Great Summer!

Finally, after 10-week internship in IBM GBS, I went back to unemployed status last Friday. It has been a great internship experience in IBM, including the people I had met, the projects I had been involved, the roles I took in projects, and most importantly, the learnings I took away from my experience.

In my last post, I would like to share with you what I have learned in IBM GBS as an MBA intern consultant.

How to structure thinking: we have practiced so many cases in business school, but still, when facing a real problem, I am still struggling to come up with a right approach to solve the issue. I know I am talking cliché, but anyway, I listed below the most steps I learned during the summer.

• Clarify (Always ask questions to ensure understanding, then LISTEN carefully regarding what is the problem!)
• Breakdown problem with framework (each firm may have preferred ones.)
• Test with MECE

How to build presentation deck: We are always talking about strategy. However, as a junior consultant, it is our job to put the thoughts on a PPT deck. And there is so much to learn in order to put forward a satisfying deck. In one of the proposal I worked on, we had created 77 versions of deck.

• All good writing is about rewriting
• Bad formatting may kill good content
• Always check, check and check before presentation to clients
• When you lay out a framework at the beginning of a deck, all the following slides should be tied back to it
• Headline summarizes the key takeaways of a slide, and all headlines of a deck linked together should read like an article and tell the story

How to model (Not on a runway): Business students are talking about modeling all the time, but what on the earth is modeling? In terms financial modeling, I have learned the following.

• Determine the purpose of the model
• Make educated assumptions, and build an assumptions page
• Build input page, make model easy to configure
• Add checks to make sure everything ties

Summer is over... Ross here I come again!

This is my last post for the summer, and I am glad to say that yesterday I had the best day of my life. I received a full time offer from Citibank, to return next year as a full time associate in the M&A Group. After all my efforts, energy and time dedicated to achieve such a goal, I felt extremely satisfied of what I accomplished. It’s a tough process and competition is fierce. Out of 5000 resumes received, the bank chooses only few of them and I realized that the opportunity I got was extremely unique.

This internship went far beyond all my expectations. I met great people, I learned tremendously and every day has been different. New deals to work on, new responsibilities, a dynamic and fast pace environment that kept my mind busy all the time. If you like difficult challenges, this is definitely the place you want to be.

I can’t wait to see all my classmates again. We all spent our summer in different cities and countries and I am sure it’s going to be awesome to hear all their stories. Ross is a great school, full of talented people that are down-to-earth and ready to achieve amazing results always with a smile on their faces. I am proud of being part of such a group and I am sure that if you are reading this post you have already realized what I am writing here by going to school.

Life is a never-ending journey and Ross helped me shaping my career in the way I wanted it to be, and I will always be thankful for that. Above everything, it’s all the people I met at school that really made the difference and my experience special.

Hope I managed to give you an idea of what I lived this summer, as for me it has been the most important of my life.

All the best and good luck with your career search.

Matteo

Good bye!!

Hi all,

Well, the time has come.. this is the last week of my internship!!! This week i will do my final presentation, and we will also know if we have an offer for the full time. Regardless of the outcome, I am very happy with my internship. I have enjoyed working at Citi and I am impressed by how this company has overcome their bad times and reinvented themselves. Citi’s current strategy reflect their learning process from past mistakes, and their self-awareness capacity to take the best of what they have and only fight the battles they can win.

I think this is what we, as professional, should also do this kind of exercise to have a successful career. I think that the more conscious we are about our strengths and weakness, the better professional decision we will take. I will definitely do it after a finish the internship. Now, I want to share with you 10 pieces of advice that our last summer speaker, Citi’s Vice-president, gave to us. I think it was the best speech of the summer, as he talked what should be also keep in mind to have a successful career.

