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.

Finished MAP - ready for my internship!

Hello! I’m a Japanese MBA student in Ross, class of 2013. I just finished MAP, a 7-weeks project in the end of Winter B in the first year of MBA program. I really enjoyed the consulting project with a great sponsor in LA and 5 other Rossers. After taking a short vacation, I’m going to work for Amazon Japan for 10 weeks. In Amazon Japan, I’ll work for launching new business. I cannot describe the project in detail because it is not public yet, but it looks exciting! Launching business from scratch is always difficult because it’s hard to imagine what will be in future. I’m also excited about working people in the company – they are friendly, smart and passionate! I had been a consultant for 7 years before MBA, so I don’t have any experience in IT/retail industry, so I’m nervous about my lack of experience, but I believe I can use my knowledge and skill I developed in consulting.

Looking forward to my summer internship

Hi all, my name is Bin Ni and I am a Chinese New Zealander. During summer, I’ll do my internship with Citibank’s mortgage division in America. My internship is expected to be ten weeks, starting from the beginning of June.  I will spend two thirds of my time working as an associate at Citibank’s Ann Arbor office and the rest at its New York office for trainings and other corporate functions. Before came to Ross, I had worked in the commercial banking industry for over four years in Auckland, New Zealand. I love what I’ve been doing and I am really excited about this great opportunity to work for Citibank in North America. Although I am not new to the financial services industry, the regulations and systems are quite different in New Zealand and the US and I am looking forward to the new challenges and learning experiences.

Since I will be working at Citibank’s mortgage, I am expecting the majority of my work will be involved with different interest rates and payments, analyzing the current trend of the property market in America and dealing with different mortgage distribution channels for CitiMortgage’s products. I’ve met the people with whom that I will work together at that office several times, I really like the people, their team spirits and working culture, work hard and play harder!

I am currently on holidays, travelling through some South Pacific and East Asia countries before returning to the US in June for some tough, exciting and fun ten weeks at Citibank.

An Exciting Internship Coming Soon

I am Tim, an MBA student from Ross School of Business. I worked at different roles in a multinational company and gained experiences in general management. After coming to the business school, I thought about my interests and strengths, and decided that general management would be ideal for my future career after graduation. I worked hard during last several months and secured the internship in a medical device company. I will work in their strategy and marketing function and the project will be focusing on marketing research and potential identifying in the emerging market. I would expect to leverage my experience in business development and marketing knowledge learned in class to solve real business issues. I will also have opportunities to discuss development strategies with the people in the company and learn their methodology and approach to decide potential business opportunity in a new market and build models to quantify the financial estimates. These learning experiences would greatly enhance my business skills for future career and satisfy my economic curiosity. I am also very excited to meet the team members from other schools and look forward to learning from them. However, I am a little concerned about the possibility that what I learned in class might be different from what the people in real business world actually implement. I would keep my eyes open and adapt to the environment.

Much to learn

Hi everyone! I'm Priscilla, a BBA junior and I'll be interning at Deutsche bank this summer in the corporate finance division. I will be a summer analyst doing investment banking work. Currently, I'm still waiting to hear back from Deutsche about which group in corporate finance I will be joining. I'm really excited for this internship and really hope to be selected to join my favorite group :)

There's quite a lot I'm expecting from this internship actually. I'm expecting to be pushed to my limits - challenging deals and tasks and long hours. Hard work aside, I'm also looking forward to meeting and working with the many great people that I've been talking to from recruiting till now.
A little background about myself, I came to Michigan from Singapore hoping to join the business school. But when I came here, I decided to try Actuarial Mathematics. I realized I didn't quite like actuarial jobs, and really wanted to give banking a try instead. After many months of hard work, I manage to get this internship with Deutsche and I'm extremely grateful to all the people that have helped me. So naturally, I'm very excited about the internship. I can't wait to finally get to understand life as a banker, work with the amazing people I've met, and learn so much more about the financial industry and the companies that Deutsche works with. And of course, I'm nervous as well. The grueling hours are well known, and I'm worried about burning out. Being international, I'm worried I might misunderstand the culture.
Worries aside, I'm excited for this opportunity and I truly believe this will be a great experience. Thanks for reading and I'll update on my progress at work soon!

Excited about my first internship here

Hi all, I am Claire Cui from Shanghai, China and I am a BBA junior. I mainly focus on accounting and finance. This summer I will intern at Lear Corporation in Southfield, MI and work in the Taylor facility as a financial analyst. I will help analyze the distribution costs for various divisions; classifies labor, material, and overhead costs to compute unit cost of products; compile data for budget and assist in the budget process. 

I am very excited about this internship. It will be my first internship in an American company. I expect to learn about the office environment and cultural work style here. I am also excited that I can apply what I learned in class to real life.  Practice is always the best way to learn. Additionally, I can certainly learn a lot from the experienced coworkers there.

