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Silverline CRM: First Week on the Job in the Big City

May 20th, 2013
by Frederick Antoine.
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Friends,

By the end of today I will conclude my first week at Silverline CRM in New York, NY as a Consulting Intern. Silverline is a boutique Salesforce.com consulting firm that specializes in delivering custom business solutions by leveraging cloud computing systems. Silverline’s service offerings include end-to-end deployment of Salesforce.com’s SalesCloud and ServiceCloud applications, Force.com development services, integration with on premise and off premise applications and databases, data enrichment and migration services, and end user and administrator training. I interned for Silverline last summer as a Sales/Marketing/Management Intern.  I began my first day by meeting all of the new members of the team. Last year the company had approximately ten employees in the New York City office. When I returned this summer the office has doubled in size and space. The company has operated for almost three years, and I am the first intern to return for two consecutive summers. I was also the company’s first intern.

Like many companies in information technology and related industries, culture and diversity are vital Silverline’s operation. All employees are free to wear what they choose to the office and contribute their own uniqueness to the firm. For example, our Development Manager occasionally wears shorts to the office, one of the Partners wears jeans, and our Solutions Architect commutes each day to work by long-board while our Support Manager commutes by in-line skates. Furthermore, our Vice President of Sales—a major fan of the Green Bay Packers—insists on playing with toys as well as occasional breaks to bounce around on a medicine ball. In the developer space of the office there a ping-pong table for recreation. The company operates a kitchen with snacks and fresh food for all employees to consume. Last year I was astounded to learn rather quickly that swearing and expressive language is tolerated in the office. Finally, (as if all the preceding details are not peculiar enough)  all employees have unconditional control of their work days and work hours and may choose to come and go as they please as well as choose to work from home.

While many people believe that excessive freedom and amusement are divergent from professionalism in a work environment, combining such things has been successful at Silverline. It all seems to work out because the company is performance-driven and rewards accomplishments. In fact, this year the company has a sales pipeline of $8 million USD halfway through the fiscal year for over 4,000 billable hours of services and product licenses. The company has a long list of clients including William Blair, FXAll, Frank Crystal, Google, and potentially the National Hockey League. I was surprised when preparing for my internship earlier this year when I discovered that Hampden-Sydney has about 3-5 percent of our entire alumni network working in information technology and related industries. I strongly believe that a liberal arts background is compatible with work environments similar to Silverline.

In fact although my internship at Silverline is partially technical, I have found that many of the skills I have learned at Hampden-Sydney correlate directly with skills which I need to be successful in a technical business environment. As a future consultant for Silverline I will be required to become familiar with business processes, process flow analysis, requirements definitions, preparing configuration workbooks, data models, detailed functional design, and project plans. I will be responsible for working effectively individually as well as with the rest of the team and clients toward customer satisfaction and implementation of success deployments of our systems. At Hampden-Sydney I learned project management through group work in my Corporate Finance course, data analysis in Managerial Accounting, issues regarding cyber security in Issues in American National Security, and strong verbal skills in Public Speaking. I have also developed sound critical thinking skills through my rhetoric and logic courses which gives me a comparative advantage when analyzing documents and data for errors. My Hampden-Sydney education empowers me to listen to clients’ needs, dismantle such needs in a logical manner, and function as a bridge between sales and delivery teams to implement the company’s solutions to such needs. The values of the Honor Code are also important to the nature of the firm. Clients tend to have a lot of sensitive information in their customer relationship management organizations so companies like Silverline are sensitive about how we handle each client’s data. The company requires employees that keep sensitive data confidential and the Honor Code of Hampden-Sydney means a lot to my supervisors as it illustrates strong ethics which transfers to business ethics.

I am excited for the rest of the summer and the opportunities that will grow as I develop a robust sense of what my professional life will resemble after Hampden-Sydney. At the end of my first week at Silverline, I met with Matt Guill, a Hampden-Sydney alumnus of the Class of ’06 currently studying at Columbia Business School. We discussed the evolving environment of the business world and the significance of integrating liberal arts with practical, technical, and managerial proficiencies which are in demand.  I sincerely hope that other students consider careers in information technology and consulting firms like Silverline. My blog will foster any curiosity other Hampden-Sydney students have in these industries. Namely, I hope to illustrate that careers in information technology exist outside of the established stereotypes of tech support.

