Full Steam Ahead

This summer can't go any faster. The pressure of project deadlines are definitely peaking. I realize too that I don't have too many weekends left to explore this city. It's definitely time to hustle, both work and fun wise.

First off, work. I joined Cisco at a time when there are a lot of changes happening within the organization. It's a great opportunity for me as an intern because we get exposed to change-related initiatives. I actually see how a company reacts to market pressures. This, plus my actual project plus getting to know Cisco better have accounted for a pretty hectic summer. Navigating a highly networked organization such as Cisco is really interesting. I find that I get a lot done with building relationships. I am not really used to networking within an organization so I'm definitely developing a new skill in this respect. I am also meeting a LOT of brilliant people. It has helped me continue to shape "who I want to be when I grow up". Meeting people who do so well in a field that I am very interested in is inspiring. For that alone, I am thankful that Cisco encourages interns to reach out to whomever - and people are very receptive.

Okay on to equally important stuff - fun. I finally got the chance to go to downtown San Francisco this weekend to explore. I must admit it's growing on me and it's definitely an area that I can see myself living in. There are a lot of really cool neighborhoods, a lot of interesting spots and outdoors-y things to do. Among my favorite spots are still the De Young museum and its great observatory. I love Mission-Dolores and all of its interesting spots. I recently experienced the ferry building and all of its farmers' market wonders. A city with good food, good sights and great coffee is definitely high up my list.

Only in San Francisco

Besides the wide range of food than can be found in San Francisco, the many fashion styles you can encounter and the climate difference between a sunny corner and a corner in the shadow, San Francisco is full of those little details that make it unique in one or another sense.

Fun and cheap was one of my first discoveries, it’s an amazing webpage (http://sf.funcheap.com/) where you can find a list of any sorts of cultural, recreational, musical or gastronomic events for all tastes, interests and low budgets. Many of them are free or at least reachable at a very affordable price. Through this page I discovered for example the Food Trucks that gather on certain Fridays at Fort mason around a band. You can go, eat and chill out with some beers while enjoying the music. Trucks form a circle and offer food from all over the world. My recommendation: Vietnamese, Pica Pica Maize Kitchen (the best Venezuelan “arepas” I have gotten since I arrived to the US), and crème Brulee.

The California Academy of Sciences offers on Thursdays the event NightLife. This is a weekly event where visitors of ages 21 and older can enjoy music, science, entertainment and cocktails, while experiencing the Academy’s world-class exhibits with friends. Each weekly installment features something new and different. I happened to go when the theme was sustainability. Sustainable cocktails, food, exhibits and a cooking class accompanied by an amazing exhibit of Lizards and serpents were taking place. A highly recommended event.

Two exhibits of Picasso’s private collection at the same time in the same city. Indeed, at this exact moment, and until October the 9 of 2011, The Young museum, located at the Golden Gate Park is showing the masterpieces of the Musee National Picasso from Paris. And, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is showing, until September the 6th, the Steins Collect. This exhibition draws on collections around the world to reunite the Steins' holdings of modern art, bringing together works by Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant Garde (Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and many others). For Picasso lovers, this are MUST see.

Festivals featuring the best of San Francisco diversity. In May 28 and May 29 took place one of California's largest multi-cultural celebration, and one of San Francisco's most popular and cherished traditions, the San Francisco Carnaval. This was a display of Latin American and Caribbean cultures with an array of food, music, drumming, dancing, live music, and a Grand Parade on Sunday. In the same vein, on June the 25th and 26th took place the 2011 San Francisco Pride event. The theme was "In Pride We Trust" and was selected by Pride's membership at their Annual General Planning Meeting in September. Just as in Bay-to-Breakers, you could find the widest range of costumes: from guys dressed in French aristocracy to a priest blessing naked people. A note on the side: the day of the mission festival, some friends and I decided to head to Castro neighborhood to visit. We were pleasantly surprised by 4 men, completely naked, on a Sunday afternoon at 4 pm, just hanging, chatting with each other, chatting with dressed people and having coffee. Just like that, no more preambles, no more explanations. Just SF …

San Francisco’s Lunatic characters. I can say that almost EVERYDAY I meet someone hallucinating in his/her own created world after, quite probably, a combination of amazing drug cocktails. People screaming out loud mad at the entire world, a guy shooting imaginary guns or a women walking in circles, are the type of characters that make part of the San Francisco scene. But maybe the most amazing one was the scene of a guy who was picking imaginary things from the floor and who suddenly started climbing the corner of a building and who ended climbing almost 3 meters. He truly believed he was Spiderman! After having climbed the wall calmly, he decided to go down with an impressive ability and just keep walking and picking imaginary stuff from the floor…..no concerns, he just continued his way.

Week 5

Hi,

Until now I told you how much I like my fellow interns, Chicago and how much I like to come back in some of the weekends to Ann Arbor, I didn't tell you about my project.

Well it is about time I'll do so. Sears Holdings is divided to approximately 32 Business Units which each acts as a company with its own P&L. I am a proud member of the Brands business unit which is called KCD after the top three brands Sears Holdings holds- Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard. I joined the Strategic Sourcing Group and I am working on one of the largest sourcing in the world - choosing the vendors that will manufacture the Kenmore home appliances for the next five years. Kenmore is the leading brand in terms of market share in the U.S but the manufactures who build it are Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Samsung, LG, etc. In total the result of this initiative will be almost $10B contracts, so I see many zeroes and trying not to make any errors while modeling their bids.

Although I am part of a very professional and experienced team I also have my own responsibilities that sometimes I am amazed that I own them. My team and I prepared the Request For Proposals (RFPs) for the different segments (refrigerators, laundry, cooking and dishwashers), evaluating the returning bids, meet the vendors who demonstrate the features and modeling the financial aspects of the bids in order that in the end of the process we will choose together with the buyers and the product managers which vendor will manufacture what. Because this process is very fast and occurring during the summer, I am very fortunate to be part of it.

I think it is enough information for one post, but I will keep you updated how it is evolving in the future.

Yoav.

Marie Claire

I've been at Marie Claire for over five whole weeks now, and my experiences have really grown. Because I've become so much more familiar with the streets and areas in Manhattan, pick ups and drop offs are hardly strenuous (unless, of course, you are chanced with taking 5 heavy garment bags) and instead relaxing and enjoyable.

Update on luncheon with the editors. We were allowed to sign up to have lunches with certain top editors at Marie Claire, and the three that I chose were Katie Connor (Fashion Features Editor), Suzanne Sykes (Creative Director), and- of course- Joanna Coles (Editor in Chief anyone??). I am very interested in what they do at work and hearing from them personally about how they got to where they are now. Lunches with Katie and Suzanne are this upcoming week, and a lovely dine-in with Mrs. Coles will be held a couple of weeks from now. All I need to do at this point is to do some research and come up with some fun questions to ask them!

