Before entering the business school, I had the experience of leading a
team. As a leader, I had all kinds of responsibilities in the team, such as
assigning tasks to team members, supervising the team’s work and correcting
errors whenever they happen, giving out suggestion to members for better
performance, and so on. However, in this summer project, I realized what an
initiator is. We have an independent task several members and I were
responsible for. We did not elect a leader in this task and were quite
self-ruled. However, it often happened that we still needed someone to stand
out and “lead” a part of work. We are a newly-formed team, and did not know
what everyone was good at, but different part of the task required different
skills. Understanding the situation, I stood up and asked for responsibility
for several parts of the task. This is the time when I felt very different for
being an initiator and a leader. When you are a leader, you are assigned all
the responsibility and roles in the team. You are required to do all the work. But
as an initiator, nobody asks you to do anything. You do all the work just
because you want the team to work well, finish the job excellently and help
members as much as you can. If you do not keep the team in mind, you won’t take
initiatives to take responsibility. In my understanding, a true leader will be
someone who wants his/her team to work great, rather than someone else ask them
to do so. They will not care about rewards from their hard work, and will take
care of their team members for the purpose of the team, not personal benefits. A
leader needs to be an initiator in the first place.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
A rewarding learning experience so far
The internship is coming toward its end. I liked the experience so far. It provided me a great opportunity to go inside the industry I am interested in always but did not find enough exposure to it. With the internship, I got access to the whole eco-system of the industry, from the technology trend, to the institutions involved in it, to the major players in the market, and most important, the people working in it. They are hard-working with professional training, and always explore new technologies and research new topics. They also have enjoyment in their work and complaints. But when work begins, they bring out 100% attention and effort for it. This kind of spirit impressed me. But without the internship, I will have no way to go near to these people; we are separated by the service interface, through which I require their services and they provide them, and no more beyond the request and supply. Another important point is the potential market growth identified during the project. China developed rapidly and after these decades, the accumulated effect on people’s disposable income is very obvious. They can afford more high-end products, and in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, their GDP per capita is near developed countries. So my observation is that for emerging countries like China and India, their process to become developed countries will be a new way different form history examples; they will not follow a way we find from western countries or Japan and Korea. They are big at territory and population, and there will be no way for all the areas and people in different part of the countries to become basically equally economic developed - that will require such great resources that the earth cannot provide without sacrificing welfare of other countries. The possible development way I think may be some big cities enjoying high level of development as in rich countries, and a large number of cities having medium development level but still greatly improved from the past. This medium cities will become a big market requiring a good balance of quality and price.
Going back to school with an offer
10 weeks of internship passed by really fast! There's no better way to end this summer than having a return offer in my pocket :) even thought it would be great if I haven't dropped and broke my laptop in the last week.
I have certainly learned a lot through my internship at Citi. Just 10 weeks ago, I was completely new to financial service industry, new to the company structure, and had no idea how corporate tax works. I picked up everything from scratch, made significant progress on my project, and was able to deliver my finds during the final presentation to Citi finance controller and other finance executives.
Corporate tax is definitely not one of my expertise or the area that I would grow into, but this summer experience taught me how to adjust to new environment, absorb new information quickly, and effectively communicate with my peers and managers. No one would be able to accomplish anything in a big corporation by himself/herself. Knowing when and who to ask for help/information is essential.
The best thing about this summer is that my coworkers and I become very good friends. We established strong connections not just at work, but also on a personal level. I was recommending dress brands and shops to my manager, and exploring NYC restaurants and food trucks with coworkers.
Now is almost time to go back to school. I'm very excited to see everyone and find out how their summer went.
I have certainly learned a lot through my internship at Citi. Just 10 weeks ago, I was completely new to financial service industry, new to the company structure, and had no idea how corporate tax works. I picked up everything from scratch, made significant progress on my project, and was able to deliver my finds during the final presentation to Citi finance controller and other finance executives.
Corporate tax is definitely not one of my expertise or the area that I would grow into, but this summer experience taught me how to adjust to new environment, absorb new information quickly, and effectively communicate with my peers and managers. No one would be able to accomplish anything in a big corporation by himself/herself. Knowing when and who to ask for help/information is essential.
The best thing about this summer is that my coworkers and I become very good friends. We established strong connections not just at work, but also on a personal level. I was recommending dress brands and shops to my manager, and exploring NYC restaurants and food trucks with coworkers.
Now is almost time to go back to school. I'm very excited to see everyone and find out how their summer went.
