I feel pretty lucky at State Farm because I have a mentor that spends a lot of time explaining how the company’s insurance works. I generally spend my first hour at work with my mentor learning about different facets of State Farm Insurance. State Farm is a huge organization with more than 8,000 employees at my campus. In such a large organization it can be easy to get lost in its complexity and lose sight on why I’m asked to work on certain projects.

To offset the overwhelming size of an organization, I feel it is important to learn and as much as possible about the company. The more I know about a specific topic, no matter its size, the more comfortable I feel around it. I feel more comfortable at work knowing how and why State Farm does business. Ironically, the more I understand about the business the more I feel encouraged to work and contribute what I have to share. One lesson I’ve learned this summer is that it’s important to not only know how to perform tasks for a job but to understand the company I work for.