Fashion Director Nina Garcia, Editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, at Prabal Gurung Fall 2011 Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week

As I mentioned in my last post, the MC fashion interns were all asked to do a project where we make inspiration boards. By now, all of the interns have submitted lookboards, and it was brought to my attention just last week that the Senior Fashion Editor, Zanna Roberts Rassi, will be reviewing them. It's really purely for fun, so she can get a sense of our personal style and of the things that inspire us. However, you never know if an intern's inspiration board has the ability to provide ideas for an editor for a theme in an upcoming issue. My inspiration board was built upon rather limited resources that I had. With a stack of 20 or so old MC issues, I flipped through each magazine and cut out anything and everything that I liked. I initially had absolutely no idea what the theme of my board was to be. However, through several magazines-worth of snipping, my theme became rather clear. I ended up making a collage of studs, shimmer, shine, and sparkle (mostly gold tones) and fuzed those looks with blooming freesias and peonies in purples and pinks. I also added a revival theme to the collage, where I glued on a couple of photos from S/S 1990 shows in Milan and Madrid, and then juxtaposed those looks with a similiar look from a modern-day fashion spread.

Now there is one more piece of news that is worth writing about. MC partnered up with LOFT is hosting the Front Row Challenge, a competition to find a stylish college student, whom when picked will get the so-often-dreamed-of opportunity to fully style and host a fashion show at his or her own campus (with courtesy of apparel from LOFT). Here is a video promotion for the Front Row Challenge:



This is a very fun yet challenging project that I am currently working on, and I will keep you posted in the following weeks regarding my application for the contest!

Until next time...

Fun Seeking

It is a little akward for me to live in a very small town in mid-west US as I was born and raised up in a city with 10 million people. In order to be not so boring after work or during weekends, fun seeking became a very important factor to keep live sustainable.

The good thing in summer is that a lot of interns around the same age do live in the town, you can either organize event or join event to know the people, thus enlarge your social circle. Last week, a birthday party was hosted at my place, although it was not my birthday. More than 15 people showed up and we definitely had a great time. Chinese food was prepared by a friend's parents and drinks were plenty. I love the sweet and sour rib. BE CAREFUL, this is not the sweet and sour thing at Chinese restaurant in US, this is REAL Shanghai family style sweet and sour rib. For the desert, I like the "OREO meatball". It was prepared by an undergraduate intern and he had to smash the OREO biscuit by hand. I wondered if his hand was clean enough to make it. But it tasted good!

Besides those events, I joined some sports game just to keep myself healthy, especially when I noticed that I am in my 30s. Playing basketball with younger folks is not a easy job, considering I am a non-atheletic Chinese. During weekend, I drove to Indy for hanging out with folks who are smarter as they decided to live in a real city. There are definitely plenty of restaurants and bars on the massachusette avenue in Indy. Being socially inactive for the first year of my MBA program, I certainly should know more people so that I can know a little more about everything.

Monsoon is here

Today the monsoon arrived in Delhi, 3 days ahead of schedule apparently.  This is a double edged sword...on the one hand the rain can be chaotic, messy and miserable.  However, it does provide some respite from the crazy heat we've been having since I got here.  Its worth braving the rain for that post-monsoon coolness in the air which makes it so much more bearable to be outside.  Distances here are significant, so walking anywhere in 100+ degrees is really not possible.  Thankfully Delhi has a state of the art metro system that really rivals any in the world (and has recently won awards for its sustainability...they save 30% on their energy costs through regenerative braking for which they also receive carbon credits for Certified Emissions Reductions CERs).  They also have a massive fleet of autos (three wheeled auto rickshaws) that are powered by natural gas making them impressively environmentally friendly.

Finally I found a cable for my camera and am able to include some photos.  I've mostly been spending the weekends visiting some sites around south Delhi.  I'm living pretty close to Lodi gardens, which is an amazing 90 acre garden beside Khan market, one of the most expensive retail districts in the city.  It’s interesting to see how Indians use parks and how it differs to back home.  People come here for picnics, to hang out in large groups, or to just sit or sleep in the shade.  It feels really relaxed.  Of course, that’s probably because its too hot for the more familiar band of joggers, cyclists etc. to disrupt the calm.  

And of course another way that parks in India are different to those in Ireland or the US is they usually have things like this in them...

The next couple of weeks will involve some travel, specifically to Lucknow..the home of great biryanis and amazing mangos apparently.  And I finally get to go on a field visit to see some of the projects I'm working with in action.

First week in IBM GBS

The first one and half week of my internship has passed by quickly, and I have received my first paycheck this morning, which is my first one after I quitted my job in China one year ago!

I started my three-day orientation and training with other 40 interns, including both MBAs and undergraduates, in Herndon, Virginia, which is a nice city near Washington DC Dulles international airport. It is really nice to know all of the interns, and I talked with almost everyone and made quite a few new friends from different MBA programs and universities all over the U.S. Actually, what impressed me most is the diversity of the intern class; people are originally from all over the world with different academic and professional background. But one thing in common, all of us are passionate about consulting, especially information technology oriented strategy consulting. So our conversation topics are mostly around the unknown consultant life ahead of us in near future.

All of the interns were recruited by IBM Global Business Service and will be based in either New York or Chicago office during the summer. In IBM GBS commercial sector, consultants are aligned with different industrial sectors, including financial services, distribution, communications, industrial, general business and internal practice. Each of these sectors is an independent P/L, consisting of Strategy transformation, business analytics optimization and SAP and oracle application practice. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am aligned with strategy and transformation practice within Industrial Sector for the summer.

I spent most of time in the first week studying industrial sectors’ learning material, and more importantly, familiarizing myself with all kinds of administration tools within IBM. Although I had sort of expected the complexity of the administration system of IBM since it is such a huge company, I was still surprised after a glimpse of how this ‘elephant’ company is actually run. At the end of last week, I finally got to know my project assignment and I will probably travel to client site starting from the mid of next week. I will come back with new stories about my internship in 2 weeks. Good luck to everyone!

3rd week (out of 10) into the internship

Hello,

I'm liking NYC more and more- the restaurants, the entertainment, street activities, parades, and also my job. Working in Market Risks Analysis, I have to generate a lot of numbers which I initially didn't understand. Now, I am able to understand it so much better, what it's used for and what people can do with the numbers. The bank's ability to analyze trends from the weekly, monthly, and also quarterly reports really shows how detail oriented they are!

