Dwellworks Culture

Dwellworks culture is based on a relaxed, fun, determined, and social atmosphere. On my first day of my internship, I felt relaxed right when I walked in through the door and was greeted by my leader. I had the opportunity of meeting the CEO and CFO of the company on my first day, which most interns or even employees of other companies do not get the pleasure of doing so.

The employees are always full of positive energy that radiates onto everyone around them so everyone feels energetic and social. There is seriously never a dull moment at Dwellworks. The appraisal service that I work in especially has the liveliest people I have ever met. When appraisal moved from downstairs to upstairs, I received comments from the other interns that the volume of the upstairs office increased significantly. Sometimes, Jarod and Joe B. sing for everyone just to make their day better and less stressful.

Since I walked through the doors of the office that first day, I have truly felt welcomed by everyone who works at Dwellworks. People are always saying hello as you walk by them in the hallway or just simply smiling at you. I felt like I did fit in right away with the positive attitudes and compassion people showed to me.

-Cat St. John

The Perfect Place for Dwellworks

Dwellworks’s headquarters is in the Playhouse District in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The Playhouse District is the perfect place for Dwellworks and its fantastic culture. Fun, just as at Dwellworks, is a key component of life in the district. Playhouse Square is the focal point, and is home to the second largest theater complex in the U.S.. There are always shows and concerts to provide relaxation at the end of a long work week. Dwellworks is also a short walk away from Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, and Walnut Wednesdays, at which food trucks line the street.

The office is directly located in the Playhouse Square Plaza near the recently constructed chandelier that hangs over the square. The plaza is home to Dynamite Burgers which is a convenient and delicious way to spend your lunch hour. Concerts and farmers markets can also be found in the plaza, which create a lively atmosphere that fills the square. Playhouse Square creates the same vibrant, innovative, and fun environment that is found at Dwellworks, which is why it is the perfect place for the headquarters to be located.



-Kevin

Helping Out With Google Hangout

This past week the 3 amazing interns of the Valuation Services department here at Dwellworks received an email regarding an exciting project that we were asked to work on. Catherine, Kevin and I were instructed to become experts at the app called Google Hangout. Our task was to figure out how to set up a Gmail account for the Cleveland office to use, download and explore the Google Hangout app, and essentially become masters at navigating all of the functions within it, specifically the video calling aspect of it.

We then had to figure out how to use the camera in the office’s main conference room. The end goal was to utilize this application in order to hold team meetings with our on-site Cleveland employees, as well as with the various people who work  from an off-site location, through  a video conference. Google Hangout is very similar to Facebook messenger but with the option to have video or “Face-Time" calls. Using this app allows you the ability to text, make phone calls nationally and internationally, send pictures,  share documents, utilize the screen sharing function, and make video calls with up to 9 people at a time - and all for free. You can use this wonderful little app on any kind of computer and on any type of phone as long as you have a Gmail account, the Hangout app, and  a camera on the device you wish to use it on.

So we started out our assignment by downloading the app on each of our phones to get familiar with it. Then, we set up a meeting in the office conference room to get them all set up with it in there.  After mastering the ins and outs of the app, we set up a meeting for the following day to present our expertise and our findings to employees within our Cleveland office, along with a handful of off-site employees who were going to need to know how to set up and navigate it for future use.

We presented to about 14 Dwellworks employees total that day. The off site employees watched exactly what we were doing on our computer screen in the conference room here in Cleveland and listened to our instructions intently.

We walked them through step by step how to download Google Chrome, set up a Gmail account, download the Hangout app, navigate the various functions, and how set up  and participate in a group video conference. They all listened intently, caught on quickly, and were a wonderful audience I must say.

The presentation went flawlessly and everybody was extremely excited to use this wonderful new tool and very appreciative and grateful for our efforts and our instructive presentation which guided them through each and every step of the way.

I really enjoyed working on this for the office because it was so fun and technology comes so very naturally for our generation. It was great to see how us interns can use our knowledge of technology to really help out an office and improve how a business operates simply by navigating and sharing this information with them.

What can I say, interns rock! :)

Brittany Orwin
Valuations Services Intern

Why I Would Recommend Dwellwork's Internship Program

I would recommend this internship to other classmates of mine due Dwellwork’s great culture and the valuable career building experiences you are guaranteed to have. Dwellworks places sincere value on their interns, and your personal success, future and present, means as much to Dwellworks as your ability to help the business succeed. I know not many internships offer the interns the opportunity to meet the CEO and CFO of the company on the first day, and the smaller business environment offers interns a great opportunity to expand their professional network and possibly help them land a job after graduation.

