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.
There are so many things that I need to work on, but the greatest assets that I have - and perhaps most of all, my very extensive experience in hi-tech - I did not acquire in business school, but long before that. Some of the really good ones such as playing nicely with the other kids, perhaps as early as in kindergarten.
Looking at how my strengths and weaknesses reflected through my work this summer, I find that my summer internship is basically amplifying everything. My strong research skills and analytical skills are helping me solve problems I encounter, and my background is really helping me have meaningful talks about the industry with different people in the company (which, for example, is awesome for networking). But working on my final presentation, for example, required putting in a pile of overtime to get the job done. This is something that as a marketer I need to invest more time and patience in than I ever have.
I am able to see the great progress I've done this year in transitioning to marketing. Taking the Management Presentations class certainly paid off and presenting in front of an audience in a relaxed manner comes so much easier now that I can really start to work on specifics I need to improve rather than be concerned with the whole. I am able to quickly treat problems I encounter as business cases and ask many of the necessary questions from the get-go.
But you do know what is really important to do as a marketer in a company like Dell, don't you? Smile to whomever you come across. Be open and true to yourself and to others around you. Do things for your peers and not just for yourself. Things you learn in kindergarten.
My project is technically on schedule, with a mid-point review planned for the beginning of next week, but that is a bit misleading: With four more weeks to go out of a total of eleven, I may have to present my findings on week nine or ten, "losing" a week critical for solidifying my research and recommendations. Twenty last days (net) which I will spend in part also networking and doing things outside the scope of my internship project, i.e. a networking event with alums arranged Dell HR. How many actual work days that does that leave me with? Objects in calendar really are closer than they appear.
What comes to your mind when you think of market analysis? Is it as glamorous as this following bit?
One of my college professors once gave an interesting lecture about how analytically challenging are some engineering problems, yet how dull they are perceived to be and how they pale in comparison with, say, the more glamorous work of doctors and detectives as seen in movies and on TV. Seriously, you see so many medical dramas on prime time yet not a single House, MBA or House, PhD?
(That is not completely true anymore, actually: check out HOU$E OF LIE$ and The $treet. But for the sake of making my blog post unnecessarily long, let's assume it is.)
I can assure you that no one really thinks that market analysis is anything like diagnostic medicine. It is not about saving lives and it is agonizingly slow-paced sometimes. Also low on Latin, although certainly not on acronyms (it does not sound enticing, but can share that I am currently working on a SWOT analysis across all LOBs with a focus on SMB, if you insist!). No annoying patients, either. But it is amusingly about collecting data (test results, symptoms), solving a puzzle (a diagnosis or prognosis) and dealing with ambiguity. Analysis will only get you so far, we know what we know (and that is sadly particularly true in medicine), and the best we can do is work with the best hypothesis we have in a given moment.
That leaves us with the occasional chuckle from seeing how not only doctors blog, but some marketers do, too. There is neither glamour nor glory in market research - and there shouldn't be any, really - but it may amuse you to think that perhaps every now and then it is very much a similar kind of rigorous, tedious work.
About a month into my internship, it is time to observe the work I have been doing and decide whether I am managing my time and efforts effectively. I have mostly been collecting data as part of a rigorous market research and I am now looking at the data I have been collecting to figure out whether I am covering enough ground. I really only needed to skim the data and talk to a few people to figure out where the wind is blowing, but in order to build a solid case to support my claims I am trying to exercise caution. In a new work environment, figuring out the best rationale to present and how to present it is actually rather tricky. Truths are not absolute and you may realize that your convictions, i.e. regarding which companies are strategically the bigger threats, are more subjective than you thought.
Even in an environment that truly allows and challenges one to innovate such as Dell, it is not easy to understand how far can you stretch it. If you argue false convictions, how much of it counts towards your learning experience and how much of it reflects on your lack of experience in your role, the industry or both?
When the going gets hot, the hot still enjoy Texas very much, despite the blazing heat of 105. My fellow interns and I have gone hiking and swimming and other things outdoorsy. This weekend we spent a full day at Six Flags Fiesta Rescue near San Antonio. It felt good spending the entire day out of town, and it felt great to be able to do that with such a large group of friends. It is far too early to say whether I can expect to meet any of them again next year. I guess that right now we're all just trying to live in the moment as we figure out whether this could be the best place for us.
Doing your internship in a field you are familiar with is both a blessing and a curse. You can dive right in, only to find yourself knee-high in research before you even know the name of the co-worker in the cube next to yours. You are relieved to know you are high on the learning curve, but you question whether it would not have been better for you to experience something completely new. You are confident you know the material, the industry, the products and the market, but you doubt your ability to bring completely fresh insights to the table. You can rush to catch the fastest train to Deliverable Street station, but you constantly have to mind the gap: what might I be missing that the executives already know, or that another fresh, bright MBA intern would not miss?
Because a summer internship is a little like the metro system at rush hour: you scurry your way through a crowd of people that you should really stop to talk to for a bit rather than hurry to the next stop, and you do not want to surface before it is truly time. Some people seem to get tempted to work so hard on achieving strong deliverables, that it almost beats the purpose.
Everyone will tell you to enjoy this experience. Everyone will also tell you to make the best of it. Everyone is right and no one is able to tell you how to do those things. It is up to you to figure it out.
I love unwinding in Austin. This town has a great mix of indoors and outdoors fun. It is already close to 100 F. in mid-day, but I am able to enjoy it nonetheless so far. At least for this summer, I can think of no other place where I'd rather be.
In the aftermath of recruiting, exams, and the great social experiment known as MAP, I am preparing to pack my bags and leave Ann Arbor for my next big adventure: Austin, TX.
There is that internship thing, yes. I'll be interning with Dell, which is appealing to me since I'll probably be doing pretty much the opposite of what I've been doing in tech space so far! Marketing hardware in a big corporation vs. software consulting/engineering in start-ups and small firms. I am excited about seeing what kind of value I can bring to a company like Dell, and I do spend quite a lot of time reading and thinking about the change that Dell is undergoing and where the company is headed. Yet the internship experience is about more than who you work for and what you do. It is another opportunity to experience a different culture, a different atmosphere, a different vibe.
Austin is weird. And very cool, with the exception of the hellish weather during the summer. I was in town once in late 2009 for a few days, and really can't wait to go back and figure out whether I see myself living there post-MBA. Good tacos and electric guitars soaring through the night is heaven for me.
