Transformation from Engineer to Consultant

After more than 5 weeks in IBM GBS, I have experienced and learned a lot in consulting and am getting used to my job role as a business consultant, which is no longer that mysterious to me as it was before since my previous background was a software engineer and I had zero experience in consulting or even client-facing job roles. To my satisfaction, I like my new role, since I had more mental challenges than before, and accordingly more impact with what I do.

As an engineer, all I was supposed to do is to implement the ‘Requirement’ written by Product Managers within ‘scheduled project deadline’ decided by Project Managers. I don’t need to be really creative or innovative to get my job done; it was actually straightforward and ‘easy’ if you master the technical side. However, as a consultant, I need to manage myself and be relatively independent on what I do. And my work becomes more diversified than before. Firstly, I need to collect business requirements from both team members and clients. Then, I need to come up with some proposal documents describing what the hypotheses and deliverables will be. Lastly, I have to come up with a work plan document regarding those deliverables which could be either strategy or implementation in nature. Although I mentioned the need to be independent as a consultant, don’t get me wrong, we can actually never achieve anything without effective team work no matter how senior or knowledgeable one becomes.

The other important learning from the past 5 weeks is that a good consultant needs to be comfortable and efficient in working with uncertainties and make educated assumptions or guesses whenever necessary. Nevertheless, because of my engineer background, I was really bad at working with uncertainties at first. I was afraid of making wrong or inappropriate assumptions if I don’t find ‘sound’ evidence to back them up, therefore, I turned out be slow and ineffective and felt lost of directions. Luckily, I got a wonderful project buddy who has always been patient in giving me instructions and transferring his experience to me since he was an engineer as well and had gone through what I am experiencing. Although I think I am getting better, Rome was not built in a day anyway.

Social Events in the Twins Cities

Over the past 7 weeks at Ecolab, I have had many opportunities to learn about the inner workings of the organizations. Speaking with various people across all divisions, I understand the work of each division and how it fits into the larger organization. As I explore full-time opportunities within B2B Marketing, these conversations would definitely helped me make a more informed decision and decide if this industry is a good fit for me. And I can gladly say I really enjoy what I see right now.

That said, a summer internship is also about letting your hair down once and in while and simply enjoy the beautiful summer weather! Last weekend, MBAs in the Twin Cities gathered at CRAVE, an amazing rooftop bar in downtown Minneapolis, for the annual MBA Soiree. I was amazed to see such a huge group of MBAs in the Twin Cities. There are quite a number of companies in this region – Ecolab, Cargill, 3M, General Mills, Medtronic and Target, just to name a few – but still, the turnout was larger than I expected.

After spending a few days recovering from the late night, the Ecolab interns were once again out in full force this weekend! We were invited to watch the Minnesota Twins-Detroit Tigers baseball game from the Ecolab suite, which happens to offer the best view in the house. After a week of hard work as we tie up our project, we definitely welcomed this treat! The Twins lost the game but hey, as someone from Michigan, it was nice to see the Detroit Tigers win.

As I move into Week 8 of my project, I will be spending a lot of time reviewing my final presentation with different people in the company. While it’s good to keep the project scope focused, it might be helpful to find out if there are perspectives I failed to think about as I wrap up my project. This is the definitely the final lap, and I am excited to showcase the work I have done over the past few weeks.

Till then!

GAOP conference and field trip

Last week, I joined the GAOP conference which is an event designed for information sharing across the colleagues. As an intern working on a project regarding the parts business under the engine business unit, I was invited to this conference to get more involved in the business development discussion and to know more people.

I was able to talk to my sponsor again as he is also the sponsor for this event. I was able to understand his perspective on a global business basis. More than that, I realized that China is a heavily weighted factor for this company in a triditional industrial sector.

Given it is a global event, I met up with couple of colleagues from China. It was good that I was able to communicate with them in Chinese. Moreover, I got to understand the dynamics in China for this US company in China. The established JV partnership did bring this company a valuable asset that enables it to generate sizeable revenue and profit in China. But it also generates some problems that is hard to be predicted 20 years ago. Growing as fast as China now, the company will have to think through the opportunities as well as risks when handling those problems.

I also completed a field work to a distributor branch last week. Talking with the people working directly with customers, I captured first hand market information as well as insightful knowledge on customer behavior, which would eventually support my solutions on the problem that we are facing now.

My internship has 5 more weeks to go and my hypothesis has been formed. I would like to use those 5 weeks to size the opportunity that we can capture with a work plan.

