Senior Experience With Nortel LearniT

Although I’m not an intern anymore, I had an opportunity to interview Hassan. He wasn’t in the office because he was away on business during my three weeks with Nortel, but he had a whole other perspective that I hadn’t heard at Nortel before, so I had to interview him!

Hassan has worked with Nortel for three years. He works in enterprise solutions (sales/business development). Hassan was very enthusiastic and energetic about everything he talked about; his energy was very pleasant and fun! I bet he could sell me anything!

Part of Hassan’s job involves being the territory account manager. This means that he manages thirteen accounts and is responsible for everything that happens with Nortel and Nortel’s business partners. Hassan goes into a business and works annually to resolve the problems that the business is facing. Hassan also suggests things that could be improved in the business, such as Replacing, Enhancing or Upgrading the business’ current software). This ensures continuation of business/partnership for Nortel.

Pitching an idea to a strategic account is not an easy thing to do! Hassan works on selling the whole solution and not focus on minor details. He feels comfortable enough to meet with a client without a technician, even though he doesn’t know that much about technology (I think he knows more than he thinks!) and be able to deliver his pitch through using the idea of a big picture.

Before coming to Nortel, Hassan worked with two other IT companies. The first job Hassan had after graduating from college was selling computers and laptops. Then he moved to selling a mix of larger gadgets and solutions. Even though he has no background in telecommunications, he is perfect for his job! He is able to build relationships with people, he has a high view of the enterprise, and he is an all-around pleasant and personable man!

Michael asked me to make a web page for the Nortel LearniT web site. He wants Mark and I to write about our experience at the Americas Competitiveness Forum and list what we did there. I spoke with Carrie today who told me how to get started on making a page on the Beta site. Now I just need to think of what I want to say.

I spent this morning finishing everything that I could with the Google Videos. All of them are re-uploaded and the spread sheet is also updated. Once Kareem updates the LearniT site with the correct url links, then I’ll do what I was originally going to do three weeks ago, download every LearniT video from the website and put it in a folder on the computer.

This is the last day of my internship but I start officially working with Nortel on Monday!

Today is a catch-up day for me. Since no one was in the office in the morning, except for Mary Ellen, I got a lot done! Mainly I’ve been working on the google video exporting, uploading and information adding. I also wrote a proposal for future interns on how to keep a blog, re-wrote the ‘How to make a video about your hometown’ proposal and interviewed Ray.

For the entire week a committee from the FCC has been using the Nortel board room for a meeting. There are about twenty people on the committee and they all needed to plug their lap tops in…so they needed the power cords in the office. I’m limited to one desk today because the power cord of my other desk is gone. (Actually I just got my power cord back, so I have my other desk again!)

Tomorrow is my last day as an intern.

Ray is an attorney. He graduated from Duke University and went to work with the FCC (Federal Communications Committee). The FCC is the agency that is the expert on telecommunications. There he was involved in telecommunications law where he noticed that he had many responsibilities coming to him very quickly as a young lawyer. This is because government practices, as opposed to law firms, have many benefits and opportunities for young lawyers. FCC is where Ray learned about telecommunications and further developed his talents.

Ray also spent four years working on Capitol Hill on the communications council to the commerce committee. Somewhere in between, Ray found time to work with a cable company and a newspaper company.

For the past eighteen years, Ray has been working at Nortel. (In Ray’s words, Nortel is a solutions provider that looks out for the customer’s interest). At Nortel, Ray is an advocate in the sense of presenting views to the Hill and the FCC about Nortel’s position and technology. The purpose of this is to establish telecommunications that will be beneficial to Nortel and the customer. It is important for a company like Nortel to be involved in the evolution of technology and have an impact on what’s taking place/influencing the process so the product doesn’t go off track and out of the competitive reach of the company.

Ray is also in charge of keeping relations with the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration). He manages the government spectrum use.

When I asked what his favorite part of the job was, Ray told me he liked the challenge of the advocacy; attempting to understand the implication and advance of new technology. He also appreciates the ability to be able to call on technical people whenever he needs them because Nortel is a technology company.

Michael asked me if I could go to Atlanta, GA to attend the Americas Competitiveness Forum with Mark. Of course I agreed! Since Nortel is a major sponsor of the event, we got a booth to turn into a portable studio for Career Bytes as well as display information for Nortel LearniT.

That’s our portable studio.

Mark and I knew we were supposed to get interviews with people for Career Byte episodes but we weren’t sure how this was going to be done. We thought that the people were going to be brought to us to interview, then we were told to just grab random people and do a man-on-the-street type of interview. Needless to say, the first day of the conference was somewhat hectic in the sense that we didn’t know what to expect and only had everything planned and figured out that day. The following day (Tuesday) was very exciting and busy! Mark and I lost count of the amount of people that came to the studio to be interviewed! Highlights of the people interviewed were Ana Vilma de Escobar, the first female Vice President in over 180 years of El Salvador, Franklin L. Lavin, the Under Secretary for International Trade for the US Department of Commerce, Leonard L. Haynes, III the Director of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education of the US Department of Education and many others.

Along with doing Career Bytes, Mark and I made a short video about our experience at the conference. He’s going to have a lot of editing to do!

