Document Type

Article

Domestic/International

Domestic

Location

Boston, MA, USA

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

This past summer, I interned on State Street's FP&A Enterprise Wide Reporting team in Boston. In this paper, I reflect on how the skills I built at Connecticut College carried over to that job, focusing on three of them. The first is teamwork. I drew on my experience as an athlete and a liberal arts student to build real collaboration in my intern group's business case presentation to executives. Many other groups worked alone, and our polished, consistent deck earned praise from my manager and executives. The second is time management. Planning backwards from deadlines, a habit I built as my Conn courses shifted from tests to papers, helped me handle both surprise assignments and big deliverables. The third, and the one I learned the most about, is leadership. Through coffee chats with employees, I learned that good leaders are genuine and care about their teams. I saw this firsthand in a manager who let people log off early during slow stretches in the middle of the month, and the team repaid that trust with hard work during the busy reporting periods. Other managers kept their staff in the office "just in case," and comparing the two led to my biggest realization of the summer: my boss matters as much as the work itself in keeping me engaged and avoiding burnout.

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The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.