Intern Diaries: Steelcase
September 2009-March 2010
Is there anything more invigorating than sleekly designed office furniture? I’ll let you twirl that one over in your mind for a bit. To be honest, when an internship popped up at Steelcase, I didn’t do a happy dance around my college apartment. Almost all of my other internships had been so in line with my health and fitness background—this one seemed a little too off the beaten path—but I ran with it anyway.
I worked with the communications team to relaunch Steelcase.com; which, for a global company with several unique country websites worldwide and thousands of web pages, was no small task. My experience was three-fold—four-fold if you count the life-altering comfort experience of spending eight hours in a Leap chair—meet with various Steelcase teams, mock-up a web design given their needs within our new site’s functions and in some cases build it out in the content management system.
After a few weeks in training learning all the corners of the new site’s capabilities, my supervisors set me free. One week I’d meet with the community outreach team, the next with the environmental and sustainability group and then with the U.S. government folks. Wanna know what I know about U.S. government rules and restrictions on office furniture? Nada. And trust a lady when she says there’s A LOT to know about U.S. government rules and restrictions on office furniture.
It was fun to feel like the individual web consultant to a new team every week—it was possibly the best way to get to know the interworking of the company. Sometimes these teams would have a clear vision for what they wanted their new web pages to look like, other times they didn’t understand basic video embedding functionality. In either case, I was able to adjust how much help I provided and oversaw the completion of many sections of the web site.
We also worked closely with the Steelcase France communications team in regular webcam conferences. Our co-workers there were also feverishly working to update the European Steelcase sites and together we shared layout and template ideas.
At the start of my internship, I was working a few days a week while finishing my undergrad degree. Once the New Year hit, I was in the office 9-5 and often putting in additional hours at home, uploading and reorganizing content to meet our launch deadline. By mid-February I was working 60 hours a week, abusing the free coffee at our showroom next door only occasionally.
Of all my internships, this was the least writing focused. I did write, but it was more reorganizing content than inventing it. What this internship provided that others didn’t was intense web layout, design and SEO knowledge. I sharpened my understanding of what users are looking for on the web and the best place to organize content visually. I mastered the backend CMS shortly after joining the team and was able to upload and manipulate content on the site with ease. It might not have been the internship I was looking for, but it was one of the best.
Links to content I built on Steelcase.com
About
In The Community
Investor Relations
Research Projects
Sustainability
Is there anything more invigorating than sleekly designed office furniture? I’ll let you twirl that one over in your mind for a bit. To be honest, when an internship popped up at Steelcase, I didn’t do a happy dance around my college apartment. Almost all of my other internships had been so in line with my health and fitness background—this one seemed a little too off the beaten path—but I ran with it anyway.
I worked with the communications team to relaunch Steelcase.com; which, for a global company with several unique country websites worldwide and thousands of web pages, was no small task. My experience was three-fold—four-fold if you count the life-altering comfort experience of spending eight hours in a Leap chair—meet with various Steelcase teams, mock-up a web design given their needs within our new site’s functions and in some cases build it out in the content management system.
 |
| Oh, and I appeared in a 'stock image' photo for the new site as well. Snazzy dress pants, blurry self. |
After a few weeks in training learning all the corners of the new site’s capabilities, my supervisors set me free. One week I’d meet with the community outreach team, the next with the environmental and sustainability group and then with the U.S. government folks. Wanna know what I know about U.S. government rules and restrictions on office furniture? Nada. And trust a lady when she says there’s A LOT to know about U.S. government rules and restrictions on office furniture.
It was fun to feel like the individual web consultant to a new team every week—it was possibly the best way to get to know the interworking of the company. Sometimes these teams would have a clear vision for what they wanted their new web pages to look like, other times they didn’t understand basic video embedding functionality. In either case, I was able to adjust how much help I provided and oversaw the completion of many sections of the web site.
We also worked closely with the Steelcase France communications team in regular webcam conferences. Our co-workers there were also feverishly working to update the European Steelcase sites and together we shared layout and template ideas.
At the start of my internship, I was working a few days a week while finishing my undergrad degree. Once the New Year hit, I was in the office 9-5 and often putting in additional hours at home, uploading and reorganizing content to meet our launch deadline. By mid-February I was working 60 hours a week, abusing the free coffee at our showroom next door only occasionally.
Of all my internships, this was the least writing focused. I did write, but it was more reorganizing content than inventing it. What this internship provided that others didn’t was intense web layout, design and SEO knowledge. I sharpened my understanding of what users are looking for on the web and the best place to organize content visually. I mastered the backend CMS shortly after joining the team and was able to upload and manipulate content on the site with ease. It might not have been the internship I was looking for, but it was one of the best.
Links to content I built on Steelcase.com
About
In The Community
Investor Relations
Research Projects
Sustainability