So, it's been a couple weeks since I actually blogged about my life in London, so I'll try to catch up here somewhat quickly. A couple weeks ago we went to Canterbury as a program and walked around the cathedral. It was quite impressive. The building itself was quite large and the detail inside was incredible. There was stained glass that would have costed a ton to get and was neat to look at. We were only in Canterbury for a couple hours so we didn't have a ton of time, but it was enough time. There wasn't too much else in the town. The only other thing I did was eat in a pub with a really really low ceiling that I had to duck under till I got to my seat, not much fun. At least I didn't hit my head, like someone else.
After going to Canterbury we went to Leeds Castle. I was pretty excited to go to a castle, but this castle wasn't what I expected a castle to be like. It's pretty sad that they have a maze near the castle, and the maze was more fun than the castle itself.
This past weekend, me and four other guys went to Liverpool to see the Beatles stuff. We left London Euston station at 5:39 am. That meant we had to leave Vandon house at 4:20 to get to a bus station to make it to Euston. Waay too early. We got to Liverpool around 9 and started walking around and went on a bus tour that took us to important places in Liverpool for the Beatles. That night we went out and about and at one of the pubs we had a lady come up to us and tell us how good we did tonight performing. So the other guys went along with it and she told us she wanted us to join with another group she knew and make a new band. It was quite entertaining. I ended up leaving the others and going back so I could get some sleep because we were getting up the next morning and leaving at 9:20 to go to Manchester. Once we got to the train station on Saturday, one of the guys couldn't find his tickets, so he went to the information booth and they said since he lost them, he would have to buy another ticket, so he decided to just get another ticket back to London. We were originally trying to get tickets to a Manchester United game, but that didn't happen, so we stayed in Manchester for a couple hours then got a train to go to Bangor, Wales, and see some of our friends there. While in Bangor, I got to hang out with friends I hadn't seen in a while and we went to karaoke, which was a good time. On Sunday, the Bangor program had a day trip, and there were enough seats on the bus for us to go, so we got to go to a castle and also a small village which was quite neat and colorful. That was pretty much the weekend, and not much else has happened other than the weekend trips I have typed about.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Internship Assignment C
1. The overall environment is very relaxed. Two things I would keep would be the relaxed environment and the small company. Two things I would change would be that it was made more clearly what exactly they want me to do sometimes and that people were closer to my age.
2. He does a nice job, he has something for me to do each day, and has it planned out what he wants me to do. I would want to be the same way, only explain what I wanted as clearly as I can and leave no room for guessing what is supposed to be done.
3. I have learned that I like to work quick and get things done, rather than taking breaks and taking my time, which doesn't work so well in a British office where things are done slowly. I would like to get to be a little more creative in some way.
4. I have improved on making excel spreadsheets look nice and neat and also how to use my time efficiently.
5. I don't think I will look for a company that deals with investments and mortgages, but I wouldn't argue if I ended up getting a job there if it was the only one I could get.
Student Manager, Central Catering, January 2011-present
2. He does a nice job, he has something for me to do each day, and has it planned out what he wants me to do. I would want to be the same way, only explain what I wanted as clearly as I can and leave no room for guessing what is supposed to be done.
3. I have learned that I like to work quick and get things done, rather than taking breaks and taking my time, which doesn't work so well in a British office where things are done slowly. I would like to get to be a little more creative in some way.
4. I have improved on making excel spreadsheets look nice and neat and also how to use my time efficiently.
5. I don't think I will look for a company that deals with investments and mortgages, but I wouldn't argue if I ended up getting a job there if it was the only one I could get.
Steven Grotzinger
Objective
To attain a job that interests me and I am able to help
others around me.
Education
Central College, Pella, Iowa. Expected Graduation May 2014
Actuarial Science and Accounting majors
Related Courses
·
Principles of Microeconomics
·
Principles of Macroeconomics
·
Principles of Business Management
·
Intro to Financial Accounting
Work Experience
Internship at MasterAdviser, February-May 2012
Financial advisers in London
Financial advisers in London
· Created excel worksheets dealing with financial information
· Worked independently
Assisted other people
Archived client files
Student Manager, Central Catering, January 2011-present
Central College, Pella, Iowa
In charge of students when needed
In charge of students when needed
·
Help with decisions at events
Camp Counselor, Summer 2011
Pine Lake Christian Camp, Eldora Iowa
·
In charge of 5-8 campers for a week
·
Lead group discussions
·
Wrote reports
Activities and
Achievements
·
Intermural Basketball
·
Got promoted to student manager after
one semester of college
·
DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
Role Model
Additional Skills
·
Can read, write and speak beginner
Spanish
·
Good with Microsoft Office and Excel
·
Self-motivated to get goals accomplished
well
·
Certified in CPR and First Aid
Internship Journal #5
March 12&13
Monday I started going through all the boxes in the back closet to see what was in each one so that I would be able to do the project I was presented with the previous week. I had to write down each file number or the name of the client so that I could copy it onto an excel worksheet that will eventually be every file the company has had.