Labels:
Canadian,
Citigroup,
Corporate Finance,
Financial Services,
New York City,
Pan
Monday, August 13, 2012
Last 2 weeks
My internship is coming to an end – only 2 more weeks left. I am wrapping up on the implementation of my initiatives, preparing for my final presentation and saying my good-byes.
Since my last post, I have made progress on the implementation
of my initiatives, delivering tangible outcomes that will be useful for my team
in the future. It has been fun and challenging at the same time – as they say,
the devil is in the details! As I wrap up, I am making edits to my final
presentation, rehearsing it with my manager and simultaneously, winding down my
initiatives.
Last week, we hosted a lunch for bay area Ross interns at
Google. It was an opportunity to connect other Rossers to Google and get the
networking chain started. I believe Rossers enjoyed it and got a great chance
to meet other Googler interns.
As I prepare to go to school, I wanted to highlight some of
the learning I took away from this summer –
1.
The summer internship should not be viewed only
as a tool to get a full-time offer – it should be viewed as a trial ground for
us to understand ourselves – where we see our career going, what should be the
ideal role for us for a long-term career.
2.
Delivering on the project is quite important and
at the same time, it is also important to keep connected with peers who are interning
in other companies to understand and remain connected to the Ross community
3.
Finally, as school is about to start, I think we
should all take the perspectives that we have obtained seeing a company
function and apply it to the classes we are all about to take – this will close
the feedback loop and ensure that the learning we obtained during the summer
gets consolidated
That's a wrap folks..
Hello all,
It is over! 10 weeks flew buy. I am actually sitting in my flat/apartment in Ann Arbor as a write this at Woodbury Gardens. As much as I enjoyed living here during the school year, my wife and I are looking around the unit and realized we already miss living in downtown Chicago!
The final week of work was climatic as it was the week I wrapped up my work and more importantly received the decision whether I would receive an offer or not. However I already did my year end presentation the week before, so that pressure was off.
In regards to work, to be completely honest my week was rather slow. My project was a in a bit of a state of flux as my job manager throughout the project had been assigned to another project so his replacement was busy trying to keep his head above water. The senior principal assigned to the project was on vacation in in South Africa, and another team member was about to take vacation for her wedding. Furthermore I had actually handed in my major deliverables the week before. So I was kept busy with "busy work" to support my peers. Mostly building charts in excel, and providing analysis on 1000's of pages of data received from the client.
In reflection, I really enjoyed my summer. Loved Chicago and Boston, developed new business relationships, realized I didn't know anything about excel and powerpoint, and found out the importance of being able to write/tell a story.
At the beginning of the summer I felt my consulting experience was atypical, and I was at a disadvantage from my peers. When assigned to my project, the work was scattered and the team was over whelmed. As such I did not feel I received the direction I needed to truly understand my tasks. In those 2 weeks I was excel modelling for one day (task cancelled), building case studies in power point for 2 days (task cancelled), worked on a brainstorming initiative to develop next generation ideas for the client (task cancelled). Then to start the 3rd week of the project, the entire project was cancelled.
In addition, as mentioned above my team mates were re assigned, went on vacation and one of the senior most members on my team was brand new to Booz, and not necessarily interested in my personal development.
But what I realized at the end of the 10 weeks was, there is no typical consulting engagement. It is very difficult to answer the question "What is a typical day in consulting?" Each intern had a completely different experience. We all learned at difference paces, in different places, with different faces. Overall it was a challenge on one's ability to adapt to an ambiguous environment and provide value.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent more time developing my Excel skillset before arriving to work. In addition I would have tried to have more fun while I was in Chicago/Boston. There was a lot to see and do in both cities, and I may have been to occupied with trying to make a good impression and working late hours. With proper time management it is feasible to work hard and play hard.
So in conclusion last Friday I met with my senior and junior mentors to discuss wether or not I would receive an offer...after a lengthy discussion the verdict was......
It is over! 10 weeks flew buy. I am actually sitting in my flat/apartment in Ann Arbor as a write this at Woodbury Gardens. As much as I enjoyed living here during the school year, my wife and I are looking around the unit and realized we already miss living in downtown Chicago!
The final week of work was climatic as it was the week I wrapped up my work and more importantly received the decision whether I would receive an offer or not. However I already did my year end presentation the week before, so that pressure was off.
In regards to work, to be completely honest my week was rather slow. My project was a in a bit of a state of flux as my job manager throughout the project had been assigned to another project so his replacement was busy trying to keep his head above water. The senior principal assigned to the project was on vacation in in South Africa, and another team member was about to take vacation for her wedding. Furthermore I had actually handed in my major deliverables the week before. So I was kept busy with "busy work" to support my peers. Mostly building charts in excel, and providing analysis on 1000's of pages of data received from the client.
