Tepper Students: INTERNING!

Finance in China with Arjun Katragadda (Week 2)

2011-07-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Nimenhao!

Working in Shanghai has been awesome so far. Training for the various aspects of the job is an ongoing process and will continue right up to the end of my internship. Although there are a lot of Chinese graduates working in the office, the company caters mostly to expats in the Asia Pacific region so most of the top executives are either American or British. We’re learning a lot from these accomplished managers and they’ve taken a hands-on approach with all of the interns and their individual projects. It’s also nice to have all these great contacts now, and I’m sure it will come in handy when I start looking for an internship within the States next year.

I would say that the overall office environment can be quite competitive because everyone is trying to close in on deals and secure investments from their own client lists and they don’t want others stepping on their toes. But, we also have to work together in teams for projects that are related to improving the user interface of their in-house software and coming up with new sectors to tap. Later we started to get familiar with the back-end of the website they use to maintain the relationships they have with their clients online, and we also ran mock meetings to get used to the whole presentation style (and sales pitch for potential investors) by the time a real meeting comes around.

Earlier in the week we took part in an induction ceremony that showed us how Chinese business practices and etiquette could differ from Western ones. I thought the most important one was the ‘friends before business’ rule which I’ve been experiencing everyday when meeting with new colleagues, interns, or local clients. In the West, you could do business with someone who you don’t really know well, and professional or personal relationships could potentially develop later while doing business with those acquaintances. Here, people are extremely reluctant to work with you unless they get a good sense of your background, so it’s extremely important to take people out to lunch/drinks and have them get comfortable with you at a one-on-one level, and behave in a manner that wouldn’t cause them to ‘lose face (mianzi)’.

I’m definitely looking forward to the weeks ahead. Some of the interns and I are planning to take a trip to Hangzhou over the weekend. My limited Mandarin skills, which I thought would be a major stumbling block to moving around here, aren’t really getting in the way. The subway system I use to get to work is probably easier to figure out than the ones in the U.S. or London, although the size of the crowds can be unsettling. But mostly everything here is really efficient and modern, and I really have to come back here on a holiday sometime to fully experience all the amazing things that the city has to offer.

Well I have to get back to my individual project now and I’ve also got to prepare for tomorrow’s tasks so I’ll catch you guys next week!

Interning with Chris Conte (Week 3)

2011-07-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

Business Development

As I mentioned previously, Vteractive is finishing up their most recent project. As a result, Ken is at a crossroads as to what path he should pursue next. There are many potential paths, each of which requires weeks of research in order to make the best decision.

I have been given the task of researching the path- ‘Expanding into Mobile Gaming.’ Ken recommended making a PowerPoint presentation, and he sent me a presentation format along with questions to answer and business concepts to research. Some of the questions were very straightforward, but required a decent amount of research (What are the barriers of entry? Who are the competitors?). Some of the business concepts (such as Porter’s Five Forces) were completely foreign to me and require more brainpower than research to develop.

To date, I am about halfway done with the project. At the end of every week, I present my work to Ken and his former classmate. As I tell them my latest findings in the mobile gaming market, they bring up more specific questions for me to research. This has been the most difficult--but most rewarding--project thus far.

Talk to you next week!

Finance in China with Arjun Katragadda

2011-06-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

Hope everyone has been having an exciting summer so far. I look forward to sharing my experiences over the next few weeks and hopefully it will provide you with a brief idea of what it might be like to work in the financial services industry, and give you an insight into the kinds of challenges and opportunities you could come across while working abroad.

A quick intro: My name is Arjun Katragadda and I am a rising junior at the Tepper School of Business. I am double majoring in Business Administration (with a concentration in Finance), and Decision Science. This summer I am interning with the Essential Finance Group in Shanghai, China. In a nutshell, the company provides services like asset management and financial planning for its clients who are looking to invest in the Asia Pacific region.

So how do you go about pursuing an internship outside the U.S.? There are quite a few placement companies that are listed on TartanTrak in the Fall, and offer internships in a wide range of sectors all around the world. After submitting my application, I had two follow-up interviews regarding my interest in the industry before I got the offer and was placed at this firm in Shanghai. I had a couple of other offers to work within the States but ultimately I decided on this one because I felt it matched my interests best after consulting with past interns, and I also couldn’t resist the opportunity to work and live in the centre of what is currently the world’s most dynamic economy.

Well that’s it for now! More updates about the city and the office environment next week…

-Arjun

Interning with Chris Conte (Week 2)

2011-06-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

Hey! In this blog post, I’ll talk about what I have been doing during my internship at Vterative.

Play-Testing Sessions

One of the most important steps towards developing a great game is LOTS of product-testing. In the entertainment industry, this is referred to as play-testing. In addition to finding bugs, play-testing serves the purpose of redefining and fine-tuning video games. Depending on play-testers’ reactions and feedback, game designers may significantly alter gameplay and game design.

My first project as a Vteractive intern was to organize two play-testing sessions for our latest game, Questinations. Planning the sessions was relatively easy. I had to prepare a room within our office, buy drinks, prepare handouts, and provide a laptop. My boss helped me out with the first three tasks, and I made a note on my calendar reminding myself to bring my laptop. All that remained was finding play-testers.

