Work Summary

Hello, my name is Jose and I did my internship at State Farm Insurance where the job I did was office work. The office work consisted of filing, processing payments, taking phone calls, doing bank deposit, faxing document and other office work. State Farm is an insurance company that provides a variety of insurance such as life, fire, auto, and they also have a bank service which gives very good interest rate on CD and other type of savings.

The annual sales for a State Farm agent vary on the number of members they have and what insurance they have as well, such as if clients have multiple coverage and what type of coverage they are paying. It varies too because since they are an agent they get commission depending on how much revenue they make from their clients. The agent I intern with had a few employees and they were doing work that five people would be doing. So sometimes it got a little hard. For example when it was just me and my supervisor it was sometime difficult on some days but it was a great experience to better my skill in multitasking and being calm and efficient.

My position at the office was basically a secretary; processing paper work, answering calls, handling client, filing, and typing up reports. My work objectives were to get a better understanding of the business world and learning the routines that would get me there. Also see how to manage a business and the tasks. My supervisor, Cymantha Erickson (Manager), was a very kind, wonderful, and helpful person who showed me the basic things I needed to know. As I learned the basics she thought me more advanced roles and duties I needed to do.

Tasks that were assigned to me were to keep the file organized and to file the paper into the right place for easy access, which very important. Another job was to help out when my co-workers were with other clients. I helped in taking payments or by answering calls and taking messages. Other things I did were process claims and bank deposits, enter information into Quicken, and made sure amounts where equal and then finalize and print a receipt for every transaction to keep record.

The tasks I perform were in line with NTHS expectations because the environment was the same such as dressing professionally. Having to communicate with a lot to people used oral communication, such example would be when I answer the phone or make phone calls. With technology literacy would be using Microsoft Word and Outlook as well as Quicken. I also learned how to use their client information database (Necho and ABS) to be able to process payments and other important things.

Technology that was new to me were program such as ABS which is a program which is web-based that access client information and it’s a way to access their account and process payments. Another was Necho which is the same as ABS but not as advance and easy to use but Necho has more keys and is able to do more functions. Each was use according to payment type such as monthly and bi-annually I would use ABS and those which didn’t have a time period where on Necho. Quicken, a program to process tax was a new program I used even though I heard a lot about it and it did take some time to learn and be able to do the job quickly and correctly.

The job and responsibility I had was at first a little stressful for expecting too much but it was sure difficult. You had to be multitask since when you are doing something like handling one client and the phone rings, and you have to be able to handle both and be quick, the first day was stressful because I was hammered down by so many jobs like processing claims, filing, bank deposit, taking calls, process payments, etc .The initiatives I used where being calm, using fast notes and putting into action to stay in my mind longer. I would recommend this internship to people who like to learn about insurance, business, and office workplace. The intern did some changing in my career choice because I was planning on being a chef, or a small business administrator of some sort. My plan changed and I would like to study more in the mechanical field such as a mechanical technician or an engineer for some big corporation innovating better engines. Overall the learning experience I went through was something I appreciate going through. Something that will help me in choosing a career that interest me and improving my skills