Undergraduate Blog / Defining Your Babson

Be Prepared After Accepting

Being prepared vs. having expectations

After accepting my offer from i love blue sea I headed to San Francisco to finally get my first look into the sustainable industry. I wasn’t all too sure what to expect from a start-up company that distributes sustainable seafood, but I had done some homework, reading articles on the fishing industry and how seafood is perceived in grocery stores and well as restaurants. I was expecting to spend my summer in a small office building somewhere on Fisherman’s Wharf, talking to different organizations, partnering with chefs and fishermen and mostly talking about fish. My expectations were shattered on the first day after I finally found my “office building”. Turns out, after evaluating their assets, the team at i love blue sea has decided to switch the business model and turn their focus to the logistics software they developed in house.

This change has left me a little behind in my internship preparations but with a little research and direction from my supervisor I should be ready to take on the new challenge. In hindsight, I could have done a few things differently.

  1. I should have stayed in touch with my supervisor after accepting the offer. I would have been better informed about the changes to the company and possibly changes to my intern duties.
  2. During my countless phone conversations prior to getting my offer I should have asked more questions about the future plans for the company, current projects, and what their greatest obstacles were to date.
  3. Although I did research the company I should have spent even more time looking into all the industries they fall into rather than focusing on sustainable seafood.

I never expected to spend my summer evaluating software and web design, but after this first week I can say that I am excited to see how this new direction will pan out. In the meantime, I have asked a lot of questions regarding the software and have gotten some helpful articles from my supervisor.