Ah, corporate life.
The mystical realm of HR policies, Outlook calendars, and people who somehow get away with saying “let’s circle back” unironically.
So there I was - a bright-eyed junior in college, stepping into Publicis Sapient as an “Engineering” Intern. My first corporate gig. The timing? Perfect. The vibe? Chaotic. The reality? A week-long crash course in HR mumbo jumbo that made me wonder if I should’ve just become a monk instead.
Once the HR storm passed, things got real. My manager tossed me straight into ServiceNow, a magical place filled with 35+ hours of training modules that were basically Netflix binges, if Netflix swapped Stranger Things with IT workflows. Somewhere between “Incident vs. Request” and “here’s how to configure a form,” my brain permanently fused with the ServiceNow docs.
I wasn’t alone, though.
I was paired with a co-intern who had already been at it for 45 days - which in intern years, makes him a seasoned veteran. Together, we pieced through the docs, survived endless modules, and started cobbling together a custom application that ended up being repurposed for an internal need (trust me bro). Accidental productivity at its finest.
Of course, the real internship experience isn’t about the code.It’s about scheduling calls with a manager who could ghost you harder than a bad Tinder date, but somehow still managed to be the most considerate person when he finally picked up. It’s about negotiating with co-interns who mysteriously vanish when deadlines appear. And it’s about realizing that corporate Slack emojis are a whole new form of communication.
But the most valuable thing I picked up
wasn’t ServiceNow tricks or corporate jargon - it was learning how to work with people you don’t control. Figuring out how to get things done when someone’s busy, unresponsive, or just not pulling their weight is basically the unspoken syllabus of corporate life. And honestly? That skill’s going to be way more useful than memorizing what a Transform Map is.
At the end of it all, I walked away with more than just ServiceNow skills. I got a taste of what it’s like to juggle work, people, and the eternal struggle of “should I send another follow-up email or just let my soul perish quietly?”
Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I pray for more reliable co-interns? Also yes.