In reflection, I really enjoyed my summer. Loved Chicago and Boston, developed new business relationships, realized I didn't know anything about excel and powerpoint, and found out the importance of being able to write/tell a story.
At the beginning of the summer I felt my consulting experience was atypical, and I was at a disadvantage from my peers. When assigned to my project, the work was scattered and the team was over whelmed. As such I did not feel I received the direction I needed to truly understand my tasks. In those 2 weeks I was excel modelling for one day (task cancelled), building case studies in power point for 2 days (task cancelled), worked on a brainstorming initiative to develop next generation ideas for the client (task cancelled). Then to start the 3rd week of the project, the entire project was cancelled.
In addition, as mentioned above my team mates were re assigned, went on vacation and one of the senior most members on my team was brand new to Booz, and not necessarily interested in my personal development.
But what I realized at the end of the 10 weeks was, there is no typical consulting engagement. It is very difficult to answer the question "What is a typical day in consulting?" Each intern had a completely different experience. We all learned at difference paces, in different places, with different faces. Overall it was a challenge on one's ability to adapt to an ambiguous environment and provide value.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent more time developing my Excel skillset before arriving to work. In addition I would have tried to have more fun while I was in Chicago/Boston. There was a lot to see and do in both cities, and I may have been to occupied with trying to make a good impression and working late hours. With proper time management it is feasible to work hard and play hard.
So in conclusion last Friday I met with my senior and junior mentors to discuss wether or not I would receive an offer...after a lengthy discussion the verdict was......
Sunday, August 12, 2012
One last week for summer internship
This will be the last blog that I post
for the summer. It’s hard to realize that my internship with Citibank is just
one week from completion and new semester is about three weeks away. Looking back
to the past 9 weeks with CitiMortgage in Ann Arbor, I think it’s been a really
great learning experience for me and I had some really good time during summer
as well. I think for this last post, it’d be a good idea to pause for a moment
by looking back this summer and to reflect on new things that I learned.
I started my summer internship on
the second day that I came back from holidays after travelling half dozen
countries. So I was still jet legged when I was sitting in Citibank’s
conference room with other 35 summer associates for the orientation week in New
York. However, it was so exciting to meet and know many new friends and
colleagues from other business schools around the country. People in Citibank
really made us feel welcoming to the summer internship program and we are all
looking forward to it. After getting back to Ann Arbor office, I was assigned
to a new project, which involves interviewing and hiring new staff for an operation
center in Danville, IL. The process was tiring and I spent lot of time working
on this project. But the experience was valuable to me not only because of the
satisfactory results that we achieved in Danville, but also because of the
exposure to recruitment and coaching process. I am sure that some of great
takeaways that I learned will be of help for my future career. The final
highlights for the summer were the two week group project in New York with
other associates. As I mentioned in my previous blog, it was a difficult and
stressful assignment for us. Luckily, all team members worked very hard on this
project together and senior managers made themselves accessible to the
questions that we had and provided great feedbacks on our projects. Life outside
of work in New York was always exciting. I went to over a dozen nice
restaurants and bars with friends during the restaurant week. It had been a
great dining and social experiences and we had lot of fun.
The internship is about to finish but
the learning process will never end. There will be new business challenges
every day. What kind of banking products shall we offer to customers to make
their life easier? How can we capture more market share from competitors in US
and globally? What shall we do to be a responsible lender and make profits to
shareholders at the same time? As a MBA graduate and future business leader, we
should keep asking ourselves those challenging questions, work harder and
smarter in an increasingly competitive market so as to make companies not only
survive but also thrive in the market. Good luck everyone and see you all back
in Ross soon.
Final thoughts- Never stop learning
-Hi
everyone, I am one week away to finish
my internship, so this last blog may reflect some mixed feelings. Of course, I
want to go back to business school, but as I’ve been saying before, my
internship has been a great experience. First,
I had relevant and very interesting projects, second I have a great work-life
balance that allows me to take advantage of NYC and third, New York itself,
which is a great city to be in the summer with tons of free activities.
To
wrap up my blog series, I am going to talk about the final presentation. During
my last post I talked about a group project, do you remember that? Well, once
we submitted the project, we needed to present to the top senior leaders of the
organization, our managers and the rest of summer interns. Basically the
auditorium was filled with around 50 people. The combination of the quantity
and quality of the audience were factors that created a very stressful, and
busy week. I am not the type of person who likes practicing presentations, but
given the context, we practiced 6 times. The good thing, is that the official
presentation wen very well. We were able to convey a heavy-data-driven project,
and all our international accents with some fun examples, which helped to
engage the audience and make the presentation more interesting. Two big take aways of this final presentation:
Again, a group works in which is important to establish roles and identify
peoples’ strengths to divide better the presentation and set a positive tone,
or simply manage the flow.