My boss warned me that finding people willing to play-test a startup company’s game can be difficult. The task was made more difficult when I discovered that we could not bribe people with food or money, as that would likely bias their feedback. Another issue that I had to keep in mind was targeting play-testers representative of our game’s target market.

I posted a link to our play-testing sign up page on a few casual meet up groups and some local gaming-related websites including IGN and Pittsburgh LAN coalition. I also planned to give fliers to the Game Stop in Squirrel Hill. I got lucky twice.

My first stroke of luck was at Game Stop. I knew it would be against store policy for me to distribute the fliers, but I went inside anyway. After making sure it wasn’t busy, I explained the situation to the employees. They were very reasonable and agreed to help us out by distributing the fliers. Soon afterward, the Pittsburgh LAN coalition e-mailed my post to all their members, who then forwarded the relevant information to other gaming distribution lists.

Our first play-testing session was a huge success. We received tons of useful feedback for the game. After significantly updating the game, we held another play-testing session, from which we received a lot more useful feedback. All of the feedback has been documented, but updating Questinations has been put on hold while we work on a video game for our first client!

Fundraising

My first solitary project was fundraising. As most business students know, a common reason for small business failure is insufficient capital. I was assigned the important task of researching potential grants and investors for Vteractive. I started my search with key words such as “how to find funding.” Later, I searched different combinations of specific terms including: entertainment, technology, and Pittsburgh. After a few hours, I noticed decreasing returns from my searches, so I turned to some friends who closely follow entertainment technology. They directed me towards two grants, both an excellent fit for Vteractive. In the end, I compiled a list of 6 funding sources from which we could reasonably be awarded capital. I reviewed my results with Ken, who had done his own research. We had some overlap in our findings, and Ken was very pleased with the funding sources, two of which we decided to pursue.

Operations with My Le (Week 2)

2011-06-29T12:25:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone!

I can't believe that it's already been more than a month since I've started my internship. Everything is happening so fast! Last week, DuPont hosted their annual Supply Chain Leadership Conference at the DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, DE. What this basically means is that they fly in all their OBL's (Operational Business Leaders) for a three day conference. I thought that as an intern, I was expected to blend in with the background and observe what was going on; however, reality was quite the opposite. From the very beginning of the conference, the host gave us (the interns) special recognition and had us introduce ourselves in front of all the executives. They wasted no time in putting us to work when we were chosen to present in front of the group after a brainstorming session. It was nerve-wrecking, but also a confidence booster because our ideas were well-received. At the end of each of the 3 days, there was a cocktail hour which allowed me to network with some of the most influential people at the company.

As far as work goes, I am about half way done with my main project! Which is extremely exciting, given the fact that I know my work will add value to the company. I also just started my second project last week, so I have my hands full at the moment. Sorry for the short blog, I promise next week's will be better!

- My Le

Consulting with Jamie Yieh (Week 3)

2011-06-29T12:25:00.001-07:00

Hi again,

It’s Thursday afternoon and I am flying back from Hartford to DC to catch my connection to Pittsburgh. One thing I realized (and love) about the consulting lifestyle is that the hours are long but flexible. I work extremely hard Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday putting in 11-15 hours a day but then on Thursday, I catch a break and leave the client office around 3:30PM to fly back home. And best of all, on Friday, I make a few phone calls from the office if I need a landline for a conference call but no one will yell at me if I decide to work from the comfort of my own comfy bed. The flex-time also means that you need to be flexible in terms of being open to taking a call early in the morning or late at night. Especially if the client or team is in a different time zone, you could be accommodating their West Coast time zone and scheduling an 8PM call.

This week, I interacted pretty heavily with the client. I sent e-mails to the project’s leadership (I re-read my e-mails 1,000 times before clicking send), began speaking up on some smaller conference calls (Yes, I stuttered a lot), and sat in on a pretty intense 8-hr meeting where Aetna managers discussed the next steps that needed to be taken in order to reach their 6/30 and 8/1 milestones. Something in my understanding definitely clicked this week. Another hint about making the most out of an internship especially in consulting is to keep asking questions. Anything that relates to your industry, which is really everything, counts as a legitimate question. Aetna is a health insurance company but I can relate that to healthcare providers (hospitals, clinics, etc.) and pharmaceutical companies, both retail (CVS) and manufacturer (Pzifer). I asked things specific to what I see on a document used within my project such as “Why is the PMO focusing so much on Clinical Programs versus the other workstreams?” I also went as broad as learning the different pay structures for doctors, how to reduce the cost of maintaining linens in hospitals, and the pros/cons of an HMO plan versus a PPO plan. Anything is fair game and those you ask won’t be annoyed. They see it as a “Stump the Partner or Manager” game and want to be quizzed. But once you get all of this information, be sure to try and find a connection point between your discussion and what you are experiencing on your project! It shows that you are genuinely listening and critically thinking about their responses. Since I am helping out with both the PMO and the Clinical workstream, I was able to figure out some information gaps Clinical was experiencing and connect the gaps to those of other workstreams. Hearing certain things in one meeting could very much apply to what is being discussed in another and I was able to find these relationships and advise people on who they can get clarification from. Next week is the 6/30 milestone I mentioned earlier in this post, so it will probably be a busy time at the client office. Let’s see if I can decrease the number of times I re-read an e-mail before sending to the client…

