So long and thanks for the fish tacos.

My last week was more hectic than I wanted it to be, with the final presentation just a couple of days before the end date which led to some serious late night, crunch time work. Less time to polish up my deliverables any further; I had to concentrate on documenting everything and wrap up my last initiatives on the job.

Some food for thought for future interns:

• Use the time to figure out whether the work-life balance is right for you.
• Start networking early.
• Allow yourself time to understand the culture, the people and the project.

My internship is now finally over and I'll be going home in only a day from now. I'll be packing some Dell swag and a couple of small mementos, but mainly fond memories. If only I could pack a few fresh tacos, too! Austin was a great companion and will be missed. Not feeling too reflective at the moment, just looking forward to the trip back home.

So long and thanks for reading!

Sleepless in Seattle:  See you all back in school

So folks, this is my last note here. I have only 2 weeks for my last presentation and 3 weeks to my last day here. In order to be as ready as I could, I started working on the presentation a week ago. Next week I hope to circle the deck around the team to have as many corrections as possible. It is actually my 6th presentation this summer - so I must say that at least I learned how the Microsoft people like to have their presentation. Although people's characters is always to be consider while presenting, here in Microsoft most of the presentation are actually the documentation method for the entire project.

Since I networked and connected with so many people, right now there are more than 40 people invited to my final presentation and several more personal meetings with senior managers from other teams that can't participate in the schedule date with my manager (I believe it is also contribute to her network - so I'm happy with that too).

Looking back on my tenure in Microsoft this summer (although I haven't finished yet) it was a great adventure that started 7 months ago - during the recruiting time - continue through my MAP project with the IEB division (gaming studios) and the 9 weeks of internship. I got to know not only a great company that has the ability to change the world, but also amazing people who are smart and open, creative and fun to work with. Microsoft for me feels like a warm blanket of "coming back home" (since I worked in hi-tech before) and I felt in my first weeks here that I know how to hit the floor running.

I would say that there are several takeaways from the entire period (those 7 months):

1.       Go with your heart - do what feels good. If you have fun in your work (especially depends on the people around you) stay there, learn how to love it and put your heart to it.

2.       Be open to feedback. This is why we have two ears and only one mouth - listen 60%-70% of the time, that way you will learn the most.

3.       Smile. It will give you a great feeling and it is contagious so others could start smiling too.

But to be specific about the internship I know I communicate my efforts, needs, questions and results very well. I shared it with smart and key people, networked outside of my immediate environment and put the people around me on my first priority. On the other side I know I did some things not so well - I started to think on business problems with my engineering brain, I almost did some huge political mistakes that could affect my manager and haven't done a great job articulating the story in my presentation the way people in Microsoft use to.

                                                                                    Live long and prosper. Go blue.

Sleepless in Seattle: The Microsoft culture

Microsoft, the company which changed the software world forever, produced three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from its employees and now has around 90,000 employees and 60 MBA interns for the summer. I could talk for a whole day about the culture of the company which can be consider as an 18 wheeler, but I would start with one word - intricate !

The dictionary define 'intricate' as difficult and complex, and there is no better word to describe a company that is actually 7 different companies (divisions) with their own agenda, fighting over the attention of the CEO. In the last couple of years, Steve Ballmer (CEO) did some re-org that put the technical people (engineering background) at the top of those divisions and reduced the internal fighting almost to zero. Although the willingness to look unite, the internal structure and culture of every division is different and mainly defined by its president.

In general I could say that the culture in Microsoft is very open - since I has a vast hi-tech background it is like returning home, to the open door of your peers and managers (in all levels), to the flexible hours of work, to the open mind for new (sometimes crazy) ideas and opinions and the casual approach to the working environment (jeans and t-shirts). I was lucky to be able to work and communicate with people from all over the company and to understand that there are three major pyramids in the company - the main one is the engineering (the heart and soul of the company), the business (the head of the company) and the field (the arms and legs of the company).

                                                                              Talk to you soon,
                                                                                             Barak.

Understanding My Manager!

