Introduction

When I first thought about applying for an internship, a lot of things went through my mind. Mostly things I had seen on television where the interns are just sent out on coffee runs and picking up lunch for the higher ups in the company for meetings. This internship stood out to me though. When I first heard back about the position at MFXchange I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to really learn on the job. Specifically, I was under the impression that I would be looking over documents and making corrections, looking into security practices, and meeting with people in the company and learning about their positions and what they do there.  

Overall, this internship looked really promising and exciting. Being able to get an inside look at what an actual cybersecurity position would be like is an amazing experience.

The Beginning of My Internship

At MFXchange (also known at QuessGTS), the company is oriented around mitigating cybersecurity risk for any company or organization that needs the assistance. While MFXchange deals mainly with insurance companies and keeping their data safe, others are more than welcome to use their services. When I first started with the company I was communicating mostly with the head of the human resources (HR) department, Lauren Ponce. She was very helpful when I needed her and she always welcomed questions before I began in my position. My initial orientation though was a little lacking. I had several training modules that I was required to complete as an onboarding precaution. They went over how to properly work from home, how to be safe online, and how to spot phishing emails more thoroughly. After that, it was a matter of getting me set up and ready to work from home. This turned out to be quite the tedious process, as it took about two entire weeks before I even had proper access to all of the systems I was going to need to perform my duties adequately. I initially tried working with the IT department to get myself set up, but was met with no response after a day or two. I ended up having to go to my boss and have him step in for someone to finally get back to me and get me appropriately set up. After this took place, I was more than a little wary of how the rest of my internship would transpire. Having to wait and not being listened to was more than a little discouraging to say the least. However, I have always felt that my boss has been there to back me up.

Management Environment

Throughout my whole internship with MFXchange, I had a few people that I needed to report to with my assignments. Two managers for when I was reviewing my SOPs, my boss for when he had other assignments for me to do, and HR for other questions I may have had. Everyone always welcomed questions and they were more than willing to walk me through the tasks at hand. During my time here at the company, I was supposed to have a meeting with one of my two managers to go over questions and concerns with the SOP review process. However, once daylight savings ended, I encountered a great difficulty in getting a meeting set up with said managers. I asked numerous times to see what time we were supposed to be meeting. I would get an answer, but he would not be there at the time of the meeting. This grew increasingly frustrating to the point where I believe we mutually agreed that we did not need to meet anymore. On the other hand, when I needed to do a project for my boss, he gave vague details on what really needed to be done and let me go on about my business. He never really had any hard deadlines that he could give me or requirements that he had for the assignments at hand. I would end up turning in what I thought he was looking for and he would give me feedback based on what I had done. The feedback itself was very beneficial to me I think, as it let me know what I was doing right and wrong. I should have asked more questions in hindsight so that I could have made absolute certain that I was doing the project correctly.  

