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!