Week Two!

So, last week I discussed two things I was excited for: the staff meeting on Monday and the continuation of the case locating project.

Neither of those things happened this week. BUT, it's for the best! I had a really good week.

Monday morning I got to the office, opened my office email, and found 25 emails. Apparently the elevator wasn't working properly (you have to swipe your ID at a reader before you press certain floors, including ours. The reader wasn't working, so people couldn't get the correct floors. Tragedy). Of course, instead of responding directly to an email from IT asking who was having issues, employees Reply-All'ed. Once I weeded through those emails, I found an email from a paralegal asking for help on a project! Of course I run into her office.

The project is an FDA Criminal investigation. I don't know too much about it right now, but let's say Drug Company is making a drug for a specific purpose. But, instead of using it for that purpose, they are selling and advertising it "off-label," for another purpose. This purpose is generally not permitted based on FDA guidelines, and generally has other criminal implications. But, I had to get special access to a certain secure file system, which involves an approval from another office, before I could start on this process.

Now, as I'm learning, nothing is ever simple. For example, this approval. The paralegal emailed someone, that person responded, CC'ing 3 other people. One of those other people sent me an application for this database.. a 3 page form. I get the form in quickly, and now I'm waiting for them to process the approval. Hopefully I can start working on this project next week.

The project I ended up working on was a Criminal Odometer Tampering case. Basically, a car dealership might be rolling back the miles on their used cars. To prove this, a paralegal asked me to run CarFax and AutoCheck reports on the cars. 240 cars later (480 files, each at about 5 pages per file), I completed the project. It took about a day and a half to compile all of those cases. Next, the paralegal wanted printed, stapled copies of the files. 2000 printed pages later (and thank God for double-siding!) and the project was complete. I've never seen so much paper before...

Now, you're probably thinking, how didn't I start crying from boredom? My theory with internships is that any time I get a task, I smile, say thank you, and do it as quickly (while maintaining accuracy) as possible. This establishes credibility that I can work quickly and effectively, and will move me past some of the more.... irritating... tasks. I don't ask "why do I have to do this?" I just take care of business. People tend to appreciate that, at least in the internships I've worked at.

Anyway, that's all for this week. Next week, look for my access to be approved (hopefully), the staff meeting not to get cancelled again (please!) and other exciting and random projects!

Josh