School of Information Sciences

Internship Spotlight: Spectrum

Joe Medley

BSIS student Joe Medley discusses his internship at Spectrum. In addition to developing technical skills, he gained critical thinking skills by deriving business conclusions from large sources of data.

Where did you intern, and what was your role?

I interned at Spectrum last summer as a business intelligence analyst intern in their Customer Operations department. I worked as the analyst on a team of about 5-7 developers, where we would develop dashboard and reports for performing process analytics on the customer service process.

How did you find out about the internship?

I found out about the internship through a LinkedIn post in the spring of 2022.

What new skills did you acquire?

I gained technical skills in SQL, Excel, relational database management, and Teradata. These were the tools I was working with every day on the job, so I became quite familiar with them. Being an analyst, I also gained critical thinking skills when deriving business conclusions from large sources of data. Lastly, I strengthened my communication skills through constant collaboration with my team and other employees, and I gained general industry knowledge in the telecommunications industry.

What did you like best about working at the company?

The thing I liked most about working at the company was networking with other interns. I would have lunch with other interns from different schools on most days, and we would discuss our day-to-day tasks and career aspirations. It was fun getting different perspectives on the company and other careers.

What would you advise current students who are interested in an internship opportunity?

When looking for an internship, it makes the process significantly easier if you know somebody who can vouch for you. If you can find someone who works at the company, even a friend of a friend, this could be the "in" that gets you an interview and potentially a job.

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School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Fax: (217) 244-3302

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

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