One last week for summer internship

This will be the last blog that I post for the summer. It’s hard to realize that my internship with Citibank is just one week from completion and new semester is about three weeks away. Looking back to the past 9 weeks with CitiMortgage in Ann Arbor, I think it’s been a really great learning experience for me and I had some really good time during summer as well. I think for this last post, it’d be a good idea to pause for a moment by looking back this summer and to reflect on new things that I learned.

I started my summer internship on the second day that I came back from holidays after travelling half dozen countries. So I was still jet legged when I was sitting in Citibank’s conference room with other 35 summer associates for the orientation week in New York. However, it was so exciting to meet and know many new friends and colleagues from other business schools around the country. People in Citibank really made us feel welcoming to the summer internship program and we are all looking forward to it. After getting back to Ann Arbor office, I was assigned to a new project, which involves interviewing and hiring new staff for an operation center in Danville, IL. The process was tiring and I spent lot of time working on this project. But the experience was valuable to me not only because of the satisfactory results that we achieved in Danville, but also because of the exposure to recruitment and coaching process. I am sure that some of great takeaways that I learned will be of help for my future career. The final highlights for the summer were the two week group project in New York with other associates. As I mentioned in my previous blog, it was a difficult and stressful assignment for us. Luckily, all team members worked very hard on this project together and senior managers made themselves accessible to the questions that we had and provided great feedbacks on our projects. Life outside of work in New York was always exciting. I went to over a dozen nice restaurants and bars with friends during the restaurant week. It had been a great dining and social experiences and we had lot of fun.

The internship is about to finish but the learning process will never end. There will be new business challenges every day. What kind of banking products shall we offer to customers to make their life easier? How can we capture more market share from competitors in US and globally? What shall we do to be a responsible lender and make profits to shareholders at the same time? As a MBA graduate and future business leader, we should keep asking ourselves those challenging questions, work harder and smarter in an increasingly competitive market so as to make companies not only survive but also thrive in the market. Good luck everyone and see you all back in Ross soon.