1. Know the difference between data and insight

- data is now commoditized with advent of Internet

- the way to add value is to bring out the insights from the data that are not available elsewhere

2. Learn how to focus on the big picture

- even early on in our careers it is important for us to break out of our narrow scope and understand the reasons for our work

- don’t be afraid to ask managers to explain how work fits into the puzzle

3. Learn how to prioritize

- always more things than you have time for, though many of those end up falling by the wayside anyways

- time is a valuable resource and using it effectively is an important skill (time management is crucial)

4. Learn how to be self aware

- we all have a tendency to overestimate how good we are

- need to understand core strengths and development needs

- don’t be afraid of asking for frank opinions from others

5. Need to ask for feedback real time

- feedback tends to be sugar coated because frank feedback usually is met with pushback

- does a disservice to me and the organization as I am not addressing the development areas and reaching my full potential

- feedback at 6 month or 1 year mark is based on an image that the reviewer has formed over that time, will not be as specific and actionable

- should ask for feedback after every meeting/presentation while thoughts are fresh on the mind of the reviewer

6. Learn how to take intelligent risks

- people tend to look for easy targets

- best coaches are those that push you beyond the limits of what you thought was possible

- sometimes we need to go outside of our comfort zone

7. Learn from mistakes and move on

- if we are not making mistakes, we are being risk averse and doing things that are too safe

- successful people make mistakes but thought process that led to mistakes are sound

- no one gets better by being right all the time

8. Focus on exploiting strengths, not mitigating weaknesses

- no one is perfect, successful people capitalize on what makes them distinctive and find people to complement them (need to be self aware)

- as an exercise, we should be able to easily articulate what our core strengths are

9. Need to find sponsors in life

- not the same thing as a mentor (who gives the same advice to everyone)

- sponsor believes in you, creates opportunities for you, protects you, and promotes you

- be aware of the common types of sponsors

- Care Giver (parent figures),

- Visionaries (inspire to do great things)

- Sages

- Relentless Coaches (push you to go beyond what you can do)

- Godfathers (help you as long as you help them)

- understand who are the people who will truly be your sponsors (be aware what type of sponsor they are)

10. Pass the Wall Street Journal test

- need to be very careful about what you send around in emails

- not private communication - emails are stored on company server

- will what I am about to send via email be embarrassing if put on the front of the WSJ?

Hope you enjoyed and find as much valuable as I did, and hope you enjoyed the rest of summer before going back to the school.

Best,

Shila Arias

Death Valley

I have been through 8 weeks out of my 10-week internship. Although I had a very easy and smooth start, it is getting crazily busy as my internship approaches its end.

As I mentioned in earlier post, I have not been assigned to a real client project for the summer, but instead, I have worked on two Bid and Proposal projects. While the first one lasted only a week which is norm for B&P effort, the second one that I am working on has been going on for more than a month and there is almost another month schedule ahead of it.

To give you a sense of what I have been up to, I just sent out version 55 of the project deck to my boss. So, basically I have been intimate friends with PPT and Excel. Unlike normal projects, I have to deliver some new slides or spreadsheet models on a daily basis. I spent 10 to 16 hours every day in office, worked more hours after coming back home, and sometimes need to get up 4am to catch the 6am flight to New York, and flew back to Chicago the next evening. So, are you still thinking about consulting??
However, on the bright side, due to the importance of this proposal, I have been given great exposure to high level leadership team during the project. I spent 6 hours this Wednesday with IBM Global XX industry Leader, North America YY practice leader, and other VPs and executives in a tiny meeting room in IBM New York office. Can you believe it?

Although tired, I have been learning and improving a lot during the past weeks! Not only excel and PPT skills, but also the way I think and work. I leant to pay attention to details such as font size of a text box, meanwhile I think strategically from higher level and different perspectives. I become more comfortable with uncertainties and vagueness and am able to make educated assumptions wherever necessary. I realized that we are actually employed and paid to solve those uncertainties which clients found difficult to solve themselves. I am happy with my progress!!

Friends are departing

I still have 3 more weeks to go for my internship while some of the other interns are finishing up. The past week, 3 friends said good-bye to us. It was a sad moment that we all know we may not come cross again in the near future. And more importantly, we do have a great time when the entire intern team at corporate strategy do have memorable moments.

Being not very social at school, I was not able to make enough friends to hang out with in Ann Arbor. I spent more of my time with my Chinese friends. The amazing intern team at Cummins did not only bring a lot of fun this summer, but also let me know who should I hang out with when I am back to Ann Arbor. What does this mean? This means the 2nd year of my MBA study could be a lot more interesting than the first year!

