Hi, my name is Elaine Cook and this summer I was the Product Manager Intern for the Ceiling Collection at Barbican.
I’ve completed my final day of my internship at Barbican, as I’m now in my last year at Western University in London, Ontario. It’s a surreal feeling as I have been working at Barbican for the past 10 years of my life. Reflecting back on each year, I am so proud of the team at Barbican for what we have accomplished. Under the leadership of my parents, we have grown from a small sign manufacturer to a large architectural product manufacturer that produces custom light fixtures, ceiling systems and architectural walls.
As I look back on the past three months, I am amazed at the impact I was able to have in such a short period. I began in June, with the goal of helping Barbican show the world what they had been working on for the past four years – our innovative Ceiling Collection that combines function and fashion by providing an almost glare-free environment while camouflaging some of the eyesores that the industry requires, such as ducts and sprinklers. This was a large project to accomplish in only three months, especially by someone with little experience in this role. Fortunately, my team gave me the respect, responsibility and support to take this product launch on.
As a PM Intern, I wore many hats including Engineering, Sales, Marketing, HR, and often team cheerleader (let me be honest, that one will never come off). In the beginning, it felt like I wasn’t experienced enough to wear some of these hats, but the mentors I found at Barbican helped me through the problems that I didn’t believe I could solve.
My favourite project this summer was updating Barbican’s Mission Statement. Reflecting with our CEO, CFO, VP Sales, and Marketing Director on the past 28 years of Barbican and trying to project what we want the next 28 years of Barbican to look like, was incredible. We looked at our culture, customs and beliefs to improve our and our customers’ footprint on the environment – something that has always been a personal goal of mine.
Luckily, this past summer doesn’t end my time at Barbican as I am looking forward to re-joining the team fulltime in September 2019. I can’t wait to see what I can accomplish with Barbican in the years to come.