Last Friday, I had my informal review with my manager talking about my strengths, my weaknesses, and also about the internship experience for me so far. So far, the reviews have been good, and I'm expecting better things to come along the way. I was able to tell him the things that I might want to explore, even outside the department, and he was able to set things up so that I can manage my career better. Internal mobility within the firm is tremendously encouraged. I really like how personalized this internship has been, both from the activities and also from the friendships I made with the interns.

Also, the bank has a women's champion network to ensure that women can get leadership positions within the firm. They teach us to ask the right question, to "manipulate" our presence, and making sure that we are able to sell ourselves appropriately. I thought it was a very interesting presentation because women tends to be shy when asking questions. They encourage people to escalate problems as soon as possible and not pretend to be smart...

I've also started get to know my colleagues better, hanging out with them, and in fact, I'm going to have dim-sum with them in 1 hour time! I would definitely love to learn about them a little bit more, especially their humility despite of their great achievements!

Stacy Lim

Getting Into the Groove at Ecolab

I can’t believe it has been three weeks since I started my summer internship at Ecolab! Time flies when your schedule is packed to the brim!

I spent the majority of the past two weeks learning more about the company and the project I am working on – the learning curve is definitely very steep, given the fact that my project is relatively complex in nature and high on the agenda of senior management. Having said that, my manager has been extremely supportive and has made this learning experience truly enjoyable. In addition to weekly meetings, she also checks in with me on a daily basis to review my progress and provide me with guidance if necessary. Seeing how I am getting increasingly comfortable with my work and familiar with my colleagues, my manager has also invited me to participate in a couple of high-level meetings, so I can understand how my project fits in the grand scheme of things.

During the past week, I was also asked to define my own project scope. While some interns had their project scope defined for them by their managers on Day 1, others like myself are given the opportunity to craft our own learning journey. I made sure my project was relevant to what my manager was doing, but at the same time, I also avoid something that was overly integrated with her work, since that would give me some autonomy on how I envision the final results – something that I personally enjoy.

That said, next week is going to be crunch time for me. My mid-point presentation is due and I will be presenting my work to a team of senior management. I have completed the number crunching, solicited feedback from my colleagues on my project, and it is now a matter of putting all my insights together and telling the story to the audience. Hopefully I will be able to complete all the tasks I have set out for myself, so I can enjoy July 4^th (i.e: four day weekend)!

Till then!

Microsoft in Seattle, week 3 and 4!

Hello Rossers!


It has been two weeks since my last post and Seattle is sunnier now (but won't enter into "real" summer until July or such have I been told).


These two weeks have been much better than the first two, I have felt like I have been collaborating into my team, my manager is asking my opinion and she cares about what I say and we are both managing the agency. We have finally got the agency to go the way we want after we draw our ideas in a powerpoint and showed them what we wanted.


I already stated how great my team is and I get confirmation of that every week, when people get together to just have fun (or even a beer during work), when the sun comes out people leave early to take advantage of it. I am going through a reorganization at Microsoft, for a while there were two teams: Product Management and Product Marketing (or Marketing Managers), this July both teams will become one and have a more integrated strategy and way of looking at things, plan strategies and work with engineers and consumers. I will be working with the same manager and in the same team (Hotmail).


I was able to go to a presentation about what Skydrive will come up with, and it was amazing. It is just amazing to see feel how many people you are "touching" when you do anything to a Microsoft product, that was one of my main goals when I applied to Microsoft, work in a company and product that when I made a change to it I will impact hundreds of millions of people and somehow change the way they communicate.


By the way, be careful with the afternoon commute it can take up to 1:15hrs. My advice, if you get a car get two more people to ride with you so you can use the carpool lane (HOV lane) that will take a lot of time off your commuting. Happy hours are great, and are usually planned in Bellevue so you can spend rush hour there.


This week we had an amazing intern event, we had a cooking competition "Iron Chef" style, they took us to a cooking school, divided us into teams and assigned us a Chef. After that we had to cook a three course meal for the judges and for the rest of us. It was amazing, and a nice team building experience. I did the dessert in my team.


I am definitely having fun!


Gabriel.

Here I am in NYC!

New York looked different from the moment when I came here last winter for the internship interview. It might because I am finally settled down at a place in the city or I spent few days here and I started to love this city. Anyways, one fact that did not change was that I am as nervous as I was before. It is a different pressure. I really wanted to get this internship then and now, I want to do well, making mistakes as little as possible. To be honest, get the return offer but we will see how that goes!

As I mentioned before, I spent few days before I started working. I tried to navigate this big city as much as possible. I saw a Broadway musical and a theater, shopped at Soho and got lost at Central Park. I enjoyed everything because last time when I was here, I was not able to look around as much as possible because I was here for only two days and I was still in school. However, my favorite so far was the Flea Market on upper west area! I really liked the fact that I was able to see variety of things all at the same time and they were relatively affordable J

In the past week, I was at the training to get ready for the next week’s work at the client site. There, I was able to meet many Deloitte professionals and new interns. One interesting fact about the training was that interns who are still doing their undergraduates take the same training courses as interns who are pursuing their masters in accounting and MBA degree. Plus, there were some people who have been interning at Deloitte for three years! It was good in a sense that I got to see/hear diverse perspectives when we were in discussion. I am excited for this coming days at Deloitte.

The game goes on

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay. Life at Ubisoft is going great! Now that E3, the most important videogame exhibition in the world, is over, my supervisor has more free time and my deadlines get tighter every day. People here are great. For the first time I understand the meaning of fitting into the company culture. We all love games, we are all young, we are all laid back, and we all want to make an impact in the industry. While there are only two other interns here (great people too!!) I am bonding with the full time staff and hope to leave the company with some good new friends. This week I have a major presentation to the VP who is responsible for my project. I am a not too nervous, since I worked with this executive a lot during my MAP, but I am still trying to perfect my deliverable and really want to make a good impression (I wanna come back here next year!!).
I am developing my macro project in micro or medium steps. For now, I am done with two parts of it, that include presentation, documents and charts. I like to work in this way because I can assess the result of my work more easily. The videogame industry is going through major changing because of Facebook, Iphones and Online games. This is a great time to enter and I am participating to every networking event I can attend. I went to one last week and were able to meet several people from the mobile gaming industry. Videogames are like some sort of brotherhoods, very networking basis. It seems like the most important thing is working hard to get your foot in the door, and then passing from one company to the other is relatively easy. I am heading out to another of those events right ne now , will let you know how it goes.

The Week of the Breakfast Meetings

Hi all,

I've been with UBS for 6 weeks now and so far so good. For a while it felt as though I'd fallen into a routine, with most days being pretty similar and myself never really getting out of the office during the day. These last two weeks have brought some welcome change though - breakfast meetings and new interns top the list.