Major Duties

In my position as an intern, I was mostly responsible for reviewing SOPs and doing a few projects here and there for my boss. When I was reviewing these documents, I looked them over for grammatical and spelling errors. I also made sure the information in them was up to date as well, such as documentation numbers, dates, and contributing individuals. When I was done reviewing the documents, I submitted them to the corresponding individuals that they needed to go to. They would then send them back to me and I would double check the document to make sure that it still looked good with the additional changes. I was also there to ensure that the people that needed to do additional revision to the documents did so in a timely manner. My managers wanted them done as quickly as possible and it was up to me to make sure that they were done in time. Then, I would take the document and put it in to a “reviewed” folder as instructed. As for my additional projects, this would depend on a case by case basis on what I needed to do. One project that I completed for my boss was a tabletop ransomware exercise that the company is now using to base their procedures off of now which I think is very exciting for me. The tabletop exercise was essentially an outline on what would need to happen in the unfortunate case of a ransomware incident on the company. For this, I did a few things. To start with, I outlined the steps that would need to be taken to get all of the individuals that need to be involved together. I also ended up helping to create a process that would help to ensure that the data of customers and the company would be protected. After that, I included an example of how something like a ransomware incident could occur and how the step would be used to contain the threat. Once the exercise was reviewed, we actually held an exercise with all of the higher ups that would actually be involved if the incident were to occur. This way, I got to see a behind the scenes peek at what would really happen in a case like that. My other main project that I did was conduct research for a presentation that my boss was going to give. It had to do with current cybersecurity events and threats and how that effects insurance companies. Each of my duties was beneficial for the company as they all had their own certain perks to them. When I reviewed the SOPs, I ensured that they were professional looking and made sense to someone that would be looking at them for the first time. The tabletop exercise was necessary because I do not think there was adequate preparations in place beforehand in case an event was to occur. Since I put that exercise together, there is now precautionary measures in place to ensure that the process to contain a potential threat will go smoother than if one was not there at all. Also, the presentation was necessary to the business because it showed potential customers why they need someone like MFXchange there to help dissuade potential attackers from hitting their companies with an attack. This is beneficial because the more customers the business has, the more exposure. With additional exposure to the company, there are more opportunities to be had for people like me that want to work for them.

Specific Use of Skills

My position did not require any particularly specific skills for one to be successful there. Mostly just a good understanding with Word documents and PowerPoints and editing them, as well as being able to conduct research and communicate well with others. My research skills really saved me when I was given my two big projects. With the tabletop exercise, I had to research NIST frameworks and how to apply that to the exercise. I also had to research what an actual exercise like this would look like to ensure that I was putting it together correctly. Being able to take the information that I was finding and applying it to what I was tasked to was quite a challenge all in all. As this was new territory for me, I was not completely sure what I was doing most of the time. Talking to new people too made this more difficult honestly. Since I wanted to make a good first impression, I did not want to spam them with a ton of questions and somehow make my boss think that I was not as smart as he thought I was when he hired me. So making sure that my speaking skills and my ability to figure things out on my own were crucial. My research skills that I have worked so hard on over the years really helped me in these real life situations. Some people think that you never use what they taught you in school, but I beg to differ.   

ODU Preparation for My Internship

During my time here at ODU, I have learned quite a bit. With that being said, I never thought I would be able to apply what I had learned as much as I do. Taking interdisciplinary concepts and merging them into my everyday work life has become common practice. For the most part, I have have basically just applied my research and writing skills to big projects that I have been assigned as mentioned previously. The programs here at Old Dominion University are very thorough in what is being taught. When I first started school, I had to take several English/writing intensive courses just for my general education requirements. I am very glad that I had to take those now since most of the work I have been doing is writing based. I made a few connections between what I learned in school and the knowledge I used during my internship. What stuck out the most was my ability to conduct thorough research in a wide variety of topics. This skill has been greatly beneficial to me as it helps me learn more on my own and allows for me to put together thoughtful pieces of work when asked or assigned. This just proved to reinforce the skills that I was beginning to take for granted. Along the way, there have been several experiences that I have been through that helped to reveal old concepts that I had forgotten about. For instance, my communications skills with others. In my position as an intern, I had to get very comfortable with being able to speak with others and getting my points across the first time I mentioned them. In this fast paced environment, there really was no room for error or miscommunication. I think it is a good thing that this happened now while I am still just an intern instead of if/when I get hired on as an employee. This way, I know exactly what kind of workplace environment I will be working with on a daily basis. However, with that being said, there are some skills that I wish that I had encountered in school before now as well. Recently, I was assigned to work with some security specialists within the company to go over some cybersecurity programs, Cylance and Tenable. I wish I had had some more experience with programs like these before going in to the training session blind. Having a bit of background knowledge on the subject beforehand would have been great, so that these concepts would not have come as such a culture shock to me as they did. I do appreciate the learning on the job aspect of this internship though. It lets me know that they are not expecting me to be an expert in these areas when I come on to the job. 

