Internship Paper
The purpose of this paper is to explain the entire internship experiences that I personally and professionally encountered during the timeline of internship position as “Subway Assistant Manager”. It firstly determines the challenges and difficulties that arose during the internship program. It then describes the duties and responsibilities of the internship with respect to the performed tasks and undertaken activities. It also gives an overview of the company description including its name, location, the category of product/service, and the approximate size of the company. It then explains how the internship prepared me for the workforce through gaining of three core skills. This paper finally contains my overall evaluation of the experience in the form of my opinion about the internship.
Timeline:
The duration of my internship period was July to September. It started in July and ended in September. The job title of my internship was “Subway Assistant Manager”. The location was Subway Pennsylvania at Montage Mountain, Scranton. I worked at this place for last 3 years.
Challenges:
Despite the fact that it was an internship program, I had to face a lot of challenges and difficulties in working. For example, I had to work long and unsteady hours similar to a regular job employee. It was very hard for me to advance and reach the professional level of working because my internship involved cross training every employee with respect to their job duties. I had to deal with numerous staff having different attitudes. The staff usually works on the routine changing shifts that somehow created a problem for me to explain the pending tasks to the coming and going shifts.
Another challenge was to deal with the rude customers that continue coming and going at Subway. This problem basically arose from the poor store management where the food stock was unhealthily kept without maintaining a higher safety measure. It caused the cooking staff and chef to prepare the food ignoring the healthy requirements of the customers. However, there was mostly the rush of some regular customers that were in a routine practice of making negative comments about the foods. Nevertheless, I always remained strict with the chef to use the best tasteful ingredients and healthy food stock while preparing the food dishes for the customers.
Difficulties:
A great difficulty was to get the higher standard or performance-driven tasks from the entire staff. The staff always had a habit of creating confusion with their own work while keeping the urgent jobs pending with them. In fact, the staffs were paid a low salary that always distracted them to perform their duties with less focus and neglected due diligence. The coworkers were also very lazy in completing their undertaken works. It made the entire restaurant management services somehow poor in nature and unacceptable to the customers.
The difficulties continued even with the process of training existing and new staff with different matters of the restaurant. For example, I had to guide the staff about their assigned duties almost every day because of their reluctance and laziness in performing such tasks. The staff had a practice of involving in gossip, rumors, and unnecessary funny talks that became the root cause of the restaurant’s unprofessional environment.
Moreover, I had personally observed some very illegal happenings inside the restaurant. However, I seriously treated such unprofessional occurrences by monitoring their performance and making periodic reviews about their ongoing tasks. This difficulty proved to be very time-consuming for me because I had to leave my management level operational duties. For example, I had to oversee the staff’s unnecessary works or wrongdoing involvements while keeping my own tasks pending. Nevertheless, I always submitted a staff performance report to the top management and simply held the unfaithful staff liable for every of their unethical act, unprofessional work, or repetitive non-obedience practices.
Duties and Responsibilities of Internship
Duties and Activities:
The internship of “Subway Assistant Manager” entailed a spectrum of duties and activities. In general, the duties of internship involved supervising everyday operational activities to assure the proper production, preparation, and safety of the food products. It also involved maintaining the cleanliness and health standards pertaining to the foods. The part of the duties required scheduling and supervising the workforce with respect to maintaining the standard of security and safety of the restaurant. The internship further involved ensuring the employee development, maximizing the profits, building sales revenues, observing employee appearance, and managing the restaurant. I even had to provide an exceptional customer service while dealing with the restaurant’s cost control factors.
Responsibilities and Tasks:
The responsibilities of internship involved both an independent working and a collaborative interaction with the restaurant staff. For example, I had a responsibility of tackling a number of specific tasks on a regular, weekly, and monthly basis. A brief description of such internship responsibilities is as follows:
Performing every task and responsibility as the in-charge of the restaurant.
Giving a focused concentration on the responsibilities that are necessarily required to be performed as per the job description.
Supervising in preparing food as well as maintaining the operational standards. Both these tasks were essential to assure a higher level of food safety.
Giving a particular focus on the Subway Operations Manual. These included maintaining guest service standard, ensuring perfect cleanliness, and coordinating/supervising the staff.
Providing assistance in a variety of duties and tasks, such as assisting with product orders and performing paperwork duties.
Assisting in making plans for special promotions and occasions.
Working to assure the fulfillment of every profitable goal, budget, and sales target.
Assisting other people with personal willingness without receiving any instruction or without getting the works assigned.
Following up with different operational procedures, such as inventory control and cash handling.
Complying with the local, state, and federal laws in the form of keeping a record of every hourly personnel file.
Monitoring an appropriate placement of strong security procedures in order to ensure the protection of every corporate asset, guest, and employee.
Working cheerfully and professionally to develop a respectful environment and an entertaining workplace for every employee and guest.
Complying with every type of federal, local, and state regulation with respect to maintaining the Brand Standards and employment policies.
Assuring sufficient possession of equipment, arranging proper repairing of buildings, and utilizing a secure and protected maintenance system.
Keeping, executing, and remaining committed to the provision of an exceptional guest satisfaction.
Company Description: “Subway” Fast Food Restaurant
Overview of Company:
Subway is a leading fast food restaurant throughout the world. It was originally founded as “Subway IP Inc.” with a spectrum of franchises. Its operational functions are owned and executed by Doctor’s Associates, Inc. It is headquartered in Milford, Connecticut. The company’s international operations are supported through five regional centers. Miami is the support center for the Latin American operations. Singapore and Lebanon are the regional offices for the Asian operations. Australia is the franchise head for the New Zealand and Australian operations. Netherlands is the dominant regional office for the European operations.
