What a micro-internship is
Parker Dewey is a platform where organizations post short, paid professional projects and applicants compete to take them. Unlike a summer internship, a micro-internship has one clear deliverable and a deadline. You are judged on the work you hand back.
That format suits me. I would rather be measured on a finished piece of work than on hours in a chair, and it is the same way my own clients judge MCC Solutions.
The four projects
A territory expansion strategy for a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 consumer-goods company, delivered as a plan with a prioritized list of target accounts.
A data-driven talent pipeline tool for a talent agency. I was recognized as a top 1% performer among the applicants for that project.
A data and strategy project supporting institutional asset management for a private equity firm.
A prospect list of Series A, B and C funded technology and healthcare companies for a founder building a lead generation effort.
What stayed the same across all four
Every one started with a question that sounded simple and was not. "Which accounts should we go after first?" or "Who should we reach out to?" cannot be answered until you decide what "first" and "should" mean, and the client usually has not written that down. The first thing I do now is ask what a good answer would let them do on Monday morning.
Every one ended with a list, a plan or a tool that someone else had to use without me in the room. That changes how you build. A spreadsheet only you understand is not a deliverable, so I label columns plainly, say where each number came from and write down the rules used to rank things.
How it shapes my work for small businesses
The same habits run through the Data & Software work at MCC Solutions: cleaning up messy records, building reports an owner can read in a minute, and turning a repeated chore into a script. I explain the numbers in plain English, I show where each figure came from, and I say what I am unsure about.
It also keeps me honest about scope. A short project forces you to say what will and will not be done, which is exactly the conversation I want to have with a client before any work starts.
If you have a project like this
If you have a list that needs cleaning, a report you rebuild by hand every month or a question about who to reach out to first, tell me about it. I will tell you plainly what I can do, what it will cost and how long it will take.
Common questions
Are these paid jobs?
Parker Dewey micro-internships are short professional projects that organizations post and pay for. I do them alongside running MCC Solutions.
Why aren't the organizations named?
I describe the kind of organization instead of naming it, out of respect for the people who hired me.
Can MCC Solutions do this kind of work for my business?
Yes. Reporting, automation, market research and data cleanup are listed on our Data & Software page, and I will say up front whether your project fits.