Today officially marked the end of my first week here at the company. I started on June 1, 2025. Most of the days, like twice a week, I am on-the-site, doing my tasks together with the guidance of my supervisor. Initially, it should be thrice a week but the finance head, Ms. Gem, and my supervisor, Ms. Elen told me that it was okay what day I wanted to go to the office. I don’t really want to take advantage of their kindness and just make it fully remote. Less gastos haha, wala naman kasing bayad afaik.

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So, for the first day, the HR assistant, Ms. Mariah, orient me on what type of company is Michigan. I thought at first that it was just a simple company, but no. As I continue to listen, the owner of this company holds many businesses, and the main or the first company that he built was Michigan - a construction supplies company where their known partner is DPWH. Other businesses were AXP Agriventures Inc. with a 90-hectare Vannamei shrimp farm in Zambales (dito me currently naka-assign), ERA and MOG Constructions, and a bunch of hotels in places like Boracay, Bohol, Siargao, and even the US, all under the name Red Coconut.

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For this week, I was assigned to the finance department handling the shrimp farm operations. My supervisor patiently walked me through their systems, and at first, looking at all the numbers and files felt overwhelming. Parang ang dami kong hindi alam (well, make sense since first day). But when she explained how each dataset connects to actual business operations — from pond conditions to harvest schedules — I realized this wasn’t just about Excel sheets. It was about understanding people, processes, and how decisions affect outcomes.

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What I learned so far, in connection with my weekly assignment entitled, “Shrimp Pond Incentive System” for the Pond Aides which is more of a performance based rather than how much profit they bring to the company is that workers can still improved and through that analyzation, you would know which of them need more training on how to cultivate the shrimps from the “fry” stage to the day that they weigh 25-30 grams. 

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The first part of making this project into life was brainstorming, where you would ask yourself what matters in evaluating the performance of the pond aides, sila yung mga hands-on workers na in charge of monitoring the shrimp’s condition. I narrowed it down to three measurable parameters or KPIs as they called it, namely: Biomass, Survival, and Feed Conversion Ratio(FCR). In my initial plan, I also explored the “environmental state” of the pond based on water quality and other “manageable” or “critical” indicators. But since numerical data wasn’t available for the earlier stage of cultivating the shrimp, I omit it on the KPIs. 

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So, the technical part was building an Excel-based calculator since Excel is their medium in the finance department. It automatically computes the performance score per pond, allocates incentives based on total profit, and highlights top-performing aides. Eventually, I included Z-scores to assess how well each aide performed relative to others, and consistency scores(standard deviation) to measure how stable their results were across different ponds.

 

To summarize everything, I designed a pivot table dashboard that could:

• Rank each aide based on average performance

• Show their average Z-score and consistency score

• Display their total incentive

• Highlight the number of ponds they managed and the connection of it with their ranking

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I enjoy the tasks as it seems easy to do but in reality, it takes me a whole week to perfect this “incentive calculator.” I am glad that my supervisor is a people person haha kasi ang bilis at gaan nya kausapin . I appreciated how she’d listen to my ideas even if they weren’t fully baked yet. The rest of the team were super chill and pretty haha! They’d offer me snacks out of nowhere. Even the chief finance head was accommodating and approachable as she kept checking if the equipment I was using was working fine and made sure I felt included during casual chats (even with the boss around!). And despite the relaxed atmosphere, you’d see everyone getting things done, makikita na super efficient sila sa work nila.

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Lastly, I think the highlight so far is that this week (2nd week of internship) sasakay ako sa helicopter since gusto ng may-ari ng kumpanya na ma oversee kung ano ba talaga ang kalagayan sa shrimp farm haha.

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So ayun, that’s the story so far. I’m currently a Data Analyst Intern, but more than the title, I think I’m just glad to be in a space where I’m learning — not just about Excel or incentives, but about people, workplace cultures, and the kind of environment I want to be in after graduation.

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Can’t wait to see what next week brings. ✨