Category of Products:
Subway’s highly selling product is “sub” (generally called as the submarine sandwich). Its products also include muffins, doughnuts, cookies, baked goods, salad, and wraps. The products generally differ from country and market. The range of Subway food items includes veggie patty, veggie delite, turkey, tuna, Subway melt, Subway club, steak & cheese, and spicy Italian. Some other food products include roasted chicken, meatball marinara, Italian B.M.T., ham, chipotle chicken, chicken tikka , chicken teriyaki, chicken pizziola, chicken, and B.L.T.
In general, Subway’s highest selling sandwiches are BMT that are prepared from ham, salami, and pepperoni. Subway B.M.T is now termed as “Bigger, Meatier, Tastier” while its original old term was “Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit”. The company’s special foods also include pizza, flatbread, English muffins, and breakfast sandwiches. In the United States, Subway has an exclusive offer in their breakfast item under the name as “Seattle’s Best Coffee”.
Subway Locations and My Specific Location of Internship:
As of December 27, 2016, Subway had around 44,882 restaurants in 112 nations/territories, making the company apparently as the largest fast food restaurant in the world. Subway has a global establishment with around 23,750 franchises in the U.S., 2,563 franchises in Canada, and 1,402 franchises in the UK. However, my specific location of the internship was Subway Pennsylvania at Montage Mountain, Scranton.
Job Preparation
My internship as the “Subway Assistant Manager” prepared me for the workforce in a very professional manner. There were three specific skills that I obtained during the course of the internship. These skills will perfectly prepare me for my career after college, particularly without requiring any further job experience. These skills are people management, customer service, and occupational health & safety.
People Management Skills:
As the people management skills, I have developed an ability to recruit and select new employees. I can professionally collaborate with senior level coworkers, including the Restaurant Manager, Shift Managers, and Sandwich Artist. I can undertake the responsibility of managing the entire workforce with respect to the company’s training requirements. I can deliver an exemplary performance while providing a continuous coaching support to the employees.
Moreover, I can manage the cost factors concerning the man hours and budgeted labor. I can prepare the workforce rosters, conduct employees’ counseling sessions, and resolve the employees’ issues. I can collaborate with the Operations Manager to deal with the emerging corporate problems. I can work directly as the Restaurant Manager even without affecting my own duties. I have also learned the practice of making employees’ performance appraisals on a yearly basis.
Customer Service Skills:
As the customer service skills, I have become quite efficient in promoting, encouraging, and delivering a higher standard of customer service to the customers and the general public. I can offer a win-win support throughout my verbal communication and interaction in different customer-oriented areas. These may include handling complaints, making inquiries, and managing customer-driven sales. I have developed an ability to make final decisions about the escalated customer complaints with an appropriate solution or a reasonable judgment.
Moreover, my customer service skills have enhanced along with my personal traits. For example, I can now lead the customers using my sense of ownership, intellectual ability, and self-directed rule. I can deal with the complex customer issues independently, particularly without involving the top management in the situation. I have become highly responsible in maintaining a strong satisfaction for the customers with respect to their higher standards of demands. I can embrace change in ensuring a better customer service, similar to a customer-oriented professional.
It is pertinent to note that my attitude has also developed more professionally, positively, and energetically. I have become a team player in the arena of customer services, making me more capable of developing customer handling skills among other employees. My communication level has further reached at a higher level of professionalism due to an increased number of customer relations involvements during the internship.
Occupational Health & Safety Skills:
As the occupational health & safety skills, I have become cautious in preventing injuries that usually occur from the non-implementation of safety procedures. I can develop and maintain a safe working environment for the clients and workforce, enabling them to work or dine-in with complete safety of their life. I have thoroughly learned the ways of initiating the company process in the case of facing or reporting any accident. These occurrences naturally or mistakenly happen during the course of restaurant leadership.
Overall Evaluation of Internship Experience
My opinion of the “Subway Assistant Manager” internship process is truly positive. The internship process at college is highly appreciable because it enabled me in searching for the best internship relating to my interest. The employer “Subway Management” was quite cooperative in every of the internship’s assigned duties and responsibilities. This internship became a great learning experience for me, both for my academic credit and for my lifelong career after college. The overall internship process seemed quite systemic in nature because I had to move forward from one step to another. It gave me a clear understanding about the internship requirements, expectations, and learning outcomes.
Despite my good learning outcomes and the professionally learned skills, the internship experience as “Subway Assistant Manager” proved quite challenging and difficult for me. For example, I had to work like a paid employee due to my involvement in a spectrum of executive level duties and responsibilities. I was often held responsible for the negligence or poor work from my coworkers. I also had to respond and become obligated to the mistakes or negative occurrences that usually happen on the part of low-level or unskilled employees. My internship mostly kept me busy in dealing with the restaurant’s operational activities without even giving me a chance to relax.
However, this internship still remained a wonderful experience for my lifetime career because I am now confident, professional, and expert enough to run the operational activities of any fast food restaurant independently. A series of duties, responsibilities, and assignments have made me hardworking and result-oriented with every of the management level position. I now love to deal with a lot of customers, both through face-to-face verbal communication and via written correspondence. I have perfectly learned the ways of ensuring a higher level of health & safety standard while respecting the workplace environment and saving the employees’ life.
