So, being too busy gets you two questions eh?

My advice for future co-ops is to not get too busy for a blog post, it gets you more work to do. (which sounds like backwards logic if you ask me)

In all seriousness, my advice is to have an open mind. SHM is full of opportunities, if you look in the right places. You can not have a close-minded attitude. You can't think "Just do whatever I'm asked" (Do what your asked, within reason, but try to take some initiative) or "No one else can be right, My Idea is always the best idea" (Listen to everyone else, you'd be surprised how much everyone knows, or how creative they can be) Being close-minded closes the doors on many opportunities open to those with an open mind.

You won't get very far in life if you can't see past your own nose.

Looking back, Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. Not for a close-minded reason of thinking I did everything perfectly. I've made mistakes, everyone does, I could have done better. But I've also impressed some people, got the job done, made some improvements. The experiences I've encountered here at SHM, good and bad, have all lead up to who I am today. If I hadn't of messed up, I wouldn't have improved. If I hadn't got the job done, I wouldn't feel good about myself. Everything that has happened here at SHM has proven it to be everything I could of asked for, and more. I wouldn't do anything to change that.

Save the silly one for last! One food for the rest of my life... ONE WORD: SPAGETTI
One of the most versatile foods of all time. It can be prepared in many different ways, with many different outcomes, I wouldnt become tired of it (I would know, I've eaten spagetti for weeks without growing even an inkling of a bit tired of it)

So there you have it. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Jordan is officially penalized for not answering the blog question from last week in a timely fashion. Jordan, you and only you will have to answer two questions this week (and you still have to answer last week's).

Question 1: Looking back on your co-op experience at SHM, what would you do differently?

Question 2: If you had to eat one item of food for the rest of your life, what would you choose and why?

Improvement is Critical

What is the one piece of advice you would give to an incoming co-op?

SHM grants their co-ops the opportunity to make an impact. And as a co-op, you feel appreciated and capable of completing tasks that are designated to you. Some companies do not utilize their co-ops to their full potential and push them to succeed during their 6 months as a full-time employee. SHM does, and they do it well. If you are willing to put in the work, you will be assigned meaningful projects that really help with daily operations of the company and help make SHM the great brand that it is today.

That being said, the advice I would give to the incoming co-ops is to make the best of your opportunities and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Working in a professional environment is not always an easy adjustment, and at sometimes can be intimidating. SHM does everything within its power to make sure you have a smooth transition. However, the only way to truly accommodate yourself is to be confident in your abilities and embrace every project you do (own your work). Every project you complete, know that you have done something significant and you have improved in some way. Improvement is critical. Strive to get better on each task that you do, so that next time a similar assignment approaches you will be assertive.

All's well that ends well.

My advice to the incoming co-ops is simple -- don't have expectations and don't place limits on yourself. You may start your time here knowing what it is you want to experience, or not, but it's important not to let your initial desires overshadow the amazing potential there is to just learn. Every step of the way you're given opportunities to vocalize your thoughts and interests, because the people here really want you to enjoy the work you're doing in addition to being challenged. You are given the opportunity to pursue as much responsobility as you would like and no one will judge you for speaking up if you feel overwhelmed. Do things you didn't think you'd have an opportunity to try, take initiative, be friendly, laugh it off when you mess up (unless you really mess up). Things move quickly, so speak up if you're lost and give the most you've got to every opportunity that comes your way. At worst, you mess up, and you simply just try it again. No big deal.

Listen Up!

When you start here at SHM, you most likely won't have a great deal of knowledge of what SHM does or is about. That's expected! However, in order to do your best work, you need to know about SHM more in-depth to market the subject correctly. To combat this, I suggest to take every chance of free time you have at work to surf the SHM website. SHM does an amazing job of integrating the new co-ops into the workplace, but not every SHM program or project can be explained to the fullest the first week. Basically, if you take the initiative of doing a little research, you will reap in the rewards of good quality work.