Hey guys, I’m back to share my first few weeks experience at Dell. First of all I feel good going back to where I started my career in terms of function - marketing. However the first question is: Is marketing in banking the same as marketing in Hi-tech...Hmmm not totally the same but you need the same set of skills which I got. Understanding my manager could have been a great challenge, working with a director that has been on the job for over 15 years, perhaps his expectations should be high. Fortunately I have a good manager that understand my predicaments and knows how to express complex situation in a simple illustration. He’s a great listener and good on feedbacks. He gives weekly feedbacks on my performance. Also I had meetings with some of his team members and they shared a valuable insight on working with him.
On my project, after several brainstorming sections with my manager, I had to come up with a presentation on the project’s high level framework and weekly deliverables. I never imagined how wide the scope of my project was until I had a one on one presentation with some directors. Probably everybody has a different perception on the project. Going by everybody’s suggestion, it’s obvious the project is going to take forever. At this point I concluded that it’s important to have a strategic section with my manager on the possibility of narrowing down the scope of the project so as to be more focus.  
I made my manager see reasons why it’s necessary to be more specific on the scope of the project and he agreed with me. So I was able to identify the problem to be solved. And he came up with list of relevant people that their insight and feedback would be of value to the execution of my project. I did schedule one on one meeting with them and their response and contribution has been awesome. I have started to think of how I can build my future career around these great people.

Austin, the Great City!

My summer journey started on a sunny Sunday with a delayed flight from Detroit to Austin, I had boarded a taxi from Ann Arbor to the airport before I got Delta Airline’s text massage saying the flight has been rescheduled from 2pm to 4pm. Eventually, I had a very smooth 3 hours flight to Austin, the great city. On arriving at Austin, I moved straight to the lovely furnished apartment that Dell has secured for me and my family in a beautiful area of Round Rock, Austin. It’s about 4.4 miles to my office.

My resumption day was the following Tuesday, I was warmly welcomed to the company with a one day orientation program, where I met my recruiter, Lisa, one on one for the first time. She is such a pleasant lady. She introduced me to my manager, Roberto, during the meet the managers, who happened to be Ross alumnus. Roberto was excited about me; he gave a brief on my summer project- Marketing Investment Framework-China focus. But we spent most of the time discussing Ross because he hasn’t gone back to Ross since he left in 2000.

Dell’s working environment is new to me, coming from banking. Everything is super-automated. Roberto took me round the department introducing me to his team members and key people I will be working with. They showed knowledge and enthusiasm; and willingness to assist me on my project. I spent most of the week in series of meetings, understanding the nature of my project. We also developed a project plan that specified my weekly deliverables.

Meanwhile, I must express my excitement about Austin with the little time I have spent here. I had the opportunity to tour the city during the weekend; it’s really an awesome city. There are great bars and restaurants everywhere, good food –Italian, Mexicans and Asians to mention a few. The night life also can’t be overemphasized, Friday night was crazy! I was on the popular 6^th street with some other MBA interns, we all had fun. I can’t wait for another Friday. 

Sleepless In Seattle,

That at least what my new manager told me. A week ago I met my senior director – who will be my boss's boss in the summer and he already gave me the assignment for the summer: "Hard Work". So let us start from the beginning, I'm a MBA of 2013, going to intern with Microsoft in the Business division. I will work on a product in the name of "Lync" and hopefully will touch all the business aspects for the product (business planning, marketing, product management and engineering). One of the most exciting issues about this summer is the fact that Lync is one of the newest products from Microsoft and has the potential to replace all the internal phone-system servers with a computer based communication system.

That is only half of the summer, since I'm taking my family with me to Seattle and intend to spend as much time as possible with them. I will drive my car the 2,300 miles to Seattle from Ann Arbor while my wife and two kids will fly out to Seattle (6 days instead of 5 hours). On our way back we intend to cross the country on a long roadtrip and visit the Yellowstone National Park and Mount Rushmore.

I really hope that I would be able to combine those two main tasks – family and internship – and to enjoy every minute of the beautiful summer in Washington.



Opportunity to Change Industry

Hey, I am Patrick Ayeni, an MBA1 student at Michigan Ross School of Business. I will be spending my summer internship on marketing project at Dell within Consumer and Small Medium Business Division in Austin, Texas. This position is charged with the following responsibilities, among others: Ownership of marketing and advertising execution; Creation of brand tenets, campaigns and promotions for Dell’s various product lines across all sales channels; Measurement of the progress of the division’s results against the plan, with analysis of possible course corrections to improve business trajectory; Constantly evaluating technology, business and customer landscape.

This is an awesome opportunity to change industry while at the same time affording a great opportunity to add and imbibe some corporate values. I will be coming to the industry with a 9-year practical experience in marketing, product and business management experience in financial service institution. During this period I was able to leverage technology to improve consumers’ experience. I believe that my strong knowledge in consumers’ needs and behaviors will stand me in good stead to be successful at Dell during the internship period.

