Although I began my internship this summer, I decided to recap my first week from my memory!

If you didn’t start as an intern here at Topco, you are missing out. Luckily for you, I will be detailing my experience in its fully glory, warts and all. Yet, after completing my first week, I haven’t found any blemish worth mentioning.

For those of you who haven’t met me yet, my name is Danielle Pohlson and I am the Corporate Communications intern at Topco.

Day 1: Welcome to Topco

Three epithets that easily sum up my first day at Topco: healthy anxiety, amazing leaders and bonding. With the help of some of Topco’s best and brightest specifically our HR team and our intelligent IT department, I along with 11 other interns were off to a solid start. Let me just preface this posting with the fact that everyone involved in the orientation process clearly put a lot of effort into this program and its structure and I know I for one, am a fan.

After shifting from bonding exercises, we slowly dipped our toes into the wild world of grocery and Topco with an entertaining, yet informative presentation by the woman who does it all, Danell O’ Neill, my department head. After lunch, we returned to learn a few Outlook hacks with a former intern which I can say are already making a difference in my inbox.

Day 2: Digging Deeper

More settled in by Day 2, the interns were lucky to spend some time discussing the intricacy of own brands as well as our mutual love of own brand products with the marketing team. Later we would close out the day with a former intern introduction which inspired a slew of questions as well as the occasional chuckle.

Day 3: “Meet Randy!”

Hitting the halfway point of our first week, we reached a career goal by meeting our CEO, Randy Skoda, and all of us were given the opportunity to ask him a question. As expected, he answered with grace and humor when appropriate. We also had a meaningful and amusing presentation on Excel that day with our resident problem solver. 

Day 4: Grocery Goodies

Thursday, we began to really delve into what it means to be a part of Topco from a business perspective. We discussed topics such as Member Services as well as our prospective case studies. I may be biased, but I think that my group, paired with our associate representative were positioned to put on a great presentation.

Day 5: How to be a People Person

Closing out the week, we talked about the department that happens to be my personal favorite, Team O’Neill. This includes both Corporate Communications and HR. The day was concluded by multiple scavenger hunt presentations – another great innovation by the orientation team. This helped us to learn about presenting over Zoom as well as some fun facts about each other and the company.

Hello Team Topco!

Arguably my favorite part of this process was meeting Team Topco over the course of the week. Day 1, I was able to meet my manager, Heather, who exceeded all my expectations of what a corporate manager could be. Although we had learned a bit about each other during the interview process, it was clear that, with her help, I will be given the tools I need to thrive in this field.

Later in the week, I was able to meet Phil and Tom who were just as impressive, and quite frankly, I cannot wait to start working with them. Additionally, I was able to meet Monica, one of Topco’s former interns that also happens to be my peer coach. She conducts herself with poise paired with a kind smile.

In summation, I spent most of my first week focused solely orientation spending 9-5 discussing our complex business structure. Everyone I spoke to at the start of my internship told me that it takes at least 6 months to fully understand how Topco functions in the grocery world. That being said, Heather blocked out an hour for my first three days solely dedicated to bonding with me. The first week I was working for them was fully virtual so Zoom fatigue set in at times, sitting through presentations for a total of 40 hours spanning the week. That being said, I had a great time meeting the other interns as well as my team and was extremely excited for the future. Attached is a more recent photo of me and my team as well as screenshot of my first day of work photo on Zoom!