This summer has been flying by already. I can’t believe that it will almost be my birthday, June 24th, and then I will be 20. It’s a bit bittersweet. I don’t want to leave my teenage years but am eager to see what my 20’s have in store for me.
If you haven’t seen my last blog post, go check it out. I talked about having an upcoming internship with Abbott Laboratories for this summer.
However, first I got to enjoy a bit of home before I came to Chicago. I had a great time at home for about 2 and a half weeks and got to catch up with my family, friends, and enjoy a bit of care-free summer time.
After this was over I went and helped my twin brother move into a new apartment in Maine and then went straight from Maine to Logan Airport in Boston to come out here to Chicago. As soon as I got in I knew I was going to have a great time. A driver picked me up at the airport and brought me to an extended stay hotel a bit north of Chicago in Waukegan. The rooms were great complete with a kitchen / dinning room, living room, bedroom and bathroom. They seemingly thought of everything that we may have wanted as interns: getting us passes to LA Fitness for the summer, scheduling shuttles to go to Walmart, downtown, and the mall, and provided us with breakfast and dinner at the hotel.
I was excited to start my internship and the first day we had a check-in meeting with the HR team in which we played some fun games to get to know Abbotts product line and we got to meet all of the other interns. I was then taken by my manager to my department, Abbott Diagnostics Division. I did training and got to know the team members for the first week. Everyone was so nice!
Now I just finished my second week and I got my project assignment from my manager. I will be a Team Leader on a consulting project for Abbott Diagnostics Division this summer in the Engineer Tools and Workflow Automation division. I have been busy with meetings, setting up informational interviews with different employees around Abbott to get a sense of what their job entails, and intern activities.
Up and coming intern activities include Relay for Life, Flag Football (Interns vs. Managers), Hotel BBQ, Movie Night and of course Intern Week, which includes: a case competition, scavenger hunt, and an Abbott House Dinner.
Since I have got here the summer has seemed to fly by! Downtown adventures have just begun and I will blog about those for my next post. Also I bought Lollapalooza tickets and can’t wait. I will definitely let all of you know how it is.
Ohh and by the way Cassandra is also here with me so go check her blog posts for more information about internship experience with Abbott.
Hello. This was so great to see. I have hoping to participate in Abbott’s sumer internship next summer. I would like to know if you have any advice or tips ?
Also currently I am studying Science in university . I will hopefully complete and double major in genetics and biology (I am in 2nd year right now).
Thanks you,
Kiana
Hi Kiana,
Thanks for the comment. I had a blast at Abbott’s summer internship program. Going into the interview I would just focus on being yourself and expressing your passion for biology and how you would like to apply it to the real world. Advice for during the internship is to take advantages of all of the opportunities that are presented to you. Take leadership roles int eh case competition and other internship activities, network and participate in informational 1:1 meetings with employees that have interesting roles in the company, and explore. I was in Waukegan so the interns often went down to Chicago and had a blast.
Best of luck,
Brenton