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