Aborn's 2020 Summer Interns
How did you find the Aborn internship program?
Karly: I am fortunate enough to have known Jill before this summer and she graciously adopted me onto the Aborn team.
Andrew: I got this internship at Aborn through Steve Aborn, who coached me in Football for two years at Hanover High. There we developed a great relationship both on and off the field.
Hayley: My father actually coached Steve Aborn in high school, small world right!
What do you do for Aborn?
Hayley: I started out working in the marketing department helping with content creation and distribution. I enjoyed the work and learning about the industry. Later I was added to the special account working with data and tracking freight. It was a blast taking what I learned from marketing and working on a real-world example!
Karly: Me, as well as the other interns, are helping out with a summer-long task of moving units of PPE via air and ocean. Our main job is keeping track of everything from production to final destination, and making sure everything is accounted for and where it is supposed to be.
In the beginning, what did you find interesting about logistics and trucking?
Karly: Before this, I had no experience in the world of freight, so all of the terminology and procedures were new to me. It was interesting to see in real-time the behind the scenes of logistics and how many moving parts there are bringing these shipments to their final destinations.
How did you like the special project you were working on? Was it easy? Hard?
Karly: Working on this project was a great opportunity because we are directly dealing with supplies for the ongoing pandemic. It was an adventure for the whole team as we had to constantly adjust as things changed within the world, but it was never too difficult!
Andrew: Some aspects were tough but working with someone else made the project a little easier and asking questions was very important.
How was the technology you were working with? Was it something you had to learn or did you already know how to use it? Was it a barrier for you?
Karly: Most of the programs were ones that we were familiar with and were easy to use which was great, so it was never really a barrier. One of the goals of what we have been doing is to take the overloads of information and streamline it in a readable and accessible way.
Hayley: For the most part I found most of the technology very easy to grasp and anything that we couldn't figure out the Aborn guys had plenty of patience.
What surprised you about the logistics and trucking industry?
Andrew: How large some of these shipments and air freights are and how much it cost to ship stuff across the world that isn't that large. You don't think about the cost behind all this stuff until you dive into it.
Convince someone else your age why they should do an internship.
Andrew: You should work and internship at 19 because it's an opportunity to learn how to work in the real world before you start to do it every day. It doesn't even have to be in a profession that you want to go into but it forces you to see what you like and dislike. So when it comes time to find a job that you love you know what you like and dislike and who knows maybe your internship will become your real job one day, and if not then you have the connections from that company to get a recommendation elsewhere.
Hayley: I got to discover how much I enjoy marketing, so much that I'm now dual-majoring in Neuroscience and Marketing. I would have never had the opportunity to work in marketing had it not been for this internship.
Karly: Internships of any kind are such great experiences, even if it may not be within your specified field. Expanding your experiences and learning about different industries provides you with so much new knowledge and skills, even simply giving you a background in a professional setting and working with a team.
