Chiane Boom

Year in Review
University Honors Program – University of Cincinnati

The 2018-2019 school year may not be my official senior year, but I feel as
though this year has been like a senior year to me. The experiences I gained taught
me a lot about myself as a professional and as a leader. I spent most of this school
year taking the time to prepare myself for life after college, as if I graduated in
May. December 2019 is quickly approaching, and I wanted to feel as prepared as
possible. True professional and leadership experience is something I lacked.
Unlike my classmates, I never spent a semester or two on co-op and up to that
point, I never felt as though I held a leadership role that I felt taught me to do
things rather than paperwork. I went into fall 2018 with the mentality of change
determination to gain both of those experiences.
Fall 2018 was time I spent researching and setting myself up to achieve my
goal of gaining professional and leadership experience. I knew that I wanted to get
professional experience by being on co-op at least one semester. Since I had yet to
look for co-ops, I needed to update my resume and write a cover letter. After
completing some drafts, I submitted the two documents to a career coach for edits
and tips. Once I felt those were ready, I started looking by browsing HireUC to
find eligible co-ops/internships. This was a difficult process for me because I kept
running into job options that sounded interesting, but I did not feel qualified for
them. After a self-push, I applied for 10 co-ops, including ones I did not feel
qualified for. I soon realized that this process would require some patient waiting.
Thankfully, the career fair was approaching, and I was determined to make
this the first career fair I actually spoke to multiple companies of interest to me. At
previous career fairs, I walked in nervous and uncomfortable, as I also did this
year, and I would talk to one company then chicken out and leave. Unfortunately,
that did not set me up very well for this year. If there was one thing I took away
from this, it was to learn when the stakes are not high. I could have gone into the
day confident and having already perfected my elevator pitch from previous years,
but I had to spend the first 30 minutes of the career fair that was very important to
me going to companies I never heard of to get my jitters out. After talking to a few
companies, I began visiting the companies that I had previously researched.
Besides a few stutters on my part, those conversations went well. I was given
contact information and two interviews for the next day. As I walked out of the
Recreational Center Gymnasium, I felt very proud of myself despite the first 30
minutes of hiccups. It turned out that one of those hiccups did not go as bad as I
thought it did because I received an email the following day with an interview
offer!
 My quest for professional experience was not over. I had multiple interviews
within the next week, which was slightly unsettling since, at that point, I had never
been interviewed for a job that wasn’t at Texas Roadhouse. A combination of my
business professionalism class and sessions with my advisor and career coach
prepared me for interviews. Co-ops that I interviewed for took place during the
spring or summer semester.
The first interview took place a day after the career fair, also in the
Recreational Center, and was for a summer co-op. I spoke with two people and
was immediately surprised at how comfortable I felt talking with them. Their
values, dreams and stories were all similar to mine. One thing that still resonates
with me about this company is how much they want you to be the best version of
yourself and will give you all the opportunities you need to get you there. Both
interviewers spoke about how they spent years doing multiple jobs in the company
cross department to find their best fit. These words gave me some ease of mine
because one of my concerns is not knowing exactly what I want in a career. I felt
very welcome at this company, yet I was only speaking to two of its 80,000
associates worldwide.
Roughly a week after my interview, I was invited to a second round of
interviews held in the corporate office. The interview was 5 hours long and
consisted of a tour, a previous intern panel, lunch with management and 6 rounds
of interviews. It was a tiring day to say the least, but I entered confidently in my
UC red blazer and nailed those interviews. I think I felt so confident, one because I
wore my brand-new special red blazer and two because I told myself that I had
nothing to lose. That day of interviews was my chance to learn and become more
comfortable in a judged environment. Even if I didn’t get the job, I still would
benefit from the experience. I left the building and made my way home once again
feeling proud of myself for overcoming, quite frankly, myself.
My second interview occurred later that week off campus. While driving, I
listened to music to pump myself up and I walked in with the same positive
mentality that I had before my first interview. The interview went well. Since I was
in the office, I was able to see the building and their many bulletin and white
boards. This to me was the most interesting part of the interview because while I
waited for the multiple rounds of interviewers to enter the room, I was able to see
their current problems and thoughts on the boards. This was the first time I saw
concepts I learned in class in real life context. On the board a fishbone diagram
was drawn followed closely by a 5-Whys. Both of these problem-solving methods
were taught to me that semester.
A week later, I interviewed at a third company. Off campus, this interview
was just between me and my potential boss. It also went well. This interview only
lasted 25 minutes which was considerably shorter than all the other interviews I
had done. I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing, but I thought I did well, so
I went home and waited. It was nerving to wait. I really wanted a spring and a
summer internship so that I could graduate with some experience. I waited for
what felt like forever but eventually the calls and email began to come in. First, I
was offered an internship for the summer. I loved my interactions with the
company and was excited for the opportunity, so I accepted the internship. Later, I
was offered a spring internship. Yay! I was still waiting for the other company to
contact me, but they soon did. I was able to choose between my two spring options
and went with one company because they offered me a different experience than
the one, I would be having over the summer.