Cheers,
Fred

Frederick Antoine '14 at His Desk at Silverline CRM

Frederick Antoine ’14 at His Desk at Silverline CRM

 

Posted in: Uncategorized.
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Hilltern: Internship Round-Up

Sep 17th, 2012
by mckenzieb.
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Hello All!

This is my last blog posting in the Hilltern Series, and may I say what a long trip it has been. 12 weeks in our Nations Capital working a rigorous internship, living in a relatively new setting, and to not mention an action packed week in Tampa Ba, FL to round off an otherwise amazing summer.

In this blog I would like to mention some of the limitations that I experienced while working in this professional setting and how I overcame them. First, and I’m almost positive that I wont be the only person to say this, but it was difficult to overcome the a-typical stereotype of lowly office intern. As I mentioned in my first blog I was well aware of my stature in the office cast system from the outset, but it was difficult non-the-less. The first and most important way that I was overcome such stereotypes was by simply and blatantly making myself irreplaceable. Thats not saying that the office I worked at this summer has come to a skreeching halt since I left in late August, on the contrary , they are fine and better then ever. I simply mean that when it came to simply, sometimes mundane tasks and I was the one they called on, and I did those deeds to the best of my ability. I found that with dilligence and due time things will fall in your favor. For example, for the first week at CU I found myself changing quite a few light bulds, and basically being Mr. Fix-it which I was ok with. But when it came to doing a task that took some intution and critical think, while still being considered manual labor, I went above and beyond the call of duty. Given, it wasnt like I rewrote the Constitution, I was just fabricating a hanging bar in a old closest, but it was that I accepted the cruddy job, did it concisely and with effiecency. After that I revived acclaim from the boss and was handed my first op-ed assignment for a nationally syndicated blog. That is what I mean by becoming irreplaceable, not being the only one capable of everything just making yourself so useful they challenge you into your strong suits.

Lastly, I will mention a personal goal of mine that I did not necessarily accomplish, but I am in the process of working on. One of my personal goals coming into this summer was to have a job locked down upon graduation from our fine institution. This goal is not fully accomplished, and I am ok with that, this summer was a great ode to the old addage that you have to network to get work. Over the span of 12 weeks I shook a considerable amount of hands, and fetched a even more considerable amount of coffee, but alas I do not have a job perfectly lined up. I find solace in the fact that because of our current job climate, and the obvious possibilty of job openings that may arise from the results of Novemeber elections I think it would be very unlikely for a 21 year old College Senior to have a job before he even graduates in an economy that is looming above 8%. With that being said I am not worried, I am optimisic about my future, and I truly believe something is out there waiting for me.

With that being said so ends this transmission, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped make this summer even possible. First I would like to thank both the Sears Endowment, and the Circle Alumni Group of Richmond who assited me with a stipend to help dissuade some of the cost of living in a big metropolitian city like Washington DC. Next I would like to thank the Office of Career Education and Vocational Reflection for enabling me with the opportunity to be in touch with groups like Sears and the Circle, and for making it possible for H-SC students to take such wonderful internships and to really mold us into ‘Good Men and Good Citizens.’

 

With that being said thank you for your time and attention.

And I am Respectfully Your,

 

Brit McKenzie

Student Body President

Class of 2013

Posted in: Brit McKenzie '13, Government.

Hilltern: The Republican National Convention

Sep 17th, 2012
by mckenzieb.
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Hello All!!

In this edition of my blog series I will be describing my experiences as well as awesome anecdotes from the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa Bay, FL. To catch everyone up to speed, after my 12 week internship experience in Washington DC with the Conservative Non-Profit group Citizens United I had a once in a life-time opportunity to go to the RNC on behalf of CU and help with event planning of several movie premiers they had going on throughout the week, as well as going to all the different evening speeches. Thats not even mentioning the opportunity I had to see some great stuff in my downtime.

To begin, I was a part of the event planning process of CU’s movie screenings. Our venue was Liberty Plaza right next to the Tampa Bay Forum. Apart from helping out with the logistical processes of the events I was also charged with different independant oppportunities to help promote the movies and other events that were happening in Liberty plaza. This was a great for me not only professionally, but personally to display my abilities as a independant leader. At my side I was aided by two fellow H-SC men: Tarun Sharma ’15 and Baker Allen ’14, who I recruited to be apart of the experience and volunteer their time to help CU and experience something that happens every 4 years.