Meanwhile, I am also a little nervous. From the job description, I will apply a lot what I learned from ACC 315. It has been a while since I took that class. Hopefully I can still remember all the essential knowledge. 

My internship will start pretty soon. I believe that I will learn a lot from this internship and enjoy this summer.

A Crash Course in Banking

At the start of this year, I had no idea what investment banking meant. ECM, DCM, M&A, TMT? It sounded more like TV stations to me. I guess that's pretty standard for a student beginning his first year in the Ross BBA program. Well, I made sure to learn all about these areas (and more) throughout the year. Now I have a summer internship as an analyst in Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions, and as the summer is approaching, I realize I don't know how any of this works in the real world. I guess the steepness learning curve is what gets me most nervous about working for Four Wood Capital Partners.

 

Four Wood Capital Partners is an independent financial services firm focused on delivering unique investment solutions to the market. Through both organic growth, as well as partnerships with boutique managers, the firm seeks to deliver a diverse range of investment products across traditional asset management, real estate and private equity platforms. The goal is to provide investors with wealth preservation and current income strategies to meet their liability-driven needs. FWCP and its subsidiaries serve institutions, high net worth and individual investors.

 

Like I said, there is going to be a very steep learning curve. As an independent firm (with far fewer employees than the bulge banks), I am going to be working closely with clients and senior members of the firm. While this raises some concerns, I think I am more excited about the opportunities that I will get to learn the business inside out. It will be really valuable to learn the technical side of the business, and even more valuable to take part in interpersonal business at high levels. Ultimately, this should be a tremendous experience.

 

I am very excited to start my career in finance, and I hope to hit the ground running.

Looking Forward...

The first year of my MBA journey at Ross has been an historic journey.  The internship search experience for me proved to be a short but very rewarding experience. As an Australian who has lived in four countries Nigeria, Kenya, India and Australia I was able to highlight my breadth of international experience and skillsets to secure a finance position in the Technology Industry in the Bay Area.

Coming from an accounting background, I look forward to enhancing finance skills and exploring if finance is indeed my true calling over the summer.  While I am still not aware of the project I will be working on or the managers I shall be working with, I have met several individuals who will be on the team in the company sell day and they are indeed an exciting bunch of individuals from some of the top business schools within the US.

The summer internship also allows me to develop networks in the Bay area. This will be helpful as I look at working on the west coast post MBA. While I will not be travelling as my peers in consulting do, I look forward to exploring California over the weekends – Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, Alcatraz come to my mind….and Vegas looms in the distance.

I am very excited about my summer and look forward to keeping everyone posted about my internship, my life experiences and my adventures in California.

Automotive industry

Hi all,

My name is Clive Ramsey and I’m a first year MBA. From my MAP experience, I received an offer to intern for an Italian company named Magneti Marelli, which is part of the Fiat group. The company is one of the most renowned organizations worldwide in the auto parts world. Among other things, Magneti Marelli is an official supplier for several teams in world competitions such as Formula 1, World Rally Championship. Because of the joint venture that occurred between Fiat and Chrysler, several opportunities have appeared for Magneti Marelli worldwide. One of their biggest priorities at the moment is to expand internationally, and there is where I come in. My role during the summer is to prepare what are the best ways to cooperate between Magneti Marelli and its par for Chrysler (Mopar) for three countries: Canada, Mexico and Argentina.

As you can see, my internship would be a very exciting experience with a lot of learning opportunities. I will be working directly with the leaders of each country, including the one in the US and the CEO of the aftermarket division worldwide. Also, there is a lot of responsibility, which is scary and exciting at the same time.

Destination: Austin!

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.

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.

Excited about my internship!

I am an MBA1 student at Michigan Ross School of Business. I will intern at Deloitte Consulting LLP San Francisco office as Summer Associate. Even though I don't know which project I will work on yet, it will be a typical consulting project. We will work with clients to solve an issue they have together.

Consulting is completely new to me, so I am really excited about it. I will have a chance to travel to many different places, meet people from different industries and solving all kinds of interesting problems. From those exciting experiences, I want to learn how to engage with clients, communicate professionally and project management.

Even though there are a lot of fun and excitement, I am a bit nervous about it too. It is totally different from my previous job which is software development. In the internship, I will do a lot of relationship management and business communications, which I don't have many experiences with. Luckily, my MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Projects) project is very similar to a consulting project. We have a team of 6 Ross MBA1, and work onsite with our sponsors at Madrid, Spain to propose a new product launching strategy. I learned a lot from the project and my teammates, who are from very diversified industries, such as consulting, CPG, banking. It is a really good preparation for my internship. 

This is just a quick overview about my internship. I will post some more exciting experiences in the near future. 

