First day at school -- I mean, work

This blog will outline my internship experience at Brocade. Brocade is an industry leader in data center networking solutions and services that enable organizations to manage their most vital information assets. I will be interning in the Internal Audit and Corporate Compliance Department. I am very excited to work at Brocade and it was named as one of the top 10 places to work in 2011: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2011/04/22/125-best-places-to-work-unveiled.html

The first day at work felt like the first day of school. I was nervous and eager at the same time. The first half of the day was dedicated to orientation before we were cut loose to meet with our teams.

I had lunch with my team and got to know a little bit about everyone. In the afternoon I met with my mentor/buddy and went over my intern development plan for the summer. The purpose of the buddy program is to act like a compass, and help provide guidance and support throughout my internship process. My manager put together a wide spectrum of projects leveraging different processes to evaluate controls and compliance and to provide me with an overview of Internal Audit, SOX, and Compliance at Brocade.

In addition to my projects, I learned that I would also attend workshops / seminars with the UDP program. The UDP program is the Brocade University Development Program whcih is to help train and provide support for their university hires make an impact and accelerate in their careers at Brocade. These workshops and seminars would consist of leadership, soft skills, and other types of traning.

This was my first time working in Silicon Valley so it was interesting to see the culture unfold in front of my eyes -- the casual dress code of engineers, and a much more relaxing atmosphere compared to public accounting.