An Intern's Perspective

As ‘The Intern’ (as some of our clients have so affectionately dubbed me) my job is to get whatever it is that needs to be done, done. When you’re sitting in an open-plan office with urgent calls ringing all around you and hard deadlines approaching at every moment, that’s a lot more exciting—and important—than it might sound. When there is a crunch for time, the Cognito New York office relies on me to complete my tasks on time, and with gusto.

Working as an intern at Cognito has been an incredible learning opportunity. My everyday work has been a healthy mix of industry research and administrative duties, which has helped me to become familiar with each of our clients and with the current events relevant to our space. That said, only some of my work here is what I would call “everyday.” By my third week here, I had already interacted with several of our London staffers, attended an international technology management conference, and met dozens of senior-level executives, journalists and marketing professionals: I even held the bowl for Pyxis Mobile’s CEO when he drew the winning raffle ticket at an AT&T event we managed.  Everyone at the office has been very encouraging and continually pushes me to make the most of my summer here—which has included sending me to a full-day seminar on the US Securities Industry and hosting sporadic office Lunch-and-Learns aimed toward bringing me up to speed with their own broad understanding of the capital markets.

One of the biggest draws of this internship was the people I would be working with. At my interview, I was extremely impressed with the intelligence and personable professionalism of the Cognito staff. The small size of the firm has made it easy to get to know everyone in the office almost immediately, and being the only intern on this side of the Atlantic means that I have lots of responsibility and plenty of opportunities to challenge and prove myself. There is never a dull moment: I am included in everything from international teleconferences to interviews with the press to entertaining our clients, and feel, astoundingly, completely integrated into our global business.   It’s an amazing feeling to love your internship, and I am looking forward to many more fantastic and fulfilling experiences this summer at Cognito.