The people at Dwellworks help me to feel as if I am not an intern, but a full time employee. I am given projects and opportunities to be a critical problem solver to not only help the company, but my own professional growth. In my intern project, I have the opportunity to work with other interns to solve a problem that Dwellworks currently faces to enhance how their services are provided. Through this project I have learned how to work on group projects in the business world which is different than the academic world. Having this new perspective will help me in my continuing studies and my career. The Dwellworks internship, regardless of which department you find yourself in, is a great way for anyone to launch their professional career. 

-Kevin Mullinger

College-life to Work-life

Let’s just say that I have had to make a MAJOR adjustment going from classes and studying at UD to working 8:30am-5:30pm for 5 days straight for the Dwellworks internship. Basically, it is a different world that I have gradually adjusted to in the past 5 weeks.

I am a night owl at school. I, for some odd reason, cannot go to bed before 2am during the week, and then I catch up on my sleep on the weekends. Funny enough, I can get through a day of classes with 4-5 hours of sleep and sometimes not even a cup of coffee. The first couple weeks at Dwellworks, I was not sleeping as well as I should have. Getting up at 6:30am everyday and having an 8 hour day ahead of me was a tough change in my life. I have now been going to bed before 10pm-11pm every night so that I can get at least 6 hours of sleep and survive the day. Coffee is my savior. I probably have about 2-3 cups a day to give me that extra boost of energy.

At school, I am constantly walking around campus, either going to class, walking around the student neighborhood, or getting food. At work, I am sitting at my cubicle for about 6-7 hours a day emailing and calling appraisers, while working on other task as well. I enjoy being independent, working on my tasks that I do on the daily. Being downtown at work is exciting because I love walking around and trying out the different food places that are here as well.

This adjustment was a bit difficult, but I do think I have grown more in this internship from getting a feel of how the real world works and having a full-time job.

-Cat St. John

Do You Believe in MAGIC

Last Wednesday, we had our MAGIC training all day in Cleveland. Everyone in their life deals with customer service interaction on a daily basis. We do not even realize that we are interacting with “customers” and providing “service” to them if they are in need of help or clarification. For my other job, I am a Campus Manager at Dayton for University Tees, a custom clothing and promotional products company. I deal with customers on a daily basis for that job, by emailing Fraternities, Sororities, clubs, and organizations on campus or meeting with them in person to sell t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc. At Dwellworks, as Valuation Services intern, I am emailing or calling appraisers to confirm that they have inspections scheduled or that their appraisal reports will be uploaded into our website by their due date. Both jobs require me to interact with customers every day, listening to them and understanding their problems or requests. When greeting a customer, you want to make a connection to build the relationship. First impressions have a huge impact on building a relationship.  At every meeting or in every email, I try to act professionally and express confidence that I can provide my service to help the customer out.

I learned a lot of new information from the MAGIC training. We learned about “tragic phrases” that was a new concept to me. “ASAP” is one of the tragic phrases we learned about since it could have many different meanings to it; it could mean that you will do the task the minute you get off the phone call with the customer, or it could mean that you will do the task when you finish the other tasks you needed to get done first. “Unfortunately” was another tragic phrase that was in our training booklets. Trying to not use that word in my phone calls or emails is going to be difficult for me because I use “unfortunately” probably a few times a day, but I know I will need to apply the training to my work with emailing appraisers or calling them for reports. I also learned that you should get permission from the customer before you put them on hold or transfer them to another associate. Then, after you put them on hold, you should use their name and wait for a response from them, and then thank them for patiently waiting while they were on hold. I never knew that was the appropriate way to handle a hold for a customer, but I know now that I should apply it if I ever need to put an appraiser or client on hold or need to transfer them to someone else in VS. The MAGIC training that Dwellworks offers to their associates is unquestionably beneficial to everyone in many ways. In every department at Dwellworks, the employees are always interacting with customers each day. The associates need to know the magical steps in building a relationship with a customer and positively helping out their customers in the best way possible.


