As I briefly mentioned, a month ago I began my summer internship at Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, CA. Coming from entertainment, the tech industry is all new to me. Luckily, Yahoo! has a media component to it that is somewhat comforting. I’m not totally illiterate here. I have been working on a cultural transformation team led by Chief Product Officer Blake Irving, a Graziadio alum.

This project has been extremely exciting thus far, using my background in cross-cultural business to evaluate some of the overseas offices. Most importantly, it has been super exciting to dip my feet into a new industry. Yahoo! does an amazing job of creating an internship environment that is informative about the industry, fun events, and creating projects that matter to the company. I interface with high level executives everyday and see the value in my work on the company website and in other avenues. I immediately felt silly calling myself an intern, flabbergasted by the level of responsibility that was entrusted to a position I normally considered “coffee bitch.”

One thing I have learned about Yahoo in my short time here is that they see the value in teaching instead of using interns as a pair of hands. The accessibility is amazing and it has afforded me a level of comfort in Silicon Valley that, quite frankly, I was damn scared of. Being a career transitioner, an internship feels like square one. You feel as if you are a nobody who knows nothing. I was blessed to be taken into a company where they value intellect and present the learning curve with a a pair of spiderman shoes. Overall, I can’t share much more about my direct job responsibilities…but to all my adoring readers, just know…I am so freaking happy everyday and isn’t that why I’m spending a billion dollars on grad school?