Name: Jae

Year: Junior

Major: Economics

CFS Concentration: Business Field Studies

I am currently interning at the Groupon Chicago office, located in the same building that the company was founded with its 10 members. A company that once took up a portion of a 3rd floor storage house now occupies three floors of the building with over 3,600 employees. As a 6 year old company that has gone through unprecedented growth, Groupon Chicago displays an office geography that combines creative humor and efficiency for the quick-paced nature of its work.

My core duty as a Talent Development intern involve heavy data analysis of YEPR (Year-End Performance Reviews) of Q4 2014. Employee performance at Groupon is assessed in two methods and my duty is to design pivot tables that display important parameters or gaps between the two statistics. Through various research, I am also collecting information about how other firms employ performance evaluations and utilize leadership competencies. In close cooperation with HR Information Systems team, I also handle various visualization of data that is useful for presentations.

One of the most important aspects of my experience at Groupon is that the program consistently hears out your needs and desired focus of work, and provides an open atmosphere that enables such exploration. The open culture of the workplace allows even interns to freely network, and work in liaison with various departments just by a single Google calendar invite. Individual desks scattered throughout the three floors of the building are separated into 5 areas of different color themes. Each color represents the employee’s department, and allows for workers to easily maneuver through a floor packed with over 600 employees without any troubles in locating a department. Large pickets that specify the employees’ names and their positions are put up on their desks so that one does not have to awkwardly walk into a room and ask for an employee. Intersectional duties are allowed and encouraged among employees, and as one HR Operations Representative has mentioned, such atmosphere may explain higher internal mobility rate both across and within departments, compared to that of other firms. Numerous conference rooms that can be used freely also attest to the company’s policy of encouraging employees’ expansion of perspectives and creating an environment that fosters openness, interaction, and efficient cooperation.

As for my case, I have been introduced to the Customer Service team in their market research project, thanks to a recommendation from my HR supervisor who have noted my business background of consulting. I am currently actively engaged in the new initiative for the Customer Service department, and will be leading a presentation that involves 2 VPs from both Customer Service and Human Resources departments: a responsibility one wouldn’t normally expect at regular firm’s internship program. Such openness and opportunities to be involved in various duties are what I am enjoying the most from my experience here.

Overall, I am highly satisfied to be working at Groupon, with great people and resources. It is a workplace in which your voices are always heard, valued, and processed into a physical outcome. I have only a month left of my internship, and am very certain that 3 months here would turn out to be a very valuable experience in terms of my future business career.