Week 7 of finance at Sears

I have completed week 7 on my internship and am almost at the last stretch.

I have been making progress with my second big project. I am analyzing financial and marketing data from 2009 and 2010 in the first and second quarters to assess if there has been a significant impact on sales during this period due to shifting the release of new promotions in the circular from Sundays to Fridays. I am comparing sales and promotional markdown data against circular metrics such as page count, length of promotions in days, frequency of promotions in days/week and circulation volume (number of households reached through the circular). I am using graphical trending, segmentation criteria, statistical correlation and regression analysis to determine the strength of relationships between metrics and their ultimate relative impact on sales. So far, I have been making progress with refining my methodology. It remains to be seen if the data will be conclusive enough for me to make strong recommendations for or against current policy.

The project has provided me with plenty of intellectual stimulation, analytical learning opportunities and brainstorming opportunities with my immediate managers and SVP. I am hoping to have made concrete progress on the project by the end of the internship (in 3 weeks), so that it is ready to handover to other staff for follow up analysis on data that comes in through the rest of the year.

I have developed an outline for my final presentation and am working on getting feedback on the first draft this week. I am due to present to the business unit CFO’s in 10 days time, so I have to keep pushing forward on this piece on a regular basis.

I have been attending many internship activities as well; networking with other interns throughout the company at breakfasts and lunches; and attending skills training classes available through an internal educational program called Sears Holdings University. I just attended a Project Management class last week and will be attending one on Pursuing Creativity next week.

This internship has proven to be a well-rounded experience, as the management at Sears really believes in doing everything possible to enhance and retain the human capital they have. Anyone considering an internship at Sears will find themselves in a position where attention is paid to what they want and action is taken to ensure a good experience for the intern.