Final thoughts- Never stop learning

-Hi everyone, I am one week away  to finish my internship, so this last blog may reflect some mixed feelings. Of course, I want to go back to business school, but as I’ve been saying before, my internship has been a great experience.  First, I had relevant and very interesting projects, second I have a great work-life balance that allows me to take advantage of NYC and third, New York itself, which is a great city to be in the summer with tons of free activities.

To wrap up my blog series, I am going to talk about the final presentation. During my last post I talked about a group project, do you remember that? Well, once we submitted the project, we needed to present to the top senior leaders of the organization, our managers and the rest of summer interns. Basically the auditorium was filled with around 50 people. The combination of the quantity and quality of the audience were factors that created a very stressful, and busy week. I am not the type of person who likes practicing presentations, but given the context, we practiced 6 times. The good thing, is that the official presentation wen very well. We were able to convey a heavy-data-driven project, and all our international accents with some fun examples, which helped to engage the audience and make the presentation more interesting.  Two big take aways of this final presentation: Again, a group works in which is important to establish roles and identify peoples’ strengths to divide better the presentation and set a positive tone, or simply manage the flow.

 Also, as international student, I would say that I had to step back and be humble to asses this US professional landscape, learn more things and be very open to feedback. Back in Mexico, I was so used to give presentations to big audiences and important people that I hadn’t had feedback for a long time ago, but in this context, I did, and it made me change my mindset for good, as I realized that there are always ways to improve. This conclusion was a constant during my internship. I got 6 years of work experience before coming to the MBA, and, at least for our group project, I was the one with more experience. I can say that this professional experience definitely  helped me to navigate Citi as a big organization, create good networks, solve business problems and approach the things that I was asked to do.

However, sometimes experience may cause less willingness to learn or take feedback. Nonetheless, I was impressed by the things that I learned from many people, as I’ve been saying, Citi is a very diverse organization, in every sense.  I found that I always had something to learn. Yes, I know, an MBA candidate has to be open to learn always new things, but the truth is that many times it is more a mantra than something that people take into practice. So, this summer I really practiced doing this, learning by doing and being very open to feedback with a true willingness to improve. Which in the end, may turn to be a good impression when feedback is internalized and put in practices. Not only for the summer, but also in general for a good professional life.  Finally, I think that by keeping this mindset, I am going to leverage more on my Ross classmates and learn the most during my last MBA year.

Diversity, Exposure, Cooperation and Work-life balance.. Loving NYC

Hello friends. This was my 7^th week , one more week down in my internship at Citibank., so I have 3 more to go. This was a veeeeeery busy week, for me that I really care about work life balance, I can say that the past days were the only in which I really had to stay late. This week was about working in a group project, which basically is solving a business issue for a division that is not familiar to the team, and working with 7 people. It may sound easy but it wasn’t. The big challenge was to deal with so many people in this team, so I had to go back to my MO classes and take many useful tips. 

Another thing that happened this week, was our speaker series with Vikram Pandit Citi’s CEO. Needless to say that it was great, very smart guy who was born in India, and very down to earth, even charismatic. Which takes me to the first topic of today, the company culture. Which has three major components.  First, diversity across divisions and business units. It is very natural to see people from everywhere interacting with each other. Which make sense as they are know as the global bank. Citi is not the biggest bank in US, nor in the world, but is the only bank that has presence in more than 180 countries. Hence, diversity plays a critical role and you see this in all different levels. A CEO who is from India, another who is from Mexico,  directors from UK, Venezuela, Italy,  China, and you name it. For me it has worked very well, as being international student, you feel that you are in a very open space where they are willing to promote and develop people from outside of US. 

Another important component of Citi’s culture, is it openness with senior management.  This speaker series with our CEO is only a good example, but we’ve had had this type of thing with other very senior leaders along the summer internship. Twice per week to be more precise.  This exposure not only has helped to understand other areas of the organization, but also to get worthwhile tips about personal and professional development. I found this very relevant, as in my previous work someone told me once. “In a company it is not only about delivering and working hard, you have to develop leadership behaviors and get exposure from senior levels” The latter helps not only to learn, but sometimes it may connect you with someone who share your background.  Another aspect that I have enjoyed so far, is the cooperative culture. It is important to note that I work in consumer banking, whose culture may vary from Investment Banking and Sales & Trading. Departments that are also part of Citi, but that require more daily hours, which changes the dynamic of the work. 

Well, as I was saying, in consumer banking it is very common to work in cross-functional teams, and being evaluated by your pers. This two things push the cooperation among team-members, as you know that everyone needs from everyone, and that your rating or the decision of hire or not hire will depend on the evaluation of your teammates. I enjoy working and interacting with people, so it works for me. However, it may be people who like more the individual work. But as I said, there is no good or bad, the only important thing is to understand, and look for the right fit. 