A handful of other guys have finally begun their internships at UBS (seems like I got to it pretty soon after school let out). It's refreshing to finally see some other young faces around the office, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

This last week I was able to go to two breakfasts before the day started.

On Monday my boss found me before I even made it to my desk and asked me to come along with him to a breakfast meeting with a prospective client. It doesn't seem like much, but I really enjoy opportunities like these because it's a chance for me to 1) see how they bring in business and 2) get a chance to interact with some new people in a different setting. It's a nice change of pace from the regular 8 hours at my desk. As I've mentioned before, meetings like this help to underscore the importance of the relationship in the wealth management business. It's important to like/trust the person you hand the bulk of your wealth to, and I've found it pretty interesting how the approach is tweaked a bit with each person to customize it to their personality.

Wednesday was really cool. UBS' chief equity strategist was in town, so they organized a small breakfast and invited a few clients to join for a talk and some food. He gave a pretty broad presentation about the lay of the land and where the money's flowing these days. Most of what he said was stuff I'd heard or read already, but it was definitely still interesting to hear it delivered in the flesh, and some good questions from the audience helped round out the talk.

In all, my experience with UBS has been great so far and it seems like the next few weeks still have quite a bit in store for me.

Getting to know the company and the people

I have spent 2 weeks with this engine maker in the very center of USA. At this point of time, I really want to say that it is a great company. 2 speeches by the CEO and president of the company really impressed me by their honesty and open mind.
First, I never believe that any single company is perfect while many of company leaders would say the good things about the company and minimize the part that should be taken care of. This time, it is not the same, the good part of the company is backed by solid facts. The hard time it experienced is reinforced and recorded for future reference.
Second, it is a US company. I did not see many US companies that believe in foreign leaders. I think I can understand it. I probably do the same if I were a leader of a Chinese company operating in China. It is different again. Talents from any counties are appreciated here simply because they are equally treated. Shortcomings and advantages are both recognized.

Out of the work, I hung out with the interns here. Most of the people are great while I can see some biased attitude towards individuals. I hope this internship experienced can change people's mind and attitude.
Although it is a little boring in such a small town/village, the interns are trying their best to have a good summer. Yesterday, we planned to go bawling, but it closed at 9:00PM. We then decided to go to the most popular place for hanging out, Walmart.................. Although it was pretty interesting an experience, I do not want any of my friends in Shanghai know that I did spend my leisure time in Walmart. I hope that I can find something good to do this weekend. Probably I will check out Indy. At least, it is a city.

Settling down in NY

Hi all,

as many of my friends, this has been my first week of internship. I started on Monday 13th and I arrived NY the day before (sunday). And here comes my first advice, try to arrive at least a few days before your internship starts to settle down in your new home. I couldn't come before because I was working in my home country (Peru) in a 5 weeks internship, and I just finished the to work on Friday 10th. Thanks God, I already had an apartment, which made things easier, though I didn't see it before (only from photos). Thanks God again, it is much much better than I expected... It is gorgeous :) I am so happy with it!!! Well, I arrived and just had time to buy the basic things.

Sooo the first day arrived... Citi wanted to welcome all the summer interns, so we all met in one of Citi's building in Manhattan. We were around 200 summer interns from different programs (Finance, Human Resources, Investment Baking, Consumer Banking and other that I don't remember now). After this welcome, all the Consumer Banking Interns moved to our building in Long Island City, Queens. We had two days of general training about Citibank and Consumer Banking. On Wednesday, each of us moved to our areas to meet our bosses and group. I met my boss, who has a great and long experience in Credit Cards. Though, he is pretty new in Citi US as he has been working in Australia and China for Citi for the last 4 years. I am very happy because I am sure I would learn a lot from him. I already know about but my project, which is analyze and propose a new strategy for a existing business credit card. It seems really interesting and will keep you posted about it!

This week has been about know the company and group where I am, and I really enjoyed it. However, what I enjoyed most is the group of SA (Summer Associates) of my group. We are 16 interns from different universities and backgrounds. Definitely, we are a diverse group, there is people from China, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Peru (me) and US. We are a rally nice group and we get along really well, this is why we already had a first happy hour and we have named a Social Chair to organize social events each week. I think that by the end of the summer, not only I would have learned a lot about banking but also earned really good friends!!

Keep you updated in the next post, hope you are all enjoying the summer!!

Shila

My BJ's Intern Journal, week 3

Time flies! As my third week ended, I already finished 25% of my internship.

I have been working on my first assignment, the market opportunity in sugarcane harvester project for the past three weeks. During the first week, I read through all the existing materials the company had so far, including the reports about sugarcane industry done by outside consulting firm and the field visits conducted internally. With the valuable data, I got an overview about the crop type and the reason why farmers are turning to other crops. I also got an impression that the company is planing to introduce one existing model to China while it requires most of the farmers to change their current growing habbit to make it a more effective solution. However when I first reviewed this project with my manager, he said what we marketing people do is not asking customers to change to fit our machines. Instead, we should ask "who are our customers?" "what customers really need?" then analyze is it feasible for the company to design products/solutions to fulfill the unsatisfied demands later. Though that is exactly the same concept I learned from our marketing core course, I still very extremely excited to see how customer-oriented a manufacture company is. With that reminder in mind, I feel like I am acting more like an internal consultant or detactive responsible for figuring out the obvious but facts haven't been mentioned! So far I really enjoy trying anyway just to get to know our customers more and is confident about what might lead to the conclusion. Hopefully I will be traveling to collect more data to eliminate the information gaps soon.

Other than working hard, I also played hard during the weekends. Ivisited Beijing University and the great wall this weekend. The great wall is so grand and impressive that people can hardly see the end of it. Merly standing in front of them can make you touched for a long time. I really feel beloved and lucky by living in this ancient city and be surrounded by numerous historical spots.

The investment banking journey began!

The journey started only less than two weeks ago and so far it has been amazing. I arrived in New York City on the 6^th of June and I was hosted for a week by a classmate from Ross. I managed to find an apartment on Craigslist in a very nice location, pretty convenient to commute to go to downtown to the office.

The summer associate program started with a week of training. The first day was very exciting as I met all my new colleagues of the summer associate class and I am proud of representing Ross as an international student. I am surrounded by smart individuals from other top business school in the US such as Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago Booth etc. Training was a great way to get started and to meet most of them. Despite the fact that it was a week of training, one night I went home pretty late as we had an assignment due in less than 24 hours. It was a job simulation and we had to value a company that was exploring a merger with another company. We had to learn how to use Factset (an investment analytic tool) and use all the excel files they provided us to perform the valuation. We were divided in sub-teams and this was a great way to bond with some of my colleagues and to make new friends.

