Understanding My Manager!

Hey guys, I’m back to share my first few weeks experience at Dell. First of all I feel good going back to where I started my career in terms of function - marketing. However the first question is: Is marketing in banking the same as marketing in Hi-tech...Hmmm not totally the same but you need the same set of skills which I got. Understanding my manager could have been a great challenge, working with a director that has been on the job for over 15 years, perhaps his expectations should be high. Fortunately I have a good manager that understand my predicaments and knows how to express complex situation in a simple illustration. He’s a great listener and good on feedbacks. He gives weekly feedbacks on my performance. Also I had meetings with some of his team members and they shared a valuable insight on working with him.
On my project, after several brainstorming sections with my manager, I had to come up with a presentation on the project’s high level framework and weekly deliverables. I never imagined how wide the scope of my project was until I had a one on one presentation with some directors. Probably everybody has a different perception on the project. Going by everybody’s suggestion, it’s obvious the project is going to take forever. At this point I concluded that it’s important to have a strategic section with my manager on the possibility of narrowing down the scope of the project so as to be more focus.  
I made my manager see reasons why it’s necessary to be more specific on the scope of the project and he agreed with me. So I was able to identify the problem to be solved. And he came up with list of relevant people that their insight and feedback would be of value to the execution of my project. I did schedule one on one meeting with them and their response and contribution has been awesome. I have started to think of how I can build my future career around these great people.

Austin, the Great City!

My summer journey started on a sunny Sunday with a delayed flight from Detroit to Austin, I had boarded a taxi from Ann Arbor to the airport before I got Delta Airline’s text massage saying the flight has been rescheduled from 2pm to 4pm. Eventually, I had a very smooth 3 hours flight to Austin, the great city. On arriving at Austin, I moved straight to the lovely furnished apartment that Dell has secured for me and my family in a beautiful area of Round Rock, Austin. It’s about 4.4 miles to my office.

My resumption day was the following Tuesday, I was warmly welcomed to the company with a one day orientation program, where I met my recruiter, Lisa, one on one for the first time. She is such a pleasant lady. She introduced me to my manager, Roberto, during the meet the managers, who happened to be Ross alumnus. Roberto was excited about me; he gave a brief on my summer project- Marketing Investment Framework-China focus. But we spent most of the time discussing Ross because he hasn’t gone back to Ross since he left in 2000.

Dell’s working environment is new to me, coming from banking. Everything is super-automated. Roberto took me round the department introducing me to his team members and key people I will be working with. They showed knowledge and enthusiasm; and willingness to assist me on my project. I spent most of the week in series of meetings, understanding the nature of my project. We also developed a project plan that specified my weekly deliverables.

Meanwhile, I must express my excitement about Austin with the little time I have spent here. I had the opportunity to tour the city during the weekend; it’s really an awesome city. There are great bars and restaurants everywhere, good food –Italian, Mexicans and Asians to mention a few. The night life also can’t be overemphasized, Friday night was crazy! I was on the popular 6^th street with some other MBA interns, we all had fun. I can’t wait for another Friday.