Introduction
Internship programs immerse students in multidimensional problem-solving environments that help them to cultivate a wide range of competences and skills. The mental reflection on internship tenures is an essential part of learning that helps learners to better understand how the field experience contributes to their development as business professionals. The aim of this paper is to provide a report on experiential learning that lasted for two months. It will be argued that the internship was a transformative period that allowed the student to apply their knowledge in different situations, thereby arriving at practical methods of operationalizing their understanding of business and management theories.
Internship Environment
The student underwent the internship program at Cereal Killer Café located in the Dubai Mall. The café is an establishment that offers its customers a wide range of cereals with different toppings. The owners of the business have ensured that every branch reflects a retro style that helps customers to emerge in the cultural climate of the 1990s. Prior to the internship, the student was familiar with the particular style of the café and its unified working environment; therefore, the organization was the first preference for obtaining real-world experience.
The café environment was characterized by acceptance, collaboration, and integrity; therefore, all employees were free to operate both as members of a close-knit team and individuals. The environment fostered achievement and encouraged everyone to perform at their best. The café’s staff members recognized hard work performed by the student and spurred their motivation by verbalizing appreciation for behaviors conducive to the successful functioning of the establishment. Therefore, during the internship tenure, it was easy to feel valued, which is critical to succeeding as a team.
Expectations
The actuality of the involvement in the program was radically different from the student’s expectations. Although the student anticipated that the experience would make a substantial impact on their understanding of the business environment and its internal processes, the field experience provided an opportunity for intellectual and professional growth that challenged their expectations. For example, by being responsible for tracking monthly operating expenses, it was possible to understand the essential components of the business’s financial health. In addition, experiential learning helped the intern to develop strong cash management expertise which is essential for ensuring the financial sustainability of any organization. It follows, that the internship positively differed from the student’s previously held beliefs about professional development.
Career Choices
The internship became an impetus for focusing the student’s analytical lenses on their career choices. The excitement of the filed experience was augmented by the necessity to think about future career prospects, which exposed the participant to limitless growth opportunities. It follows that the internship can be regarded as a practical exercise in meaning-making that, in addition to strengthening the business expertise of the student, helped them to commence their professional journey. In other words, the experience was essential in helping the intern to determine which career path to take. Thus, the program was undertaken with the understanding that it prepared the student for visualizing their dream career direction.
Duties
A combination of confidence and expertise is necessary for performing any duty; it is especially so when it comes to working in a fast-paced environment of the twenty-first-century business. During the placement, the student was concentrated on both learning and performance components of the experience, which made it difficult to had identical levels of focus for the two dimensions of the practice. Fortunately, the supervisor-supervisee relationship in the café was characterized by understanding and support. Therefore, whenever the student was not confident about moving to a new task after reaching a considerable level of skill on a previous assignment, they were encouraged and provided with guidance a degree of which always matched their expertise. Furthermore, a supervisor never failed to formulate learning goals in such a manner as to ensure that properly performed duties provided important service to the café and the student.
Skills
During the internship, the student was responsible for daily sales activities in Cereal Killer Café, which provided them with a host of opportunities for developing their sales management skills. By overseeing business operations at the café, the intern learned how to maintain and increase sales volume, communicate with suppliers, order products, and perform other managerial duties. Furthermore, the placement familiarized the student with numerous tech solutions. For example, the supervisor asked the intern to streamline the process of employee schedules coordination. After conducting thorough research, the student arrived at an application that could improve the efficiency of both employee scheduling and payroll calculation—Planday. The intern mastered the software and taught the supervisor how to create customizable schedule templates that could serve the unique needs of the café. In addition to acquiring tech expertise, the internship tenure helped the student to develop leadership, oral communication, conflict resolution, and online marketing skills.
Alignment with Education
The student’s academic background was of enormous help in the business environment because a solid command of administration and economics allowed them to navigate through daily activities of the café with relative ease. Even though the organizational environment and working conditions were associated with numerous challenges, the ability to fill knowledge gaps by performing thorough research facilitated the successful fulfillment of primary responsibilities. The education was aligned with tasks encountered during the internship in that it allowed the student to apply their knowledge of sustainable business development and problem-solving skills to increase the efficiency of the organization. Specifically, by the end of the tenure, the café’s sales grew by 19.5 percent. The importance of the achievement is underscored by the fact that the internship lasted for only two months. Therefore, it can be argued that the educational foundation proved to be extremely useful for the field experience.
