Citigroup ! New York !

I am going to be in New York this summer! Joining Citigroup as a summer Financial Management Associate (SFMA). I’m very excited about this opportunity and things I can learn from it.

It was not part of my plan to join the financial service industry before coming to Ross for my MBA. However, during the recruiting process, through my interactions with Citigroup’s employees, I fell in love with the company and its culture. People who work at Citigroup are very talented and humble. The company has a true global perspective and promotes diversity. So the take away here is we should be open minded towards different opportunities. Even though most of us came to business school with a specific industry and functional area in mind, there are things that surprise us, and we should be ready to take adventures.

Given my previous retail industry background, I knew very little about financial service industry besides merchant banking system. I’m expecting a steep learning curving this summer. In fact, the learning process started months ago during my interviews - I learned about tier one common ratio from an SVP of Citigroup.

 Even though I haven’t received my project for the summer, I know my internship will start with a series of training sessions (including current topics in the banking industry, and technical finance & Accounting skills), and business overviews from senior professional within the finance faction. This process will prepare me for my summer project. Through the SFMA program, I will have the opportunity to work closely with senior-level finance managers in key functional specialties including Controllers, Treasury, Financial Planning and Analysis, Investor Relations, Strategy, and M&A. 

Amazon.com - and you're done

Greetings, one and all! Welcome to the first of what promises to be a series of entertaining and enlightening blog posts covering my summer internship. If you enjoy reading about life as a MBA intern in the U.S., you’ve come to the right place.

Perhaps some introductions are in order. I’m a first-year Ross MBA student (the school endearingly refers to us as “rising MBA2s”) from Singapore who will be interning at Amazon this summer as a product manager with the Kindle division. While I do know the general scope of work, the full details will only be revealed to me once I get to Seattle due to the relatively sensitive – some might call it secretive – nature of the product.

Having come off a demanding MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Project) with Chrysler, I’ve gotten reacquainted with regular working hours for the past 7 weeks or so and am expecting myself to be able to hit the ground running when I start in Seattle at the end of this month. If you’re reading this and thinking about applying to Ross, make sure you stick in references to MAP no fewer than 15 times in your “Why Ross?” essay.

Amazon’s summer internships are known to be pretty intense, sink-or-swim affairs. While this may be a deal-breaker for some, I’d like to think that I’m ready for it having been thrown straight into the deep end many times in my previous career as a consultant. This really is an opportunity for me to explore the technology/e-commerce industry in-depth while working in one of the big four tech firms (Google, Apple and Facebook being the other three) that are set to define the future of the industry. In particular, Amazon’s Kindle is a key area of interest for me given its importance to the firm, with Bezos touting the Kindle Store in the company’s latest earnings report. Surely it can't get more exciting than that?

That wraps up my introductory post. Stay tuned for future episodes where I share more fascinating stories on Seattle, Amazon and what will likely turn out to be a burgeoning Starbucks addiction.

Enjoying summer in Chicago!

Hi all, this is Stefana – an MBA1 in transition. After 5 busy weeks in South Texas on-site at IDEA Public Schools and 10 hectic days wrapping up MAP from Ann Arbor, I am finally home for a one-month break before I head back to the US for my internship with Groupon, Inc.

For me this is shaping up to be a busy summer. I am kicking it off with a month or so in Europe where my time will be divided between Bulgaria (where I am originally from), Scotland (where one of my brothers goes to college) and Germany (where my cousin has been living for years). Once done with my “mini Euro trip,” I’ll be heading back to the US where I’ll spend 10 weeks as a marketing intern with Groupon in its Chicago office. And then – off to China, touring Beijing and Xi’an with the in-coming MBA1s.

In terms of my internship – there are still a few unknowns, like the exact project I will be working on for example. But what I do know is that I’ll be with the marketing team and it seems like my quantitative marketing research background will come in quite handy. I think this internship will be a great opportunity to show initiative and take ownership of my project and my overall summer experience.

I am excited to be joining the Groupon team since everyone I’ve met so far has been really nice and friendly. Overall, I am looking forward to making some new friends and enjoying summer in Chicago which from what I’ve heard is quite splendid. What I am not looking for is the moving experience – and to make things even harder and more stressful I have just one day between when I get back to Ann Arbor and when my internship starts in Chicago. We’ll see how that goes…

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.



MAP

MAP was one of my favorite experiences of Ross so far. I returned from Santiago, Chile last week and have been reflecting on what a great experience it was. I found out I was going to Chile about 2 months ago, when all of the MBA1s were assigned their MAP projects. We basically ranked the projects that we wanted, and then a ‘magical algorithm’ assigned us based on our preferences. I got my first choice, so was obviously very excited. I am working with 5 other MBA1’s (4 women and 2 men) for a company called ‘Enjoy SA’, which owns and operates resorts and casinos in Chile. We are working to improve their loyalty program.

Our trip from Ann Arbor to Chile was a bit of an adventure. Our flight from Detroit to Miami was delayed, then cancelled, then re-instated. We ended up having to SPRINT from one terminal to the opposite side of the airport and literally got their as they were closing the gates. Thankfully we convinced them to let us on the flight and all arrived safely in Santiago on time. Even more of a miracle was that our bags made it.

Working at Enjoy SA (a South American casino company) was an incredible experience. We met so many great people, learned a lot about the country and industry, and even improved our Spanish!

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.