Two Weeks in and Still a Lot to Learn

Here I am, going into my third week at my internship at First Data. These last two weeks have certainly been an information overload and I still have a lot to learn. Therefore, let me share a little of what I retained from all the information thrown at me and why I know I still have so much to learn.

My first week at First Data consisted primarily of orientation videos and meets (lots of meetings). The reasoning behind this was so that I, and my fellow interns, could get a feel for what the company is all about and why the project we are working on is so important. The other meetings were also to cover necessary bases of necessity (dress code, responsibilities, etc.). So, what I have remembered from these meetings is that First Data is a "technological company," and they are proud of it. This fact relates to my work as an intern because I am working on a project that is converting their training material for their call center to a completely technological reliant system. In addition, the First Data corporation is huge and I mean huge. They not only process transactions in the states but globally. The training program revamp that I am part of will be used by all the call centers. While speaking of the training material revamp, let me tell you a little about the work I will be doing.

So far I have not been able to play with any of the more elaborate systems. I am currently being taught how to operate a wiziwig to rewrite the material in. The current training/reference tool that I am taking information from is called MRT (Merchant Reference Tool). This system is outdated. Not only does this old reference tool require too many links and trail after trail to find the necessary information, but it also is slow and confusing. The goal of the new reference toll, called SmartGuide, is to make the information easily accessible through its own search engine. As unfortunate as the admittance is it is very true: that is pretty much all I know at the current time. I know that there is link and image insertion into the resource center and a little bit of coding knowledge is required, but I have yet been able to  play with those tools yet.

There you have it. Very little information, but its about equal to what I have. I am hoping that this third week is the start of really getting into the system and learning it. Therefore, I will be back soon with updates on how I'm doing, and what I'm doing at my new position.