IT intern discovers new corporate career option

An internship with PPL Electric Utilities opened the eyes of Bloomsburg University information and technology management senior to alternate career opportunities and helped to prepare her for the semester ahead.

For Laura Bruaw, summer mornings kicked off at sunrise at PPL in their IT department helping users with technical issues they experienced with Office 365. Throughout the day, she was responsible for monitoring emails, calls, a Teams site where users can report issues and met with the Office 365 team to receive updates on the status of upgrading users from Office 2010 to Office 365.

In addition to assisting with technical developments, Bruaw underwent professional development.

“I feel like I grew so much professionally over the course of this internship, which will definitely help me in the future,” she said. “At first, I was uncomfortable in the corporate environment, but I now feel as though I am more confident, especially in my business communication skills which will be helpful no matter where I go from here.”

During the upcoming semester, courses such as Business Communication and Report Writing will allow Bruaw to put her new skills to the test.

“I definitely think my confidence and ability to communicate are my big takeaways from this internship,” she said. “I feel like everything I learn from this point on in my classes will be a bit easier for me to process as I can apply it to a real scenario that I’ve experienced.”

At a company primarily recognized as an electrical provider, Bruaw experienced the business side of operations introducing her to new career possibilities as she enters into her senior year at BU.

“I’ve always been interested in becoming a database administrator or data analyst, but this summer really opened my eyes to the role of a business analyst and I think that’s definitely a career path I could see myself pursuing,” she said. “I knew I wanted to work in corporate IT, and this helped solidify that, but now I feel like I have even more clarity going into my senior year and preparing to job hunt in the spring.”