Олейник Виктория- Линден, Нью Джерси, США
Program Participant name: Viktoriya Oliynyk Program Participant is doing internship at Meest-America, Inc. in Linden, NJ The trainee receives training in Business Management concentrated on Data and Record management. Now it’s 2nd month of 9, that I’m taking my internship at Meest-America, Inc. The most beneficial aspect of the internship is being exposed to several different areas of business related to my specialty. During the first phase I was introduced to company’s structure and general operations. I learned basics about company’s finance, marketing, accounting, logistics, customer service, computer programs, company’s databases and document circulation in the company. Currently I’m on the second phase of my internship which is at Human Resources Department. I didn’t expect Human Resources procedures to be so interesting. I can say that it’s like a whole science! I learn hiring and termination procedures, ways of motivation, coaching, training and education of employees, how to maintain Personnel Records and process other HR documentation, how to develop and choose right policies and strategies, different employment laws, guidelines, and other related to HR information. HR manager and other employees explained me and discussed with me company’s Wage and Salary Policies, Employee Benefits Policies, Employee Safety and Health Policies, Employee Communication Policies. I’m surprised how well-organized and circumspect everything is here. All job descriptions and employees handbooks are detail and really helpful. I’m much exited about interviewing strategies. Besides direct questions about job and experience, behavioral questions, I like brainteaser or critical thinking ones – that so funny to listen to the different answers. By the way, I’ve already answered all of them and hiring manager finds my answers pretty good. It’s quite difficult for me to understand when and how to implement all laws related to HR procedures. I’m browsing IRS site a lot and explore interesting documents, but still I find hiring and other employees related regulations quite complicated, as everything is very unfamiliar for me. We have different regulations in Ukraine, but it’s interesting for me and I can learn something useful in order to implement in my country. I learned about Ukrainian Human Resources documents and procedures at the University and also I learned them during internship at our government. I must say that HR procedures have more tasks here and are actually more effective. That’s just the beginning of my internship and I’ve already got such a great amount of knowledge. The environment and company’s personnel inspire me to study more. I see their proficiency in the communication and I decided to buy a book of Business Communication, which I study every day during 1-2 hours. Also I would like to speak without an accent or at least to reduce it, thus I’m working with special CDs and books also. Through this internship I am gaining valuable hands-on experience and knowledge that I believe will be really useful in any career in my country that I may someday choose. I wish more Ukrainian students had the possibility to take some kind of internship in the United States or in other countries. While every university in most of European countries and United States gives this possibility to their students, we almost don’t have it in our universities. The only way for our students to get this useful, challenging and important for further career and our country experience is such Cultural Exchange Programs. Coliseum is doing a great job for Ukrainian students and Ukraine. I think USA also benefits a lot from this, as this program is competitive and I can definitely say from my experience, that Coliseum carefully selects only smart and intelligent candidates. If I didn’t have chance to go to USA for an internship, I would start my work after graduation and just do my job. But now I can compare two systems, verify pluses and minuses of both of them and change something in Ukraine for better as well as recommend something for American Company.
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