New Co-ops

If I were to offer any advice to the incoming co-ops it would be to push yourself to work your hardest. That may not sound like a "fun" thing to tell someone especially with the word work involved but that has been one of the best decisions I have made here. Obviously everyone should push themselves to achieve their best but as a co-op/college student this is a huge advantage. By pushing yourself here at SHM you build a reputation as a hard worker and that is something that at some point will be noticed. This was the same advice I was given from previous co-ops because SHM is so flexible with how hard you need to push yourself. There will always be work to get done and staying ahead of the game opens opportunities for you to work on a project that may change the way you see marketing. If you push yourself to explore all the aspects of marketing sooner or later your work ethic will pay off and this is where the "real world experience" of a co-op comes into play. All in all my best advice is to push yourself because it will pay off when you least expect it.

One piece of Advice...

The biggest piece of advice I would give to a future Co-op is don't be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is beyond important because silly mistakes are made and productive time is lost by not fully understanding how to do something the correct way. Doing this one simple thing has made my time here so much easier and it has helped to learn a lot more in the process!

Create opportunities

If I could give the new co-ops one piece of advice, I think it would be to make your own opportunities. If you come into the job wanting to accomplish something, do everything you can to create opportunities that set you up to reach your goal by the end of your time here. For example, being on-time and diligent to demonstrate your reliability; being efficient and thorough to demonstrate your work ethic; or being inquisitive and expressing your opinions to demonstrate enthusiasm in your position. Doing things like this can allow your supervisors to develop a better sense of your character, build trust, and lead them to ultimately give you more responsibilities which in turn opens more doors and creates more opportunities. There are so many ways to grow and accomplish things at SHM and really any other co-op you may have. You just have to remember to always create your own opportunities and you'll set yourself up for success.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to an incoming co-op?

Hint: These can be transferred to the OuReality site! I'm so smart.

Hmm...

I think I'm most proud of the recent increased responsobility I've been given within the membership department. I love it. I love being responsibile for things that really benefit the department on a greater leavel--such as the weekly membership report, the list management approval process, and having a large amount of involvement with our various retention efforts. I've learned more about SHM in the past month or so than I had in the previous four, and it's been eye opening on a number of levels. Of course, the added experience is great personally and professionally, but it's also given me a new perspective on exactly what our company works so hard to acheive.

Another great moment for me was the idea pitches we were each responsible for presenting during the marketing meeting. Of course, I was nervous and uncertain of how my presentation would be received--but I'm really just happy I got through it and received a lot of positive feedback. I'm not the best public speaker, and seeing as how I want to be in front of a camera for the rest of my life, it's something I'm actively trying to get better at. It was a needed challenge, a great opportunity, and thankfully a successful one as well.

QSR

I'm going to have to agree with Susan on this one. The work we've done with the QSRs has to be my biggest accomplishment here. This is definitely something that will go onto my resume as an accomplishment.

Except for the layout of the QSR, which was proposed by Michael and Brendon, the rest of the project was ours. We planned out the Project (Using MS Project, which I learned myself) and created the QSR project by ourselves. After rigorous planning and work, we got a working QSR which ended up being highly well received by the SHM business owners and higher ups.

I feel that this will make a long standing mark on SHM and that makes the accomplishment all the better. With the QSR expanding and providing a link between Marketing/IT/Project Management/Business Development and the rest of the Business owners, this project will be one to stay for many generations of co-ops.

Web Marketing

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of during your last five months at SHM? In other words, what is the resume bullet point that you will be most proud to brag about in future co-op interviews?

Throughout my time at SHM, not only have I enjoyed working here, but I have taken away so much knowledge about web marketing. Prior to working here, I had marketing experience in social media. What I didn’t have experience in, is web marketing specifically. So I was receptive to that position and anxious to learn the operations of web marketing. Specifically, working in Google Analytics and Yahoo! Web Analytics to analyze metrics and implement them into reports that help our team track the progress of our campaigns. Organizing reports and interpreting data for social media and web advertisements is definitely a bullet point I would like to include on my resumé. More importantly, the key to those bullet points is to emphasize the meaning and importance of those reports. Analyzing trends is the only way to improve your results each month. Realizing and correcting mistakes is imperative regarding improvement. Nonetheless, acquiring skills in web marketing has allowed me to expand my knowledge of marketing. Having done such a wide variety of projects at my last co-op, from writing and editing press-releases to preparing and hosting events, I can now appeal to larger market of occupations.

