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I am a little more than halfway through my internship in the Office of the Secretary of the SEC. I have now moved from the WebOps division to the LegalOps division. The WebOps division maintains the website, whereas LegalOps is involved with records management and other types of processing. Because I am experiencing the document flow, I have an inside perspective not only into the Commission’s function, but also into cases and rulemaking. Working in the Office of the Secretary is extremely helpful in terms of my understanding of the Commission’s goals and purpose, which was one of my learning objectives!
I am also taking advantage of the many trainings available to me through SEC university. I have taken courses on Westlaw, Lexis Nexis, and Factiva, which are all databases. I also learned to use Microsoft Access, and when I was working in WebOps, I got to use the Bloomberg terminal pretty frequently. When I go back to school, I plan on using the Bloomberg terminals available in the business school, so I can take the Bloomberg market concepts course. Another skill I have improved in accordance with my first learning objective is the use of VBA in Excel. In fact, I have come up with two macros independently to format data my office collects from the Federal Register website. The first one uses an advanced filter that can filter based on more than two criteria, something I didn’t know how to do previously. After doing research on how to make a macro like that work, I was very excited when my code finally functioned properly. There are plenty of opportunities for me to present ideas when I see places to improve efficiency or I have an idea, which contributes to part of NCI’s mission, my growth as a leader. It’s also inspiring to see so many highly educated women working for the SEC, since I am so interested in the inclusion of women in the financial and legal fields.
In addition to technical skills, I am continuing to learn about finance and the SEC through different seminars, webinars, and my mentor. Part of my role in LegalOps is to go through closed administrative proceeding cases. I can read through the cases while I do this, which allows me to learn about different types of orders, how the Division of Enforcement presents its case, different types of information used as evidence, and how the SEC’s administrative proceedings work.
Overall, this internship has done so much for me in terms of useful office skills, reinforcement of my interest in finance and law, and networking and learning opportunities. I am excited to use these skills in my leadership role in Women in Pre Law next semester, especially because I am learning so much about what is and is not important in managing an organization.