And just life in general, I guess; That “You get out of it the work that you put into it.” But to elaborate more on this, I’ve looked back on my internship and made a realization that yes, you’ll get some good out of an internship if you just simply do the work you’re asked to do. But I feel that you only get half of what you could fully get out of an internship by simply doing what you’re asked to do; whereas if you go the extra mile to take initiative as an intern and ask your supervisor if you could take on responsibility or do some work in areas or projects that interest you, you’d really be getting what you possibly could out of the internship. From my week in Itasca up ’til now I’ve had a better idea in which direction I’d like to take the internship and have asked for more projects and assignments that were geared towards my areas of interest. At first I was worried about how my supervisor would react to me trying to act as some sort of director of my internship. Maybe she already had everything planned out for me and I really wouldn’t have a say about what I got to do. But I was glad to find that after approaching her about what kinds of things I wanted to do, she was very open and understanding to my ideas. The best thing about this internship, is that you really do get a HUGE say in what you want to do. It’s not just a specific type of internship – You’re not just a brokering intern, or sales/marketing intern, or confined to any one area. You can mold your position for it to be anything you’d like it to be. Before coming into this internship, I really had no idea how the insurance industry could be relevant to anything that I wanted to do with my future career. But being near the finish line, I can honestly say that experiencing this internship, seeing that it’s not just selling insurance to people and that there are SO MANY MORE departments of this company that I could pursue a career in, I have broadened my scope of possible career paths that I could take and now have a better idea of what I’d like to do. This internship has definitely given me an edge to achieve internships and jobs that I would like to pursue after this experience, and has prepared me with the tools and knowledge in order to be a very qualified and competitive applicant. I would honestly HIGHLY recommend this internship to anybody who is really looking to find a little more direction in their future career path, and looking to make the most out of such a great experience in order to undergo a lot of professional growth.

-Monica, San Francisco GBS

I can honestly say that just about every individual in my office has played an important role in my growth within this internship. But since I’m supposed to keep these short, I’ll name a few individuals that I feel that I have worked closest to or have gotten to know best. Firstly, Erika is my supervisor and go-to person. I absolutely love working with her. She’s always understanding, helpful, and I never feel uncomfortable or very nervous around her. She is always working to get me involved, busy with projects, and encouraging me to take initiative in projects, meeting people, etc.; anything that will push my professional growth. I am very grateful to have her as an advisor, supervisor, and just somebody that always is putting a positive light on things and making sure that I will be an accomplished intern by the end of this program. Judy is also a producer that I have worked quite a bit with. Many of my projects have come from her, and I’m glad that she has been finding things to keep me busy. Judy has contributed to my experience and growth in that she is a very detail-oriented person and her tasks encourage me to remember that even the small things make a difference to the clients. She has given me projects from updating binders to creating marketing collateral. Hayley is also a producer that has given me projects that I have continuously been working on here at the office. She was also a Cal student and recently graduated, so we both have in common that we were/are Cal Bears Even when I had a million questions about how to do certain things, Hayley always patiently answered and I found it very helpful that I could comfortably approach her with questions. Never once in this office have I ever felt like my coworkers ever thought of me as ’the stupid intern’, or the intern that did not know what she was doing and was looked down upon for it. I have genuinely felt that everybody was interested in how this program was going for me, and was interested in contributing to it, or making sure I was comfortable in the office. I would genuinely like to thank the San Francisco GBS office for giving me such a great experience and continuing to do so.

