I am interning at the Finance Department of the City of Tacoma. I obtained this position through the school’s Institution-to-Institution Pair Internship program. The finance internship opportunity is a joint effort between the City of Tacoma and the University of WA, Tacoma. The purpose of this finance internship is for students to gain an understanding of how organizations analyze needs for finance functions and how programs and processes are implemented. My internship is a part-time, weekly commitment that lasts from November to June. I received an email address and personal company laptop that I take with me as I travel from division to division throughout the school year. During my internship with the City, I have encountered
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This was my first encounter with the SAP software program system so each task was brand new to me, from pulling information up on specific organizations and individuals (known as business partners in the system) to adjusting the contract accounts of business partners to reflect their registration status with the City. For this project, attention to detail was extremely important because it was harder to make corrections once information had been submitted to the system than it was to ensure that the information had been entered correctly to begin with. I remember my eyes got pretty sore during those times because I was staring at the computer so much trying to make sure I submitted the right information. A few weeks into the project, I was granted full autonomy over my portion of the project. I was even able to create business partners in SAP for a short while until we realized that this was a protected union role. I stopped as soon as we found out and started making recommendations for action instead of creating the business partners …show more content…
It was interesting to find out that the City had many different collective bargaining units for its employees based on department and function. I also learned that the Cost-of-Living Adjustment increases for protected workers are about 1% higher than for normal employees. This was surprising to me. I had thought Cost-of-Living Adjustment increases would be equal across the board so I asked one of my coworkers in the Budget Division why the increases were different. He explained
This was my first encounter with the SAP software program system so each task was brand new to me, from pulling information up on specific organizations and individuals (known as business partners in the system) to adjusting the contract accounts of business partners to reflect their registration status with the City. For this project, attention to detail was extremely important because it was harder to make corrections once information had been submitted to the system than it was to ensure that the information had been entered correctly to begin with. I remember my eyes got pretty sore during those times because I was staring at the computer so much trying to make sure I submitted the right information. A few weeks into the project, I was granted full autonomy over my portion of the project. I was even able to create business partners in SAP for a short while until we realized that this was a protected union role. I stopped as soon as we found out and started making recommendations for action instead of creating the business partners …show more content…
It was interesting to find out that the City had many different collective bargaining units for its employees based on department and function. I also learned that the Cost-of-Living Adjustment increases for protected workers are about 1% higher than for normal employees. This was surprising to me. I had thought Cost-of-Living Adjustment increases would be equal across the board so I asked one of my coworkers in the Budget Division why the increases were different. He explained