#5 : Making Big Things Feel Small

In our second to last week of our internship, we were tasked with the familiar end of internship presentation. I liked that we were able to reflect on our experience and relationships before our very last week because it raised my appreciation for the program and my summer experience. Of course, I was very nervous and walked up with sweaty palms nervous that I would drop the clicker or sense that people could see the slight tremor in my hand. AS soon as I begin talking about my experience my nerves calm. I had been working with the communications team all summer so explaining a high level view of my project was no sweat. What made me nervous was presenting a slide about my personal experience this summer, which included the loss of a friend. I didn’t know how my fellow interns would react, but I had received positive feedback so included it in my presentation. The slide finally came and my new friends could not have been more supportive. I received hugs from the people I know are not natural huggers and I felt a heightened sense of belonging for the level of vulnerability I had shared. A place that has over four hundred thousand employees became a very small community for me.

Throughout the summer and the even back in the recruiting process, big companies had been something I wearily approached. The past two summers I had been an intern at a medium size church and I liked the feel of working really closely with a smaller group. So when Accenture presented itself as an opportunity I knew my experience would be something vastly different than working with 5 people who will be in my wedding. However, by the end of my time with Accenture I saw very much how a huge company can be made small by being honest and vulnerable with each other. I have read Brene Brown's Daring Greatly three times now and I continue to see the power that vulnerability has in building teams and making communities stronger. Making large organizations feel small is not something I am unaccustomed too because of attending Texas A&M. The undergraduate population is huge but through Mays and various organizations, A&M feels very much like a community and home to me.

Moving into the corporate world where it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of organization or the clients I walk into, I can use what I have learned at A&M and this summer at Accenture to feel known within a larger organization. I will seek out relationships that are willing to grow and invest heavily in a few. My project team was that this summer and last semester at school that was the Fellows program. I now have real friends from each one of those experiences that I know really well and who know me. They can help launch me forward in my career but they can also guide me in personal pursuits. Overall, I am very thankful for A&M and for Accenture for the people they have allowed me to build relationships with, and I value continuing to invest in those relationships.

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