helpful and warm. Anybody I've reached out to has been willing to help me out with my project. The cohort of interns and full-time HRLP participants is very closely knit. They planned a lot of activities to make our transition into Cisco as smooth as possible - one on one's with HR leadership, Comedy Sports, Napa Trip, Baseball game. In addition to this, the Michigan alumni network is very strong. We had a Michigan meet-up last week - mostly interns and full-time Cisco employees from the supply chain division. We still have a little pocket of Ann Arbor in this San Jose campus.

The support system that Cisco builds around the HRLP program is great in helping me adjust to my first ever job in the US. The culture is a lot more informal than what I'm used to. I catch myself being inappropriately formal at times in emails and meetings. I will get better at this :)