Cat St. John
Valuation Services Intern, Cleveland

Dwellworks = FUN

Fun at Dwellworks

Dwellworks provides an opportunity to employees that many businesses do not offer, the ability to have fun in the work place. On Friday 6/13 we had a day to celebrate the beginning to the World Cup. Everyone was encouraged to wear their favorite sports team’s clothing and bring in a picture of themselves as kids playing sports. A hula hoop and soccer ball juggling contest provided a fun break from work, and snacks of oranges, cookies, and gummy snacks helped to energize everyone to finish out the day strong. I don’t know of many businesses that encourage activities during work hours just for the purpose of having fun.

On more of an everyday note, the people who I work with at Dwellworks are fun to be around. Jokes are made and enjoyable conversations can be heard around the office. This type of relaxed atmosphere encourages teamwork and helps to provide enjoyment from work through interaction with team members. Having the flexibility to take a quick break from work has helped me to stay motivated and energized throughout the workday. Dwellworks is a fun place to work, and the people are the reason why Dwellworks has been able to have fun and grow as a business.

-Kevin

A simply MAGICal day

During the day long MAGIC customer service training we learnt the do’s and don’ts of customer service.

Most of the training was geared towards over the phone customer service as well as how to build good relationships with our customers. Some interesting statistics were presented to us that really demonstrated how important good customer service is. We were given a chart that gave us reasons why customers quit buying from suppliers and it listed the following reasons: 1.)Relationship with another company or sales person, 2.)competitive price, 3.)dissatisfaction with product, and 4.) attitude of indifference expressed towards customer by one or more persons representing the supplier. Then we were asked to guess the percentages for each of the four reasons. A whopping 68% of why customers quit buying from suppliers was because of an attitude of indifference expressed towards them by one or more persons representing the supplier. Dissatisfaction with product only accounted for 14%, competitive price was 11%, and relationship with another company or salesperson was a mere 4%. Those statistics really prove what a critical role customer service plays within a business.  Through this training program we were taught how to demonstrate good phone etiquette with customers, how to interact with them and use “magical” phrases such as “absolutely”  and “I’d be happy to”, how to express empathy, helpfulness, and sincerity though tone and specific phrases, how to personalize your interactions,  how to be proactive and offer options and solutions, how to ask the right questions to get to the heart of the matter, and ultimately how to give knowledgeable, helpful, and fabulous customer service in all of your daily interactions.

MAGIC training is a training program offered by a company called Communico and is used by many corporations worldwide to provide their employees with customer service training. The objectives of this company’s training program are to teach people how to… 1) lead each internal and external customer interaction by focusing what you can control and what you can influence 2) express your understanding of how a customer feels about a situation and why it is significant to the customer 3) use customer – focused versus barrier focused communication and 4) handle difficult situations with professionalism and grace. The program taught us exactly that and I think that is why Dwellworks uses this program and believes in it whole heartedly.  

Dwellworks is customer service based company and utilizes this program to teach us how to deliver consistent and simply “magical” customer service to each and every one of our customers because, when it comes down to it, everyone that we interact with on a daily basis plays an important to the success of our company. It was a “magical” day of training (and our lovely and fabulous HR reps provided us with a free lunch tooJ)

Brittany Orwin

Valuation Services Intern

Friday fun for the World Cup kick-off!

Today in the office we had a whole day filled with fun events to celebrate the World Cup kick-off. Everyone was invited to wear sports and soccer themed attire and the fun committee hosted various little competitions throughout the day. There was a contest for the best childhood sports picture, a juggling contest, and a hula hoop contest. They had Chipotle, Starbucks, and other various restaurant gift cards to give out to each of the winners. I brought my A-game to the hula hoop contest and won a Starbucks gift card woohooJ Fun is one of the values here at Dwellworks and the fun committee definitely knows how to create fun here in the office. It was a great way to end the week and everyone truly did have a lot of fun. Many thanks to the fun committee for putting on this fun event!

Brittany Orwin

Valuation Services Intern

My Home for the Next 8 Weeks

I spend about 35 hours a week, give or take, in my cubicle at my desk. When I arrive to work each morning, I go straight to my desk to drop my bag off and get situated for the day. I usually take out my intern binder and my planner so that I am organized and get my tasks done for the day that I need to complete. I have my necessary cup of coffee in the morning and a water bottle to stay hydrated. The dual monitors are very helpful for my daily tasks of emailing and contacting the appraisers for inspection statuses and report statuses. It is very effective to have both monitors so I can have my email pulled up on one screen and then the Plus website pulled up on the other monitor, instead of having to minimize both programs on just one screen. I use my ShoreTel phone everyday as well, calling appraisers for updates and even calling other employees in the office for help or guidance. I have multiple cabinets and folder holders, but I do not have files to store, just mostly post-its and notes full of information. My chair is comfortable, but I do plan on investing in an exercise ball so that I can work on my posture while sitting at my desk. I enjoy sitting at my cubicle everyday, especially since my coworkers are near me if I have any questions or need help with something.