Also, as international student, I would say that
I had to step back and be humble to asses this US professional landscape, learn
more things and be very open to feedback. Back in Mexico, I was so used to give
presentations to big audiences and important people that I hadn’t had feedback
for a long time ago, but in this context, I did, and it made me change my
mindset for good, as I realized that there are always ways to improve. This
conclusion was a constant during my internship. I got 6 years of work experience
before coming to the MBA, and, at least for our group project, I was the one
with more experience. I can say that this professional experience definitely helped me to navigate Citi as a big
organization, create good networks, solve business problems and approach the
things that I was asked to do.
However,
sometimes experience may cause less willingness to learn or take feedback.
Nonetheless, I was impressed by the things that I learned from many people, as
I’ve been saying, Citi is a very diverse organization, in every sense. I found that I always had something to learn.
Yes, I know, an MBA candidate has to be open to learn always new things, but
the truth is that many times it is more a mantra than something that people
take into practice. So, this summer I really practiced doing this, learning by
doing and being very open to feedback with a true willingness to improve. Which
in the end, may turn to be a good impression when feedback is internalized and
put in practices. Not only for the summer, but also in general for a good
professional life. Finally, I think that
by keeping this mindset, I am going to leverage more on my Ross classmates and
learn the most during my last MBA year.
Thinking about China Market Size
China market is attractive to many global industry leaders. However, during my internship, it became clear that not all customers in different regions can afford quality goods and services. So why is China market attractive to those multi-national companies? For example, the customers we visited in Beijing and Shanghai have a higher disposable income level, and the demand for high quality goods is strong, even the foreign brand products are expensive considering the costly R & D expense and all taxes during the import. We saw that the products purchased every day by the customers are in the mainstream catalog in the US market, keeping pace with the global technology update. Although it is still rare to observe cutting-edge products here, it is understandable considering those new technologies did not originate in local markets and the adoption will take some time. However, China market is huge and definitely segmented. When we visited the Tire 2 cities, things changed. The popular products are often one generation or two older. The customers are quite price-sensitive. The distributors are seeking not the best products, but cheap ones that can just do the same job. From our observation, it can be concluded that there are three types of markets co-existing in China. One is high-end, one is middle-end and the last is low-end. With a big population and great difference of social development between regions, business people can find in China market similar to developed countries, market of medium profit potentials and market of poor countries. Although only high-end market in Tier 1 cities are the targets for global players and they already penetrated these market quite well, the growing medium market is quite attractive to them as well. They can develop medium quality products with better price to explore the market now, and also build brand names and roll out high quality products when this market matures in the future. This promising medium market of high volume should be the shining point that attracts global companies.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Final Presentations, Client Deliverables, Internal/External Networking
Hello all,
Coming up to my last 2 weeks I have 2 major items to complete to round out my internship experience. Each intern is expected to present a year end presentation to their peers, as well as other full time Booz employees from their local office on Friday August 3rd. Forutnately the presentation is a low pressure environment, and is meant to be fun. The most valuable take away I will enjoy from the presentations, is that I will get to see what my 12 other intern peers (from the chicago office) worked on their entire summer. The 2nd major item was highlighted in my year end assessment, which is I needed more analytical experience (I may expand more on this in the next post).
The presentation itself is 5-8 power point slides, highlights the key take aways, learnings, and my contirbutions to the team and project. It also highlights the fun take aways outside of the actual work experience that each person experienced (in my case my 5:50am golf match with a senior partner, and the night I hung out with Shaq in the hotel lobby).
After 8 weeks I feel like I have a strong handle on the company culture in regards to the Chicago and Boston offices. And the reason I specify the office, is that I feel the culture and community of your city will have a profound impact on the people.
Chicago: Is a large office with a small town feel. There are over 200+ employees, but within the office there are several "communities" based upon industry practices. Whether those practices be IT, Financial Services, Engineered Product Services, CPG, etc each group has it's own network. And if you are considering a consulting career, this is a significant differntiator at Booz. Booz does not offer the generalist approach to consulting. Rather it provides a soft alignment model that has it's pros and cons. If you feel already have an idea about your passions (i.e., you love SOAP!!! ..CPG), even if you don't have experience in that field, I highly encourage you to consider Booz & Co. By joining the CPG practice you can ensure that your early experiences will be focused on that practice, and thus devleop your expertise earlier in your career.