The past weekend, we all went to the brickyard car racing event in Indy. This event is supposed to be fun, but it is so hot that day! I literally did not want to stay out for a second. Finally, I did spend some time outside...... The racing is pretty interesting, but not comparable to a Formula 1 racing in Shanghai. Did I enjoy it, NO! Is it memorable? Yes! It is so hot that day!

What is worse, I was bitten by a spider! The unstoppable pain is so annoying that I can't concentrate on working. I went to see the doctor and they opened it up. I almost passed out. That was what has happened on me. Now it is almost gone and unfortunately I did not become a spiderman. Next time, Mr. Spider, either do not bite me or just turn me into a spiderman, please.

Final trip

As I write this I'm on my final work trip of the summer to Bangalore, an altogether more pleasant place to be than Delhi. The weather here is amazing, and by that I mean it's almost chilly. Think Michigan in the spring. But in comparison to Delhi it is a huge relief. It's interesting to note though, how much of an impact this has on people and their attitudes. Bangalore is a hectic, busy city and the traffic is a nightmare, but people here are much calmer than they seem to be in Delhi. Even Indians I've spoken to share this view, Delhi is a tough place to visit for this reason. And I think it has a lot to do with the weather. Constant heat combined with the stresses of living in the capital city creates this constant tension which manifests itself outwardly as a constant level of aggression. As a friend said last night, Bangalore is a good introduction to India and it's a lot to do with the climate. No I understand what has driven western companies to look to this city as a base of operations for technology, pharma and outsourcing.
But back to my point, Bangalore has provided the backdrop to my last couple of interviews for the summer and a chance to collaborate with some colleagues on the preparation of final deliverables, which are due this week and next. It's been nice to escape the cauldron that is Delhi for a few days before things heat up!

End Strong?

If you had been following the news, you'd be as worried as I am. The market is bad, companies are cutting down employees, your colleagues being escorted down followed by thank you emails saying that they are pursuing "other opportunities"...

It's obvious that no matter how good you are, the company is cutting down its budget and internship offers might be postponed due to this... regardless, our internship class did a good job in our last presentation.

We had a project a few weeks back to analyze crisis and present it to a partner. It was a tough project: the modelers coded to get us the numbers and the analysts prepared trends and analysis - it was a good blend of arguments and agreement which led us to this success. The partner liked it and he had no questions/doubts in our analysis. We were so proud of ourselves, our products, and our hard work for the past week.

Next week is going to be my last week here, we have several closing events, networking events, and town halls. I hope to end strong in this last week and make them want me more, despite of the market condition.

I'll miss GS and I'll miss NY. I'll miss all the food and entertainment that NY has to offer.

Weeks 9 and 10! but still 2 more to go... almost there!

Hello Rossers!!


It has been two more weeks, weeks 9 and 10 have gone by and I am close to the end of my internship. I still have 2 more weeks of work but this is likely my last post.


These last two weeks have been socially busy since we have our two signature events, the Interns Signature event for all the interns (about 1200) at the Seattle zoo featuring a Dave Matthews concert and free Xbox with Kinect for every one!! Yes, it was amazing and even when there were rumors no one could confirm it. The next week we had the MBA signature event, featuring a Casino Night on the 76th floor of the Columbia Towers in downtown Seattle (incredible view!). Two weeks ago MS organized a hike to Mt Rainier which was pretty amazing too. So, this is just to let you know how well does Microsoft treat its interns.


On the work side, things are going well. My project is slowly coming to life and if everything goes well I will have my campaign website go life on August 15th, the last week I am in MS. I had to pressure the agency and get the media team for an exception but it seems it was worth it if I see it online before I leave.


I have started a small "visibility" project so that I can have some presentation time with the senior management of my business group, I still have not started it but at least I know what I have to do. One new member joined my team to take over my project once I leave, it is nice to know that I am being replaced by a Sr. Product Manager, it makes me feel important and not just an "intern". I think I have had the most "hands on" and "impactful" project from what I have heard, my project has a target, a goal, a website and it will continue to live after I leave.


This is my last post so you won't know if I get an offer or not, I hope I will get one from Microsoft, not only because of the company, the challenges it faces but also because they have pretty nice benefit packages. If you think MS is doomed let me tell you it is not, don't believe everything analysts write.


