** Today’s post is provided by guest blogger and Charlotte Consultant, Shane **
At Protiviti, we often emphasize the importance of our culture and how that culture differentiates us from other companies. The culture of our company is built on the company’s most important asset: our people. From Interns to Managing Directors, our people and the relationships they build make Protiviti a special place. We have been recognized by organizations such as Fortune magazine, Glassdoor, Consulting magazine, Vault, and Symplicity as a great place to work, due in large part to the culture we nurture across the firm.
According to Entrepreneur Magazine, a majority of Millennials believe that friendships in the workplace has a large impact on increasing happiness (by 57%), motivation (by 50%), and productivity (by 39%). Protiviti’s culture encourages employees to build these meaningful friendships, which have a profound impact. A prime example of this can be seen in the “challenge schools” that Protiviti offers as training for interns, new hires, and recently promoted individuals.
In the summer of 2016, I had the opportunity to attend The Intern Challenge (TIC) in Orlando, Florida, where I was fortunate to meet some great indiviuals from Protiviti offices across the country. The relationships built over the course of the 8-week Intern Program were strong enough to keep us in touch as we continued on to finish our final semesters at our respective universities. With plenty of texts, calls, and FaceTimes, our friendships continued to grow as we started out on our journey to becoming full time Protiviti Consultants together.
After accepting our offers to begin our careers at Protiviti, it soon became time to enroll in The Consultant Challenge (TCC). TCC was held in Chicago, Illinois and would be our first opportunity, not only to see one another, but to meet new and exciting individuals who would be welcomed into our friend group with open arms. At this point, we were composed of Consultants from cities across the country, including Charlotte, Dallas, Chicago, and New York, and all with different backgrounds. As we departed from TCC in July of 2017, we promised each other we would not wait for another Challenge School to reunite, but rather we would organize our own reunion!
Nearly 9 months later, our first reunion finally became a reality as the group took flight en route to Charlotte, NC (where I live). The result was a weekend filled with lots of smiles and laughter across North Carolina with some lifelong friends we have made through Protiviti. The people here are more than just our greatest asset as a company – they are also some of my best friends. It is moments like our recent reunion that make us happy to be #LivingProtiviti.
-Shane, Charlotte Consultant