This accelerated development is reflected in culture of the organization. So back off my tangeant, back to Chicago. The people are extremely friendly, and helpful. On Friday's in the office I have never felt intimidated to introduce myself to a Partner, Principal or other senior member to learn more about their practice. The challenge is, they are quite busy, and you may need to schedule time with their admins.
As this business (Consulting) follows an apprenticeship model, that is reflected at all levels throughout the organization. Every consultant was once a junior person who didn't know how to write a slide, present to a client, or manage a Vlookup function. They all learned on the job, particularly through trial and error and the support of their peers/mentors. Without that support, and formal/informal training, this business does not work. Once you get into the firm (and likely any other firm), it is in the best interest of everyone involved to ensure you are succesful. And that has been apparent throughout my entire summer. A great example is my job manager, entered booz with little to no experience using Excel. 5 years later he is one of the Excel rock stars who leads begineer and advanced internal training. He did not take any formal courses, rather learned by trial and error and support of his mentors.
A last point on Chicago, I love the city. For a big city life, the prices are much cheaper than others (New York, London, Paris, Toronto (my home town), and the space is much larger. I've never seen a downtown with such wide streets. As such, people in general are happier. I feel there is less stress to life in Chicago. People afford a higher quality of life with less money and it's reflected in the smiles and attitude.
A few words on the culture in Boston. Awesome city, incredibly small considering it's history and successes (do they ever lose in sports?!?!). The office itself is very small. Less than 15 people at any time (15 is generous), and the office essentially revolves around 1 or 2 clients. I feel it's a great place to work and learn from a project perspective, but because it is so small I don't think I would learn as much from a Booz culture perspective. In addition my networking opportunities are limited versus a larger office.
The counter to that may be with less people, there is less competition to stand out? But that is a factor you need to consider when choosing your home office
That's all for now
Signing off
Omair
Coming up to my last 2 weeks I have 2 major items to complete to round out my internship experience. Each intern is expected to present a year end presentation to their peers, as well as other full time Booz employees from their local office on Friday August 3rd. Forutnately the presentation is a low pressure environment, and is meant to be fun. The most valuable take away I will enjoy from the presentations, is that I will get to see what my 12 other intern peers (from the chicago office) worked on their entire summer. The 2nd major item was highlighted in my year end assessment, which is I needed more analytical experience (I may expand more on this in the next post).
The presentation itself is 5-8 power point slides, highlights the key take aways, learnings, and my contirbutions to the team and project. It also highlights the fun take aways outside of the actual work experience that each person experienced (in my case my 5:50am golf match with a senior partner, and the night I hung out with Shaq in the hotel lobby).
After 8 weeks I feel like I have a strong handle on the company culture in regards to the Chicago and Boston offices. And the reason I specify the office, is that I feel the culture and community of your city will have a profound impact on the people.
Chicago: Is a large office with a small town feel. There are over 200+ employees, but within the office there are several "communities" based upon industry practices. Whether those practices be IT, Financial Services, Engineered Product Services, CPG, etc each group has it's own network. And if you are considering a consulting career, this is a significant differntiator at Booz. Booz does not offer the generalist approach to consulting. Rather it provides a soft alignment model that has it's pros and cons. If you feel already have an idea about your passions (i.e., you love SOAP!!! ..CPG), even if you don't have experience in that field, I highly encourage you to consider Booz & Co. By joining the CPG practice you can ensure that your early experiences will be focused on that practice, and thus devleop your expertise earlier in your career.
This accelerated development is reflected in culture of the organization. So back off my tangeant, back to Chicago. The people are extremely friendly, and helpful. On Friday's in the office I have never felt intimidated to introduce myself to a Partner, Principal or other senior member to learn more about their practice. The challenge is, they are quite busy, and you may need to schedule time with their admins.
As this business (Consulting) follows an apprenticeship model, that is reflected at all levels throughout the organization. Every consultant was once a junior person who didn't know how to write a slide, present to a client, or manage a Vlookup function. They all learned on the job, particularly through trial and error and the support of their peers/mentors. Without that support, and formal/informal training, this business does not work. Once you get into the firm (and likely any other firm), it is in the best interest of everyone involved to ensure you are succesful. And that has been apparent throughout my entire summer. A great example is my job manager, entered booz with little to no experience using Excel. 5 years later he is one of the Excel rock stars who leads begineer and advanced internal training. He did not take any formal courses, rather learned by trial and error and support of his mentors.
A last point on Chicago, I love the city. For a big city life, the prices are much cheaper than others (New York, London, Paris, Toronto (my home town), and the space is much larger. I've never seen a downtown with such wide streets. As such, people in general are happier. I feel there is less stress to life in Chicago. People afford a higher quality of life with less money and it's reflected in the smiles and attitude.
