Flight of my life with Southwest!

Summer of 2018 was a memorable one for me as it started on a high note with excitement and enthusiasm. I was on a journey of a lifetime, making memories and gathering invaluable experience. In May, I started my Internship at Southwest Airlines as a Customer Insights & Analytics Intern at their Dallas Headquarters. This internship provided me with wings to fly high not just in terms of free flights but also in terms of technology, relationships, knowledge and specially my holistic development.

Over the past 2 decades, Southwest Airlines is known as a thriving airline achieving new feats at a time when most airlines have been struggling. Their key factors of success are strong focus on customer experience, efficient flight operations, low-cost pricing, and a very motivated and passionate team of employees. In fact, I came across an article which stated, “While Southwest Airlines' entire business model is important, arguably the most valuable competitive advantage has been is its deep focus on hiring the right people”. To think that such a company found me capable to be a part of their culture definitely boosted my confidence.

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit, and I consider myself fortunate to have supported this mission during my internship in the Customer Relations/Rapid Rewards Department. This department helps Southwest in analyzing customer experiences and assists in creating consistent excellence in Customer Service. The team is involved in analyzing customer complaints and feedback, forecasting demand, analyzing the productivity, and handling backlog data through the production of reports.

One of the great things about this internship was what we call at Southwest "Day in the field" where you get a chance to spend an entire day with different teams across different departments. I grabbed this opportunity and had my days in the field with wide variety of teams like Flight Operations, Revenue Management, Financial Planning & Analysis, Network Operations and Corporate Strategy. I learnt a great deal about the daily operations of the airline industry and specifically about the Customer Relations Department.

Being new on-board, I received in-depth training with Senior Analysts and Managers, learning the complexity of the airline industry, and growing tremendously as a professional. Further, I was given various individual and team projects involving data analysis, text mining and forecasting. The department also gave me the opportunity to learn new analytical tools such as Alteryx and Teradata SQL. The best part of working in Southwest is that you get hands on experience of the latest tools in the market plus a chance to learn from the most experience professionals. Also, your opinion always matters for the team and your suggestions never go unheard which is really motivating and inspires you to think outside the box. But the most interesting part of the Southwest life for me was that I got the chance to operate a flight simulator, experience the functioning of a call center and take a tour around the hangers and a chance to visit NOC (Network Operations Control center), the nerve center of Southwest which never sleeps.

The thing that stood out to me the most was the absolutely amazing culture. This internship not only teaches you to enhance your professional skills but also grow as a person. Along with the curriculum of the internship, I also got a chance to serve in the North Texas Food Bank that provides meals for hungry children and seniors across Dallas. My team has shown me that at Southwest, “We’re a Family, and that Family extends to our Employees, our Customers, and our Community”.

As an intern, I believe it is very important to take advantage of the resources provided to us within the organization, ask more questions and learn to follow instructions from our team while creating an impact and contributing our part. The skills I have developed through my Master’s degree in Business Analytics have helped me perform several tasks during this internship. Highly motivated people aim for the skies and Southwest got me closer to the skies (Literally!).

Time flies when you are having fun and I thank every individual who has contributed to my learning curve. My Southwest Family has been the most supportive bunch ever and I have something to take home from every single team member. Starting off early in my career, I truly believe each experience adds great value. At this stage, I am confident that my experiences and skills would help me transition out of school to a work environment. Thank you Southwest Airlines for providing me the best internship experience ever!

-- Rahul Chauhan

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