The last day of training was volunteer day. We went to a park and we had to do gardening all together. It was nice to see how future bankers can contribute to the community and have fun at the same time. After that we had a welcome drink event where I met other nice colleagues.

Next week is my first ‘real work’ week and I am very excited. I will be staffed on Monday morning and I guess it is going to be very busy. I spoke with some summer analysts in my group (M&A) who started a week earlier and they told me they have been going home very late every night.

Keep you posted on how it goes!

Matteo

Wk 3: Hiking around Bhutan

The past two weeks have been a blur. I interviewed CFOs, researched comparative data, summarized project findings, and created preliminary cost profiles. The government-owned for-profit companies are so interesting that I could not help but ask numerous questions about the organization and business drivers. My project deals with finding opportunities for cash savings. The saved capital will allow the companies to carry out more investments and business expansion. I am excited and humbled with the chance to contribute to Bhutan’s development. As you might know, Bhutan is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. I am still waiting for more internal and external data to complete my analysis. I have nine more weeks to recommend remarkable cost strategies to Druk Holdings & Investments (DHI).

I am extremely proud to represent the University of Michigan and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business in Bhutan. Many top universities also send interns here. There are two other interns at DHI, a Stanford Law student and a Columbia Masters in Sustainable Development student. The three of us are sharing the large and homey office attic. J Besides my co-DHI interns, there are two Harvard Public Policy students in another government agency, the Gross National Happiness Commission. Three Berkeley MBA students also did a class project for DHI a couple of months ago. Yale also regularly sends graduate students to undertake diverse projects for the government. I am happy that the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at U-M was able to arrange my internship here so Michigan is also represented. Go Blue!

The arrival of my co-DHI interns signaled the start of my exploration of Bhutan. Last week, I hiked around Thimphu for seven hours! We climbed a mountain to visit the Motithang Takin Preserve. Takin is a goat-antelope and is the national animal of Bhutan.

We also visited the Thimphu Dzong (The Trashichodzong), which is the seat of the government and the headquarters of the clergy in the capital city. Beside the Dzong is the King’s Royal Residence. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed to be taken of the place. I shot this picture while walking down a mountain. The Dzong is on the left while the Royal Residence is on the middle-right, covered by trees.

We also went to the world’s tallest Buddha, standing tall at 169ft. The site is still under construction.

And, we saw an archery competition in Paro, another town. Yes, they need to wear ghos, traditional Bhutanese dresses, when competing.

This weekend, we are trekking to the Tiger’s Nest, Bhutan’s most spectacular sacred site, and going to Punakha, the old capital of Bhutan. I heard the climb up the Tiger’s Nest is rigorous. I hope my lethargic body can handle the exercise. J

Tourist “traps” vs tourist “tricks”

I am usually very distracted. I find myself thinking about several things while driving or walking and when I finally realize where I am, I already missed my turn or walked a few more meters than needed. For instance, when I arrived to San Francisco my supervisor gave me instructions on how to get home by taking the Cable Car - Yes, the Cable Car. I think I have one of the most autochthonous experiences a person can have in San Francisco. I go and come back from work in Cable Car. Every afternoon I ride my cable car with tourists from all over the world that scream out loud when the cable car is driving down a hill – Anyways, my boss had told me where to take the cable car. The thing is that she never told me that there was more than one line of Cable Cars….So, in the middle of my dispersion, the first day I took the wrong line. I was riding it and realized the car was running further away from my place. So I got off where, with the basic knowledge I had of the city 2 days after my arrival, I believed I was close to my place and could walk home. I ended up walking quite a few hilly blocks….

The second day I got on the wrong cable car again because I did not know exactly how to find out what line it was and I was impatient to get home. So, I just jumped in the first vehicle I saw. But this time, I realized I could get off at the same cross street of my house but a few blocks up. That same cross street is called Lombard Street. The name did not say anything to me rather than where I lived .… but I found out that this was the stop of the famous zigzag touristy street, Lombard Street, and that I lived 3 blocks away from it. I try hardly to avoid touristy places and traps and ironically I was experiencing 2 of the most touristy things in San Francisco at once: the Cable Car and Lombard Street.

But not everything is as bad as it sounds, thanks to it I made an interesting discovery. I kept walking and found one block away, a very nice Colonial Spanish and Italian style building: The San Francisco Art Institute. It was amazing to discover that just a block away from home I had access to this interesting space, where not only graduate and undergraduate art degrees are offered but also arts exhibits are presented each month. This amazing space also offers access to the Anne Bremer Memorial Library, established with a generous donation from philanthropist Albert Bender in 1935 and, more amazing: you have access to The Café on the rooftop of the building. It’s a space that yields spectacular views of the bay and beyond. The Café serves breakfast, lunch, and light fare from morning to early evening. All food is made from organic, local, seasonal ingredients available in the San Francisco Bay Area. A trick totally recommended!!

Also, on a given Sunday that my husband came to visit we got touristy and decided to rent bikes and ride all along the beach from Embarcadero to Golden Gate Bridge. The ride is nice and totally worth it except for the wind that impedes the bike to advance at a speed higher than 1 mile per hour. But again, when we were climbing a hill near Fort Mason and decided to take the typical tourist Golden Gate/ Sea view picture, I made another great discovery: the San Francisco Fine Art Fair. From May the 19^th until May the 22^nd, San Francisco offered the inaugural show of this Concourse Exhibition Center. With galleries representing both contemporary and historically significant work, they presented a selection of highly relevant and engaging programs from the Bay Area and around the world. A highly recommended and very nice trick to check next time you happen to be in May around San Francisco.

Week One

Only a week of the internship at Merrill has gone by....9 more weeks to go! I was busy the first three days of last week with an orientation required for all interns. There were students there who will be working all over the country (the networking skills that Ross has ingrained in me definitely came in handy). To be honest, it was kinda dry but that's neither here nor there. After the orientation, on Thursday, I had the pleasure of meeting the actual people I will be working with this summer. My manager's name is Rich and I work with two guys named Alex and Rafael. They are actually all pretty cool and I feel like we are developing a great relationship. I work on a huge sales desk. There are no cubicles in the office, just one big open space where everyone sits....kinda cool. My particular group works with concentrated equity. Our job is to create different structured products around this equity that are tailored to a clients specific needs. For example, a client may want to hedge against downside market risk. We can create a specialized product using derivatives to help him/her do this. In effect, our clients are actually financial advisors who have clients with large equity holdings. I am in the learning process right now, trying to figure out the ins and the outs of this business. It is interesting to me and I intend to ask a lot of questions! My office is located in the World Financial Center right on the Hudson River. When I look out the window, I see the Hudson on one side and the World Trade Center construction  on the other. The other day, I decided to walk home. It was absolutely beautiful walking along the river and looking at the water and New Jersey City on the other side. I walked all the way back to my cozy NYU dorm. With two roommates, one being a Ross student, we are packed into one room. It's cozy though and I am enjoying myself. Other than that, NYC is a crazy place, from the high roller night clubs to the underground subways. But I love it all. It's a great city with a lot of opportunity waiting to be taken. That's all for now, talk to you guys soon!