This challenging but exciting engagement will not only help me to transfer skills within industries but also across countries. However, I am envisaging a certain degree of cultural differences, coming from banking to hi-tech and also Nigeria to United States makes me a little bit nervous. Fortunately, my MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Projects) project with GE on Strategic Market Growth for Flare Gas Ultrasonic Flow meter offered me a great opportunity to learn about corporate culture in US and also prepare me ahead of marketing intern role. So I believe I should be able to hit the ground running as soon as I resume at Dell.

MBA & Videogames

Hi, my name is Nicola. I am a rising second year MBA from Italy. Videogames have always been one of my greatest passions. I've been an hardcore player since I was able to handle my NES joypad. When I came to Ross, I was wondering about what career path I would have choose. At the time, I considered the Electronic entertainment industry as an unreachable dream, since it is a pretty close circle and companies usually don't hire international students. I decided to network with videogame companies, but to pursue a more typical MBA career path.
However, Ross was able to exceed my ambitions by far. Thanks to a great alumni network and the power of MAP, I will spend the summer at the legendary software house Ubisoft Entertainment, in downtown San Francisco.
My title is "Active Game Manager", apparently the job involves a mix between product management and videogame production, and is therefore very creative. I will work on a major videogame franchise, but at this time it is not clear what I will do on a daily basis. Whatever it is, it's extremely exciting. Ubisoft is at the forefront of game developing, having released hits like Assassins Creed , Just Dance and Splinter Cell. The company is very informal and the offices are extremely cool and well located. I really can't wait to begin on the 23rd of this month.
Will let you know more A.S.A.P.

Wrap-up and Final Presentatoin

Finally I have reached the end of my internship. This weekend, I am packing up all the things preparing to go back. In some sense, I miss Ann Arbor, but in others I miss Cupertino. Last Friday, I had a wrap-up meeting with my manager. Although my intern ends this coming week, since he is leaving for a business trip we had wrap-up a week before. I was told that overall my work was good. But Apple's recruiting system is not like other hi-tech companies, giving offer right at the end of internship. So I will have to wait for some time.


This week, I will have a final presentation on Thursday. I will report to my boss's boss boss, and some other staff related to my scope of work. On the same day, I will have another meeting set-up to expalin about my works so that someone here can follow-up those. Also, after all things are done, I am finally going to have a conference call with my boss to get feedback on my overall performance. I also have to give Apple a feedback about my intern experiences.


Overall, Apple's internship program seems to be very much organized, with diverse programs that interns can take advantage of. Although every people was busy, since I was assigned a manager and iBuddy, I could get as many information as I could, of course on the condition that I communicate with them in an efficient way. Besides work related stuff, there are lot's of extracurricular activities. Intern field trip to winery and SF baseball game, executive speaker series, department outing, meeting with senior managers and previous interns, lots of welcome/farewell parties and so on.
(Picture on right: Apple Corporate Games)

As a person having internship here, I am sure that future high-tech guys put Apple as their first priority intern place. You can work lots of smart Apple people, talk with them about their thoughts, sometimes see Steve Jobs at the cafeteria, sometime meet Woz and take picture with him, and also enjoy the beautiful weather at the west coast! Your experience here all depends on how you prepare and how you do at Apple!

How to do a Good Internship?

Again, time flew and I have only three weeks left until the end of my internship. Most of my projects are now at the final stage. There were several things that went on well, but also several others that I feel more could have been done. All these will be an asset for me in preparing for my full time job search. I also got some feedback after my seventh week, which was really a valuable one. Here are some of my recommendations while doing internship.

First, before coming for the internship it would help very much if you have a high-level plan of what you will do during internship. For example, you can plan some networking lunches with people at Apple or even some other people at bay area high-tech companies. You can also plan to write an intern diary to track what/how you are doing to improve yourself every week. As for me, I memorized some things that I should do or shouldn't do, but I didn't write a daily intern diary. But I guess when you write one it will definitely help you.

Second, try to understand the industry so that you can communicate well throughout doing your project. Although you are working for specific company, while doing work your knowledge on the industry helps dealing with other employees at the company. They will know that you are prepared and passionate about what you are doing at work.

Third, as a perspective of balancing your work and life, I suggest you plan to enjoy your weekend. Sometimes, intern life can make you get stressed a lot. Especially for me who is an international student, I was stressed while communicating since I am not a native speaker. Especially for international students, conference call seems to be the hardest communication you have to overcome to communicate well in a US company.

