My first week of work!

It felt like it had been forever since my interview this summer. During the interim I had completed all of the required paperwork and went back to the Hoover Building to get finger printed. Finally though, the day had come for me to start work on Tuesday!

I woke up much earlier than I was used to since classes started and of course our coffee maker was broken but I think that first-day excitement was what managed to keep me awake all day. All in all, I would say I had a great first day of work. I got my badge at the Security office first thing and then I was off to the third floor to SIES to begin working. Unfortunately when I had arrived most of the people within my office were out at mandatory training all morning but I met them around lunchtime. Everyone was so warm and friendly. As far as actual work goes, I started working on something called CFIUS-- basically it looks at acquisitions of U.S. companies by foreign ones and how that will impact the U.S.' defense industrial base. So let's say Airbus was to buy Boeing-- we would review that and study its potential impact on the U.S. defense industry. For an economics major, it's actually really interesting.

Later I got to meet the Director of all of SIES which I really appreciated. Her name is Karen and she was very approachable and down to earth. I have to say that it was nice for her to schedule time to meet with me-- some employers just look as interns as little underlings that don't merit any attention so it gave me a great first impression of SIES in general. Later on she invited me to a roundtable discussion on the Bureau of Industry and Security with the European Communities. There were economic advisors from most of the embassies there and members of the EU Commission as well. I had never expected to attend something like that on the first day! I was one of two interns in the entire room so I felt very privileged to attend. All in all, not a bad day :)