When January came around, I started my first internship at Bosch
Automotive Steering. I remember feeling very nervous. My boss walked my
around and introduced me to the other interns I would be working with that
semester. Eased into the company, the second week I was given some projects. My
favorite project I worked on was implementing an Operator Training Center for
new associates hired to work on the plant floor. What I found most interesting was
working on something from start to finish. I loved participating in building
something from scratch. It gave me the time to dive into the business and figure
out what was the most important then building training around it.
Other things that I experienced was the proof of the importance of
communication and showing your capabilities. I worked with one training
coordinator on the project. When she was out of office for the week, management
came to me and asked if I would be able to give a presentation to important visitors
about the project. They had the confidence in me to trust me with such an
important presentation. Had I not showed them that I was reliable beforehand, I
doubt they would have given me the chance to stand in front of such critical
business partners.
Another thing I loved about my time at this internship was how exposed I
was to many disciplines. In order to get my work done, I had to constantly
communicate with people from other departments and collaborated with them. This
gave me a chance to see what work other people were doing that weren’t related to
my field of study. Even though these areas are not my major, it was nice to know I
made a good decision picking this job for the chance to witness other things. I
wanted experience working in a different field to learn about different areas of
business and expand my horizon. I achieved the goal I set for myself before
starting the internship.
Ending the semester with a successful first co-op made me very happy. The
experience and knowledge I gained will help me now and in the future. I received
valuable feedback that I can grow from. On top of that, I think I made a positive
impact during my time there. I’m proud to say I was offered to return in the
summer, but I had to turn it down because I was committed to another internship
already.
I committed my summer to working at LBrands in Columbus. So far I am a
month and a half into the internship program and it is completely different from
my previous internship. Not in a good or bad way, just different. Rather than
working closely with other interns like I did, here I work next to supervisors and
management. It’s interesting because instead of having typical college
conversations with co-workers, my co-workers now talk about actual adult life
such as their children or redoing their deck. I also attend meetings at during this
internship where I mainly just did my work and went to a few meetings at my last
one.
I have learned different lessons at each internship so far which I think is
great. This summer, I witness how decisions are being made because I sit in the
room while the discussion is taking place. I also think I am seeing more of my
actual classroom studies showing themselves at this job which makes sense since it
actually is an operations-based internship. I love the people I work with and am
excited to see where the rest of this internship takes and teaches me.
Besides co-ops/internships, I wanted to apply for leadership positions in the
Greek community. I loved my experience as a recruitment guide last year and I
wanted to be involved in the recruitment process again. In the fall of 2018, I
applied to be the VP of Recruitment for the Panhellenic community. I prepared for
this interview more than I prepared for any of my internship interviews; I guess
that’s because I was already so passionate in the community I would be serving. To
gain information about the position, I reached out to the women who held it
previously. I asked her various questions about her experience. Her answers helped
me prepare for not only the interview but for the role if I had the chance to do
it…and thankfully I was given that chance. I was so excited receiving that
confirmation call the day after the interview and I knew I had a lot to look forward
to.
My time as the VP of Recruitment for Panhellenic has taught me many
things in a short amount of time. When I started the position, I had previous
leadership experience under my belt but nothing to this magnitude. I oversee a
community of over 1,200 women (and counting) with 11 sororities. The
recruitment process is a year-round job. While spring recruitment took place in
March, I was already planning for fall recruitment that happens in September. Our
primary recruitment is in the fall which means we have the most potential new
members meeting our sorority women during those two weeks in September. I am
estimating 650 UC women going through the primary recruitment process this fall.
Though it is very busy and has its challenges, I have loved the experience and have
learned so much about myself as a worker and a leader.
Three lessons stand out to me as I have hit my mid-way mark holding this
position. To no surprise, I have many areas for improvement. Within the first two
months of being VP of recruitment, I realized that I need to focus efforts into
improving my delegation, prediction and time dedication skills. I ran into
complications or misunderstandings because I did not identify these areas for
improvement until later than I would have liked. While it was easy to recognize my
weaknesses in some areas, it was difficult to notice others. Thankfully, with the
help of my peers and advisor, my awareness has improved, and I have become a
better leader because of it.
It was not my lack of trust in my peers but the need to have my eyes and
hands on everything that made sharing the workload difficult. The VP of
Recruitment role has five directors helping plan recruitment. Last year’s team and I
selected the five women who would support the process. I full believe that the
women who were selected will carry out any project given to them to the best of
their ability and I know they are very passionate about their work. I just like
control. I have always been one who wants to do everything that needs to be done.
The “why give someone else the work if I can do it myself” mentality. When I first
started the position, I was so passionate about doing my very best and making all
the positive changes I hoped to see that I did everything myself. I did not feel
overwhelmed and I enjoyed all the work, but it didn’t take long for one of the
directors to approach me about it. I didn’t even realize what I was doing. I was
completely doing everything I had hand selected her to do. She was so excited
about her position and I was taking away her ability to perform. She sat me down
very kindly and said that she wanted to address how she felt sooner rather than
later, and I am so grateful she did.