Marie Claire: Lessons Learned

We're reaching the home stretch now with two more weeks fast approaching. At this point, everyone has become really good friends and we have built up a strong support system between one another.

Reflecting on my experiences here, I have realized that the amount of hours spent on the making of one issue is tremendous, and that your heart really has to be there every step of the way. Not only are the interns running around all the time, the market editors' daily schedules are booked back-to-back with preview appointments.

My time spent working in the fashion closet has really given me the opportunity to observe how a fashion magazine is run, and it has given me perspective on how people in the closet work together and compromise on different things. I feel like I will be much better prepared as a Fashion Editor of SHEI Magazine at U of M in the fall, because I have realized the importance of paying attention to detail, communicating quickly and effectively to other people, and of true committment to your job.

In addition, one of the most important things that interning at Marie Claire has made me realize is that there are so many other opportunities in the fashion industry, and that perhaps fashion editorial is not for me. I started sketching shoes this summer, and I was able to finish a collection (shoes inspired by Marie Claire editors, of course). I've found that I am extremely interested in designing, and I am very passionate about pursuing a career in shoe design. I hope to find a design internship next summer in the city and see if the field of design fits more with what I want to do in the future. Nonetheless, I really appreciate the time I've had to intern for Marie Claire, because it has taught me very important transferable skills, and it has also given me the chance to build invaluable relationships with not only some editors, but with other interns.

Weeks 7 and 8 at Microsoft

Hello Rossers!


It has been two weeks since my last post, mid point review already passed and it did not go bad. So, after week 7 and 8 I feel my internship is entering a valley of death, at the beginning it was very hard to catch up, know who to talk to, learn procedures and realize that CPG is different from High Tech, the next couple of weeks were good, once I got into "work mode" I felt like I was running the campaign, I had everything controlled, and everything seemed to be running smoothly (besides having to push the campaign back). Now, I feel like I am on an uphill again, I feel the campaign has stopped and that we are not moving fast enough, it might actually happen that I don't get to launch the campaign (which I would really like to do, see my campaign life before I leave).


I have discovered that working with a US Agency is harder than working with a subsidiary agency back at home, they take a longer time to get things done (since they have an "expert" for everything) and they don't react to feedback as fast or well, I guess they feel like the client is stepping on their toes. Luckily, most of my campaign is done for Phase 1 which is the one I am responsible for, we are planning Phase 2 but I definitely will not be able to see it.


This last week was calmed at work since most of my team was at MGX (Microsoft Global Xumit) in Denver, basically where they "inject" the Microsoft thinking into the new employees. I still need to start working on my final presentation where they want me to compare my CPG experience with what I have done during the summer, I am not sure how to do that yet.


One advise for your internship (if you are not from the US) you have to sell yourself, it is not enough with doing your project well and having it under control, people also have to know that and know what you are doing (and sometimes even how you are doing it), that is something I am struggling with because it is not the way I am used to do things. I like being accountable for results, I don't like having to check in just so that people know what I am doing.


Anyway, hopefully the valley of death will finish this week and I will feel better.


On better news, summer finally arrived to Seattle! When I am almost done with my internship the sun decided to come out and play (and stay for a while) I hope it stays like that.


Come back in two weeks!


Gabriel.

internship and you.

So, I have chatted with many people across divisions and within divisions to find out if my internship is really what I wanted - whether I like the people, the nature of the job, and the future of the job.

I really like the people that I work with, most of them have PhDs, but they are the humblest and funniest people I have met. They are willing to share their knowledge and experience to me, which I thought was priceless. The hierarchy is so blurred, and people do get recognized based on their meritocracy.

The department HR really tried hard to improve retention. There was a soccer event last week within department that I really enjoyed. It was good to see how people are outside their office, when they're not as serious not as tight. It was also a good way to "network" with upper management people. They are so approachable, I really like the people.

Next, is the nature of the job. The nature of the job is very quantitative and analytical. Basically, calculating risks for every position that Goldman has, then explaining why, and why not. I get a lot of exposure to the traders and their mind process behind a transaction. That's interesting, but difficult. I'm still learning that and I want to learn more about it.

Is this something that I want to do in the future?I don't know. The prospect of this job is high. Since the crisis in 2008, many people are worried about the risks that the traders are taking. And one of the reasons why Goldman was less impacted by the crisis is because we have a strong risk department. This is what people are most concerned about now, and hopefully this will continue to be the case in the future.