Outcome Objectives: Fulfilled or Unfulfilled?

When I first came in as an intern, I really did not know what to expect out of the experience. Everything I had ever seen on television about internships or interns in general was all about the person being sent on coffee runs or taking lunch orders. But thankfully that is not the case at all. I had a few objectives that I wanted to achieve while in this position. The first one being that I would be able to look over actual cybersecurity practices and guidelines that are in place within a company. As mentioned previously, most of my major duties at MFXchange were looking over SOPs and making sure that they looked professional and had no mistakes in them. Having the opportunity to look in to what is actually required of cybersecurity professionals was really enlightening, as it allowed me to get a peek behind the curtain so to speak. Actually seeing what is done on the job lets me go over in my head whether or not a specific job is right for me. Seeing as I looked over documents for all departments within the company, I got small glimpses in to what they all did and what was required of them. Some were more enticing than others. The second objective I wanted to achieve was looking into security practices. This really did not come to fruition until the very end of my internship. Even when it did come, I only got one days worth of experience with these practices. I sat down with two security specialists and they went over a couple of programs with me for about an hour and that was that. I did not get a whole lot of exposure to the technical side of things at MFXchange, but they more than made up for that with my responsibilities in regards to the compliance aspect of the job. My third and final objective was to be able to meet new people and see how they liked their jobs and what they did everyday. This was really insightful and is what I valued the most out of my internship. Being able to see, meet, and speak with people in numerous different positions gave me a lot of insight into what I maybe would want to do in the future after I get my degree and hopefully get offered a position. I got to ask them questions about what they did and how they liked their positions. Some were more honest than others if I had to wager a guess. But whatever the case may be with the individual and how they enjoy their job, I enjoyed being able to sit with them and seeing firsthand what a cybersecurity specialist did on the daily.  

Discouraging Aspects of My Internship

With all of the good aspects of my internship, there were definitely some discouraging ones as well. The biggest one being the fact that I had to wait about two weeks before getting proper access to the systems I would need to perform my duties effectively, as well as me having to get my boss involved in helping me get said access. I personally think that I should not have had to go above them to get someone to listen to me just so that I could do my job the way I was supposed to. I think that that was really unprofessional of them. I also understand that I am just an intern and I am not the most important person, but I still deserve to be listened to and have my needs met. The second discouraging aspect was the difficulty setting up. Meetings with my manager after daylight savings ended. He is located in India, and, to my knowledge, they do not observe this there and there is no time changes like there are here in the United States. I asked numerous times on how we could come together and have these meetings to go over my progress with reviewing the SOPs. I would get a response saying what time and day we would be meeting, but he would never be there when I showed up online for the meeting. After a while, I think we both got frustrated with each other and decided that the meetings were no longer necessary. I think that the meetings were a little tedious anyways, seeing as I was just reviewing some documents and moving them to a “reviewed” folder. However, I wanted to make a good impression and did as I was told. I feel like this may come back on me somehow even though I did try my best to have these meetings with my manager. The last discouraging aspect of my internship was the overall lack of instruction on when I needed to complete a project. My boss would give me a general idea of what needed to be done for an assignment, but not any hard information or deadline. It was really up to me to figure out what needed to be done when it was asked. Sure, he did give me feedback and would ask for me to include things after I had turned it in. I feel that if I had had the appropriate information to start with though, that there would be less back and forth between us and the final products would have been more polished to start with. Even with these discouraging aspects, there were still additional challenges that I had to power through.  

