August 17 - George KELK Corporation

As I was led around George KELK Corporation on the first day of my internship, the foremost thought in my mind was "wow, these people are really friendly". Two weeks have gone by and that impression hasn't changed.

The members of my department, Information Systems, have been particularly supportive. In between doing their own demanding jobs, they’ve taken the time to show me the ropes and to give me crash courses on topics such as cloud computing and Linux systems.

Of course, when three people are in charge of all that is technological at KELK (seriously, the IS guys are asked to fix anything from networks to toasters) there are bound to be moments when the entire team has rushed off in different directions and I'm left somewhat puzzled in the cubicle. Luckily, the tasks I've been working on mostly rely on organizational skills and are quite independent.

We’ve actually just started what is sure to become an intensive project: completely redesigning the system in which KELK tracks its software. Today, while we waited for the new database to be programmed, I spent most of my time creating ISO images for stacks of CDs. It was a fairly low-key day, punctuated in the middle by a festive company lunch (and I do mean festive: they have rainbow umbrellas!)

There's still over a week to go, but I can already see the outcome of this experience: a working knowledge of computer systems, valuable insight into the real world workplace -- and hopefully, the ability to develop a better maintenance strategy for my home computer than simply thumping it into submission.

Lily Zhang
Hometown: Toronto, ON