Currently, Valuation Services and Property Management are in the process of moving to the upstairs office so I will be leaving the cubicle that I am at on Monday. I hope I get as good of a location upstairs as I have downstairs!

Cat St. John
Valuation Services Intern, Cleveland

Magic Tricks With MAGIC

Prior to working at Dwellworks I had little customer service experience. I worked as a caddy at a golf course, which is the only job I had in which I interacted with the customers directly. My knowledge of how serve customers was to always be polite and that the customer is “always right”. MAGIC taught me that there is much more to customer service than being polite. I also learned the value of customer service; for instance in a survey CEO’s of fortune 500 companies changed suppliers 68% of the time due to poor customer service. That alone reveals how important it is for companies to make sure their customer service is the best it can possibly be.

It is imperative for people in customer service to not just be polite in the words they use, but in how they say those words. Tone is a key role in how to deliver a message that makes the customer want to interact with you again, especially when speaking over the phone. The five steps of MAGIC are essential to building a great relationship with the customer and delivering the service the customer desires. The one takeaway from MAGIC that greatly impacted how I approach the customer, is having a genuine concern for the customer’s issues and use positive words with an upbeat tone. This way you can guide the customer’s mood to a more relaxed state so to better understand and solve their problem. Before MAGIC I mostly focused on being polite and sincere in how I speak to customers, but to be a truly effective server I need to develop a habit of being upbeat and friendly. I learned valuable customer service tricks with MAGIC. MAGIC taught me that the customer comes first and helped me to not only serve Dwellworks’s customers better, but also the customers I will interact with in my future.

-Kevin Mullinger

College Life vs. Work life

The adjustment from the college life to a full time work life is harder than you think. This internship has taught me some vital lessons in working in the business world. It also has really made me think about the differences and adjustments one has to make entering the business world. It can be hard to transfer from one setting to another and that is why I believe internships really help us get a better understanding of the working life.

1. A difference I have found personally is how different each day can be. One day you could be working on one thing and the next a completely different task. There is not a set schedule of the exact same work you will be doing every day. In school, we have set times for classes and syllabuses that tell us exactly what we are going to be learning for the entire semester.
    
2. At school I do not have to wake up at until about 15 minutes before my class to be there on time and I do not have to look that presentable because, let’s be honest, it is just class. However in the business world I wake up about an hour and a half before the time I arrive in the office. I also like to look presentable because you will never know who you might meet that day. This is a change for me because I am not a morning person whatsoever.
    
3. Another difference I have found is how long or short a day can go. In the work life we are here from 8:30-5:30, which I would classify as all day. We are working with the same people and the same department. Whereas in school, we are always shifting classrooms and different people. We are also not thinking about the same thing all day. We are learning different subjects making us think differently.

Colton Ebersole

Valuation Services/Destination Services Intern

College life vs. work life

Adjusting to work life

College life and work life are definitely two different animals. Although I absolutely cannot wait to graduate and get out there into the real world, work life does take some time to get adjusted to. I think that the hardest thing about working at an office job is the amount of time you spend sitting down and looking at a computer screen. When you’re in college, you have class but then you are free to dictate how and when you get your work done. When you’re working, you have a set 8:30-5:30 schedule. It’s quite a bit different and it honestly has been a little bit difficult to get adjusted to but I definitely think that the pros outweigh the cons and hey, it’s FridayJ

My Type of Internship

A friend of mine had taken this internship a couple years back and said it was a really great program and that I should look into it. I had done a little bit of research on the company and it sounded interesting. I never knew there was an industry for this type of work. My first interaction with Dwellworks was at the John Carroll career fair. There I was able to talk with Tim and the internship appealed to me even more. Even though there was not an accounting internship, I had heard it is great internship for business majors to see what the business world is all about.

I decided to take the internship because it seemed like the type of environment that I wanted to start my business career in. Through both my phone and office interview I could tell that Dwellworks is the place I wanted to work. The key values were just what I was looking for in a business. It is not very often that you find a company with one of its main values as FUN. That shows that this company prides themselves in a great environment and a fun working space. I chose this internship to get out of my comfort zone and to learn about an industry that most people never get the opportunity to learn about. I am very happy to be a part of Dwellworks.

