Summary -

My first week at CBI was definitely a fun one! The LeadingEdge Internship program requires that all interns travel to CBI headquarters in Charlotte, NC for their first day. On Sunday, June 19th, I met my supervisor or “boss”, Cassidy, at CBI Knoxville at 5pm and we headed to Charlotte. This car ride was a great way to get to know her. CBI also requires that any time CBI employees travel that they room with another CBI employee. So on the first night I also got to meet another LeadingEdge intern, Connie, from the Rayleigh location who I would be rooming with for the next two nights. The next morning we met down in the lobby at 7:30 and made a quick stop at Starbucks before heading to the Charlotte office. At the office I met three other interns for a total of five of us. Two of the interns were from the Charlotte location, and one from the Greenville location. They served us breakfast and gave us each “welcome gifts” including a new moleskin, a CBI toy truck, a water bottle, a scale, and a book about staying organized. We then took a tour around the CBI Charlotte office to see how they run things and how they are set up. The Charlotte location is the largest CBI office, while the other 9 locations CBI has are rather small. The Knoxville office only has six people. We then sat in training for hours before going to lunch with the former interns who are now employees. We came back after lunch and had more training on logistics and programs we will be using over the summer. We then finished the night with a big dinner with all of the internship mentors and some other employees. All in all, the first day made me excited for what was to come. On Tuesday, I was sat in a marketing meeting conference call with all the other office locations to observe and listen in. We then met with the head of installation at the Charlotte office to learn about project installation procedures. It was about lunch time when Cassidy and I headed back to Knoxville. Wednesday the 22nd was my first day at the Knoxville office, however, I started off the day at a job site to oversee installation of a project. We met the client, and I was able to walk around and observe how the product is installed and how operations work as well as CBI’s role in installation. We headed back to the office where Cassidy showed me the material’s library and I organized it as I was learning the different products CBI offers. I sat in on a training session with another associate to learn a software program called CAP, which is the program I will be using for the majority of my internship. Thursday, I started off the day with a meeting to understand CBI’s terms and conditions we give to clients. I then did some online training sessions for our Knoll products so I can better understand the products we have to offer. Finally, I was able to do some actual work for a client as I generated a floor plan per an email request and developed a quote for some office furniture. CBI also hosted a “spa night” event with a salon downtown for all of our A&D partners so I went with the rest of the office to mingle and meet some of our A&D partners. Friday, I was given the task to create solution pages for our CBI Chattanooga office for their showroom and office furniture. I was then asked to help create some renderings for a client presentation. At about 3pm, the office headed over to one of architecture firm partners downtown to host a design charrette with them. CBI is redoing their office layout. This was a fun way to end the week plus we had beer and cookies!

Focus -

CBI just recently, within the last year, combined all their offices to one CBI. This means that each GM from each office has a share of the company.

This is the organizational chart for CBI – Knoxville

As you can see, the playing field is nearly flat and this is true for most of the offices, with the exception of Charlotte, because everyone is really working together on the projects and with clients, just with different roles.

Meet -

Meet Cassidy! She is my internship mentor for the summer and also a project manager at CBI – Knoxville. She has been so welcoming and made me feel at home at CBI. She has been a great helper and has been patient with the many questions I have had.