August, Post #1

This week I conducted my first exit interview! Well, not exactly, Tennielle helped me out and went through the first half, then I finished up with some questions she and I developed. The purpose of these interviews is to find ways to improve the co-op/internships at NOVA.

I was not as nervous for this interview, because it was with only one student. Next week I will be meeting with four of them. I am a little nervous, mostly about the thought of not knowing the answers to all the questions that I know they will ask. I am confident that I will get my name right though.

One thing that really surprised me about HR, and I believe I mentioned this before, is how structured everything is. Everything is scheduled, and it all has to be done on time, or else it throws off the next step in the process. One responsibility I had was to check how much flex-time the exiting co-op students had left. Flex-time is time earned, which employees use to take days off. If someone does not use all their flex day, they will have them paid out.

This process can become complicated because it all has to be entered in the database in advance of certain dates, and sometimes the employee does not know if they will take time off or not.

The small skills are still improving to. I have sat down on a few more interviews, so I now know how to do introduction, and how not to do an introduction.

My excel skills and typing skills are improving to. I can now type a little bit below the average speed, which is an improvement from typing five words per minute, yes, it was that slow.