Intern-to-Hire Calls Indy “Home”

The journey Alex Eaton embarked on after his sophomore year has come full circle.

A recent Indiana University graduate, Eaton, utilized Indiana INTERNnet to apply for an internship position at Pete the Planner, a small financial wellness company based in Indianapolis founded by Peter Dunn. Dunn is an author, radio personality and financial expert.

Now, Eaton has transitioned into his new full-time role as the Director of eLearning at Pete the Planner.

While his job involves marketing Pete the Planner’s online platforms, he wears many hats during the day.

“I’m reaching out to a perspective client and starting the sales process, I’m running the actual product demos all the way to helping sign them on as clients, and I’m working with them once they are clients to make sure everything is working,” Eaton explains.

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“If you can find more situations where you don’t know what you’re doing, that means you are growing and learning.”

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“We are four people. So I also help produce Dunn’s radio show with WIBC and help market our podcast that we run. There are a lot of different things going on.”

Being a small staff, Eaton often has his hands in a number of projects, often delving into new projects with no prior experience. He says his internship prepared him for this.

His internship involved producing and cohosting Dunn’s radio show, researching statistical data and editing Dunn’s book, Mock Retirement. Eaton even took a risk by building an online retirement savings calculator, for which he taught himself programming within the span of his internship.

“Having a boss like Pete makes it less scary than it would be [to take risk] because he told me straight up, ‘You’re going to be doing a lot of stuff you’ve never done before. There will be failure involved. Don’t let it bother you and just keep trucking through it,’ ” Eaton recalls.

Eaton says no matter what career you’re in, encountering uncomfortable situations is inevitable.

“Look for those situations,” Eaton encouraged. “If you can find more situations where you don’t know what you’re doing, that means you are growing and learning.”

Eaton, who was nominated for Intern of the Year at IMPACT Awards for his work at Pete the Planner, also recommends looking specifically for problems your boss has and trying to solve them.

“If you can become the type of intern that is more than a time saver and is actually solving problems for a company, that is something that can be meaningful and can help you get more consideration for a full time position,” Eaton suggests.

Now that Eaton has returned to Pete the Planner, he is eager to get more involved in the Indy community.

“It felt natural to stay [in Indiana],” Eaton concludes. “I’ve lived here my whole life but I’ve really gotten involved more and it’s become more of my home. There is something special going on here with all the success of the companies in the Indy area, and it’s a testament to the type of people we have here. It’s a very close knit community that I really enjoy.”