I had never had someone tell me that before. Usually its “Chiane here do this
for me” “Go ahead, you can do it” rather than “I feel like I am not being given the
opportunity to do my job.” In the moment and even now, I have never been upset
about that feedback. It has given me the opportunity to grow and a very much
respect her for speaking her truth. After multiple rounds of “I’m sorry” from both
parties, we were able to talk about it and come up with a plan on my involvement
in her projects. I am not the type of person who can sit back without checking in
until the finished product and she is very capable of doing things on her own. We
decided to brainstorm ideas on our own then come together and talk about ideas for
the project. She would then go off and do her work and I would check in
periodically to be of assistance and see if things were going in the direction that I
also like. Then at the end, we would review it together and make any last changes.
So far this has worked great and I hope it continues successfully. Delegation is
something that seems like it should be so easy. I literally have to do less work, but
it naturally was very difficult for me. This instance taught me how to develop
trusting and reliable relationship with others while working.
When over 1,800 people are involved, there’s a pretty good chance that
sometimes things won’t go as planned. So far, I haven’t run into any big setbacks
that I didn’t anticipate but there have been many small ones that I didn’t foresee. I
want to become better and anticipating responses and predicting potential problems
because I think that planning for those predicted setbacks makes dealing with them
so much easier. Some of the small examples that have happened so far is preparing
for certain questions when informing a group about an upcoming change. During
the semester, I held monthly meetings where all the recruitment leaders from each
chapter would get together. They often asked questions that I easily knew the
answer to but did not include in the initial presentation. Granted there is no way to
prepare for every question because there will be things that you don’t think about
but if you already know an answer and how it will affect the related party, include
that information originally. Once September comes around, I want to prevent any
delays as much as possible, so the team and I are trying to sit down and strategize
for as many bottlenecks as possible. I hope that predicting potential problems will
help the operation go smoother, and if it doesn’t, I hope that our planning will help
us overcome an obstacle we didn’t predict quicker.
I’ve always been fairly good at prioritizing my work and getting it done on
time. Granted, I procrastinate sometimes just like everyone, but it wasn’t until this
position that I realized how difficult it was to find time to get tasks done. In
January, when my time as VP of Recruitment began, I was also starting the full-
time internship at Bosch, continuing my music studies and working two other jobs.
I had never balanced as many responsibilities at time. Once the semester ended, I
went from the Bosch internship to the LBrands internship. I have never felt so
constantly tired. Working 7 days a week for money and every day after work I’d
volunteered my time for this position. Needless to say, Panhellenic responsibilities
unfortunately got pushed back more often than I’d like. It wasn’t until recently that
I realized a technique that worked well for me. Previously, I would return to my
apartment to get things done after work. Since I was so exhausted from my 5AM
or 6AM internship start times, I’d often fall asleep while working or just give up
entirely and turn in early for the day. I realized that working at home was not a
sustainable option. I was letting myself down. I expected so much more from
myself in this leadership role at this point. I was halfway through my term and
wasn’t accomplishing things as fast as I’d like.
 One day, I had a two-hour break between work shifts so I went to a local
coffee shop, refreshed myself with a beverage and did work on my computer. I was
so productive. I wasn’t tired since I was out and about in public rather than at home
being tempted by my bed. I wasn’t distracted by the desire to turn on the TV. It
was amazing. Since then, I have dedicated an hour or two every day to Panhellenic
work in a local coffee shop or restaurant. Conveniently, by doing this I have also
work towards a goal of mine while I’m in Columbus for the summer: to try a
bunch of local eateries. I love food! For me it’s just very hard to stay motivated
when I am so isolated from those that I am affecting. Going to a public place,
though it’s not full of people from the Panhellenic community, makes working
much easier and more productive. Dedicating a certain amount of sit-down time for
my work was just what I needed to start feeling fulfilled by and proud of my
efforts as VP of Recruitment.
Learning that I do not excel at these three things, delegation, prediction and
time dedication skills, has given me a whole new approach to my leadership style
and work ethic. I am proud of my improvements and excited to see what I can get
done while continuing to develop. September is fast approaching yet seems so far
away. I know the two weekends of recruitment will be nonstop, but I don’t think
I’ve been more excited for any other event I have worked on during my time at
UC. I hope that by the end of my term that I will feel a lot of pride in the work I
did for the community.
Even though graduation is not until December, I feel the sense of emotional
peace I have been searching for during my time at UC. The two professional
experiences and my volunteer position have taught me more lessons than I ever
could have imagined. I am so thankful for every second even if that second wasn’t
enjoyable because looking back, they all developed me in some way. Fear of the
unknown is something that has caused turmoil within me since I started college.
What major should I pursue? Will this be something I want to do after college? Am
I prepared to work in the “real world”? Will someone be confident enough in me to
hire me? What if I don’t know the information needed to do my job? Will I be
good enough to do my job? These are all questions that racked my brain. While
these questions still exist in my mind and I am unsure of where life will take me
after I walk across that stage, I am not nervous, scared, anxious, or full of doubt;
rather, I am confident in myself and my abilities to conquer anything that comes
my way.