Tuesday, I finished going through all the boxes and started onto the master list of files and boxes that include files from 2007 till now. So far the company has 130ish boxes of client files, and all of these will be on one worksheet so that it will be able to search for a specific file and be able to find what box it is in easily.
Once again I was reminded how relaxed the work environments are. People will randomly just start talking about a holiday they went on or a football game from the weekend. They also leave early if they feel like it for the day.
Monday I started going through all the boxes in the back closet to see what was in each one so that I would be able to do the project I was presented with the previous week. I had to write down each file number or the name of the client so that I could copy it onto an excel worksheet that will eventually be every file the company has had.
Tuesday, I finished going through all the boxes and started onto the master list of files and boxes that include files from 2007 till now. So far the company has 130ish boxes of client files, and all of these will be on one worksheet so that it will be able to search for a specific file and be able to find what box it is in easily.
Once again I was reminded how relaxed the work environments are. People will randomly just start talking about a holiday they went on or a football game from the weekend. They also leave early if they feel like it for the day.
The office area
The front desk
The glass building is where I work
Internship Journal #4
March 5 &6
I pretty much served as an assistant to anyone that needed help in the front office. I did some scanning of invoices and also did some shredding of old papers that weren't needed anymore. I finished up my previous project as well, by going through the rest of the clients folders checking for their email addresses that were available.
Tuesday, I found out I would be doing the archiving. So they have a small closet in the office they use to keep the most recent client files, and those files are in numbered boxes. Once the closet is full, they ship the boxes of files off to an underground storage place, where they can call them up and ask for a file in a box if they need that file. But in order to be able to find what box a file is in, it has to be listed somewhere, so that was going to be my job.
The main thing I found out this week, was how much Brits really do like to make fun of other people, as much as themselves and just enjoy it.
I pretty much served as an assistant to anyone that needed help in the front office. I did some scanning of invoices and also did some shredding of old papers that weren't needed anymore. I finished up my previous project as well, by going through the rest of the clients folders checking for their email addresses that were available.
Tuesday, I found out I would be doing the archiving. So they have a small closet in the office they use to keep the most recent client files, and those files are in numbered boxes. Once the closet is full, they ship the boxes of files off to an underground storage place, where they can call them up and ask for a file in a box if they need that file. But in order to be able to find what box a file is in, it has to be listed somewhere, so that was going to be my job.
The main thing I found out this week, was how much Brits really do like to make fun of other people, as much as themselves and just enjoy it.
Internship Assignment B
A. The main objectives of Master Adviser are: to provide a personal and professional service to their clients, to exceed client expectations, to provide reports and advise using language you will understand, to invest in and utilise the potential provided by the latest technology for gathering information and for communicating where appropriate, and to earn the trust and respect of their clients through their expert knowledge and up-to-date awareness of industry and investment opportunities.
B. The company as a whole is owned by Doug Brodie, and if people want something different done, they go through him, but otherwise everyone is on their own and together they make up Master Adviser.
C. New policies are formed by going through Doug, and everyone can have input on it.
D. Their competition is anybody else that deals with investments and mortgages.
E. They make their money by how much they invest others peoples money and they make a commission off that.
F. They serve people interested in mortgages and investing their money
G. There are around 16 employees
H. They get a large amount of paid holiday and health care
I. Making sure they keep up to date on the new things that can help them out, and calculating the risk involved in investments.
Monday, 5 March 2012
Internship Journal #3
Feb. 27 &28
When I got in to work on Monday, I found out my boss was on holiday for a week and wasn't going to be in, but he had given somebody else a list of things for me to do. The first thing on the list was to go through nearly 700 clients on the database and see if they had an email listed. So I had to search each and every one and if they had one listed type "yes", and if they didn't type "no".
When I got in to work on Monday, I found out my boss was on holiday for a week and wasn't going to be in, but he had given somebody else a list of things for me to do. The first thing on the list was to go through nearly 700 clients on the database and see if they had an email listed. So I had to search each and every one and if they had one listed type "yes", and if they didn't type "no".
After that was finished, I was told I had to search all the clients marked with a "no" and see if they had an email listed anywhere in their individual folders. It wasn't too difficult of work, but there were over 400 clients that didn't have an email listed, so I had to go through all of their files under their adviser and try to find one listed in some document. I also did some filing for the company by taking the folders out of the filing cabinet and putting them in boxes to be stored.
The thing that really hit me was how people can take over a week vacation whenever they want, and still be able to take regular days off when they feel like it. In the states, you're lucky to get that week off all at once. I guess it's one of the perks of living in an expensive city such as London.
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