Colton Ebersole

Valuation Services Intern/Destination Services Intern

Adjusting to Work Life

In college, you become used to managing your day based on the classes you have. This allows you to plan ahead in regards to assignments, work schedule, and free time. One day you might have five classes and one day you might not have any classes. In the working world you work for eight hours each day every day with an hour lunch break if you are lucky. Your free time is only after or before work, which gives you little time to enjoy the things you may have done in college on a daily basis. One thing that many college students may underestimate is the ability to take an hour power nap after your morning classes before you head for the home stretch of your afternoon classes. At work you have to find ways to reenergize after an already long day.

Your time at work isn’t your own but the companies, so it is imperative to find ways to keep busy and productive. Meetings may pop up and unexpected problems may arise that eat at your energy levels as your stress increases. Working is about maintaining a consistent level of energy throughout the day to maximize productivity, and developing ways to manage your time so you are always at least a little busy. The one thing that is worse than being overloaded with work is having no work to do. Finding the middle ground is essential to being productive in the workplace. Also, procrastination cannot exist at work. It is not possible to cram before a deadline and think that you are going to do a good job on your assignment. Give yourself plenty of time to work on assignments and go back and forth between projects to ensure you don’t fall behind.

My final thought is that I expected working to be harder than school, but in many ways I find it more enjoyable and easier. For one thing the work is more enjoyable. Even the most mundane task at work I find to be more enjoyable than any of the assignments I’ve done at school. Also, I’ve found that although I may be more tired at the end of the day, I seem to be able to maintain my energy easier by switching between tasks. Lastly, when finishing a project in school I was overcome with a sense of relief, but at work when I finish a project I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in a job well done. Working at Dwellworks has been an enjoyable change from college life.

 

-Kevin Mullinger

Valuation Services Intern

Business Etiquette Training- Advice for Interns

Today we had our business etiquette meeting with the HR representatives. Most of the information presented on general business etiquette was common sense; however, there were a few very important points that were touched upon that I did not know prior to this meeting.  First and foremost, we learnt about the importance of first impressions. Each and every one of us makes judgments and decisions about others within the first 20 seconds of meeting them. We all pretty much are aware of that. What came as a surprise to me was that these judgments are based only 7% on words, the rest is all physical.  I never really realized how little of a role words play in our first impressions. Interesting huh?

Another topic that was addressed was office conversations and what is acceptable and what should be avoided. Obviously you can control what you chose to talk about; however, you cannot always control what others chose to talk about without, what kinds of questions they ask you, and the direction of the conversation.  As an intern, this is a tricky thing because other employees and interns around you trying to get to know you, asking you questions regarding your personal life, and other topics. You may not necessarily feel like talking about certain things in your personal life in the office but at the same time you don’t want to be rude to people who are going out of their way to make you feel comfortable and trying to get to know you. Also, you may be ok with talking about a certain topic to that specific person one on one but there are many other people around you who are in earshot and might perceive the conversation in a different light.  The HR representatives in the meeting gave us great insight and advice on handling these types of situations.

I think that this was one of the most helpful meetings I’ve had so far here at Dwellworks. As an intern, the corporate world is a territory we have had either little or no experience in and millions of different questions pop up in your head throughout the course of the day- a lot of which has to do with conduct and protocol. Everything is new, you are unsure of certain things, and you are constantly being analyzed and giving off impressions to others. They did a wonderful job on this presentation and I gained very helpful insight and guidance.  They even threw in some dining etiquette...napkin on lap, use utensils from outside in, bread plate on left and drink on right J Time for lunch, bon appétit!

Brittany Orwin

Valuation Services Intern

 

The life of a Desk

With this being my first office job, I have never had a desk or cubical before. It was a surprise to find out on the first day that Dwellworks gave us our own individual cubical. They also were very courteous in stocking the desk with all of the essential office supplies. I was also surprised to find that I received my own personal phone because I feel at most other internships you would not get a company telephone number. Dwellworks also provided us with an array of gifts for us, such as sunglasses, silly putty, and an official Dwellworks cup.  My desk is located towards the front of the back of the office on the first floor, just past the divider of conference rooms. My desk is actually the first desk in the row right next to the women’s bathroom door. I sit next to Kevin, my fellow valuation services intern, and Rick Stuber. My desk is mostly organized with everything in its place but I feel once the work picks up it will soon change.