I was able to see some of the most influential political leaders of our time speak, and I was able to meet just as many interesting people in my spare time as well. As a developmental tool this trip was so influential to my career decision making that I will inevitably have over the next few years; going to Tampa made me realize that if I wanted to get into differing political arenas then I will have to make a lot of sacrifice, and my work ethic would have to represent where I wanted to go.

In closing, this opportunity was an amazing moment of catharsis for me and my internship, with all the excitement, agnst, curiosity,  effort and so much more. I was truly able to see what I had provided for my internship, and more importantly what my internship had created for me.

I will attach a plethora of pictures from the event to show you how great of a time it was in Tampa, even amid a hurricane.

 

Until next time,

 

Brit McKenzie

Posted in: Brit McKenzie '13, Government, Uncategorized.

Hilltern: Belated Review of DC Internship Experience

Sep 16th, 2012
by mckenzieb.
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Hello All!

Sorry for the delay, but it has been a very hectic summer in our Nations Capitol! Well to catch you up to speed I have taken part of some pretty great stuff here at Citizens United. Most important of which is that I have taken part in two separate political documentaries: Our Sacred Honor with Senator Rick Santorum & The Hope and The Change. My roles on these movies are in the form of Productions Assistant, and I was able to be a part of everything that goes into making a large budget documentary from scripting, filming, editing, and so much more. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be apart of the film making process and it is something that I will never forget.

I always thought that it would be neat for me to doing what I took part in this summer, and I never thought that I’d be doing what I did on such a large scale. To have no credible experience in the field of film-making and being able to be in the credits of two large scale documentaries is such an incredible experience, and I credit the majority of my experience and my ability to adapt to the requirements of the job so quickly to H-SC, and the liberal arts education that I am currently receiving.

I will have more blogs to come about my experience premiering these films at the Republican National Convention, and all the event planning that went with it. So look for more to come and more pictures.

Thanks!

Brit

Posted in: Brit McKenzie '13.

Post-internship

Aug 31st, 2012
by Ke Shang.
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After 8 weeks internship (3 for research, 5 for everything else), I had a totally different view about myself and my career.

For the past three years, I mainly studied astronomy (physics) and mathematics, and planned to be an astronomer or mathematician in the future. The first internship I got for this summer was a 10 weeks long black hole accretion research in Germany, but due to my citizenship I didn’t make it, so I had to find a substitute plan for my summer internship. I was very disappointed and sad about the loss of my first internship because I thought it would be a very good building block for my future research and career. Then I got this opportunity to intern in a Chinese media company, which is a completely new field that I have never ever touched before. It was lucky for me that the boss of this company is a good friend of mine and we worked together before I left China. She told me not to worry about anything and just come back and learn everything that I don’t know. I have to say that thanks to her I finally found out what my advantage is and something that is worth to try and explore when I’m still young. Now I’m kind of glad that I didn’t make the first internship. Maybe that was the plan of God?

As I mentioned in my first post, this media company is a subsidiary company of Pang Da Group, which is one of the biggest (it’s actually the biggest) automobile trading companies in China and most of cars they make or sell are for the Chinese middle class. In the media company, I not only learned many things about media, marketing, and some social shills, but the most important one was that I saw a huge business potential from those Chinese middle class especially when this group is still growing. Everyone knows that there are more than a billion people right there in China, but how to open up the market is probably the most difficult question for many investors. So someone who knows both languages and cultures well and also has some technical background will be very useful for connecting these two countries for whatever fields.

At the end of my internship, I had dinner with my boss and she asked me to work with her for a couple years after I graduate and she wanted me to step into the media field. I told her I would keep that thought in mind and think about it in my last year in college. I’m not sure if media is what I truly love to do for life, but it definitely worth to learn and try while I’m only 21 years old. For this field, I do like to travel different places and meet different people. During the five weeks in China, I have seen so many wonders that I have not even heard although I had lived there for 18 years.

When I came back to the hill, I had breakfast with Dr. Keohane, the astronomy professor and whom is also my advisor. I told him all my adventures this summer and he said “wow, you’re now one of the best examples of liberal arts education: learning all kinds of things in college, and doing a totally different thing after college!” Indeed, now I start to believe that “you can do anything with a degree from HSC.” Furthermore, I think the success of my internship is also due to my writing and speaking skills; otherwise, the boss will not bring me to all her meetings. Therefore, I really appreciate the extraordinary Hampden-Sydney writing program. I still remember how struggled I was on language when I entered this college, but now I’m ready to tell everyone that I will soon graduate as a HSC man who can write and talk!