The event itself was done very well! It was held at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta. The hotel was huge!! It had 41 floors and three separate buildings. Our event was held on the ground floor and it really did take up the entire floor. There were three large rooms dedicated to the conference. One room was the main hall where speakers would give their speeches on the stage and be heard by hundreds of others in the room. The second room was the control room, where the speeches were recorded and broadcast. Mark and I were in the third room with all of the sponsor booths and informational displays about each country that was attending the event.

We were next to Panama. In our room there was a large screen shaped like a globe. On the screen was a live feed of what was being said/happening on the stage in the main hall.

The large screen.

This is what the country’s booths looked like.

I also met the Multimedia crew of Nortel. They were all from different locations, ranging from North Carolina to Toronto. They were awesome!

On Monday night, Mark and I were invited (thanks to Melanie) to go to dinner with the other attendees. The dinner was held in Atlanta’s largest aquarium…it was very cool to get a private tour of the place. I’ve never been in an aquarium with no crowds of people around! The dinner was beautiful, we sat at a table with representatives from UPS and FedEx (kind of ironic that they were at the same table). It was very nice to have everyone involve us in whatever was happening!

Melanie, Carla, Shawn and Harla helped us out a lot when we were looking for people to interview! They all deserve a huge thank you!

Overall, the trip to Atlanta was great, really fun! Hopefully I’ll go on trips with Nortel in the future.

That’s me looking tired after a long day’s work.

Michael is the Chief Academic Officer for Nortel LearniT (which is a signature community relations program of Nortel). He is also my mentor!

Being a Chief Academic Officer requires Michael to work with teachers, users of programs, corporate partners, students, Nortel employees and the community. To Michael, this is the most fun position to have because he still gets to work with students and support teachers in working with students. (Before coming to Nortel, he used to work in Higher Education, first in the classroom, then with the administration.)

As well as keeping all initiatives moving forward with equal quality as well as enthusiasm for the people that are using the products, Michael is known around the office for his sense of humor! When I asked him what his favorite part of the job was, Michael replied, “I love the pretzels!”

As a pattern of all employees at Nortel, Michael loves his job! His least favorite time of day is when he needs to stop working. However, Michael applies his job in his every day life by helping out his wife and son with their projects through the use of Nortel LearniT tools and technology!

It’s another quiet day at the office (Which is nice after the hectic ness of yesterday). It seems as though hardly anybody is here on Fridays. I still have plenty to do to catch up with what I needed to do yesterday though.

Melanie asked me to organize a folder for her to take to Atlanta. Afterwards she asked me to help her with writting an email explaining what Nortel LearniT and Career Bytes is/are. It’s so flattering that she asks for my help because I think everything she does is really exciting!

Mary Ellen is the Office Manager as well as Greg’s assistant. She has been with Nortel for eighteen years! Her job requires her to do and over see many things, such as keeping track of calendars (which on its own is a full time job), travel information for the office, papers, evaluations, reports, etc. However, more importantly than that, everyone in the office comes to Mary Ellen if they have a problem. She is nice, sophisticated, personable, and as she self-described herself, “nurturing”. Another way to describe Mary Ellen’s position in the office is to simply put, “She is the glue that holds the office together.”

Mary Ellen’s first job was working with the FBI! She then worked with GTE (Another Telecommunications Company) for eighteen years before working with Blue Cross, Blue Shield and then coming to Nortel. When she came to the company, on top of the duties she has now, Mary Ellen was also in charge of keeping track of the finances. (Today that position has been filled full time by Graziella). Mary Ellen told me a lot about Nortel’s history and the way things used to run. For instance, there used to be three admins and one receptionist. That isn’t the case anymore.

Mary Ellen self-taught herself about everything she needed to know to do her job when she first started working with Nortel. Her objective is to make sure everything in the office runs smoothly. If someone is having trouble with their garage pass, they come to her. If there are guests coming into the Nortel boardroom, Mary Ellen takes care of setting up (along with Graziella). She jokingly said that catering skills are required to have her job.

Although I learned a lot about Mary Ellen, it seemed that I learned even more about Greg and Nortel. (Greg is the boss yet he’s younger than everyone else at Nortel!) When interviewing Mary Ellen, I could really see that she enjoyed her job. She told me how comfortable she was coming into work and that this office is like a family! (The DC office is quite small, there are only 10 people, including myself working here). Even though I’ve only been at the office for two weeks, I also feel very comfortable because of the openness and warmth of all the people that are here!

Today was really busy! I did a lot of little things but it seemed like they took up the entire day. Mainly what I did was organize myself for Atlanta. I have a full contact sheet of everyone I could possibly need, all of the information I need, and everything figured out with my hotel and plane tickets.

One of the most important things that Michael, Julie, Mark and I discussed today was how to present ourselves and what to say to people when they ask about Nortel LearniT. Julie and Michael gave me a lot of tips on what I need to say, so I need to write it all down and condense the message into a few sentences.

Today I interviewed Mary Ellen and Michael. I also proof read a few lesson sheets that were typed up for Nortel LearniT. Michael and I spoke about my Video Proposal and expanded the idea into two-three videos. I need to write a much more detailed proposal now that I have a clearer understanding of what we’re going for!

This week is going by really quickly! Today I was part of a conference call about Atlanta and then another “staff conference” call at eleven with all of the people that work with Nortel LearniT. I’m excited because Michael asked everyone to give a briefing on their immediate projects and he included me in that as well. Most of the morning was spent talking and figuring things out with Atlanta so since this is a short post…picture time!
This is Nortel as I walk in in the morning.

This is the kitchen!


And my other desk…