OCD - An International Student's Best Friend

OCD...Let's be honest, not exactly the greatest acronym, but definitely one of the best and key resources to finding an internship, particularly if you are an International student. (OCD = Office of Career Development) Not only do they offer up customized services for International students to allow them to, for example, get comfortable with networking scenarios typical of the US, or partner with embassies that provide guidance on employment authorization (and the general immigration strategies / futures of that particular country), but, they also involve the students. I have the pleasure of sitting in as the Canadian representative on the OCD International Student Committee. On this committee, we have the opportunity to provide feedback to OCD on the challenges and needs of our peers from our home country, work with OCD to address these issues, but also serve as a conduit for information back out the students. As a Canadian, I am particularly excited about working with fellow International students as many of them are looking to potentially locate, full-time, in Canada (particularly because of the differing immigration policies to that of the US).

That's not all! Do you want to learn how to make your LinkedIn profile sizzle? How about participating in a couple group mock interviews before the big interview? Ever thought of how you would pitch an internship to your dream employer? Just need an extra set of eyes on your resume? Well, you've come to the right place. OCD offers all of that. And, let's be honest, some people do not take as much advantage of these resources as they should. They are really your best advocate, support and partner in your internship search!

AND, she'll probably blush for me mentioning her name, but Leslie Mulder is a god-send. Not only is she fully dedicated to a large group of international students like myself, but is also all about helping non-traditional students like myself develop a vision for our internship search and clearly articulate what we bring to the table (whether we're an on-campus or off-campus "explorer").

I *heart* OCD......the Office of Career Development that is.

Getting Off the Ground

Taking longer than normal. Work authorization required. "Some" on-campus opportunities. Worried?

It is important that these expectations are set with International students. No, you won't have all of the same options as a US citizen, but that doesn't mean all is lost. Just check out the OCD Intl Student Career Resources to begin to see the vast list of companies that hired international students for US positions. Although, there are some work authorization hurdles to jump through when it comes to full-time positions, International students do bring different perspectives to any position, which consulting and finance companies (e.g., investment banks) recognize and respect. (That is probably why they hire the most International students of all the on-campus industries that visit our campus.)

However, what if you are not looking to rely on on-campus recruiting? Or, looking for more non-traditional internships and careers, like those in the field of sustainability (my personal interest)? Here are some helpful hints that seem to have worked out. Yes, it may have taken a bit more time than simply reacting to on-campus postings, the world seemed to open with just a bit of soul-searching and relatinoship building.

1. Informational Interviews: The role of "student" is like magic when you want to find something our about a company or position. Use it! I spoke to companies and people who would have passed over my e-mail or phone call when I was working.
2. Club Involvement: From Net Impact, to Revitalization & Business, to Design & Business, all of these clubs not only focused on my areas of interest but allowed me the opportunity to directly liaise with companies that were interested in connecting with students that were looking to find a career in areas like sustainabiltiy and design thinking. Find a club that aligns with your interests and helps build your skills to be marketable in the industry / position you want to work in, and the doors may quickly open!
3. Faculty relationships: Many think of professors and instructors as simply academics, but they know and work a lot with industry. Flex your academic muscle enough, take opportunities to participate and suppor their work / research, and you never know who the faculty might connect you with. My internship came directly from a faculty connection!
4. Support others and they'll support you: There is an incredible network among your fellow students. Understand your peers' goals / career aspirations, let them know yours, and you can work together in your job search that best aligns with your passions and values.
5. Capitalize on your resources: From the Office of Career Development's online website, their staff, and student counselors, these resources are there for you. Utilize these assets! They are free and the more you use them, the better off you are.

It is important that you focus on the positive as you kick-off and persist through your full-time / intern search. I have and am incredibly excited about the summer ahead!

Introducing Sabrina - The Canadian, Non-Traditional Career Pather

My name is Sabrina Sullivan. I am a recovering strategy consultant from Canada that has returned to the world of academic to challenge my thinking, spend time absorbing the thoughts and perspectives of faculty and fellow students, learning from great thought leaders and fellow students, but also finding a job that merges my interests in business, sustainability, design thinking and innovation. Being all about new ideas and striving to have "polymath" on my business card one day, I am all about innovation & ideas, design thinking, foresight (can't get enough of scenario planning and futurism), and a sustainable world and future for us and generations to come. Currently, I am pursuing a dual degree (MBA / MS) in Global Sustainable Enterprise and Complex Systems at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and hope to either stay in the US or return to Canada to kick off my post-graduate career.

Coming into the program as a Canadian student, and one that is looking to pursue a more non-traditional career path, I recognized that there would be to securing an internship in the US. However, I believe that a more challenging search can often be more rewarding. It requires one to truly uncover what they’re passionate about and find the company that fits their values, wants and desires. As such, I wanted to share the ups and downs of my search, and how, even amidst the trials as an non-traditional International student, I have found a fulfilling and challenging internship. For now, I won’t reveal what I will pursue for the summer, but stay tuned…