Internship with Jackson
Cory
Experience Information
Employer: Jackson National Life
Job Title: Executive - Operations
Major: Information Systems
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Jackson National Life is technically an insurance company specializing in the market for annuities. They primarily utilize the 'long-term smart' motto to drive their product sales through the roof. The company is growing extremely fast and becoming a dominant body in the financial industry. Their parent company Prudential PLC is based out of the UK and provides a great role model for this company to base off of. The majority of their employees reside within the IT or Support roles due to the need to support all of the policies issued to their clients. There are however a number of areas to seek employment and the management/leadership to get you to where you want to go.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
I worked directly with multiple project leads on various On-boarding initiatives, produced weekly reports using Excel and VBA embedded to automate information needed to help with New hire metrics as they relate to the helpdesk, created a database used to display the results received from 3rd Party Vendors as it relates to security, and other various Operations focused duties.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
-Risk Assessment: the importance and how prevalent risks are within a company -Project Management: Overall process, how many people are involved in what may seem like 'small' projects, the processes behind the scenes in getting big projects achieved -VBA: Visual Basic for Applications - learned how to program in this language for basic functionality (very powerful tool to utilize within the Office Suite) -Organization, Prioritization, and Management - my manager worked diligently with me to critique my reports, ensure my deadlines were met, verify my processes and procedures used - all to help better myself as a professional in my career
Favorite Part of the Experience
The people that I met and developed relationships with. The culture of Jackson is so welcoming that everyone you meet is very kind and helpful. I can't recall a time where I felt anything other than welcomed. Truly special to be a part of a company that has such great people working for it.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This internship has brought about my focus for a career. I am an Information Systems major but would like to focus more of my efforts towards Security. This field is forever growing and constantly changing. I met with multiple managers, directors, and presidents to discuss the importance of security and how to structure a career around this field. Needless to say I am extremely fortunate to have the advice given to me to direct me to such a great field of study.