- Monica, San Francisco GBS

When I first came to college, I felt the immediate pressure of needing to find an internship and thus increasing my legitimacy as a candidate for the oh-so-prestigious Undergraduate Program at the Haas School of Business. I believe that’s how a lot of freshmen feel when they enter Berkeley as an Intended Business Major. I planned on applying in my 3rd year, but I will not be applying to the program, as I found a major better suited to my goals and preferred learning environment (but this is kinda beside the point). Instead of being smart about what type of internship I was exactly looking for, I just went with whatever sounded good. Somehow that worked out for me, but I’m not so sure it would have worked out so well in many other cases. With essentially no experienced guidance, I blindly searched for internships via our school career center website, not knowing what exactly I was looking for, only knowing that I felt the urgency of having one by the summertime of my freshman year. Now in my 3rd internship, I am extremely thankful that I came across this opportunity at Gallagher. More so than any other previous internship I have had, this internship has really given me insight into the real world, and has given me ample responsibility in order to support my professional growth. Even the week in Itasca/Chicago was very eye-opening to me because we were given a peek inside all the different divisions of AJG. By the end of that week, I had a better idea of what area of business I wanted to pursue a career in. I do not know exactly what I’d like to do, but I would like for my career to be somewhere along the lines of financial advising. I do recognize that I have so much more to learn about the different industries and what exactly it is that they do, but this internshp at AJG has given me a HUGE stepping stone onto which I can confidently face other internships and eventually full-time jobs that I had maybe at some point in the past thought were too difficult or competitive for me to obtain. This internship has also taught me to look past general conceptions as well. I had a previous internship under a wealth management exec. at a very large and well-known company, and I thought it was the greatest thing to be working for such a large corporation. Not to imply that I hadn’t had a good experience there, but it really doesn’t compare to my experience at Gallagher, where I am doing actual work that I would be doing if I were a full-time employee here (working with project managers and clients, making reports and presentations, researching, attending meetings, etc.). Before interning at Gallagher I had never heard of the company, and I don’t believe many (if any) of my peers knew what it was either, not to mention that the insurance industry itself has a slight stigma about it that might make it slightly less attractive to college students who really only have but the general conception of their peers to go off of. But as much as I learned in my previous internship, I am so grateful to have experienced this one at Gallagher. I have learned much more here than all of my past internships combined and I really recommend it to any undergraduate student looking for a REAL internship that will guide and help you in the direction you would like to steer your career (brokering, risk management, sales, private equity, mergers + acquisitions, you name it, AJG has it), whether you know what that is or not  

-Monica, San Francisco GBS

This was the first 4th of July that I didn’t celebrate with my family at home in Sacramento, so I was definitely missing them. I did, however, spend this 4th of July with my boyfriend and had a decent weekend. I say “decent” and not “spectacular” because of the fact that things did not go quite as planned. We had dinner at P.F. Chang’s in Emeryville instead of bbq-ing  with some friends because we were planning on driving to San Francisco from there anyway, so we just decided to dine out. By the time we had finished dinner at around 8:00 p.m., the streets around SF and the Berkeley Marina were already starting to close and crowds of people were already making their way to take their seat in order to get the best view of the fireworks. Being the lazy people we are, we decided to just drive back to Berkeley and watch the fireworks from the roof of my apartment instead of finding somewhere to park and walking the long distance to the seating area of the fireworks show. Watching the fireworks from the rooftop did not work as well as we had anticipated. The fireworks were quite distant, AND there was a HUGE thick blanket of fog covering San Francisco, so we could only see the traces of the fireworks before they exploded in the sky. We watched in disappointment as we barely saw faint remnants of color tints within the blanket of fog, masking the full magnficence of the show. So we decided to go back into my apartment and watch the rest on TV. Nevertheless, having a 3-day weekend to relax was great. And now I am back at work

-Monica, GBS San Francisco

From day 1 this internship has never failed to keep me busy and continuously learning. Because this company is so involved in the process of your growth in this internship, you’re not strictly confined to typical intern tasks, such as data entry or cold calling. So far, I have gone out to 3 meetings in different areas ranging from Petaluma to Sacramento, and I will be attending one in San Jose within the next few weeks. I have also attended various in-office meetings regarding topics that I could definitely relate to (for example, the classification and workforce changes of the different generations). I am also currently working on a few presentations of my own, some of which I will be collaborating with interns outside of the GBS division. I am also putting my knowledge of powerpoint and excel to good use by helping out the account executives finish projects and presentations for which they are nearing the deadlines. Most interesting to me that I have been learning about are the benchmarking projects and stewardship reports. I have been assigned to look into the sales files and work with account exec’s to understand and work on some benchmarking in the educational services niche and look over some stewardship reports. I’m really loving the fact that the company is introducing me to the real life of what insurance brokers do, and that the information is so relevant to any field of work that you may want to pursue. More updates to come!

-Monica, GBS San Francisco

Considering that it was my first time being on a plane by myself (and 2nd time being on a plane in my life), I was pretty nervous. I didn’t really know any of the interns and I certainly did not know what to expect of a “training week” for an internship, as none of my prior internships had this sort of program. Upon arrival, meeting people and making friends turned out to be way easier than I had anticipated. Everybody was very friendly and came from all different backgrounds and geographical areas. The diversity of the people definitely contributed to the learning aspect of my experience. Throughout the week, I was constantly reminded of what a great place Gallagher is to work at and I can definitely vouch for that, working with the people at my home office in San Francisco who actually care about my professional growth throughout my internship. The week in Itasca had a lot of informational presentations that busted several misconceptions I had about the insurance industry. It really showed me that I can take my internship, and possible career, here at Gallagher in ANY direction I want to take it. Of course, the week wasn’t ALL business. There was a lot of time to go and hang out with the other interns, and almost a full day to go explore Chicago. Meeting new people, making new friends, learning all about the industry and the professional world, exploring the city… Last week was definitely a worthwile experience to say the least.

- Monica, San Francisco GBS