So far, I have had a great experience at Citi, and I love that they foster these three things on Citi’s culture: Diversity, openness with senior leaders, and cooperative teamwork. And probably, I will add another component that creates a good environment, good work-life balance. Here In NYC I ‘ve had the opportunity to read, work out, work, and go out on a daily basis. Which at least for me, is a great experience. This is it for now; I hope you have enjoyed my stories so far; I will be posting soon my last one. See you until then.

Miguel

Networking is actually part of the job

Hello, this is me again. This time I am going to talk about networking in the office. Has been 5 weeks already of my internship, and as we have been advised in school, networking is very important at Citi, as at any other company.

The good thing is that Citi also knows this, so they foster networking among people in the organization. Even, for my first week, I ad already a mentor assigned. Every intern has one, so this mentor may help you to answer all the questions that you cannot ask to HR, and help you introduce to new people. She, my manager, and my teammates have been the main sources to be introduce to more people. And it started naturally, since in order to understand the projects or the landscape, it is important to meet with many people, and those people will refer you to other group, and so on an so for. Also, I reached out the people who interviewed me, and they also gave me more contacts. Now I have a list of people that I cannot find the time to schedule meetings with them. I would say that in this 5 weeks I have been successful at creating networks within the organization. Part of it has to do with my genuine interest of knowing more people and understand what they are doing. Which in the end will give me a better perspective to decide in case that a job offer comes. People have always different roles, backgrounds and experiences with the companies they work for, so networking for me is helpful for both understanding the organization and gaining future sponsors within it.  Since Citi foster this, as I said, it is relatively easy that you can meet with senior people, and in the end, those are the people who can give you a better advice. Another piece that has been critical, is come prepare to those networking meetings. It is like the process that OCD gave us for recruiting. First send a short e mail explaining who are you and you motives, schedule a meeting. And come prepare for it. Understanding your objectives and of course, have clear and smart questions. That is the way  they automatically will say. “You should meet x” so there you go, you have another contact. Ok, that’ it for now. I’ll keep you posted. 

A well-rounded work plan

HI Everyone, it has been a while since my last post. And time has gone pretty fast for my internship; I cannot believe I am halfway already. This is my 5 week out of 10. Currently, after having several discussions with my manager and teammates, I came up with a defined work plan. It was not surprising for me that some thing will be ambiguous, and that I would have to step up and starts my own work plan. By saying this I don’t mean that they didn’t know what I have to do, but I am saying that they were not 100% sure about what would my contribution look like. Which doesn’t surprise me, as in my previous work at P&G things were like this, but I can say that it is a much better way to learn things and develop different skills. It is like a consultant job, without the same pay but certainly without the same working hours. Well, to make the story short, I realized that I could match my personal objectives in terms of skills/experiences to gain, and what Citi needed. So I came with 3 different projects a) Develop a competitive analysis of different potential suppliers b) Develop the template/framework of the steps to follow in order to close a deal of a new business model, with the top retailers of US c) Asses the social media landscape and come up with a strategy that differentiates Citi (and its new business model) from other companies. It took me several meetings and talking with different people to gain sponsors for my projects. Citi, as any other big organization, works a lot with this corporate dynamic of aligning different stakeholders. However I am very satisfied with the outcome, as I will build experience in strategy, business development and social media. Now, in order to get things done, I built a timeline, develop and aligned different frameworks to approach each of the projects, and committed my deliverables, in a very specific way. For example, in the social media I will deliver an executive summary in a word document, and a deck with all the insights, next steps and success criteria. This may sound logic, but when it comes to people, everyone is different. I learned in my previous job that it is better to over communicate and set the right expectations, using measurable criteria. (Similar to the START concept we revised at MO 503). It happened some times before that if these things are not stated, there may be some miscommunications. The other thing is that in big companies, that work as matrix organizations, you never know when a person working close to you moves to a different role or simply leaves the company, so it is very important to have a clear work plan.

That’s it for know, but I’ll keep you posted.

