Internship Experience: Ecolab | Nalco Water

How was your summer? Did you stay busy taking classes, completing an internship, or simply relaxing? While everyone’s summer may have been different, I want to share with you all what I did this summer during my internship and give some insight to others who may begin this journey as well. Throughout this blog, I will be providing tips to having a successful internship experience as well.

This summer, I had a 10-week marketing internship at Ecolab. Ecolab is a chemical company that can be found in all sorts of industries. From food and beverage, healthcare, life sciences, institutional, and even the industrial industry – through the Nalco Water subsidiary – Ecolab helps provide water, hygiene, and infection prevention to many businesses across the globe.

I learned about the company through an alumni friend and really loved what Ecolab was pushing for as a company and so I decided to look into applying for the summer internship.

Orientation and First Few Weeks

Prior to my start date, I met with my manager a few times to get comfortable and learn about the expectations of my project. On the first day, I started with a 3-hour long orientation where I learned what to expect during the internship, who are the other interns in the cohort, and safety rules the company has. Overall, it was a great way to calm the first day jitters and I was more confident in starting the day’s work.

Over the next few weeks, I took the time to get familiar with my project. I did this by networking with the main stakeholders of the project and the rest of the people in my division. As my internship was remote, I had to do a lot of emailing to get on people’s calendar. I really think I’m a master at scheduling meetings now because of it.

Tip 1 – Networking

As an intern, you only have a little time to get yourself known in the company, so it is very important to put yourself out there. One thing I always tried to do was look up who I would be talking to on LinkedIn. Here, I would look at their experience and come up with questions that would interest them and in return help myself in learning more about the company culture.

Last Few Weeks

My project entailed a global perspective, so I sometimes had to work late hours to meet with the stakeholders in other countries. This global engagement allowed me to learn what other countries were doing to achieve the same goal that we, in North America, were trying to achieve as well. Some of the perks of being an intern were the extra activities the company scheduled to learn more about the company and overall have a fun summer. I was also able to attend a summit at the Global Headquarters in St. Paul, MN. This was a great experience because I was able explore a city I had never been to, meet my intern cohort in person for the first time, and see if I would potentially want to be in St. Paul after graduation. This was definitely a great way to destress before my final presentation.

Tip 2 – Presenting

An important aspect to presenting is how well you can give a story. Present like the entire audience has no clue of what you worked on and make it as simple, but concise enough for them to understand. Practicing is the way to go to be at one’s best before the big day. Consider doing dry runs with the main stakeholders of the project to solidify the information you are presenting to limit any errors. And lastly, have fun presenting! It can be obvious to the audience that you are not confident in your presentation and ultimately this can be a bad impression of yourself to people who are considering you for a return offer.

Next Steps & Reflection

After I presented my final project, I debriefed with my manager and director and learned about my overall performance and my strengths that were noticed over the summer.

Tip 3 – Transparency

Talk with your manager to know the areas of self-growth and your current strengths.

After the last day of the internship, HR then takes about two weeks to send out the decision regarding employment. Now two weeks later, as I write this, I received my full time return offer as a marketing associate post-graduation.

Overall, I had an amazing experience. Both Ecolab and Nalco Water were able to provide a well thought out internship for me to grow and expand my knowledge in various areas. As a first-generation student and child of immigrants, I grew up not having the guidance many others might have that help them transition into the workforce easily, but I am grateful that this internship allowed me to smoothly assimilate to the journey after college.