Walking up to the large revolving door, I paused for a moment to gaze up at the reflecting windows towering up above me.
A nervous grin spread across my face.
On the cusp of Atlanta, the Cox Enterprises corporate headquarters stood before me. Realizing that this was the first time I would be entering this building not as a hopeful interviewee, but rather as a proud part of the Cox Automotive family, my stomach flipped with unsure excitement. I squared my shoulders, stretched two inches taller in my trusty, black, patent leather heels, and braced against the powerful whoosh of the door as it quickly spun and deposited me on the other side of the glass wall.
This was the beginning of a grand adventure.
Feeling as though I had fallen down the rabbit hole of corporate wonderland, I took in the shining marble floors and wooden walls before me. Upbeat music bounced down the hall as I was greeted with an energetic hello from a recruiter.
“Welcome to Cox Automotive!” he said with a warm smile, shaking my hand and leading me down to the check-in desk. “You must be Rachel. The other interns are getting to know each other. We’ll begin shortly.” I was ushered into a large conference room, catching happy smiles and bubbly good mornings of passing faces along the way.
I stepped further inside and was immediately taken aback. A huge party filled the room, young people bustling here and there and chatting over loud music.
Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore…
With 65 interns employed at the Atlanta office alone, and 54 working at locations spanning from New York to California, the sheer size of this intern class already quintupled the number of people I worked with the summer before. With 60,000 employees collaborating around the globe, I quickly learned that the scale of this corporate powerhouse extended far beyond anything I had ever experienced, and it was time to jump right in.
Scanning the room, I recognized a girl I met at the hiring blitz, went to say hello, and quickly found a seat at her table.
The next hour was a whirlwind of faces and names, schools and departments, shaking hands and exchanging interview stories, as we all prepared for a “know your neighbor” quiz promising to kick things off at the bottom of the hour. In the middle of laughing at one intern’s story about getting lost on the wrong floor, a bright chime interrupted the roar of nervous chatter.
“Interns,” called out an uninhibited and lively voice. A reverent silence settled throughout the room. “Welcome to Cox Automotive.” The owner of the voice stood tall at the front of the group, brandishing a set of small chimes with zeal. “I’m Chad Prosser,” he continued, flashing us a toothy smile and taking in the sea of eager faces staring back at him. “I’ll be your guide for your Cox Automotive Roadtrip Onboarding journey. Let’s get started, shall we?”
Chad began narrating the history of the company and its growth since the beginning when Governor James Cox acquired Dayton Daily News in 1898. An intriguing story of business, family, and vision unfolded, impressing upon us the great esteem of the company we now contributed to. After receiving our badges and a brief session on professional best practice for students, we were finally fully equipped with everything we needed to set off in search of our managers.
As managers flocked into the conference room, interns were whisked away one after another for lunch. A team of three employees greeted me, explaining that my manager, Araba, was tied up in a meeting, but would be seeing me later that day. For now, I was to go with them and the fellow intern I recognized from the hiring blitz to get to know each other better over lunch. Here I discovered that, in a wild turn of chance, this friend I made, Mackenzie, would be my partner in crime for the summer as we would be working on the same team together and sharing an office. Knowing that I would be sharing this experience with someone else filled me with excitement and gratitude as we headed off to lunch. Later, we explored the building on our first day, instantly bonded in our enthusiasm for the adventures ahead.
That evening, taking my place in the line of commuters driving home after a long day’s work, I reflected on the experiences of my first day. Overcome with excitement for the summer ahead, I couldn’t help but to radiate thankfulness for somehow finding myself that morning standing at the doorstep of that reflective tower of opportunity. Although I couldn’t yet know what this summer would bring, there was one thing I could be sure of: this was just the start, and things were going to get very interesting.
-TI
The Internette 