Challenging Aspects of My Internship

There were definitely some challenging aspects of this internship as well as discouraging ones. For example, I had to communicate with and stay on top of other people within the company to make sure that the documents that I was editing were up to date and appropriately reviewed in a timely manner. At the beginning of my internship, I just submitted the documents that I reviewed to my manager and I assume that he did that part for me as I was unsure of who to contact after I was done and which department they needed to go to. But one day they just suddenly told me that that was my job now and that I had to stay on top of these people to make sure that these documents were done. It was a real challenge in the beginning to get people to listen to me when I asked where the documents were, but I understand that I suppose. I am just an intern and I am asking them to complete an assignment for me, why would they listen? I really disliked how they sprung this new responsibility on me and expected me to get people to listen to me on these matters. But again, I just did what I was told so that I could make a good first impression on the company. I get that they wanted me to be able to get to know people and what they did and where things went, but I feel like that should have been assigned to me at first rather than simply expected of me three quarters of the way through my internship. Maybe they just wanted me to get used to the document revision process before I went in and started asking people to finish reviewing things once I was done with them. Another challenge I had to work through was working with other people. At my old job, I was used to doing my own thing pretty much and that was what I grew accustomed to. However, when I was assigned to do that presentation for my boss and his associate, I had learned that the associate had changed pretty much everything about the presentation that I had put hours of effort in to. It did not look the same way as I left it and he even removed the sources that I had put in. With all of that being said, I just put the sources back in like I was asked and left it alone. I did not want to ruffle any feathers and I wanted to make sure that I was just doing as I was told.

Recommendations for Future Interns

With all of that being said, I have a few recommendations for future interns at MFXchange. First of all, they need to be organized. Without adequate organizational skills, they will not be able to meet their deadlines for projects or assignments. Being organized will also help the future intern to keep up with school too. I am currently a full time student as well as an intern and keeping myself organized is a crucial part of how I can function properly on a daily basis. Without it, I would not know what needs to get done when and what needs to take priority over other things. In hindsight, I would have taken a lighter course load if I knew how intense the internship was going to be when I first started there. Another thing they need to know is that they need to have a sense of discipline since this internship is entirely remote. Working from home is a lot different than working in an office. There is no one there to keep you accountable expect yourself, and if you cannot keep up with your work load that will spell trouble later down the road. Another recommendation I would make would be to make sure that you have good communication skills. Again, since this position is entirely remote, one needs to make sure that they can effectively communicate with their coworkers when they do need to. Brush up on your research skills as well. This will help you when you are assigned a research project that needs to be done quickly. Finally, I think any future intern here should be confident I their work. When I came in, I was really quite nervous with everything that I did for fear that I would mess up and get fired. But now that I have a better understanding of what I am expected to do, I can do so with confidence. Being confident in your work shows that you believe in what you are doing and have a drive to do more, and I think that is a big thing that future employers are looking for.

Conclusion

I learned a lot while in my internship, more than I thought I was going to. More so about myself than anything else. My main takeaway from my internship experience is that no one is going to look out for you more than yourself. I always needed to make sure that I was taken care of and doing my job, because no one else was going to stay on me to do it. Also, that organization is key. As mentioned previously, I would be in quite the mess if I did not write out my schedule with what school assignments need to be done as well as what work assignments are coming due too. My boss has talked with me about potentially renewing my internship for next semester, and I think I am going to take him up on that offer just so I can get more working experience on my resume. If I do this, this will greatly impact the rest of my time here at ODU. Hopefully, I just have one more semester and I can graduate in May of 2024. I know that I will be busy all the time like I am now, and I think I am okay with that. I will take these experiences and learn from them as much as I can. This internship has really opened my eyes when it comes to how the professional world really works. I got to sit in on meetings and talk with people in the industry so that really broadened my horizons on what I potentially want to pursue later in my life one I have graduated. Considering that I mostly dealt with the compliance aspect of cybersecurity during my employment, I think that that is where I want to stay on my career path. There is something about knowing all of the inner workings of the company that you work for that is very fascinating. All in all, I think that my internship was not the greatest, but definitely not as bad as it could have possibly been. I will value these experiences when planning my future and take everything that I have learned in to consideration when applying for jobs and classes. I think that everyone should participate in an internship program if they are able to do so. Everyone will learn so much more while on the job and become accustomed to what an actual work day would look like. I look forward to what the future may hold for me.