Last but not least, I like to thank the Fisher family, whose two sons graduated from Hampden-Sydney in 2011 and 2012. I stayed with them while I was in Florida for internship. They were really nice and treated me like their son. I like to thank the Wade family, whose son is my AXE brother. They helped me a lot for my visa and airport transportation. I like to thank Mrs. Cooper for her help and advices on my visa and other lawful documents. I like to thank Dr. Turney, Mrs. Turney, and Cannon Watson for their help and storing my belongs during the summer. Moreover, I like to thank my parents in Beijing for their great love and care to me. I hope they will be proud of their HSC boy one day!

Most importantly, I want to thank the HSC Career Development for their supporting, and especially thank Ms. Becca Snyder for her patience in helping my internship run smoothly. The last big thank you is for all HSC alumni and brothers who donated and supported my internship.

It’s a honor to be a member of the Hampden-Sydney family!

 

Ke Shang ’13

 

Posted in: Ke Shang '13, Scientific Research.

The Differences and Connections Between China and America

Aug 30th, 2012
by Ke Shang.
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Sorry about the late post. I finished my internship on the 23rd, but I had to rush to pack and take a 25 hours flight back to the states. It feels good to be back!

I haven’t been back home for three years. For the past more than a thousand days, I spoke English for 99% time, and the rest 1% I spoke with my family via Skype every two or three weeks and tutored American students Chinese. If someone thinks that one will never forget his or her native language, I can now prove him or her WRONG.

I felt kind of awkward in the first a few days in Beijing, and I guessed that was caused by the time difference, i.e. my brain wanted to sleep in American time. But then I started to realize that I had been away from this land so long that I was not used to it any more.

The first discomfort I had was the language. I noticed that I had more and more stammers when I talk to my parents on Skype, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. My problem was that when people talked to me in Chinese, I needed a second or two to organize my words in the correct Chinese grammar and then talk back; not only that, I also missed a few special Chinese syllables when I spoke fast. That was pretty embarrassing for the first week of my internship. “Mr. America, do you need a Chinese translator?” That was the most frequent question I heard from my boss in the first week.

So I started to think about this issue seriously. For the pronunciation part, all I need was speaking more, so I fixed that problem very quickly. After all, it is my native language and I’m familiar with its sound. But the grammar problem was actually very interesting. When I tutor American students Chinese, I always tell them that although Chinese characters (spelling) are quite difficult, Chinese grammar is super easy. Because each Chinese character has its own meaning and is independent to others, we could always gather some words together and turn them into a sentence, and the amazing thing is it always “makes sense” in a way. For instance, in English we say “I want to eat two apples”, but in Chinese we say ”I want eat two apple”; American says “we have already been working on it for a week”, but Chinese says “we already work on it for a week”; American says “he likes football, and he also played football when he was young”, but Chinese says “he like football, he also play football when he is young”, etc. Just because Chinese characters and all those adverbs have had so much content already, the Chinese grammar is very simple and it never confuses people. However, after being well trained by the fantastic HSC rhetoric program, my Chinese mixed many English elements, which became a new kind of “Engnese”.

I didn’t really know how I eventually fixed the grammar problem, maybe because I’m a native speaker and I could find the “feeling” back very soon, but I do want to reminder every Chinese learner: when you’re trying to speak Chinese, keep it as simple as possible; the beauty of Chinese might just be its simpleness, and maybe that is the opposite of French (?) I don’t know.

So that’s for the language. Beside the manners, the other big impression I got when I worked with those Chinese people was that they do business in a completely different way as Americans. Chinese people don’t usually talk about what they want to do at the beginning. I followed my boss and traveled a lot for meetings since I was her assist and translator. Everytime when we had meeting with other business guys, we would spend 70% time talking about the family, weather, news, sports, and anything you could imagine that is not relevant to today’s meeting, and then talk about the real business gradually. There was one exception: one day when we had a meeting in Shenzhen (a big city in south China and known for electron business), a guy came in and greeted in a few sentences, and then started to say “so, what do you think about the idea I mentioned last time?” Yeah, pretty straight forward, right? After the meeting my boss told me he was an American Chinese and had stayed in America for several decades… And that was the American way.