Hi

This week I ended my third week of my internship which means that I already finished 25% of it, time flies by… I also just moved to downtown Chicago after seeing what the suburbs have to offer (which is not much…).

I know it is about time I will share more about what I am really being paid for during my internship, however in this post I would like to share with you what I am doing in the weekends and I will explain why. My wife is staying in Ann Arbor because she works as a Research Specialist at the Physiology Department which is part of the Medical School, Therefore until now every weekend I found myself driving eastward towards our beloved Ann Arbor. This is the reason I would like to share with you the amazing experience of Ann Arbor in the summer. Many people might come with their partner to Ann Arbor and the partner might find himself or herself during the summer in Ann Arbor, thinking there is nothing to do in a college town during the summer vacation. Well, they can’t be more wrong- Ann Arbor is amazing during the summer! Unfortunately people don’t know how many things are there to do here. Last week there was Taste of Ann Arbor where Main Street was closed down to traffic and all the restaurants from down town opened booths and sold small plates that represented their menu. All the samples where very cheap and where paid for with coupons the people bought. After spending coupons that cost us $15, we couldn’t eat any more. Another event was the Peony Festival at the Nicholas Arboretum that attracted nature lovers who wanted to see the rare one week bloom of those amazing flowers. During the summer nights there are also public screen of movies at the diag and in general there is a great student atmosphere thanks to many students who are doing summer semester and can be seen in their front yards playing beer pong inside big inflatable pools. As much as Ann Arbor has a feeling of an easy going place, the summer enhance this feeling much more and I am enjoying every weekend I am here.

Therefore if anyone is scared from the fact that he or his partner will have to do the summer in Ann Arbor, he should not have any worries, rather he should open the calendar and start planning an amazing summer time.

Yoav.

I can say so far that Marie Claire has been a blast. The fashion assistant mistakenly over-hired interns and we are now up to 36 fashion interns. So, it's always incredibly crowded in the closet, but I have to say that I have a lot of fun working with everyone. I've made some incredible friends from all over the states - even a Swiss!
Anyway, with work, I've gotten used to the routine of returns, check-ins, and runs. I've realized that I really enjoy going on runs to do pick ups and drop offs, only minus the days of hot hot weather.
We just recently finished shooting our October cover, and this was an unbelievably big photoshoot. Names related to the shoot are strictly confidential, but I can say that I, as an intern, had to pack and unpack a total of 16 trunks, stuffed full of couture dresses and Sergio Rossis. This was the biggest shoot that I will have experienced packing for at my time here this summer.
Another really neat thing that he fashion department has been working on is setting up "luncheons" with the top editors. That will be happening in the following weeks, and I've already made my request for JoAnna Coles (the editor in chief). This is something I'm really looking forward to. I'll be preping some questions to ask Ms. Coles this week! Will update everyone on my endeavors at Marie Claire in a couple of weeks! Until then...

Indian Summer

I've just finished the second week of my internship in Delhi, India and wow, its hot here.  There haven't been many days where it has been less than 100 degrees.  This is my third time to Delhi so I'm at least used to it.  Its my first time to work here though and there have been a couple of small surprises so far.  The first thing that one has to get used to is that there are so many people to do things for you.  While I was used to this when staying in family homes in India, it was not as easy to get used to this in the workplace.  On my first day, cups of chai started to show up at my desk every hour or so and I quickly learned that making my own refreshments was a thing of the past.  What was more surprising however, is that even jobs like photocopying are done by the office help and that if you mistakenly do your own photocopying, they will repeat the task just to make sure its perfect.  This was somewhat of a shock after so many years of independence in the workplace and probably a common challenge faced by foreigners working in India.  I wonder if Indian students after a couple of years at Ross come back home and find it difficult to adjust to these additional 'perks'?
The second surprise is the food, and specifically that it also shows up at your desk randomly...thalis, aloo tikki, samosas all hand delivered in the first week.  Unfortunately this weather is not conducive to working out a lot except early in the morning.  I really need to become a morning person.

This week is my first chance to get on the road and have a couple of days in Bangalore.  Looking forward to experiencing the south...home of IT, Business Process Outsourcing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and, thankfully, cooler temperatures.

Goldman Haven

Hi everyone,

My first week of internship had been super great. I'm bombarded with training for the first week, shadowing after, and I should be able to make my first contribution to the firm by next week. The building faces the Hudson river and the statue of Liberty, which made my workplace a relaxing place to be at. I'm still learning to navigate around excel to be as proficient as I could be, it's a steep learning curve to memorize all the short-cuts and jargon that my team (MRMA) uses everyday.

New York has definitely treated me well. I initially had some problem with housing, I was scammed. But now I'm staying at the FIT dorm, which is 1 metro stop away from times square, and 20 minutes away from the office. New York has ALL the kinds of food that you ever crave for: ZAGAT rated restaurants, Michelin star-rated restaurants, Italian, Japanese, and also Halal food on the streets.

Everything else is awesome, including the metro! I got the monthly pass, and I'm enjoying the ride! I hope everything is as well as this week from today onward until the end of the internship!

Stacy Lim

Greetings from Minneapolis!

Greetings from Minneapolis!

It has been a week since I started my internship at Ecolab and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Ecolab’s headquarters is located in downtown St. Paul (the older and more historical part of the Twin Cities) but I decided to live in Dinkytown Minneapolis (where you find students from the University of Minnesota, as well as tons of pubs and restaurants). To a certain extent, Dinkytown reminds me of Ann Arbor, so it’s good to have a little piece of “home” with me.

My first week at Ecolab passed by faster than I expected. My manager has been spectacular in ensuring that I could “hit the road running, right off the bat”. Quote, unquote. She arranged a total of 22 meetings for me in the first 4 weeks, making sure that I have the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with senior management. Prior to my internship, I was advised by MBA2s that the summer internship is not just about delivering a good project. It is also about familiarizing yourself with the culture of the company and getting acquainted with individuals from the organization. In fact, one of the senior executives I met advised me that as an intern, I was not expected to understand ALL the details of the business. Rather, I was there to get a holistic picture of how the business is run, and more importantly, to provide a fresh perspective on critical issues.