Anyway I hope good luck to all of the interns!

Dell: Final Post

It’s the home stretch. I can’t believe how quickly time flew by. 10 weeks just went “whoosh”, and I am finally ready to present my findings.

Well, almost. Every day involves meeting several people, presenting the findings to them, massaging the deck a little bit more. But it’s about ready. I will be presenting it at a director-level meeting either this Friday or the one after that. It’s all fairly fluid here at Dell.

My project involved a long period in which I essentially collected data that was previously unavailable; and then after I collected it I started to analyze it and construct my recommendations. Unfortunately, the data got to me only a week ago, and at first one of the only time slots they found for an executive presentation was a week from them. You can imagine that some sort of a panic set in; 12 hour workdays became the norm and I scurried to get everything ready in time. Fortunately, another timeslot was located a couple of weeks from then – but the scurrying had paid off , and most of the recommendations and presentation are ready for the original date (which was supposed to be tomorrow).

Who says that procrastination is bad, eh?

In news on the social front – it’s sad to see everyone I’ve become friendly with leave. The first wave of Dell interns is leaving at the end of this week and I’m sorry to see them go. Yesterday a whole bunch of us went on a boat again. Same boat as 4th of July. Same fun people. Same fun activities.

In two weeks, I will be back in Ann Arbor. To be honest, I had a blast in Austin – but I will be happy to leave and get back to my own apartment; back into life in Ann Arbor with my MBA friends and a lifestyle I had grown accustomed to and fond of. Farewell Austin, you’re an awesome city. I hope to be back soon!

Half Way Through

Six weeks have passed since my beginning. I have been concentrating on gathering information for one of my projects and standardizing a process for another project. Since my boss and most of the team members were on a business trip, I got exposure into a new situation at Apple.

(1) Communication and Teamwork
While doing my projects, communicating with others at Apple was really important. It is quite common in all companies, but especially communicating well at Apple operations was really important. First reason is because Apple is so concerned about security. Since it is hard to get information, you have to be good in explaining well what you do and why you need the information. Second reason is operations specific. Since most of the people are traveling, e-mail communication skills are required. But before that, you have to meet as much people as possible during their stay at Cupertino campus. While my first MBA days, communication and teamwork was almost all that I learned, but using the skills and theory that I learned in a real environment gave me more takeaways.

(2) Function Based Structure
I had more executive speaker series with people at HR, operations, software. One thing interesting was one I heard from HR person. He told us the unique aspects of Apple organization. The one he emphasized was the functional based organization structure. He told us that functional based structure keeps Apple's employees professional in their areas and keep all people in a flat structure. I also had other chances to know about Apple operation by talking to senior leadership people of operations at a breakfast event. Apple gives as many chances as possible to let interns get to know Apple. I think I should utilize them more in my second half of intern.

(3) SF Giants Game
This week interns went to the SF Giants game. When I got to the stadium, I could see lots of SF famous players‘ biography with their signatures. Talking about baseball with colleagues seemed to be another way of enhancing communication and sharing each one’s interests. Good that I am a huge baseball fan.

4th Post: Dell's Culture!

In this post I’d like to quickly talk about corporate cultures; in particular: Dell’s culture.

Dell’s culture is – I believe – quite unique. People here keep stressing ambiguity – and I think it’s important to understand just how much this culture is about being in a state of constant flux. For instance, as I mentioned in a previous post – the instructions I got when I got to Dell were: “This is the name of the product you are focusing on. This is a list of names. Talk to them. Figure it out.”; when I had mentioned this to other employees in the company they mostly chuckled and said “Welcome to Dell.”

The culture here is essentially one of taking initiative and knowing which resources can help you get the job done. Essentially, it’s an entrepreneurial culture in which you don’t have your hands held by your bosses. They don’t teach you to swim, they kick you screaming into the deep end, fully expecting you to either learn to swim or sink down to the bottom. I love it.

People who like to take initiative and set their own agenda can really blaze their own trail here. They can create new business lines from scratch, they can take the ball and run with it and people will not get in their way too often. This is something that I think truly distinguishes the corporate culture here from others. All too often in large corporations there is a certain entrenched thinking that is seldom challenged. I find Dell’s culture to be very accepting to critique and fresh thinking.

The deeper into the internship I get, the more productive I become, which is fortunate, because the work keeps piling on and on. Workdays quickly now become 10 hour-11 hour workdays, and I’m sure that as the date of my final presentation looms I will be racking up the over time like it’s nobody’s business.

