The ‘Secret Keeper’. Corporate espionage, stolen wealth recovered from infamous dictators, blackmail and corruption, cyber defenses and security … it sounds like something out of the latest Dan Brown Novel. Instead, it’s the place where I’ll be working for the next 3 weeks – Kroll Associates.
Let me back up for a second. After the confirmation of my position at Kroll and the first internship meeting back at school, I received an email from Reshmi Khurana, my internship supervisor at Kroll. A meeting sometime in the week – just to get to know me and for me to get to know them. Something low-key and casual, nothing to get stressed about …
Of course, considering that this would be their first impression of me, and the idea that this was something that I was eagerly anticipating, there was some nervousness on my part. I simply HAD to make a good first impression (figuring it was a make or break situation). A particular goal of mine this summer had actually been to improve my social skills – body language, conversation building, persuasion, and confidence. To that effect, I had started listening to a podcast known as the art of charm – a men’s lifestyle guide that aimed to provide you with these very skills. Starting with body language, I had then moved on to the art of conversation building – with the episode titled ‘The Art of the First Impression’ a pretty good bet in order to prepare myself for the interview.
Good body language was a must – eye contact while speaking, positive and open body language, as well as smiling were important. While conversing, it was important to include a little bit of banter to relieve the inevitable tension during such a first encounter, while still ensuring that you knew your stuff – in this case, understanding the items you included on the resume as well as basic information regarding Kroll as well. Checking their website as well as a few news articles, I was prepared with a basic understanding of their organization, as well as a few questions that I had for them.
Walking into the interview, we connected immediately, with Ms. Reshmi a Dover campus alumnus. After talking about the IGCSEs and my IB subjects for a bit (banter = check?), we moved on to looking at my resume. The questions were straightforward for the most part, with me simply explaining and going over the various components included within my resume. They took up the narrative from there, describing Kroll and some of the work that they do, directing me to read an article titled the ‘Secret Keeper’ upon reaching home, which they promised would provide me an even greater understanding of the organization. We then parted on what I hope was amicable terms, meeting next on July 1st – the first day of my internship!
Moving forward, I think it is important for me to set some goals and expectations regarding my time at Kroll. I think that one of the most important goals that I have is to ensure that I have time to develop a rapport with some of the members at the organization and have time to network with the individuals there – that piece essential as I had explored in my first post on this experience. Certainly, this is a field that I would like to break into, and knowing people will help me immensely with future internships and opportunities – perhaps directly at Kroll itself. (Linkedin connections is perhaps a good idea, but additionally, see if I can get phone numbers and
Another important goal that I have is to attempt to experience several different aspects of corporate life in the finance sector. To this effect, I would like to be able to partake in not just research tasks (which is likely to be the most significant aspect of my internship), but also proposal constructions, as well as participate in actual client-pitch meetings (getting a chance to further network). Getting a taste of the multiple aspects of the business will help further influence my own decisions regarding whether I may want to further pursue and get into the field of finance (to that effect, blog every week or few days and include updates regarding emotional status/feelings regarding the work)
Finally, a goal that had been laid out to me by my supervisors was to be able to work on at least 2 if not 3 proposals/projects during my time with them. To this, would like to add that I aim for at least 1 of the proposals/pitches to actually be utilized by Kroll – perhaps in a pitch to a particular client or their own purposes (creating meaningful work that will be used by the organization in some capacity). More specifically something that will either increase their business with a client or bring about new clients (increase their total revenue)
Looking forward to it!
