Article From Intern to Full-time Teammate: An Interview With Emily Pencek
By Laila Hachem / 19 Oct 2023 / Topics: Culture & careers
Hear Emily’s account of her time in Insight’s 360 Intern Program and why she chose to start her career at Insight.
Emily began her journey at Insight as an IT Applications Intern, then she stayed on in her role after the summer program ended. After a few months, she was migrated over to the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) team where she still works as a developer. Emily says coding and app development has her heart. Emily loves learning new processes and applications to expand her skill set.
Emily was raised in Arizona, and she recently moved across the country to Charlotte, North Carolina, with nothing but her closet. Emily enjoys spending time on outdoor adventures or crafting at home. Emily works remotely with two lazy coworkers (her cats who lounge and sunbathe as she works).
What did you think you would do as a career after college, and what do you actually do?
After college I planned on going into computer science in general; there’s so much you can do. I didn’t have a specific job in mind. I interned at Insight for the last few years of me being in college after the 360 Summer Internship Program. I really enjoyed interning at Insight so that’s why I stayed on.
My team writes automation. Our latest project was streamlining a tool that can take in a lot of files and send them through the processes. This allowed our sales team to avoid manually inputting sales orders. We automate processes for a bunch of internal teams, so we get to work with a lot of different people.
How was your journey through Insight from an intern to now?
I interned when Covid-19 first hit in June 2020. Most of my friends’ internships were canceled, but Insight switched the program to remote. This was actually the first time Insight had remote offerings for its 360 Internship Program. During the program, I collected data and would generate a report so my team could analyze the data.
After my summer internship, I was offered a position to continue working on reports. After a few months, I was moved over to the RPA team, my team now. RPA is Robotic Process Automation; it’s software that automates digital tasks. It’s come full circle, since I’m working on the backend of the data reports I collected. Our team grew to be the innovation team.
Why Insight?
At first, I had a general overview of what Insight was. I had a few connections that told me about the 360 Internship Program. Over time I found Insight to be true to its values. I choose to stay in part due to Insight’s values of hunger, heart and harmony. It’s good working at a company that’s true to its word.
What initially attracted you to the Insight 360 Internship Program?
Computer science internships are extremely hard to get into, so I was open to any internship offers I received. I really liked that the internship was local. I was familiar with the company; my dad has worked with people from Insight in the past. I also liked that the program prepared you for the corporate world even amid the Covid chaos. We had workshops, learned how to talk to people and transition from college to career.
“I also liked that the program prepared you for the corporate world even amid the Covid chaos. We had workshops, learned how to talk to people and transitioned from college to career.”
What’s the coolest or most rewarding project you’ve worked on at Insight?
I am lucky to be a part of the AI and ChatGPT work that’s happening. It’s huge in the IT space and working with it has been very exciting. There are so many cool things coming out with AI — the things people are working on are revolutionary.
I enjoy that I get to work closely with everyone on my team. I also love that we can collaborate with tons of people within our organization. Our sales order entry project is the most rewarding project I have worked on, which I mentioned earlier. The bot we used for automation was running on a very low coding program, so we rewrote it completely in the backend process. It was really fun because we were reading and then you would have to translate the code to make the new program work. It was a very fun puzzle. It’s crazy to see the improvements. Before it would take hours to go through these huge files, but now it takes only a couple minutes. Shout out to my team. It’s been cool watching it come to life.
What are the characteristics of a person who would thrive at Insight?
Someone who wants to learn. You need a strong curiosity; it will help you grow. Even if you don’t completely gauge everything you’re learning, you’ll figure it out along the way. Try to do things in your own unique way that works for you. It’s cliché, but work smarter, not harder.
Maybe a person who is a bit social. You don’t need to go to happy hour with your coworkers, that’s not what I mean, but building a relationship with your team is important. You need to feel comfortable with the people you work with since so much of your work is interconnected.
“You need a strong curiosity; it will help you grow. Even if you don’t completely gauge everything you’re learning, you’ll figure it out along the way.”
What advice would you give to someone early in their career?
Ask questions. Even if you ask and they don’t know the answer, you both have the opportunity to learn. Everyone is new at one point or another, so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there to learn something. Also, get used to answering questions. Make yourself uncomfortable and step out of the box. You need to be uncomfortable for a bit to learn. I don’t think you will ever regret going for it, but can you live with the latter?
What is your favorite thing about working at Insight?
Honestly, my favorite thing about Insight is flexibility. I have an extremely good work-life balance. I also like that we have remote positions; that’s how I’m able to work from across the country.
Insight is about encouraging teammates and clients to ‘be ambitious.’ What’s your next ambition?
My newest ambition has been cutting down on screen time. My phone is a horrible, horrible time-wasting addiction. I have been cutting down on this by spending my time crocheting and exercising. Exercising daily has completely changed my outlook on life, and it has pulled me out of some tough spots. I encourage everyone to do some sort of exercise daily; it will truly change how you feel.
Professionally, I always enjoy balancing a whole bunch of things. I want to get a piece of the AI right now. AI is so interesting.
Fuel your ambition. See all open roles at Insight.
Laila Hachem
Summer Marketing Content Intern 2023, Insight
