Life at CAIA
As my 4-month internship at CAIA comes to an end, it is now time for a mini inside story about my experience as a business psychology intern. Working in a start-up gave me an insight on what it takes to get a company and idea up and running: there is always something you can do and gain real hands-on experience. The major focus of the internship was on the development of a new leadership development tool (COA) which can help start-up founders with their teams. Whilst this project was a big part of my time at CAIA, I was also assigned to another multitude of tasks, which put my skill set to test and at the same time offered me the opportunity of getting a 360 degree view on the management consulting business.
Location: online vs offline
At the beginning of March, I received a warm welcome by Lara (Co-founder and CEO), who showed me the elegant hub in London where CAIA started. On that occasion, I also had the chance to meet Shakira, another business psychology intern. Although having quite different personalities as shown by our personality profiles (yes business psychologists do like these kinds of ice-breaking activities!), I immediately felt included in this very small and diverse team of female leaders.
Following the global challenge of COVID-19, CAIA decided to move my internship online. Although being somewhat awkward at first, my team adapted very quickly to the use of video conferencing platforms (trial and error was also a huge component of the process!). In addition, the team was very flexible and resilient in coping with this challenge so much so even CAIA’s newest intern Meghan joined our group directly from home!
Energy, drive, passion or better: A.M.O.R.E.
My days at CAIA started usually with a video group call around 10 a.m., in which we updated each other about the upcoming activities and tasks that everyone was working on. A lot of time was spent on formatting surveys, Excel files and reading literature research on psychometrics– yes, the tool is backed up by science. Besides scientific rigour, the work on COA could also get highly creative, – even word puns were allowed! For example, one day we were just brainstorming a nice acronym for the personality traits (adapted from the Big Five) assessed by our tool which could fit with the overall picture. Given that COA means joy in Maori language (although starting with a ‘K’ instead of ‘C’) we wanted to come up with a related theme to make it look more consistent. It happened to me as a native Italian speaker to know that LOVE in Italian is AMORE, which perfectly fitted with our five personality traits (Agreeableness, Mindfulness, Openness, Reactivity, Extraversion) and at the same time matched with joy! This idea resonated perfectly with our core message and thus we have now implemented it in our tool. When I was not busy working on COA, I usually looked after the social media pages and participated in 1:1 with Lara as well as company workshops on psychology and leadership.
Clients and networking
One of the best parts of this experience was when Lara got us involved in coaching days for one of CAIA’s clients Tribes in which they could really shadow and understand the dynamics of group behaviours of start-up cofounders. I had in fact the chance to assist one of the ‘Tribes’, in which founders come together to network and build their leadership skills. I could assist how coaches make use of techniques to help people to better know each other and establish a social contract i.e. rule within a group. Specifically, I was amazed on how psychometrics such as Core Drivers from Deeper Signals can so accurately depict the personality of individuals (which was confirmed by observing individuals in action). In addition, I was awed by the way meditation techniques of visualization are used as an icebreaker to make people open and share their deep thoughts with other members of the Tribe. Another highlight from the internship was attending client sales meetings and contributing to the creation and draft of a client proposal. The process requires a lot of thought and time too! A challenge that I faced throughout this process was specifically in finding the right balance between the assertion of our own brand and the personalization of the content to the client. Nonetheless I can say that the result was very rewarding especially when you see your hard work being presented in front of a client.
Conclusion
As a soon to-be-graduating student, I can only say that the experience in a start-up such as CAIA was a fantastic way to develop new skills, gain experience and meet amazing people! Working here allowed me to gain very rapidly high levels of responsibility and I learnt so much from the consulting and business psychology industry. While a part of me remains at CAIA, I feel that the invaluable tools I was given here will guide me in the future steps of my career.
Written by Valeria Trabattoni, Cognitive and Decision Sciences Student at University College London