A few words on the culture in Boston. Awesome city, incredibly small considering it's history and successes (do they ever lose in sports?!?!). The office itself is very small. Less than 15 people at any time (15 is generous), and the office essentially revolves around 1 or 2 clients. I feel it's a great place to work and learn from a project perspective, but because it is so small I don't think I would learn as much from a Booz culture perspective. In addition my networking opportunities are limited versus a larger office.
The counter to that may be with less people, there is less competition to stand out? But that is a factor you need to consider when choosing your home office
That's all for now
Signing off
Omair
Labels:
booz,
Canada,
Canadian,
chicago,
Consulting,
Excel,
final presentation,
powerpoint,
spreadsheets,
toronto
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
"A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well."
They say that all good things come to an end – such an apt
description to describe the end to my summer internship. Now that my final
presentation’s done and dusted, I’m currently wrapping up my other white paper (yes, overachieving interns
work on two projects) and basically tying up loose ends in my final week at
Amazon. It’s been an intense two weeks reviewing and revising the white paper
that was up for presentation to my VP; I’m sure I’ve got 90% of the content
indelibly burnt into my brain now.
Nonetheless, it’s over and now I’ve got a few weeks of downtime to get my belongings shipped back to Ann Arbor and travel back home to catch up with family and friends before semester starts afresh. While I’m looking forward to the rest, it’s a bittersweet moment as everyone heads off in their separate directions at the end of the internship period. I’ve made great friends from different schools and have truly enjoyed being able to discover Amazon and Seattle with such an amazing crew. Even now, plans are afoot to organize a catch-up session down the road in a better place. I hear Miami is really nice in the spring…
You might ask at this point, how have you been spending your last few weeks in Seattle? Well, glad you asked! It’s been a whirlwind of good Seattle food, hiking up Mount Rainier, pigging out on dim sum in Vancouver, gawking at supercars at the local Cars & Coffee gathering, grilling burgers on the rooftop on a balmy summer evening, hunting down the best dessert in Seattle (El Diablo, Tango Restaurant & Lounge), getting strafed by F-18s while working, watching dogs leap 20 feet into a pool and listening to the British rock band The Fixx play during my lunch hour. So yes, it’s been a REALLY boring summer.
Reflecting back on my Amazon experience, I can say that I’ve been very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with a truly great firm and some amazing colleagues. We’ve all been assigned business-impacting projects with ownership over our work whilst being given lots of support throughout the summer. This truly exemplifies the entrepreneurial and fast-growing nature of the firm and shows how Amazon stands apart from its rivals. It’s been a great learning experience over the past 11 weeks and I have renewed faith in Bezos’ vision in the firm.
Finally, before I bid you all farewell, do check out the Kindle Fire if you’re in the market for a well-priced tablet with an excellent supporting ecosystem of content and apps. It offers more than 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games, as well as free storage of Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync for books and movies, a 14.6 ounce design that's easy to hold with one hand, a vibrant color touch screen, a powerful dual-core processor – all for only $199. To learn more about Kindle Fire, visit www.amazon.com/kindlefire.
Nonetheless, it’s over and now I’ve got a few weeks of downtime to get my belongings shipped back to Ann Arbor and travel back home to catch up with family and friends before semester starts afresh. While I’m looking forward to the rest, it’s a bittersweet moment as everyone heads off in their separate directions at the end of the internship period. I’ve made great friends from different schools and have truly enjoyed being able to discover Amazon and Seattle with such an amazing crew. Even now, plans are afoot to organize a catch-up session down the road in a better place. I hear Miami is really nice in the spring…
You might ask at this point, how have you been spending your last few weeks in Seattle? Well, glad you asked! It’s been a whirlwind of good Seattle food, hiking up Mount Rainier, pigging out on dim sum in Vancouver, gawking at supercars at the local Cars & Coffee gathering, grilling burgers on the rooftop on a balmy summer evening, hunting down the best dessert in Seattle (El Diablo, Tango Restaurant & Lounge), getting strafed by F-18s while working, watching dogs leap 20 feet into a pool and listening to the British rock band The Fixx play during my lunch hour. So yes, it’s been a REALLY boring summer.
Reflecting back on my Amazon experience, I can say that I’ve been very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with a truly great firm and some amazing colleagues. We’ve all been assigned business-impacting projects with ownership over our work whilst being given lots of support throughout the summer. This truly exemplifies the entrepreneurial and fast-growing nature of the firm and shows how Amazon stands apart from its rivals. It’s been a great learning experience over the past 11 weeks and I have renewed faith in Bezos’ vision in the firm.