Time flies and here I am, 8 weeks into the internship. Do I like my internship experience so far? Will I come back? Those are the questions that I try to answer before the end of my internship and before making a decision (if i get an offer).

Winding Down

Though my internship is not yet over my posts on this blog are, so it's time to reflect on the journey up to this point. I've got about two weeks left so I think it's a good time to look back on everything and see how it's developed.

On my first day at UBS I was nervous, shy, and not very confident in my ability to do a good job with my assigned work. I'm still not the loudest person in the office, but I grew comfortable with the people pretty quickly and have developed some solid relationships that I expect will endure much longer than the few weeks I have left of the internship. The people have all been very helpful, and if there's one thing I can takeaway from all the positive interactions I've had it is that it pays to lend a hand.

As time passed I became gradually more confident in my ability to accomplish whatever crossed my desk. An important part of success to me this summer has been acknowledging that I don't know everything and it's okay to ask questions. Though I took care not to pester anyone with my inquiries, it became very clear to me early on that I'll produce much higher quality work if I admit to myself when I'm stumped and seek help when necessary. Generally I'd prefer to figure something out on my own, but that's not always possible and I've embraced that.

My time at UBS has helped me improve as both an employee and as a person. I've developed some skills I didn't know I'd need, and improved on others already in my repertoire. I've mentioned a few times before how important the relationship is to the wealth management business and that's really my main takeaway from this summer. In any line of business it's people who make decisions, and it certainly helps to have as many in your corner as possible. Going forward I intend to take great care to take my eyes off the computer screen often enough to get to know the people around me. Luckily I did enough of that these past few months. I think it's paid off in what's been a great summer experience and lessons I'll take with me as I continue to grow into my career.

My BJ’s intern journal, week 7

There are so many to say during the past two weeks….
First of all, I finished a great sugarcane visits in both Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. We met farmers, sugar mills, experts in the research institute and government authorities. By interviewing people and going to the field to check out the real planting situation, we gathered valuable information in terms of variety, labor rate, and customers’ expectations in mechanization. I was so excited when seeing the cane field the first time. Beautiful color combination of green and yellow on the flat field, so lively and shining!

During this trip, we not only gathered an overview of Yunnan province, we also got latest customers; movement from the past harvesting season. It is so surprising that both farmers and sugar mills changed their mentality so fast. Just a year before, the mills still complain about how high the trash content from machine harvested canes are and how easily the billets lose the sugar. But what we heard from today, is how they are willing to change the row spacing to be prepared for larger scale of mechanization! The locals and aboriginals are so hospitable that they took us for dinner every night (also drinking!!!). Thanks that I earned some tricks so that I could “pretend” that I drank a lot.

Except from the business trip and the hiking on the wild great wall (which is funny like crazy!), I got some bad luck for keep losing stuff……..When I got back from the South, I found my roommate tossed my laptop in the trash accidently a week ago….Though I went back to the neighborhood for searching and posted some notice, seeking there is still hope, so far I haven’t heard anything yet. Another is that I lost my travel certificate and passport with the US VISA in it. The tedious process to reapply those documents almost drove me nuts. This is the first time I felt the loneness and hopeless in this country. Though we speak the same language but the cultural background and working attitude are so different that make me depressed by the officers so easily. What’s worse, even the driver also lied to me the forbidden city is closed a couple days ago so that h can drive us to a further place from downtown. Sometime I am wondering: “It’s because of my Taiwanese accent or it’s just the way the dealt with others?” Okay….just wish me good luck on my ID application process!

My schedule for the following weeks would include some factory visits within China and potential seminar about my project. As two-third of my internship is done, I would start preparing my final presentation. Let’s go for it!

GOING OUTDOORSY IN SAN FRANCISCO

So yes, I can call myself a recidivist runner. I used to run a few years ago. I ran a couple of half marathons until I started to feel some pain in my knees and in my feet soles. At that time doctors told me I had to stop. Those were awful news because I cannot describe how much I enjoy running; it gives me the endorphins for a happy day and allows me some time for me and myself. Anyways, after making the effort of trying other ways to work out (obviously I was also banned to do the other sports that I love: soccer and squash) I could not hold it anymore. Specially leaving in the US and specially when I got to San Francisco and saw the beautiful coastal landscape and the many people running (even on Bay to Breakers day).

So yes, I decided to start running again. This time, with all the precautions and training required and making sure I did not over exert myself. So I joined a gym, paid for a personal training to make sure I strengthened the right muscles and hit the ground running!!! My favorite run goes from Taylor and Bay, all along Bay street through Laguna street when I take the sea trail all the way to golden gate park and then come back…although windy, AMAZING. Just that. AMAZING. I enjoy so much watching other people running, watching the water on my side, and the nice landscape of the bridge either in the morning or at dust.