My Intern Life So Far

Time is going so fast and 4 weeks have passed since I got here. Since my first posting, there have been several things going on.

(1) Work
Some of my project scope has been finalized and I am trying to keep pace with the schedule. Unfortunately I can't tell you about the details of the project, but I want you to know how important Apple thinks about confidentiality. As for each of the projects, I have to work with 3-4 Apple employees, some of whom are in other countries. To get to know each other, I organized several one-on-one interviews with them for introduction of myself and my project. One thing unique about Apple. When you begin your internship, you are assigned an i-Buddy. i-Buddy helps you with almost every issues and it was very helpful to me getting used to Apple and its people. Another thing I want to tell is that people here are really busy these days. Since the launching of i-Phone 4, almost all the operations people are busy whole day to resolve some follow-up issues. I see their passion and professionalism, and understand what made Apple at this position.

(Above you can see a pic of me and Woz. I hope I can finally be friend with Apple like the pic)

(2) Intern Events
As I said in the first post, there are lot's of intern events here. One is the executive speaker series. There were several speaker series since my first posting, including Steve's and Jonathan. I guess all knows who Steve is, and Jonathan is a SVP of industrial design at Apple. Recently he was announced as one of 50 smartest people in tech by Fortune. Again, the details of the speech is also a confidential, but I just want to tell you these events are really interesting and I gain a lot getting to know their experience and thoughts. There was also intern welcome dinner, field trip to winery etc. I am also in one of the teams for the corporate game, which is like Apple Olympic.

(3) Cupertino Life
When you are considering for a full-time job, I guess one important thing is the environment of where you live. Cupertino is a small city, but the weather here is so good. I heard that during May-December it hardly rains. Every day it is sunny, and you can enjoy a lot of leisure sports. Last week I brought my bike to Angel Island and went around the whole Island. People here are enjoying the weather and all seem to be sports-lovers. If you are very active person, I am sure that you will enjoy your life here.

First Week at Apple!

Hello All. It has been long since I first posted. Now I am at Infinite Loop 1 Cupertino, the place where Apple is. (See Picture 1)

Life at Apple is much more excited than I expected and I learn a lot everyday. All the people here seems to be very busy, but they are very open and cooperative. You can also see some people with strong characteristic. People who don't wear shoes, man wearing a skirt, people with long beard and so on. I can see that Apple is the company with the most creative and passionate people at Silicon Valley, leading technological innovation and lifestyle of future world.

Since this is the first blog, I will start with some introduction and things I felt at Apple.

(1) Where Apple is located. How it is like in Cupertino.

As I said, 1 Infinite Loop is where Apple is located. I-Phone users! Did you know that the icon of Maps designates Apple's location? I guess many of you didn't know about this.

The weather in Cupertino is the best in US. I heard that during May~December it doesn't rain. I think I am really lucky to have a chance to experience my internship in this environment.

To summarize, I am in such a good place!



(2) I saw Steve! Lot's of people at Valley Fair Store now for getting I-Phone 4!

At my first day, I was having lunch at the CafeMac. There I saw Steve! He was standing just in front of me to get some food, wearing the same clothes such as black turtle neck and jeans.

Tomorrow, people are going to get their pre-ordered I-Phone 4. Some of the interns including my roommate are going to get them. In the left is the picture one of the intern took today. Since Apple's security is very tight, I cannot explain in detail, but I-Phone 4 is a great product. I had a chance to look at it during my one-on-one introduction meeting. You should also try to get one!




(3) Projects going on. Intern events. Ross Bay Area alumni club.

As I said at my first blog, I am working in an operations department. I have several projects to finish for this summer, and am in process of narrowing down the scope of project with my boss. Unfortunately, this is all I can tell you about the project. APPLE'S SECURITY IS THE BEST. ALSO APPLE'S OPERATIONS IS BY FAR THE BEST. (Actually, I heard that Apple was selected the best company for operations)

I see that there are about 50 MBA interns here this summer. Interns are from a variety of schools, but mostly Top 10 + West-Coast based schools. Apple hosts many events for intern such as Happy Hour, Welcome Dinner(This is going on now!), San Francisco trip, Winery trip and so on. So I can enjoy my work but also enjoy gathering with other interns and finding out new things here.

I also have a Ross Bay Area event tomorrow. I will definitely participate and meet our alumni working at the Bay Area.

This seems to be all for today. I hope I can give you more exciting stories with some exciting pictures!