Week 2: week of nothing

My second week at PNC was honestly much slower and more uneventful than I expected. Compared to the orientation week, which was packed with presentations, travel, and introductions, this week felt almost empty at times. Unfortunately, PNC is currently in the middle of the acquisition process involving First Bank, and it seems like the interns arrived right in the middle of that transition period. Because of that, my supervisor and team have been extremely busy, which meant there was not much time available to give us work, instructions, or proper onboarding into the projects we are supposed to support.

At first, I found the situation frustrating. Going into the internship, I expected to immediately start contributing to technical projects, learning new systems, and applying my skills in a meaningful way. Instead, most of the week consisted of short meetings, waiting for access permissions, and trying to understand the structure of the company. We learned that our team uses a platform called Indico, but beyond that, there was not much hands-on work yet.

Most days included at least one short meeting, but surprisingly only two or three of those meetings were actually with my manager or the team I will be working with directly. The majority were company-wide intern events or informational sessions organized by PNC itself. Some of these included a Banking 101 lesson, invitations to future networking events, and information about competitions and programs happening later in the summer. While these meetings were useful in understanding the broader company, they also made me realize how large corporations operate on very structured timelines. Everything seems planned months ahead, and interns are slowly introduced into the system rather than immediately thrown into technical work.

One event I decided to join was a competition called Venture Vault. After signing up, I was assigned teammates from different lines of business, most of whom I had never met before and who do not work in my office. Even though the competition has not started yet, I found it interesting that PNC intentionally mixes interns from different departments together. It seems designed to encourage collaboration between people with completely different perspectives and skills. That is something I had not really thought about before entering a corporate environment. In college, group projects usually involve people from similar academic backgrounds, but in large companies collaboration often happens between people with very different roles.

Another challenge this week involved access issues. Many of the tools and systems we need require approvals and permissions, so there were multiple times where we simply could not do much because we were still waiting for access. Before this internship, I underestimated how much time large organizations spend dealing with processes, approvals, and security requirements. In school projects, I am used to being able to immediately start working. In corporate environments, however, even small tasks often depend on multiple layers of approval and coordination. 

As the week went on, I started wondering whether this experience was normal only for interns or if new full-time hires go through something similar as well. I eventually spoke with my experience coach, who is a recent employee that completed PNC’s Technology Development Program (TDP). He explained that when he first started, he experienced many of the same issues: waiting for access, slow onboarding, and periods without much meaningful work at the beginning. Hearing that made me feel slightly better because it showed me that the experience was not unique to interns. It is simply part of adjusting to a large corporate environment.

Even though the week was boring at times, it still taught me something important about professional environments: productivity is not always immediate. In school, I am used to measuring progress through constant assignments, deadlines, and visible results. In a corporation, however, progress can sometimes be slow and dependent on organizational factors outside of your control. Learning patience and staying engaged even during slower periods is a skill by itself.

I also found myself reminding myself that I was still getting paid during all of this downtime, which honestly helped me feel less frustrated. At first that thought felt funny to me, but it also made me reflect on how work environments differ from academic environments. In school, every hour feels directly tied to productivity and grades. In professional environments, however, there are periods where simply being available, prepared, and adaptable is part of the job itself.

Overall, while my second week was not exciting, it still gave me a more realistic understanding of how large organizations function. Not every week in a professional environment will feel fast-paced or highly productive, especially during periods of transition and change. Even though I spent much of the week waiting, observing, and attending meetings, the experience still taught me patience, adaptability, and the importance of understanding workplace systems before meaningful work can begin.