I think that was one of the most important things I learnt from my internship. I know America and China will have more and more business connections in the future, and tons of Americans have already planned to invest or start business in China, but before you move to the next step, knowing more about the differences between them culturally is extremely important.

China is like a big and deep river; it can hold your boat, and it can also overturn your boat. I will talk about it more in my last post.

Thanks for reading.

 

Posted in: Ke Shang '13, Scientific Research.

Genworth Financial Operations Intern: Final Post

Aug 30th, 2012
by smithwr.
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So, in conclusion

I’ve recently been hired on as a Data Analyst for the Aspen Institute. This is another exciting opportunity for me and a perfect example of how one opportunity can lead to another.

I gave my final presentation on my last day of work, August 17th. In conclusion, my results lead to an update of my department’s standard operating procedure. It was gratifying to know that my research resulted in a positive change to make my department do its job more effectively.

In terms of how this experience benefited me personally, I’ve walked away with everything I could ask for: hard skills, a few more soft skills and it became a stepping stone for another internship. I was happy to offer meaningful results and though it may not lead to a job, I was able to contribute to the best of my abilities and I’m proud to have been able to do so.

Something I would suggest, at the conclusion of an internship, is to write down (in a paragraph or so) what you’ve learned from your work experience. That way as you begin to apply to new jobs and walk into an interview, you’ll have something to look over to succinctly describe your previous work experience. Additionally, look it over right before your next interview and think about how you can relate the skills you gained to the new job you’re applying for. I did just that for my current internship and, as a result, felt calm, cool and collected when the phone call came around to talk about my experience. The person with whom I interviewed expressed his appreciation at my ability to my experience specifically to how I could make an impact at his firm.

Our rhetoric classes have taught us how to argue effectively. And that has served me well in the last year as I applied and interviewed for jobs.

I can’t fully describe how beneficial my public speaking abilities were for my job this summer. In meetings, large or small, the ability to communicate your point succinctly and effectively is crucial. When you’re in a fast-paced environment like Operations, doing things quickly is of the highest priority.

H-SC will prepare you for work experience in a unique way. While I may have felt behind my fellow interns who were accounting majors, I certainly felt ahead of the curve in terms of critical thinking, developing relationships and communicating effectively. In order to make your liberal arts background useful, it is paramount that you leverage those skills. Or, in the words of an economics & commerce major, to leverage your comparative advantage.

Based on my reading of these posts, It looks like everyone has had largely fulfilling experiences. I look forward to seeing how the next class of stipend recipients will do H-SC’s name well.

Cheers,

Will Smith

Posted in: Business, Will Smith '13.

Internship Takeaways

Aug 29th, 2012
by jonesm14.
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I was fortunate to obtain an internship in DC with the U.S. Agency for International Development and to work alongside fellow Hampden-Sydney men, Paul Thornton ’14 and Clay Doherty  ’97. My internship gave me the opportunity to work and get to know many great public servants and members of the international development community. Not only did I experience what it’s like to work for the United States government I was able to personally attend The Frontiers in Development Conference which hosted both current and former world leaders and innovative leaders in the developing world. Besides the professional gains of my internship, living in DC provided me great personal experience. Whether it was living in the city on a limited budget or even getting to know the residents of DC. While at times life seemed complex and confusing it was always reassuring of what a small world we live in when I would run into a Hampden-Sydney man on the metro.
I have many takeaways from my summer, but I want to highlight my best professional and personal experiences.

My best professional experience was by far my time involved with the Frontiers in Development Conference. Of all the great moments that I was able to savor in the brief three days, the best experience was becoming acquainted with Nadwa al-Dawsari. Ms. al-Dawsari is a Yemeni national whose work primarily involves interacting with the Yemeni tribal leaders through her organization Partners Yemen, which she serves as the Executive Director. Not only did I have the pleasure of speaking with her about her work and current issues in the Arabian Peninsula, but she also has offered to get me a potential internship next summer somewhere in the Middle East dependent on future events that may determine what region would be potentially is the safest. Professionally for me this is a great step, I am a Foreign Affairs major, with a minor in religion specifically focused on Islam, and my field of interest is the Middle East. If everything goes according to plan, this internship would ultimately prove to be invaluable.
Personally I believe I grew tremendously from my experience in DC. Living in a new city independently presented me with as many opportunities as challenges. Fortunately none of the challenges ever prevented me from making my experience enjoyable. Surprisingly I believe that my biggest personal takeaway from my summer was the result of conversations with homeless people throughout DC. What I gained personally from my street conversations were many things, but ultimately it was a better understanding of compassion. After having the experience of being in the same room as world leaders and then to be sitting on a street corner with someone who was homeless made me feel incredibly fortunate. My summer experience has reminded me of how privileged I am and has only further encouraged me to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to me, so that I can make most of the opportunities that others never had the chance to do.

