As my time on the Corporate Information Security (CIS) Team at Thermo Fisher Scientific comes to an end, I am challenged with summing up my 12-week internship experience in a short blog post. Jumping into a new workforce that I was unfamiliar with was a very nerve wracking yet exciting decision for me. That decision has proven to be worth the leap of faith and has left me with guidance and preparedness for my professional career.

As a communication studies major, joining a workforce that consisted of technical security engineers, architects, and security operations analysts, I did not know what roles and projects to expect. As a Content and Creative Intern on the Cyber Security Resilience and Culture team, my day to day duties were diverse. I assisted in planning awareness campaigns, updated branding materials, developed, edited, and reviewed communication materials, established phishing simulation campaigns, developed standard operating processes, packaged promotional tier items, and presented to senior leaders at a town hall. My favorite project I had the opportunity to work on this summer was a communications plan to roll out an enterprise password manager to over 70,000 employees at Thermo Fisher. The project had serval moving parts and allowed me to see a project full scope. With this project I also had the ability to support my team’s larger security-minded goals and to work with several other teams to support their goals, which developed my collaboration skills and showed me the bigger picture behind corporate communications.

I developed professionally a lot over the course of my internship. One of my biggest lessons learned throughout my internship was to make the most out of every task, project meeting, everything. My goal this summer was to absorb any and every opportunity, whether it be through my team or another. I attended Lunch and Learns about other services and teams within CIS, began setting up one-on-one meetings with leadership members of other teams, and offered to help on any projects, big or small. Allowing myself to truly take as much cybersecurity culture away from this internship helped me not only make connections, but also allowed me to find my professional self and improve my project efforts. After a few weeks on the team, I felt confident enough to lead meetings, propose suggestions and new ideas, identify areas of improvement, and expand small projects into important, successful efforts, all of which allowed me to better support the CIS team.

I am very grateful that I look a leap outside my comfort zone, accepted this experience and the joined the CIS team at Thermo Fisher this summer. If you have even slightly thought about applying for an internship, I advise you to apply.  Even if the position seems like a reach, there is no better way to learn than firsthand from professionals who want to teach you and see you help the world become a better place!

Teresa is a Communications Major graduating in Fall 2020 from Lovettsville, VA.  This summer she is a Marketing Design – Cybersecurity Awareness Intern at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Fredrick, MD, which she found on LinkedIn and Indeed.

“I’ve learned that Thermo Fisher has 4 different offices in Fredrick, MD! They have a bike program allowing employees to check out bikes and ride them from building to building!” 

ThermoFisher Scientific, Marketing Design Intern