Goh explores career possibilities with TQL internships

October 26, 2023

College of Arts and Sciences’ senior Jaid Goh leveraged five semesters of internships at Total Quality Logistics (TQL) to help understand and refine how she wants to launch her career. As a computer science and PPP major with a minor in theology, Jaid tried several internship roles to investigate different interests and strengths in a short period of time.

“I worked in three different roles--software development, business intelligence, and data governance,” Jaid said. “In data governance, I help the company set rules around what data can be used in reporting as well as worked with our corporate counsel to ensure compliance with data privacy laws.”

According to Bryan Patterson, Jaid’s TQL internship supervisor in business intelligence and data governance, experiencing different departments and jobs is healthy to understanding what you want in your future. “Interning is possibly the single best method for learning what it is you want to do when you grow up,” Bryan said. “Learning both what a day in the life looks like and also what type of leaders you work well with will launch your career...”

Jaid recommends planning early in your college career with networking and research to find internship possibilities. “I learned about my internship initially through networking—a friend on campus put me in contact with a family member who worked in IT,” she said.  “After my first internship with TQL in the summer of 2021, I was invited to come back every semester.”

“Jaid excelled at both soft and hard skills,” Bryan said. “She quickly learned new technologies with little direction and always took on expanding soft skills by presenting to peers and leadership throughout the organization.”

Jaid agrees that learning quickly and being flexible are some of the most important skills you can take with you to an internship. “Sometimes it can be hard to see how what we are doing in class will benefit us in the future,” she said, “so firsthand learning experiences have been the most beneficial.”