Accomplishments and Drawbacks
The internship was associated with peaks and valleys in terms of individual performance. The following situation exemplifies the proudest moment of experiential learning. The student was tasked with improving the branch’s social media marketing campaign the aim of which was to expand the café’s customer base. Upon analyzing the current social media strategy of the organization, the intern realized that customer outreach could be substantially increased by the creation of an Instagram account. The account featured the location, key products, and giveaways such as rare cereal packages.
The least proud moment of the internship was a failure to deliver the first monthly sales report on time. Upon deliberating on the issue, the student understood that the mistake occurred because of the lack of technical expertise. The intern tried to learn from the mistake and took active steps to ensure that the situation did not repeat during the second month.
Responsibilities
The intern helped the café manager to oversee the operational activities of the establishment. The internship involved a wide range of responsibilities that were changed by the supervisor in accordance with the student’s learning of their core elements. For example, when the intern mastered the allocation of resources to ensure that staff coverage matched customer demand, they were tasked with tracking weekly and monthly revenues, which was the most important task of the placement. At the end of the fifth week of the internship, the student was capable of ordering product supplies and tracking the establishment’s inventory. The supervisor trusted the intern with other responsibilities that included but was not limited to, controlling food disposal standards, preparing employee schedules, managing vendor invoices, and enforcing safety standards. The breadth of the area of responsibility suggested a high level of trust that was gained by the student.
Criticism
The leadership style of the supervisor precluded them from criticizing the student. Therefore, instead of producing harsh evaluative judgments, the manager tended to provide feedback in a manner that facilitated the development of a productive supervisor-supervisee relationship.
Transition
The transition from being a student to becoming an employee in the for-profit organization was challenging. However, continuous support from co-workers and the desire to use work-based learning for personal and professional growth helped the intern to adjust to the demanding environment.
Roles and Tasks
The most valuable role that the student assumed during the internship was a sales manager. The role presupposed maintenance of the café’s financial records and coordination of sales activities. To successfully perform this role, it was necessary to develop strong organizational skills. The student’s ability to use administrative software was a great asset during the program.
The least valuable role was food waste control, which involved adherence to waste disposal requirements. To this end, the student studied guidelines on the disposal of biodegradable and non-biodegradable materials, which is information with an extremely limited range of applicability.
Goal
Prior to embarking on the program, the student established a goal that they wanted to achieve. The goal was structured along the following dimensions: knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The knowledge domain presupposed familiarizing with the business environment of a city in which the café operated—Dubai. The skill dimension involved the development of managerial skills. With respect to attitude, the student planned on developing an appreciation for teamwork and task-centeredness. By focusing on these three dimensions, the student wanted to ensure that their experience would help them to both obtain a degree and land gainful employment.
Conflict
The internship tenure was a period, which was largely devoid of on-going friction. However, the student’s and a co-worker’s incompatibility with regard to performance expectations resulted in the emergence of a minor conflict. The intern was cognizant of the fact that conflict resolution is a collective endeavor; therefore, they used their communication skills to manage the situation. Specifically, instead of avoiding a confrontation, a collaborating approach was taken, which allowed us to reframe the situation and arrive at a win-win solution.
Another example of a workplace conflict that occurred during the program, is a misunderstanding between the student and the café’s supplier who failed to maintain the consistent quality of their products. The supplier disputed the student’s claims, which resulted in a confrontation. The mutual satisfaction was attained when the student convinced the seller to agree to a temporary solution: deliver only 75 percent of the needed stock, which was characterized by high quality, and provide the rest of the supply later.
Lessons
During the culmination stage of the internship, the student assessed their progress in order to internalize key lessons, which shaped their understanding of the professional environment. The intern learned that every crisis situation within the business context can be turned into a learning opportunity. The internship was also central to the development of a flexible, open-minded, and receptive frame of mind, which was necessary for improving the operational efficiency of the café. The program participant was also able to establish the connection between theoretical and practical elements of work-based learning, thereby strengthening their practical reasoning. These and other lessons derived from the internship program will support the student in future professional pursuits and help them realize their career ambitions.
Objective
The student was focused on solving real-world problems in the business setting through the application of their academic knowledge to assigned tasks. This internship objective, as well as realistic expectations, helped the participant to ensure that the program unfolded as was expected.
Conclusion
The paper has detailed a report on the internship program that took place at Cereal Killer Café located in the Dubai Mall. It has been argued that the work-based learning experience provided the student with a chance to develop professional skills that augmented their academic knowledge. The application of business theories in the professional environment resulted in a substantial improvement in the café’s bottom line, which was highly appreciated by the establishment’s management. Therefore, it can be argued that the internship was a valuable experience that benefited both the student and the organization.