Posted in: Government, Matt Jones '14.

U.S. Agency for International Development

Aug 28th, 2012
by jonesm14.
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My summer internship was with the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID’s primary responsibilities are managing the U.S. foreign economic and humanitarian assistance programs around the world. Prior to beginning my internship I had known very little about USAID. I knew that they played a critical role in the disaster relief following the earthquake in Haiti. Other than that there was a lot I didn’t know, but was eager to learn more about their role in U.S. foreign aid.
My first assignment of my internship placed me in the Legislative and Public Affairs Bureau (LPA). My main responsibilities were to assist in the preparation and execution of the Frontiers in Development Conference, the first major conference of its kind that USAID had hosted during its entire 50 years.
My first week taught me that although I had little knowledge of USAID prior to my internship, the Agency was highly regarded by many around the world. Because the majority of USAID’s work is conducted abroad there is only limited publicity of the Agency in the United States. However outside of the States, USAID has a solid reputation among many foreign states. The Conference hosted speakers ranging from world leaders such as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, John Kufuor, young philanthropists, Mandy Moore and Barbara Bush and U.S. Senator Richard Lugar.
My perception of USAID grew dramatically over the course of the three day conference. However it wasn’t the high profile individuals that would ultimately change my respect and understanding of the Agency. Rather it was from my interactions with the staff in DC that made me better appreciate the work that USAID is able to accomplish. Before working at USAID I had envisioned a large force of workers stationed around the world providing aid to people in conflict areas. I was surprised to learn that rather than a large force of government officials, USAID’s overseas missions are relatively small in staff. The majority of projects and work USAID accomplishes is done with the help of other non-government organizations and international agencies. In retrospect the work that USAID is able to do is astounding once I realized the limited staff they have available. The one statistic that I learned over the summer that I will not forget is that only 1/2 of 1% of the entire U.S. budget is set-aside for USAID’s foreign assistance budget.

Posted in: Government, Matt Jones '14.

Life of a Summer Intern in DC

Aug 28th, 2012
by jonesm14.
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If you are lucky enough to find yourself living in DC for the summer as an intern, but unfortunate enough to be working pro bono life can be a daily struggle. However it is possible to have a good experience without draining your parents’ bank account. Outside of the hours of 8 am-5 pm there is plenty to do in DC. So much that it will be impossible for you to do it all. While it is nice to sightsee around DC by yourself, you will want to make some new friends with whom you can enjoy the rest of the city with. Regardless of where you’re living for the summer there is more than likely other college age interns not far from you. Getting to know other interns in DC will not only introduce you to new people, but also create new networks that you wouldn’t have previously had. Your summer in DC will be full of both good and bad experiences, but if you have a good group of friends the bad experiences won’t be as memorable. Other than having friends and finding things to do the biggest challenge will be living affordably. Without a steady paycheck, eating out for all your meals may clean out your wallet. Instead, stocking your fridge with sandwich meats for lunch will be an easy way of cutting down your food budget. While it may be easy to spend money in DC, you would be surprised of the amount of free or almost free things to do in DC. Besides walking the Mall, there are always public events going on in DC like Screen on the Green, which is a free movie every Monday night on the Mall in front of the Smithsonian.
Most importantly it’s important to know how to get where you’re going. It’s hard to imagine living in DC before the invention of smartphone and apps like iTransDC or NextBus DC. Not realizing what color metro car you need can send you in the wrong direction and severely sidetrack you. Also it’s important to acknowledge early on that you need to allow extra time to get where you’re going because you may have to account for your bus or metro running late and how long it will actually take to get to your destination. Unfortunately DC isn’t like school when you can use the excuse “the bus was late” so don’t expect to get any sympathy from your colleagues.
Once you’re able to live within your budget and become accustomed to getting around DC I can guarantee that a summer in DC will be a memorable one.

Posted in: Government, Matt Jones '14.

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