Hope you have had a good time reading this blog and you have learned something or at least took some of the tips for doing a better job while working in the US.


Have a great MBA and enjoy Ross!! It is one of the best places to do an MBA.


Gabriel.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

I can’t believe my summer stint at Ecolab is finally coming to an end. After spending 9 weeks with a group of incredibly smart and fun colleagues, I am almost tempted to extend my internship by an extra 3 weeks! Ok, I kid. My summer experience has been a phenomenal learning experience, but I am really looking forward to returning to Ann Arbor to see all my friends again! As one of my colleagues joked, it’s back to the academic bubble for the last time!

But before that happens, I have to complete my final deliverable, also known as THE final presentation. My final presentation is scheduled on the Monday of my last week at Ecolab (in 2 days’ time!) and I am feeling pretty confident about it, mainly because various colleagues in my division took the initiative and reviewed my presentation over the past week – it truly speaks volume about the company’s culture, when Directors and Senior VPs volunteer to take time off their busy schedule to offer feedback on the presentation.

Here at Ecolab, there is a tradition of inviting all the people an intern met over the summer (40-50 people in my case) to the final presentation. While it is a great opportunity to showcase my work and share my insights, one of the challenges is that the audience becomes very broad, and the content of the presentation has to cover both breadth and depth – my manager and I definitely spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to work around this issue.

Well, as I enter into my final week of my summer internship, HR has also lined up a series of “tests” for us. We are required to complete an online aptitude / personality test, as well as spend half a day doing a leadership assessment (which includes role-playing and more online tests!) Ecolab is definitely investing more time and effort into talent acquisition and development, and as the company looks to expand overseas into emerging markets, these initiatives will ensure that Ecolab has the right talent to drive growth in these new markets.

So, one more week left before I head off to sunny San Francisco for my summer vacation. And then it is back to good ole’ Ann Arbor. See all of you in a few weeks’ time!

Go blue!

My BJ’s intern journal, week 9

There is still 3 weeks left, but I have started missing the people already, the city and the summer. Though everyday I spent 80 minutes on subway, commuting between my appartment and the office, being squeezed like a sardine, was pissed off by pedestrian easily……I do feel part of the city. I really enjoy walking in the narrow hutong, watching neighbors chatting at the doors.

Here are some project updates. For my sugarcane project, I finally got sufficient data to size the potential market for our baby machine. The whole thinking process is more like a try and error. You may spend one day to take every factor into consideration, looking for proper assumption and supporting data and still keep changing the model until last minute. Then, the tillage project is more complicated than I understood at the first beginning. I contacted Mexican factory, tax and law to figure out how to import the equipment to China. I also got an opportunity to talk about the demonstration they’ve done in India. There are a lot practice and planning I can leverage after some proper modification for China. As I only have little time for the corn storage project, there is actually learning curve developed! I spent a lot of time in understanding the structure of market opportunity at the sugarcane one and now see how it pays back.

People said that internship is a perfect opportunity to give it a try. It is especially true for career switcher, just like me. I found myself has the interests in marketing while I applied to business school because I like to understand people so much! I like communicate with people and I believe my communication skills help me a lot in asking the right questions and understanding their answers. However, during on campus internship searching I focused mainly on corporate finance, where I had previous working experience simply we were told it is easier for international students to get a job in the US. Fate brought me here! During the past two months of “trial,” I am now so sure that “Marketing,” especially “Strategic marketing” is the right place for me! The whole market opportunity exploration is so exciting and unknown at the first beginning that I enjoy it just like I used to spend hours on Sherlock Holmes’s novels. The more you dig, the more you addition you got. Thanks for this great opportunity this summer and the people I met in John Deere. My final presentation is already in the way. I will my best to make it a perfect ending!

Great week!

This past week has been crazy! This has been the group project week, when we work in groups of four in a project for a different area than we are working for our individual project. We only have 5 days work on it, it is a full time project but still time is really short. In my case, my project was in the Marketing Area. We were assigning to design a new strategy for mobile banking, generate new ideas to improve the mobile experience and double the number of users by the end of next year.