QSR Report

The accomplishment I am most proud of is being co-incharge of the QSR project with Jordan. We both get to see the reports from start to finish. The QSRs were first created during our term here as co-ops, so we got to create the project plan and precedures. Not everyone my age can say they headed up their own project. It is great how the QSRs establish cross departmental collaboration. So far, the reports have been a success. I feel these QSRs will strengthen ties between the Marketing/IT Department/Project Management/Business Development with the five business owners, making SHM to be even more successful as a whole. I can definitely say Jordan and I will leave a positive mark on how the business owners and our departments communicate once our time here is done! =]

Learning how to make a difference

I think my biggest accomplishment from working at SHM is the knowledge I have acquired over the past few months about quality initiatives in general. When I first applied for the job, I'll be honest, I really had no idea what "quality initiatives" even were. For those of you who might not know, quality initiatives are basically initatives developed to improve quality of patient care and reduce the risk of medical errors. Medical errors happen all the time but many of them can easily be prevented. Our quality department works to not only develop these initatives with teams of highly knowledgeable and experienced medical professionals from all over the country, but also develops programs that help institutions to implement these changes and track their progress. Since I have been here, I have learned so much that I really believe will help me to be a better nurse in the future. I've been able to learn the most about medication reconciliation, reducing the rate of readmissions, glycemic control (aka diabetes managment), and venous thromboembolisms (reducing chances of blood clots). All of which are absolutely things I will come across frequently working as a nurse. Being able to learn how mistakes are made and how to prevent these mistakes from happening will ultimately help me to provide patients with the highest quality of care and maybe even help me to save some lives.

A bit off topic -- but if you are interested, this video is the story behind a new project that our department will be a part of soon called Partnership for Patients and is an example of how awesome and important the stuff that we do is. If this is not something to brag about in future interviews, I don't know what is..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak_5X66V5Ms

Livezilla and other things

My biggest accomplishment these past five months would be without a doubt the work that I've done on LiveZilla. Since I am the person who spends the most time on LiveZilla I've took the responsibility of replying back to every unread message as well as answering every chat that comes my way. It's great to be able to help the attendees with their issues because you can tell that they really appreciate it !

My second biggest accomplishment isn't rooted in a task that I can brag about; I am proud of myself for always staying productive, being organized, polite, and I'm even beginning to multi-task more efficiently. These skills will definitely be more beneficial to me compared to something I can write on a resume; I can speak about the skills I've acquired at SHM during future interviews. I can also use these same skills in my everyday life and I will bring them back to school in the Spring and I will become a better student because of my experience.

Easy

This is a fairly easy one for me but there are two accomplishments that stood out to me the most at my time here. The first one has been the recent success of the HM12 Raffle that I created as a promo to draw more attendees to the meeting. I was involved in every single step from building the contents of the package to creating the visual media that advertised the raffle. We recently picked our winner and she was extremely excited which is always a good thing for our members. We also received around 1,000 page views to the Raffle site in two and a half weeks alone. This is definitely an annual strategy we can use to boost our registration numbers.

Other than the raffle my biggest accomplishment here was definitely my proposal for dual monitors. I had the idea of implementing dual monitors as a way for the marketing department to increase it's productivity. First Scott, Susan and I created a presentation to pitch the original idea followed by a professional business proposal. We were able to achieve our goal and receive dual monitors for all of the MA's. I can easily say that having multiple screens absolutely increases the overall productivity throughout my day. Considering that the dual monitors will create a ROI and continue to create a more productive work day, the dual monitors were my biggest accomplishment at SHM.

Sorry everyone - I went on a blogging hiatus. BUT I AM BACK. Not that you missed me.

This weeks' question (to be answered by 2/17):

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of during your last five months at SHM? In other words, what is the resume bullet point that you will be most proud to brag about in future co-op interviews?