This made me realize that I love to be in a city were I feel safe, where the infrastructure is set so that citizens actually enjoy their city and take advantage of it and its urban spaces. And, I love a city where there is an actual culture of running. On a side note: I have to confess that one of the things I love about the actual culture of running is running fashion. Yes, I enjoy checking girls outfits. I have to say that I am a huge fan of Lululemon and Nike women sports wear. They really know how to make running outfits for a girl to look cute.

Since I need a motivation to train regularly, I registered for the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon that took place on June the 25^th and was thrilled to learn that the San Francisco Half Marathon was on July the 31rst. But, unfortunately, given that I have to come back to Colombia for another internship, I won’t be able to run the San Francisco one!! It would have been so nice to start my San Fran experience with a race (Bay to Breakers) and finish it with another one (The San Francisco first half). Instead, I will run the Bogota Half Marathon that same day…..I know it won’t be the same, and I know I will be missing this city so much….but unfortunately I still do not have the power to stop time ( I have wanted that so badly since I was very little).

I will take with me the memories of an amazing city where you can just suddenly decide on a random day to go outdoorsy and find the most amazing getaways. My recommendations: a bike ride, a walk or a run to Sausalito over the Golden Gate Bridge; take the Blue and Gold fleet ferry at Pier 41 on a random sunny afternoon to Tiburon and have artichokes and a Bloody Mary at Sam’s; drive to Muir Woods and spend a day wondering around the trees; plan on a picnic at the top of Angel Island on a sunny Sunday (departure time from Pier 41 at 11:20).

Ohhhhh I will miss this city SO much…

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.

It's unbelievable...

...Once you start, time goes really fast.

It’s unbelievable but I am already half-way of this amazing adventure. Next week we will have our mid-summer review and I am very excited to hear how I have been doing so far in my new role. I have tried to meet as many people as people in order to arrive at the review well prepared and not too much stressed.

In terms of the workflow, it has always been really busy. During the past week I have been staffed on five different deals and I have been learning tremendously. Everybody is willing to help and people in my group are extremely nice and friendly. Every time you need help, you can just shoot an email or walk to the desk of any colleagues and they are ready to guide you.

My ‘junior’ mentor has been very helpful in giving me great advice during the past weeks. We have a coffee chat once in a while and he updates me on what’s going on in the news and in the group. We also have a monthly M&A meeting where the head of the group is showing us all the financial results of our group. Each meeting he brings in different representatives from the bank and outside of the bank that can give us interesting different perspectives.

Last week it was the 4^th of July weekend. I had to work but I managed to go home at a reasonable time in order to see the fireworks from the rooftop of my building. It was great!

This weekend we have to prepare a presentation for a Monday meeting. Even if it is weekend, we are all together in the office and with a great team hours goes fast and hopefully tonight we will all find ourselves at a bar with a drink in our hand after an intense week of work.

Keep you posted!

Matteo

Wk 7: Almost done

I have just started the second half of my internship. I am in the thick of my cost benchmarking activities. This second phase of my project is very difficult because most of the comparable peers of the Bhutan companies are unlisted and therefore, do not disclose annual reports. This makes my job difficult in getting enough and relevant data to compare the cost of local companies with that of international companies.

Oh, and guess what? I have two new project deliverables! The CEO of a company I am studying informed me a couple of days ago. I am happy to have had a long conversation with a CEO to discuss business. It was interesting to hear his thoughts on the local market, business constraints, and potential growth opportunities. I am excited to hear that my new cost project deliverable would greatly help improve their operations. I am going to a forest this Saturday to observe the operations of the Natural Resources Development Corporation. I have five more weeks to finish all my projects.

On another note, I have been wearing Michigan gear almost every day hoping to meet a fellow Wolverine here. But, so far I have no luck in finding one.

What I did encounter is this:

Bhutanese: Where are you studying?

Jofresh: At Michigan

Bhutanese: Oh, Michigan State

Jofresh: (gasp!) No! At University of Michigan

Bhutanese: Ah…

Hmm… the locals seem to know Michigan State more than U of M…

Last week, the other interns went to a city 8 hours away from Thimphu to see a festival. I did not join them because I had work. Nevertheless, I went on another trip to a nearby city to see a different festival. We went to the Haa district. Below are some pictures of the colorful festival.

