I started college as a general psychology major, as that was my interest. I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of becoming a therapist or a professor. I just knew I had a love for people and the way they think, but also the way that thinking applied to business. Throughout my first year of college, I took several classes in different fields, and by the end of my second semester, I had declared my major as Industrial and Organizational Psychology with a minor in Business Administration. Then, in the fall of my second year, while focusing on a lot more business-related classes, I realized I should change my business administration minor into a major.
That now brings us to this summer of 2026, where I am interning at Indium Corporation as the Human Resources Total Rewards Intern. After finding the internship posting and learning more about Indium Corporation, I became super intrigued. Human Resources was not something that I originally thought that I was going to do when I first started college. But, after looking at both of my majors and the research that I had been doing, I realized that this position lined up pretty well with my education, and I decided to shoot my shot and apply. After a couple of interviews, I was in. In the final interview with my supervisor, everything just clicked. I am so thankful for the position I got and every opportunity that has come with it so far!
This is my first-ever internship, so I honestly had no idea what to expect. All my previous work experience has been in the restaurant industry, so switching into an HR role was a big jump. All that work wasn’t for nothing though. Even though the fields are so different, restaurant work taught me so many skills that I was able to transfer over to an office job. Coming in on my first day, in a new state, and being surrounded by a bunch of other interns I have never met before made me a little nervous. But more than anything, I was excited. Being with a group of people in the same boat as me but all working independently was definitely intimidating, but it also felt like a push towards the future.
For me, this internship feels like a new chapter in my life: being in a different state, working with people that I don’t know, and in a job I have never done before. But I could not be happier. For me, my academics, my career, and looking towards my future have been such a big part of my life. This internship felt like the next big step. It has really felt like the first time I was able to take what I have learned in school and apply it to a real-world setting. I felt so proud when I got this internship and all the work that I have done in it. It has allowed me to experience what working in HR is really like while being able to help my future and pursue a higher-level degree.
After my internship ends, I will be going into my final year of undergraduate study, less than a year away from graduation. Though I plan on getting a graduate degree, it still feels like time has passed by so unbelievably quickly. Even at the two week point when I am writing this, it feels like I started yesterday, and by the end of the internship I know it will have passed in the blink of an eye.
My goal for coming into this internship was to gain real-world experience in the HR field. I wanted to get the chance to understand the workload, what exactly I am doing, and, above all, how I feel about doing this sort of work. Though I knew that this was a field that I was interested in, I wanted to figure out if it was meant for me. Thankfully, the more work I do for this internship the more I love what I am doing. One of my favorite parts of this internship is the fact that my time is split between an independent project and working on daily tasks. This provides an end goal to work towards, allows me to show what I did with my time, and gives me the chance to experience what it really means to do work in this sort of field.
One of my unexpected tasks, but something I am glad that I got the opportunity to experience for my project, is talking to a bunch of the employees about their benefits, discounts, and finding out what matters to them. This project has allowed me to meet so many people that I would not have met otherwise. I’ve been able to put so many names to faces and gotten the chance to listen to so many people’s stories on how they got here and what Indium Corporation means to them. As I am only two weeks into my internship, I have talked to some staff, but not enough yet for a viable sample, which is something I continue to work on so every voice is heard. Eventually, this will give me the opportunity to travel to the other facilities and meet the employees over there and figure out what matters to them.
From talking with the other interns, there was a mutual concern that quickly disappeared about the employee dynamics and the pressure of being an intern. Everyone that I have met so far has been super nice and welcoming. Even though we are interns and we all have projects that are designed to take ten weeks to complete, there was still the understanding that we are students, and we are all here to learn how to operate in a work setting for the first time.
Despite being interns, we are given real responsibility and real projects that will make a difference in the company. We are given the patience of the people who are supervising us, who know that we are learning and doing so from the ground up. This alone makes Indium Corporation one of the best learning environments I have been in for that reason.
Not just the welcoming environment from the employees but also from the other interns, how conversation flows naturally, how all the interns at the site I am at eat lunch together, and how we started leaving during lunch for birthday lunches at Chipotle and group trips to 7-Brew. We get excited if we are in a meeting with another intern, as we are able to see their side of work as well. I am so thankful for the connections that I am able to make with the other interns and the opportunities that we get together. Especially since these are the people I only met two weeks ago, but despite that we have all become so close in just that little amount of time.
Though I have not been here long, I appreciate every moment I have been able to experience so far. I am thankful for every person I have met so far and everything they have done for me. From exploring Freud to navigating fringe benefits, it’s been the start of a journey of experiences I will never forget.
