I never thought I would be saying that we are halfway through week 8 (the 2nd to last week!) of this internship. It was so weird this week when I filled out TWO evaluations pertaining to how this summer internship was for us, which definitely gave me the feeling that this 9 week program will be coming to a close sooner than we know it.

As most of you heard, I was assigned to work in BSD last week. My anticipations were high and I was very excited to learn more about what they do; however, it was a bad week for them to have me over there because most of their producers were out the entire week for vacations, etc. As a result, there was little for me to do and help with over there. It was definitely no one’s fault, it was just bad timing. The great thing was I was able to meet some of their producers, account managers, etc. I have noticed many more people saying hi and chatting with me this week from the BSD side because they now know who I am.

I did get to go to a meeting for a client we work with on Wednesday of last week with two producers here. It was a beautiful hotel, so no complaints there obviously. The client is up for renewal soon so we sat down with the GM, CFO, Account Manager, and head of HR of the hotel to go over other options for carriers for some of their benefits. Then we had a wonderful lunch overlooking the ocean, which topped off a wonderful day.

This week I have been helping Stacy, my intern coordinator, move offices because we hired a new producer so Stacy is moving down the hall. Her and our branch manager are out the next two days to have two meetings in Northern CA with clients, so I have been assigned to help with things like contract reviews, stop loss reports, still scanning all of our paper files to make them electronic and sending those over to Iron Mountain, doing prospect calling, and many more little things here and there.

Talk to everyone tomorrow! -Lindsay

It’s crazy that it is already week 7…time is flying by here! Last week ended on a good note, where I have been assisting two of our producers with marketing to one of our clients who is up for renewal 9/1. This week has basically just begun, and I have already done so much. I am assigned to be working in the BSD department this whole week. I met with the branch manager of BSD yesterday morning and she showed me around their part of the office. I had already met a lot of their people, considering I have been here for six weeks and they are always wondering who this new person is that keeps walking around the office. The branch manager wants me to help on a project this week of helping them design their cross-selling plan with the other parts of Arthur J. Gallagher.

I got the opportunity to sit in with the team leaders of the BSD department on their meeting that they have every Monday morning to hear some status updates on their projects, what social events would be coming up, etc. I helped the BSD people yesterday with dead files, certs, then finished off my day back in GBS helping with scanning to make all of our paper files electronic. (That has been a major project I have been working on here). My intern coordinator, Stacy, has been out of the office since last Thursday, and she will not be returning until Monday. Tomorrow, I am taking a day off of BSD work to go with two of our producers on a renewal meeting (the one I have been helping with on the marketing), which should be great!

Other than that, looking forward to another great week.

-Lindsay, Orange County

I cannot believe we are starting our 6th week for this internship program…time sure has flown by quickly! I have been working on a lot here already, which I love because it keeps me busy! Last week, Stacy (my intern coordinator) and I finished up a marketing for Life/AD&D, STD, and Dental for a large agricultural company which was quite a project to work on. We put out bid specs to carriers, received proposals back, and entered all of the necessary information from those proposals into a powerpoint to market to them. It was great to finish it up because I felt like I had fully completed a project and saw all of the necessary steps it takes. This week we are going to call the agricultural company and talk about it further with them.

One of my other main tasks is to work with the administrative assistant here and make all of our paper files into electronic files, then send the paper files to Iron Mountain. We acquired a company called “Elite” and they are moving into our office next week, so things have been crazy around here to say the least. They are bringing 11 people with them, so things have been hectic! We needed to make all of the paper files into electronic ones so we could create more space for them…an added bonus is that we are saving paper!

Other than that, I have been working on other things like the regional intern project, contract reviews, AM’s Best Ratings, and much much more to help out everyone here as much as I can, and to try to learn a lot as well! Things have been great and I love the environment of this office, which is always an added bonus to any job. Look forward to hearing from everyone again on Thursday’s conference call.

-Lindsay, Orange County office

During week 3, all of the year one interns were in Itasca for orientation. I was very nervous going into this experience; however, I really enjoyed myself everyday. I think it was great that we got to meet so many people on this trip, including many employees of the Itasca corporate office. One of the best things about this trip was the fact that we got to meet numerous other interns. It is great to be able to put a face to a name for a lot of the interns and I hope to stay in contact with as many of them as possible. The week in Itasca was an amazing learning experience! -Lindsay in Orange County