When I first heard about the project, I was really excited because I think it is a hot topic now, as baking is changing and digital channel are getting more and more important. At the same time, when I thought about group project, I remembered MAP. This group experience has been amazing, I think Citi has done a great job about choosing people that has similar characters. Besides that, I think what I learned in MAP about group management helped me to be a better team member.

Well, we finished the project on Friday really late, but we are done. We are going to present on Thursday, so I will let you know how it goes. I would like to spend a few lines telling you about something else about Citi. I knew I was joining a great company when I entered Citi, I also knew they have had serious problems during the crisis (and those we one of my concerns). Being inside, I have been more than surprise about how they see the past times and how are they see the future of Citi. They have a very clear strategy and what they want to be and everyone in the company is aligned. I still don’t know if I want to stay with Citi for the full time, but it is because of my personal goals. But I can say is that this is a really good time to join Citi, as they have a great challenge ahead, how to execute the great strategy they have and how to bring the company to the leading place they have in the past.

Hope you enjoyed the post and hope you are enjoying your last internship weeks. I will keep you posted.

Best,

Shila Arias

Wk 9: See you next time, Bhutan!

It’s crunch time! I have only three weeks left in my internship here in Bhutan. I’m working non-stop to finish all my deliverables. I have three major deliverables (cost analysis for four benchmarked companies in different industries, standard cost of transportation of sand, and standard price for three natural resources products). I am 90% done with my cost analysis and about to start with creating my presentation material and report document. I met with my Director last week who, I am happy to say, liked the direction and content of my Rev1 output. This week, I plan to finish my two other deliverables. Yes, I am a bit worried about the time constraint that I have but I will not let this fact stress me. I will focus, will eat a lot (ha!), will listen to classical music (Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major Op. 92 and Mozart's Sonata in D major for two pianos on repeat), and will keep on working.

I studied hundreds of companies in different countries to find the best peer set for the four Bhutan companies. My benchmarking activity is very challenging, exhausting, but definitely a value-adding endeavor for my skill-building. My internship has taught me that, in these uncertain economic times, many companies are indeed diversifying their businesses to lessen the risk of profit losses. I found a company that not only offers extraction and trade of timber but also sells audio and visual electronics system and products. Another one is an airline company which also operates a call center for other companies. It will be interesting to explore after my internship the financial considerations of, strategies in, and limits of diversification.

I will not get a full-time job offer at Druk Holdings & Investments (DHI) because I am here on a semi-volunteer and fellowship work only. But, I still want to leave a very good impression about the quality of education and training at the Ross School of Business. Few Bhutanese know that the University of Michigan is one of the best schools in the US. It is time to introduce our great school to them. Go Blue!

This is my last blog entry here. I hope all the stakeholders at DHI and its four companies would like my final project output. I had a great time exploring a different culture and seeing the amazing sights in Bhutan. I will definitely go back here. See you around University of Michigan this fall! J

Only 3 more weeks to go!

In my last post I told you about how time goes fast and I am even more convinced now that I only have 3 weeks left.

Last week I had my mid-summer review with the staffer of my group and HR. It was a very comprehensive review where they highlighted they gave me an extremely candid feedback. The purpose of it is to make us reflect on what we did well and what we can improve on, and to update us on where we stand.

This is the first free weekend that I have and I have to say it feels really good. I am going to meet all my classmates who are in NYC for a drink soon, and after that we will go for dinner. NYC is amazing, it offers everything you need and it’s unbelievable the amount of different nationalities you can find here. I lived in Amsterdam before and I thought it was one of the most international cities in the world, and it is, but I have to say NYC is unique and at the top of my list now.

Chinatown, SOHO, Little Italy, West Village, East Village, Downtown… all the areas are different and you can really feel different vibes all around the city. Everywhere is full of restaurants, bars, pubs… anything you need. Everything is convenient: banks, shops, laundry service, groceries… the concept of ‘anytime, anywhere’ really exists here.

I am very excited about the city and the job so far. It’s been an amazing experience and I will always remember it as one of the most important and formative of my life. I met a lot of new great people and I expanded my horizon further.

I also look forward to seeing all my classmates again and to go back to Ann Arbor to live my second year at school. It’s going to be awesome and I am also very curious to meet all my new classmates MBA1. Go Blue guys!