Apart from executive meetings, HR has also filled the interns’ calendars with multiple social events. We will be spending a full day on a Habitat for Humanity project; going for a Minnesota Twins baseball game; touring the Twin Cities; and visiting the Research and Development facilities of Ecolab, among many others.

My summer is definitely looking very busy, but again, every minute of my first week at Ecolab has been phenomenal and I am excited to find out what the next 9 weeks have in store for me.

Till then!

Two weeks in Seattle... and loving it!

Hey Rossers!


It has been two weeks since I moved into Seattle, first if you are coming here do not expect a lot of sun at the start of your internship (apparently summer does not start at the same time all over the US) you will still see a bit of rain and clouds but whenever you get a day of sun everyone will be out and be ready for a very active and outdoors city, people walk, bike, run and stop for some coffee anywhere. Pike market is a must see (I personally did not enjoy it very much even when it is a novelty for Americans I am too used to them) and of course next to it you can find the "first Starbucks" shop (if you are into that).


Housing is amazing (if you got Amazon or Microsoft, hope to get Harbor Steps and be right in downtown) and a lot of other MBAs are around as are bars, restaurants and the waterfront (really nice if you like running, biking or just walking).


The first two weeks at work have been hard, yes you are an intern and they cut you some slack but it just takes a couple of days until you feel overwhelmed with information and with all the people you have to work with in order to be able to finish your project. Do not worry, you will feel like you are not an MBA intern but a high school intern where you barely know what to do (or at least, that is how I feel).


My Microsoft team is amazing and I am currently working in developing and managing the Hotmail campaign for July 2011 (yes, you are right I am managing the campaign which involves dealing with the creative agency, the research agency and with a lot of teams inside of Microsoft). This last Friday we had something they call "Demo day", where different teams (this time it was the Developer managers) demonstrate how some of the new features work... I got to see how Windows 8 works and some improvements across the Windows platform (let me tell you, it was amazing!... I think I know why I decided on High-Tech now, you are changing how people will interact in the future).


I am still trying to learn how to navigate through a big organization (I come from a country where organizations are usually lean and where it is better to "ask for forgiveness than permission" to get your goals done).


Oh! by the way, I am not crazy about the commute, the morning one is not that bad it will take about 30-40 mins to get from downtown to Redmond, but in the evening it can take up to 1:15 hrs to get back! So, for your convenience, leave at 5pm sharp, or stay in Redmond (the gym is amazing! and it has tons of things to do from racquetball to saunas to pools to cardio rooms and weights) until 7 or 7:30pm.


I will see you in the next post!


Gabriel.

Happy Centennial Birthday, IBM!

My name is Jiawen Mou, an MBA student in Ross School of Business at Univ. of Michigan. After finishing my first year in Ross, in less than one week, I will start my internship at IBM GBS (Global Business Service) Strategy and Transformation Division, working as an MBA intern consultant. Although I don’t know my specific project assignment for the summer yet, I was informed that I would be staffed in Industrial group in Chicago. I am really excited about the opportunity to work for IBM, especially after knowing that IBM is going to be 100 years old this June 16th.
Prior to business school, I had been working as an engineer and project leader in eBay China Development Center, however, I had always been looking for new learning opportunities outside engineering, and that’s why I came to US to pursue my MBA degree. As for the internship in IBM consulting division, I am expecting to experience the life as a consultant and challenge myself to learn new things and think differently.
While being excited about my new job function, I feel more pressure and nervous as the start date approaches. Actually, my biggest worry is still my English abilities. What if I can’t fluently express myself in a conference call!? What if I stumble in a presentation to clients!? Challenging but intriguing!

My First Entry

I am a MBA student from University of Michigan. Starting on June 6th, I will have my summer intern at Cummins, headquartered in Columbus, Indiana. I am part of hte corporate strategy team and I will play as a project leader on my individual project and as a team member on a group project. My individual projet is about the parts business of Cummins and I will drive the process to find hte potential business growth opportunity. For my group project, I am with the other 2 team members to find solid profit potential in South Amercia. I am expecting a lot of challenge from such an experience this summer. Because this is the first time for me to work in US and also this is the first time for me to drive a large strategic challenge myslef alone. I also believe that my work will bring real impact to a fortune 500 company. I am nervous about this challenge and also excited about it. I hope things will work in the coming weeks.

Four Weeks In

In the two weeks that have passed since my last post I've grown more comfortable in the office and been able to do some interesting stuff. I've also begun to drink more coffee. I began the internship doing some fairly un-engaging things - cleaning up client lists, keeping track of wholesalers, scheduling, etc. Since then I've seen a shift toward things that actually interest me. There's still a fair amount of the type of thing that I just mentioned. That comes with the territory, but it all has to get done if things are going to continue to function properly.

My main accomplishments thus far are cleaning up/centralizing the system they use to track clients or prospects, and putting together a detailed investment matrix with information on any of the money managers, mutual funds, bond funds, annuities, or other investment vehicles that UBS deals with. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the relationship is a key element of the Wealth Management business - both to bringing in new clients and keeping existing ones satisfied. Since everything really revolves around the interface between the client and the advisor, it's important that all members of the team are able to track each other's progress to both stay up to date or to pick up where the other left off. I developed a form that allows for easier tracking of interactions with clients and prospects, put it in a place where everyone can access it, and have helped to make sure everything is up to date. I've seen everyone on the team using it, so hopefully that means it's helped to improve the process a bit.

Next one is the investment matrix. This is still a work in progress since there is a LOT of information to consolidate. But it looks to be shaping up nicely. It's going to be used to narrow down options and identify preferred investment vehicles, so it's important that there be a lot of detail in the final product. It's been a good exercise to get me better acquainted with their business and the types of places they feel comfortable allocating clients' capital. Once I'm done with that I have a few more similar projects lined up, so I'm looking forward to what's to come.

Though I've grown a lot more comfortable in the office than I was in my first week or two, I'm only a month in so I'm definitely still getting acquainted with the business. Overall, it's a good place to be and I'll continue to do what I can to make the most of the opportunity

Cisco: Two week mark

So, the internship begins. I am one of 7 interns for Cisco's Human Resources Leadership Program (HRLP) program. It's great to meet like-minded people from different schools because we get to exchange ideas about the projects that we are working on. It's an all female group this year so it's definitely a HUGE change from the business school environment. Another great thing about the summer is apart from our individual projects, we also get to work on "suitcase" or team projects with a few of the other interns. Fresh out of my MAP experience, I think that I could apply a lot of what I learned in the past term to this team exercise.

