Intern Spotlight: Melhem Antar
“This internship has probably been the best experience. This one has been the best balanced internship I've had because I feel like I wasn't stressed to the limit all the time but I was able to work at my own pace and get a little outside of my comfort zone without having to completely leave it,” said Melhem Antar, a finance intern at EverQuote.
Melhem, a rising senior at Bentley University in Waltham, MA, has been working to help out with the weekly analysis of EverQuote’s financial platforms by updating and preparing excel reports.
“When I started out, I was updating Excel files every Monday and Wednesday. Those are the two days where I have to update information with current numbers like refreshing reports, updating slide shows and excel sheets,” said Melhem.
This task helps display EverQuote’s trends and current performance for the month and quarter.
“The excel and powerpoint files that I would update each Monday and Wednesday were a large resource to the finance team. The excel workbook would show our EQ marketplace trends for the week,” said Melhem. “The powerpoint slides would show how our current performance for the month/quarter was aligning with our forecasts that were determined at the start of the period.”
In addition to updating the Excel files, Melhem is responsible for finding data.
“I usually work on either finding data or working on my slideshow presentation. My manager has been really good about scheduling calls with me and going over my presentation and giving me constructive criticism. He won't only tell me what needs changing, but how to change it which is really great,” said Melhem. “It's a lot of working with Excel.”
His slideshow presentation consists of slides containing information on EverQuote’s revenue VMD expenses and EBITDA for the prior and current month as well as the current quarter. Melham uses the slideshow to point out trends in EverQuote’s numbers that are worth taking note of.
Melhem’s major project this summer was finding cost savings within some of our engineering tools.
“This project was a lot of analysis, and I was able to find some really cool things in the analysis. These tools cost us a lot of money each year and I was working with my manager and one other person in engineering to help guide me through this.,” said Melhem.
This project also gave him the opportunity to learn more about certain technologies.
“I did not have any prior knowledge of how certain technologies worked when I began this project. However, I kept an open mind and ended up learning a lot about it in a short time. Eventually I knew enough to be able to analyze the data and find ways to save money there,” said Melhem. “This taught me that taking on a project that is somewhat out of my comfort zone can result in learning about things I never thought I would get exposure to. It was a great way of expanding my boundaries.”
Even though Melhem was busy working on his projects, he was still able to connect with other co-workers in the company and have conversations, something he felt benefited him during a remote internship.
“My favorite part is that everyone is so approachable. Everyone that has messaged me on Slack or that I have reached out to has been very nice, just very easy-going,” said Melhem.
After looking back on his internship experience this summer, Melhem encourages future interns to participate.
“Participate. Definitely participate in things that are happening. I wish I was more talkative in the first few intern icebreakers,” said Melhem. “I would say for an incoming intern, be ready to open up. Talk to people, meet people. I think people are the best resource especially at this company.”