Talk soon,

Matteo

Money Time

Hi All

Getting to the last three weeks of my internship and I am starting to see the end. On Friday we were taken, all interns, to the Craftsman Experience and the Kenmore Studios in downtown Chicago. The Craftsman Experience was very impressive, and it is a great marketing tool. I think the Kenmore Studios could be better in presenting our products, but I was still very pleased to see the different products and to tell what stands behind each one. This week suppose to be the busiest week when we host the face to face negotiation with all the major home appliances vendors in the world to provide the next Kenmore products in the next five years. I can't even disclose how much money is on stack but I'm sure there countries in the world with GDP lower than that.

I have many things to learn from this process which I'll be able to take forward for the rest of my career, form the professional aspect, as well as from the personal aspect. I see how different people handle in different ways with such a stressful process and I should remember and learn from it. Personally I learned that it is never enough to question my numbers. In such a complex modeling there isn't enough verification, there always can be more.

Although the excitement of this process, I must admit that I'm looking over the horizon over my fast approaching vacation. I can't miss Ann Arbor more than I already miss it and I hope the three more weeks I have will fly by.

Yoav.

Exploring Chicago!!

Most of you must think that consultants travel all the time, however, this is just not the case for me. Unlike my other IBM GBS fellow interns who have been traveling to clients, I have been assigned to work on two bid and proposal projects, both of which unfortunately don’t require traveling. So, basically, I have spent most of my internship working in IBM Chicago downtown office in the Loop and right across Deloitte building. Actually, out of 18 interns of GBS this year, I am the only one working in IBM office and don’t travel. Although not ideal and different from what I have expected, it allowed me to explore Chicago a little bit more and deeper. It is truly an amazing city in terms of whatever you name it, although a little windy sometimes, but just sometimes, not always. As I have been to almost all the major big cities in US, I can say that Chicago is second to none.

Since I live in the Chicago suburbs, I commute between work and home by Amtrak train, and one way trip takes around 45 minutes if I catch an express train, otherwise it will be 1.5 hours. If you have seen the new movie ‘Source Code’, you should know how the Amtrak train in Chicago looks like. It is comfortable and safe, although not too new. Actually, it is pretty convenient for those who live in suburbs and work in downtown Chicago. You know, the traffic in Chicago during rush hours can be really bad and parking fees is just crazy.

During the past one and half months, I have been to lots of wonderful parks, museums, restaurants, and bars in Chicago. However, nothing is comparable to the experience on the national day weekend. I went boating on Michigan Lake with a few friends! It was really a unique and hilarious experience for me. Prior to that, I had never been on a private boat before. It was just great to look at the skyscrapers of Chicago from another angel and enjoy the sun shine a little bit after spending most of my time in office since my internship starts. Unfortunately I had been made fun of having the so called farm’s tan after whole day exposure to sun; I should have taken my t-shirt off!! Need to work out a little bit though!!

the home stretch

Wow, can there really be only 4 weeks to go?  My time in Delhi is starting to get short and already we are about to say goodbye to some good friends who are heading back to the states.  Things have really kicked up a gear in the last couple of weeks here.  I've been running here and there having meetings with a wide variety of organizations operating in the healthcare and BoP spaces in India trying to understand what they do, what challenges they face and how the organization I'm working for can help them overcome these challenges.  This has involved experiencing a wide range of Indian 'office' spaces, which are mostly apartments with the trappings of corporate life transplanted into them...a video conferencing system is a common fixture in most offices of international NGOs for example.  But this is something you come to expect from India and from Indians...there is a way of making do here, of getting things done despite a lack of resources, infrastructure or political support.  A way of reusing what is around you, of repurposing it to fit your needs.  Indians refer to it as 'Jugar', the practitioners of which are the ‘Jugari’.  If we have a word in English to describe the unique combination of resourcefulness, creativity and willingness to operate outside the rules that constitutes the Indian way, it would probably be MacGyver (used as a verb).  Of course, it isn’t just a lack of resources that encourages this approach.  Indian bureaucracy and regulations are legendary, with a dizzying array of rules, laws, policies, institutions, ministries and layers of administration.  So much so that daily life in India seems to revolve around figuring out how to get things done…not so much working the system, as working around the system.

Now, time to MacGyver myself up some coffee in this chai-obsessed country.