My first two weeks in New York Citi- Part 2 of "from CPG to Banking"

Hello everyone,
Has been a while since I posted my first blog. You may think that the title of this  second one is a miss spelling, however it is not. I just didn't want to be one more person talking about Citibank, as I just saw that my intern classmates have been very active.
The ver first week went by very quickly. We had a trainning during the whole week, along with some networking events and an speech of the CEO of Citibank consumer banking division, Manuel Medina Mora, who happens to be a mexican that has a long career in the banking industry. This conference, was just the cherry on the cake that confirmed the things that I am enjoying at Citibank. First. Diversity of backgrounds, and second,  approachable senior management. As I consider both relevant elements when it comes to build a strong organizational culture. Also, they come very useful when evaluating whether I see myself  working for Citi in the future, because, from an international student perspective, I would not like to be working in a place in which thediversity in background is not appreciated. Another thing that I have enjoyed from the program so far, is the caliber of the interns. I can tell that I've had interactions with people from all of the  top 15 business schools. Which has been a great opportunity not only to expand my network, but also to realize that The University of Michigan, Ross Business School, is very well positioned in the MBA market. Now, starting my second week, I have to confess that  going back to work after eleven months, is like working out, you need to keep up with your condition! It is not a big deal, but it is something that needs to be practiced again. Additionally, as it has been for other classmates, when  defining deliverables, it is not as easy as I had thought. I realized that my project is more ambiguous than I though, as it has to do with launching a new business model, which deals with increasing revenues, strategy and marketing. As a result, there are some roles that are still unclear in my team, but, the upside of this is that I am having the opportunity to work in something entrepreneurial, something very rare in a big organization like Citi. (You may have seen that also Citi just turned 200 years, and it is just  starting the 3th century of life ). The project has been great to leverage on my previous MAP experience as a team-member and on my Strategy classes. So far, I can tell that the project has exceeded my expectations, even though I still have to figure things out and develop many frameworks to deal with the unknown of a new business model.
I will keep you posted.
Miguel

From Consumer Goods to Banking

Hi, this is Miguel Martinez, mexican MBA at Ross.  This summer I will intern at Citibank, within the Consumer Banking division. Although specific projects have not been released yet, I know that I will be working for Credit Cards in New York City.

I am very excited as this opportunity represents a change in industry. I come from the CPG industry, where I  developed experience/skills during 6 years at Procter & Gamble. I did  sales, business development, strategy, in-store marketing, and category management. Now, I will have to leverage on  those experiences and the soft skills to have a successful internship.

Coming from CPG helped me to being able to try another industry, as currently, many companies are focusing on the final consumer to deliver a superior "experience" that engages current consumers (create loyalty) and attracts new ones (bring more consumers) by matching the benefits of the product with the needs of the specific segment. Something very common in CPG, but not very adopted in the rest of industries. Specifically in my internship, I know that I will have to understand the consumer and propose specific actions/changes in the value proposition of a given category of cards segment, while understanding the dynamics of banking industry. The idea of the program, is to start in this credit cards track for the internship, and then rotate or have different assignments as a full time. The  program objective (internship +2 years of full time) is that in the end, the person has a well rounded picture of Consumer Banking industry, and takes more important roles.

Having to transfer my skills not only to a new industry, but also to a different country, are the things that I see as the biggest challenges. Also, transferring skills is what makes me excited and at the same time makes me a little nervous, as I know that the culture in banking is very different than in CPG, not sure to what extent, but definitely I am anticipating to face different networking styles, and probably  different politic issues. On the other hand, I think that my knowledge about consumer behavior, and business acumen  will help me to navigate and have solid proposals. Besides, I already have a great test of transferring skills with my MAP (Enjoy, Chile), so I think that it will also help me to have a safe landing with Citibank.

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

A month already!

Well, it amazing how time goes by, it has been a month already since I started my internship. I am definitely busier than I used to be the first days, as I am working in a project, I don’t have daily tasks to do. In the beginning, my usual day was divided by doing research and meeting with some people that can give me more information about the product I am analyzing. Now, I got almost all the information I needed, so I am in the phase of putting everything together to build a story (as my boss says). So, as many of us, I am in the power point phase, and this is more stressful than I thought. My boss is a former consultant, so you can imagine she has high standards in presentations. In fact, I knew I had to do a final presentation to my boss, but I didn’t know I had to do a midpoint presentation to my VP, that will be this week. So, you can imagine how much I have been working this week.

Additionally, as we are getting near to the end of our program, we have more social and networking events. Unfortunately, I had to miss one happy hour because I had a very early meeting the next day. I was sad, but I knew this following week we will have even more events, so I felt more relieve. This week, we will have breakfast with HR representatives, the usual lunch and a scavenger hunter event. So I will definitely have fun.

And to end the week, as most of us have been really busy, some of the Summer Associates decided to go out for dinner on Friday. What rally surprised me is that we went to a Peruvian restaurant, without my recommendation, so you can imagine I was more than happy. I had a Peruvian friend visiting me for the weekend, so i went with her, and we really liked the food, and my friend did also. We had a great time and most of us couldn't finish. Here is the photo of us, I was really happy that people from Italy, Brazil, the Philippines, and of course, US, could enjoyed Peruvian food.

I will keep you post!

Shila A.