Waiting for the event to start

Opening ceremonies

Traditional song and dance

Stalls

Delicious buckwheat momos (dumplings filled with vegetables and cheese)

Internship ++

It's been a while, and it's been busier...

True, I've learnt a lot about the industry and how things are done. I'm also more comfortable with the people around me, who I work with, and also my daily tasks - therefore I finish my work faster. However, work never ends.

There are 13 interns within Market Risk Management and Analysis, some are PhD students (modelers), some are undergraduates (analyst) , and some are MBAs (corporate). The intern manager in my department gave us a new intern group project to use our skills cohesively to analyze crises. Yeah, that's vague.

My team tries to work on the different matrices and indices to look at the risk factors and correlations between crises. We're not set yet, but we have a solid game plan. I think this topic is very challenging. The fact that it's open ended made it more difficult, and with only 3 weeks to go, we're concerned that we will not have time to finish this. Most interns sacrifice their weekends to finish their current daily project already, with this additional project, we will have to prioritize on which one is the most important one.

Additionally, our buddy gave us this tip: the first half of the internship is about task quality, the second half is about networking. We're required to meet with different people from different departments to learn more about them, at the same time learn more about our department. That is time-consuming. There is so much to do in so little time.

While most people are enjoying the sun in NY City, I guess the Market Risk interns will have to enjoy the ultra-violet ray from our Bloomberg Screen.

Cheers!

Hanging out in Chicago

It was a long weekend last week for the independence day. All of the interns left this small town to enjoy the long weekend. I decided to go to Chicago to hang out with my friends.

On Friday, I watched a firework show sponsored by the company that I interned with. It was not a big show if compared to the government organized firework show in China. But is was great to sit outside and watch it with friends around.

After some shopping on Saturday afternoon, I hung out with couple of Chinese MBA folks in Chicago. We had some great and cheap Cantonese food in China tonw and headed over to the bar area. Unfortunately, a friend of us locked his car key at the trunk. We felt very sorry for him as he was so worried about it. We stayed with the friend and waited until he figured out how to get the key out.

Then, I had a big day on Monday. I want boating! It was my first time in US or let me say, it was my first time boating with my friends only. We had great weather that we prepared enough foods for this event. After one hour sailing on the lake michigan and enjoying the sky line of Chincago, we anchored somewhere in the lake. I jumped into the lake and swam. But the water is still very cold. It was a great Monday and I was glad that I spent time with my friends. I am pretty sure that I will come back to Chicago again this summer.

I am almost half way on my intern. Wish myself good luck.

Marie Claire: The Wisdom of Editors

It's been a few weeks now since the Claire Editor-Intern luncheons began. I was lucky enough to snatch a seat around the lunch table to listen to Katie Connor (Fashion Features Editor), and Suzanne Sykes (Creative Director). Lunch with Katie was excellent - I think maybe it was because she was closer in age to us interns, but she shared with us her story of how she got to where she is now. It was easier to relate to her, given she started out as only an intern at Interview Magazine. She said that afterwards she moved around the industry a bit (however mainly focused on fashion writing) and took all of the opportunities that fell in front of her. She was very down to earth and humble, which really put me to ease when I listened to her tell us about her background.

Katie Connor, Fashion Features Editor

Just last week I went to the luncheon with the Creative Director, Suzanne Sykes. Hands down, a brilliant and intelligent woman. I found out that she actually launched Marie Claire UK, and that it was rather successful overseas. And coincidentally, she received a call from the US offices, (which, at the time, had no clue she was a big player over at the British offices) offering her a position. Suzanne's job as Creative Director includes literally looking over each and every page of the magazine (ads included!) and checking for mistakes and editing every layout. So, the color combinations and word placement on every page of Marie Claire is run through the hands of Suzanne before going into print. Suzanne also introduced us to a new segment of Marie Claire - one which is processed via Tablet. There have been several apps produced for users of the Tablet, including the entire magazine transferred electronically onto the device, as well as a beauty station where you can literally put makeup onto a virtual model. She has told us that the company is expecting to achieve a lot, little by little, in the near future with their expansion into the electronic world.

Suzanne Sykes, Creative Director

I am waiting to have lunch with Joanna Coles in a little over a week, and I am very excited to get the chance to hear about what she has to say about the magazine, general life tips, and of course, about her background!

Also, to add on to what I wrote about in my last post regarding the Marie Claire Front Row Challenge, I officially submitted my application for the contest last Thursday. Now it's up to the judges to decide... I will keep you posted!