Finally, before I bid you all farewell, do check out the Kindle Fire if you’re in the market for a well-priced tablet with an excellent supporting ecosystem of content and apps. It offers more than 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games, as well as free storage of Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync for books and movies, a 14.6 ounce design that's easy to hold with one hand, a vibrant color touch screen, a powerful dual-core processor – all for only $199. To learn more about Kindle Fire, visit www.amazon.com/kindlefire.
Till next time, ciao.
This is what $30 million looks like (250 GTO)
This is what a British rock band looks like (The Fixx)
This is what the best dessert in Seattle looks like (El Diablo)
This is what the Sound of Music looks like (Mt. Rainier hike)
This is what a heart attack looks like (Fried Snickers)
This is what... ah, if you don't get this, then you're just not techie enough.
Powerpointing away..
Hey folks!
Time has just flown by- I'm already in week 10 of my internship- 2 more to go..
While the excitement of going back to Ann Arbor and seeing my friends is immense, I am also very sad- since I had such a great time here in Seattle, with the MBA interns from the other B-schools and at Microsoft. I am in the process of developing my final presentation(s) and writing out a white paper documenting all my work.
I will be presenting to three types of audiences:
1) Exec: CFO, GM and Directors
2) Revenue Finance Group consisting of analysts, managers and senior managers
3) Directors from other departments who are interested in the topic of my project
As I refine the individual slide decks for each of these presentations, I am extremely cautious about my audience, the key messages I want to leave with each group and the level of depth/ complexity I want to go into. My mentor has been extremely supportive in providing me feedback on my slides do far. One thing that has really helped me is that from the beginning of my internship, I used Powerpoint slides as a tool to run meetings and gather information. While it consumed a lot of time, it also helped me develop a story as my project progressed and now I am completely comfortable with the story-line for my final presentation.
Creation of the slide deck early helped me in another way as well- as I met with business partners and other team mates for their inputs on my project, I also got their views on the way I visualized the slides. Believe me, I have changed every slide in my deck atleast 7-8 times now. This makes me extremely comfortable now that any audience, no matter how different, will be able to understand the slides as they incorporate the feedback of so many people.
As you can tell, I am dreaming powerpoint right now...and am proud to be working for the company that developed this great tool- Powerpoint! I am also super excited about the new Office 2013- I have had a chance to test it (or dogfood it in Microsoft terms) and it was far beyond my expectations! So watch out for this great product! You can see the customer preview on the site:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en
Now back to slide number......:)
Time has just flown by- I'm already in week 10 of my internship- 2 more to go..
While the excitement of going back to Ann Arbor and seeing my friends is immense, I am also very sad- since I had such a great time here in Seattle, with the MBA interns from the other B-schools and at Microsoft. I am in the process of developing my final presentation(s) and writing out a white paper documenting all my work.
I will be presenting to three types of audiences:
1) Exec: CFO, GM and Directors
2) Revenue Finance Group consisting of analysts, managers and senior managers
3) Directors from other departments who are interested in the topic of my project
As I refine the individual slide decks for each of these presentations, I am extremely cautious about my audience, the key messages I want to leave with each group and the level of depth/ complexity I want to go into. My mentor has been extremely supportive in providing me feedback on my slides do far. One thing that has really helped me is that from the beginning of my internship, I used Powerpoint slides as a tool to run meetings and gather information. While it consumed a lot of time, it also helped me develop a story as my project progressed and now I am completely comfortable with the story-line for my final presentation.
Creation of the slide deck early helped me in another way as well- as I met with business partners and other team mates for their inputs on my project, I also got their views on the way I visualized the slides. Believe me, I have changed every slide in my deck atleast 7-8 times now. This makes me extremely comfortable now that any audience, no matter how different, will be able to understand the slides as they incorporate the feedback of so many people.
As you can tell, I am dreaming powerpoint right now...and am proud to be working for the company that developed this great tool- Powerpoint! I am also super excited about the new Office 2013- I have had a chance to test it (or dogfood it in Microsoft terms) and it was far beyond my expectations! So watch out for this great product! You can see the customer preview on the site:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en
Now back to slide number......:)
Labels:
Corporate Finance,
Corporate Strategy,
Microsoft,
Nupur,
Seattle
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Final Presentation
It is the second last week of my internship. And I just
finished my summer final presentation. It is not used to judge whether we could
get a return offer or not. It is just a way to showcase what we have done and
what we have learned. Each interns has 15 minutes to do the presentation and
followed by 5 minutes Q&A. Most interns only worked on 1 project, but I
have worked on 3 short ones. So I presentation went a bit longer. Even though I
didn’t have much time to practice my presentation, I still felt very confident
when I was standing in front of the group. I guess the business school life and
the consulting experience have really prepared me for thisJ. I also feel that it
is very helpful if you could make the presentation funny and interesting. It
will help the audience to concentrate to the presentation.