Colton Ebersole

Valuation Services Intern

Favorite Place to Eat Lunch

 “Walnut Wednesday” takes place every Wednesday from 11:30am-1:30pm in downtown Cleveland. Food trucks gather at Walnut Ave. and E. 12^th Street in the NineTwelve District for people to come and buy lunch. There are an assortment of food trucks including a taco truck, bistro truck, crepes truck, sushi truck, Swensons food truck, donut truck, ice cream truck, and many more. Live music is played as well for people to enjoy while they sit down and chow on their favorite food.

Yesterday, some of the interns decided to go to Walnut Wednesday for lunch. It was my first time going and I was very excited to attend this event because I had heard great reviews and remarks about it. When deciding what to get for lunch, I was stuck between the sushi food truck and the Zydeco Bistro food truck. I decided to go with the bistro food truck because the menu looked so appetizing. I ended up getting their famous 4 cheese macaroni. You could add toppings to your macaroni and cheese including caramelized onions, pretzels, chicken, and other interesting toppings to add to it. My topping of choice was the shredded chicken and it tasted amazing! I also got to try one of the mini donuts sprinkled with cinnamon sugar on top of it from The Donut Lab food truck. The mini donut was so soft and tasted delicious! It was the perfect little dessert to have after my meal. I definitely plan on going to Walnut Wednesday more often. I would like to try every food truck at least one time this summer.

Cat St. John

Valuation Services Intern, Cleveland

First Impression

For my first blog post, I am going to write about my first impression of Dwellworks, my leader, and my team that I will be working with throughout the internship. First off, I did have my interview in person at Dwellworks exactly a month ago. I only got to see the upstairs when I had my interview and all of the cubicles/rooms up there. I was very impressed with just seeing only the upstairs since I loved how modern everything was and the different rooms that were surrounding the cubicles. On our first day, Jarod, our VS leader, gave us a tour of the downstairs office since that is where VS is located. I loved the layout of the kitchen with the old murals on the two sides of the walls and the pop of color on the back of the wall. The kitchen may be my favorite place to go (I love the coffee machine!), especially since you can sit down and eat right in there.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the company that I experienced right on the first day. The cubicles are designed perfectly so that you have your own personal space to work at, but are close to your other associates so that you can have conversations with them still without leaving your chair at your desk. Everyone was so welcoming on the first day, either physically coming to our desk to meet the interns or taking time from their work for a few minutes so that we could meet the associates and get to know them better.

When I walked through the door on Monday, Jarod was right there to meet us all (the 4 of the VS interns). Right off the bat, he was making jokes, which made me less nervous, especially for the first day. I also got to know my fellow VS interns that I was going to be with all summer, Brittany, Kevin, and Colton. We were all friendly to one another, and I knew on Monday it was going to be a fun, productive summer with my team.

Cat St. John

Valuation Services Intern

Why I Decided to Accept the Dwellworks Internship

I first looked into Dwellworks because of the convenience of the internship being located in Cleveland near my home. I had little, if any, knowledge of the relocation industry and the roles that Dwellworks plays in the industry. After reading about the company, the culture, and the internship program I realized that Dwellworks is a company that values their interns. This is a quality that is rare in business and I had the sense that Dwellworks was a place at which I could not only grow as a professional but as a person.

The culture at Dwellworks is also unique in that fun is a strong value in the organization. Not many companies value fun in the workplace, and Dwellworks uses fun to help promote teamwork among coworkers. After completing the interview process, I was able to learn more about the internship program, the role interns play in the success of the business, and the culture at Dwellworks. The internship program promotes professional development through a summer long intern project, resume and cover letter improvements, and mock interviews to improve interview skills. I immediately gained the sense that Dwellworks actually cares about the success of their interns, regardless if they want to work full time at Dwellworks or not.

 Many companies only hire interns who are juniors or seniors and have prior work or intern experience. Dwellworks did not look for prior business experience, but rather teamwork, work ethic, and leadership in their interns, regardless of their year in school. This fact helped me to feel confident in my ability to work well with other Dwellworks employees and help the business succeed as a future intern. The opportunities for my own personal and professional growth at Dwellworks made accepting the internship one of the easiest decisions I have ever had to make.

-Kevin Mullinger