I am still in the process of getting to know Cisco. So far so good though. My project meets all of the objectives that I set out to achieve for the summer. The environment is a lot like Ross - people are smart, helpful and warm. Anybody I've reached out to has been willing to help me out with my project. The cohort of interns and full-time HRLP participants is very closely knit. They planned a lot of activities to make our transition into Cisco as smooth as possible - one on one's with HR leadership, Comedy Sports, Napa Trip, Baseball game. In addition to this, the Michigan alumni network is very strong. We had a Michigan meet-up last week - mostly interns and full-time Cisco employees from the supply chain division. We still have a little pocket of Ann Arbor in this San Jose campus.

The support system that Cisco builds around the HRLP program is great in helping me adjust to my first ever job in the US. The culture is a lot more informal than what I'm used to. I catch myself being inappropriately formal at times in emails and meetings. I will get better at this :)

The hipster touch of a “summer” in San Francisco

“San Francisco (SF) in is chilly during the summer though.. “ and “You know Mark Twain once said: The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco” were the two most common sentences I heard when I told my “Bay Area” friends that I was going to be in San Francisco for the summer. But I guess I never really believed them. I mean, coming from 6 harsh months of Michigan’s winter, I thought people meant I wasn’t going to be at 90 degrees Fahrenheit (I have to admit that after a year in the US I still do not know how to make a quick conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius degrees, but I already understand that 90 degrees is quite warm) but at least at a manageable weather such as the one in my hometown Bogotá, were a light sweater helps you protect from a manageable cold wind. Off course I was wrong. When they said SF is CHILLY during the summer they really meant SF is FREEZING during summer.

What does my misunderstanding meant? I over packed the two suitcases I was allowed to bring with me with light summer-ish clothing and I ended up paying overweight for nothing! My luggage was full of unnecessary and inappropriate clothes because when I was packing I decided to leave heavy jackets and warm sweaters to reduce the weight. The result: I have been freezing during the past three weeks, inappropriately dressed, and internally wishing I could wear the nice dresses I brought to go out at night or the sandals I got since February that are waiting in the closet for summer time! Actually, since in Colombia we do not have seasons, and the city I leave at is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, I have always wished to experience and entire summer where I could dress in colors, skirts, top tanks and sandals. Well, apparently this is not going to happen……

Good thing though, Luckily, my mom sent to me a couple of Jackets I had left home with my very good friend Juliana who came to visit this weekend from Colombia. And, after the initial shock and complaining about how the weather ruined the summer fashion, I started to like the effect that had on the city’s fashion the combination of the chill and the hipster atmosphere of San Francisco. And I have to say that I love it!

I had never used more my leather jacket, and my comfy Tiger tennis shoes. Yes, I love the look of San Francisco girls, their tight jeans, comfy but stylish boots, a nice sweater, a hipster scarf and the classiest of the wind breakers: the leather jacket. They wear them camel, green or grey and they look fantastic with those 70’s style sunglasses and a very loose pony tail…

Let the cold come! If it comes with that hipster touch…

My BJ's Intern Journal, week 1

My summer adventure was actually started right after I got on my flight to Beijing. I was asked twice by Delta in Seattle and Tokyo about my travel certificate to China. Although I told them it is okay to renew my expired certificate at the BJ airport with my photo, Taiwanese ID , they all insisted on double checking with the China embassy before issuing me the boarding pass. Moreover, the immigration officer who issued me the new certificate wrongly typed my gender as “Male” and the Customs let me pass without pointing out the mistake. I firstly noticed this is a big issue when I was rejected by the bank teller saying that I can’t open an account there if there is such obvious mistake in my ID. Later, the company helps me apply the work permit also told me the medical checkup report shows me as a man, then I realized things is getting worse and I have to solve it soon. Luckily, the immigration officer I contacted showed much kindness and promised to assist my reapplication process. With his kind help, I save several tedious steps and received my “correct” certificate within 2 days. Sounds like the end? No, to collect all the required documents for my work permit, I went to the police office to get the “registration form of temporary residence” and reserved another medical checkup which is requested by the labor bureau. Hopefully, with all the efforts and hard work I have done, I can receive my work permit soon!
Let’s go back to work! I met my direct manager the first day of work. He is a very attractive gentleman who was relocated to China from Ohio only 6 months before. We talked over my summer projects and walked through what has been already done and what can I contribute to. As a project manager under strategic marketing department, the first project I would be working on is to evaluate the potential Chinese market for existing farming machinery currently used in South America. The other one is to understand the value chain of sugarcane and introduce the right product to reduce customers’ burden of increasing labor rate. I am so excited about the chance to leverage the analytical capabilities from my previous working experience and implement the framework from class to develop marketing strategy in the real world. For my first week, I read through a stack of valuable materials, extracted the relevant information and came out with a rough project plan during my manager’s absence. I will update you guys the project process and my Beijing experience next time!

Wk 1: Hello from the Land of the Thunder Dragon!

I arrived in Bhutan on May 28 without my luggage. Thanks to Singapore Airlines (not!), my luggage was left behind in Singapore. Regardless of this hassle, my excitement went through the roof as soon as I stepped off the Druk Air plane at Paro International Airport. The sight that greeted me was breathtaking! Bhutan’s international airport is situated beside majestic mountains. The scenery on the way from Paro to Thimphu, the capital and where I will be staying, was also remarkable. I saw monasteries, lakes, valleys, and numerous mountains covered with green foliage. I am very happy to see the last great Himalayan kingdom!

The people here are very friendly and helpful. An officemate helped in retrieving back my luggage while another showed me the local market and the best restaurants. Because of her, I was able to buy my elixir, Diet Coke (hahaha…). And, another peer volunteered to give me daily rides to and from work. I am thankful for my new friends.

My internship started on May 30. As I mentioned in my first blog post, I will be conducting a cost analysis project for Druk Holdings & Investments. My first week at work was very productive. I learned more about the four government-owned for-profit companies in my project portfolio. I am eager to gain knowledge on the costs involved in four new industries: natural resources, financial services, telecommunications, and airlines. This project will truly enhance my problem-solving capability and broaden my business knowledge.

This week, I read the Annual Reports for the past five years of the DHI’s companies. Next week, I plan to conduct interviews with DHI’s executives so I would grasp a better understanding of the companies’ cost drivers and problems. I have also been in contact with a Kresge librarian provided by the William Davidson Institute (WDI) for my fellowship project. The librarian will help me in researching competitive and comparative data for the four DHI-owned companies.

I will update you again next week. I am now off to play basketball with some Bhutanese friends. J

P.S. Oh, I saw the King! Fine… I only saw his car but he was inside it when the car passed me! LOL! J