I did learn a lot from my summer experience. I learnt that consulting is about details.
Yes, you do need to solve the problem, but at the same time you should make
everything as perfect as you can. Consulting is about building your brand and
network. In a consulting firm, one is always looking for next project to work
on. You need to make yourself known to
others. You need to build you reputations in the project you worked on. There are always people willing to help you,
but you are your own master. Last but
not least, consulting is about expertise. Almost every project you work on is either
a new topic or even a new industry. To really solve clients’ problem, you will
need to do extensive researches on the topic even before working on the project
and continue improving you knowledge along the way.
Last week, final thoughts
It is a little crazy to think the last week of my internship is upon
me. Five days from now I’ll be on the other side of the world exploring the
mysteries of China with a group of my fellow MBAs. But before that a lot needs
to happen – my final presentation, wrapping up my projects, final lunches and
drinks with my team and fellow summer associate, cleaning, packing,… - the to
do list seems to go on and on.
The fact my summer is coming to a close means fall and full-time
recruiting are right around the corner. So it is reflection time. I used to
work and live in New York City before business school – the Greatest City in
the World as New Yorkers modestly call it. And I loved it! My goal was to go
back there for the summer but it didn’t quite work out. I gave Chicago a try
and I have to say that although I wasn’t very enthusiastic at the beginning I’ve
been really pleasantly surprised. It is a beautiful city – a greener, cleaner,
less packed version of New York. There are tons of great restaurants and a lot
of neighborhoods that have a unique character. And there are tons of outdoors events
– just this weekend the city is full of visitors from all over the country (and
even abroad) who are here for Lollapalooza (or Lola as the locals lovingly call
it) – an annual music festival that brings in performers from all over the
world. All in all, I have really enjoyed it here.
So I started asking myself – do I really want to go back to New York or
should I give Chicago a try full time. I have been thinking about that for the
past few weeks, I’ve passed through a couple of stages and the jury is still
not out on it. But I think this summer has once again made me realize how
important it is to be open to new experiences and try to make the best out of
any situation because when you do so previously unimagined possibilities open
for you.
So long and thanks for the fish tacos.
My last week was more hectic than I wanted it to be, with the final presentation just a couple of days before the end date which led to some serious late night, crunch time work. Less time to polish up my deliverables any further; I had to concentrate on documenting everything and wrap up my last initiatives on the job.
Some food for thought for future interns:
- Use the time to figure out whether the work-life balance is right for you.
- Start networking early.
- Allow yourself time to understand the culture, the people and the project.
So long and thanks for reading!
Last week
Last weekend in New York City, and last week of internship. Just this past week, all the interns gave our final presentation in front of 5 managing directors. We were given a specific company and had to make a pitch to the company based on what we think is the best strategy for them. The presentation actually turned out to be harder than I thought. Everyone in the intern pool was assigned into random groups, and that made meeting up really difficult. I work "early" hours compared to other interns who cover industries, and so, the other interns would tend to schedule meetings late at night and were prepared to stay till 4am since they could get in at 9am, while I have to get in at 7am. Aside from logistics, we also found out that not many interns have the technical knowledge needed. And it was extremely challenging to juggle the presentation with daily work demands; we could be meeting for 5 minutes and someone would get a call to work on something immediately. Overall, it was a mad scramble to pull the pitch together, but all of us managed to complete it and my group was pretty confident and proud of our pitch.
Looking back, every week was very different and very challenging. Everytime I start to get the hang of a certain project, a new project comes up and I have to pick up new skills and knowledge again. It was stressful at first, but I got use to having curve balls thrown at me constantly, and I stop getting all tensed up when something new comes up. It has been a very dynamic 9 weeks, lots of pressure to perform, lots of expectations, but that's what makes this industry so interesting. I definitely learned a lot about this industry - the culture, the work, the politics, etc. Even though it has been a very tough 9 weeks, I also like that I have been pushed to my limits and I've proved to myself that I could handle a high stress environment. I've met so many intelligent and extremely hard working individuals at work, and people that I meet in the industry never fails to impress me. The hours may be long, and I don't get much of a social life, but the dynamics of this industry never fail to attract me, and I will still choose to work in investment banking.
Labels:
Investment Banking,
New York City,
Priscilla,
Singaporean
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)