One last thing I would like to share with you is another perk! This weekend is July 4^th so all Deloitte employees get Friday and Monday off. With this rare 4-day weekend, I decided to book a trip to Myrtle with no out-of-pocket costs to me! We have this nice policy that allows me to take weekend trips to anywhere I want and I can apply the cost of the airline ticket that I would have purchased if I decided to fly back to Pittsburgh. It’s called alternative travel and if the ticket ends up being more expensive, you simply pay the difference. So with that, have a fabulous and safe 4^th of July weekend!

-Jamie

Week 2 of Consulting with Jamie Yieh

2011-06-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Here’s another update! This past week I was in Hartford on Monday and Tuesday working on my project at Aetna then flew to Atlanta for the two-day Deloitte National Strategy & Operations (S&O… acronym!) training. There were about 55 other interns from all over the country attending this training. I met people from offices in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Kansas City, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, D.C., New York, and even Houston.

Over the two days, we received coaching from 2^nd-year S&O Business Analysts (BA’s), senior managers and partners of the firm. The BA’s were once interns and so were able to relate to our experiences and provide great feedback on what it’s like to work at Deloitte. We received training on PowerPoint and Excel as well as on soft skills such as electronic etiquette and interviewing tips. Lastly, we broke up into 10 groups and worked on a strategy case, which we all presented at the end of the 2^nd day in front of a panel of senior managers and partners.

It was interesting to see the different speaking styles and analysis from all of the groups as they presented one by one, but it was nerve-racking for me to present in front of Deloitte leadership and receive feedback. We were taught how to “storyboard” our thoughts, or in other words draw out an outline of our reasoning, before finalizing an argument and putting together a slide deck. It was difficult to brainstorm that way since most of us were used to diving right into the research, but we were warned that if we did not know what to look for, we would easily waste hours of time filtering through unnecessary information. Overall, training was a great learning experience and I was excited to meet two other interns who were staffed on the same Aetna project in Hartford!

I was back in the Pittsburgh office on Friday and had a meeting with my counselor to update him on my experiences these past two weeks. I remember during my first day on the job, there was a guiding principle that everyone kept referring back to when speaking about Deloitte and consulting in general. It went something like this: “You shape your own career.” It’s short and it’s somewhat catchy but as I am progressing through my internship, the more truth I see in it. As an intern, I am given a whole lot of autonomy and independence over how much I want to do and what I want to do on the project. In just two short weeks, I have learned so much about the healthcare industry and the consulting lifestyle but it was up to me to choose my pace and show some self-initiative and intellectual curiosity to “shape my own career”. Talking to my counselor, he admitted that finding a good pace is apparently the hardest thing to do as an intern and new hire BA but he nevertheless challenged me to find that balance between wanting to learn and being a living human being who still talks to her family and has a social life.

But anyways, my goal for next week will be to interact with the client a little more (maybe even independently lead a few small meetings!) and better understand the company’s problem areas in order to receive more responsibility in the following weeks. Wish me luck!

- Jamie

BOC Intern with Niki Anand

2011-06-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

My name is Niki Anand and I am a rising junior majoring in Business Administration. I am currently interning for the Business Opportunities Conference through the Tepper School of Business. The Business Opportunities Conference is a student run recruiting event that allows students in various business concentrations to interact with potential employers in a formal setting. Along with the BOC, the committee also organizes other events for the recruiters and students to really benefit from the BOC.

You’re probably asking what do I actually do as the BOC intern? Well, while the majority of the committee is all over the country (and even abroad), I am coordinating critical activities that need to be accomplished before the school starts. To hold an event of this magnitude, it is important that the marketing, operations, and financial plans are all in sync. Some of the activities I get to be involved with are working with our Student Activities Office to finalize the contracts between the companies we work with. I also get to personally contact recruiters from big companies and invite them to the BOC. I work with the undergraduate business administration and the career offices on a daily basis.

Another nice thing about my internship is that I get to spend the summer in Pittsburgh! It’s been nice to explore this city when I’m not bogged down by homework and exams.

I look forward to updating you guys on the progress of this event. Be sure to check out the BOC facebook page as well (it’s a link on the side of this blog).

-Niki

Start Up Companies with Chris Conte

2011-06-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Hi! My name is Chris Conte, and I am a junior at the Tepper School of Business.

I am working two internships this summer, both for small companies. In this blog post, I’ll talk about how I got my internship at Vteractive, a Carnegie Mellon startup.

I first heard about the opportunity to intern for Vteractive on TartanTrak. At this point, my internship search had taken up a huge amount of time (about 10 hours/week for five weeks), and I still had no offers. To apply to intern at Vteractive, I had to submit my transcript, resume, and a cover letter. A bit more work than the average application (which literally takes a couple clicks). In order to make sure the added effort wasn’t for nothing, I read the description a few times. With each read over, I became more convinced that the opportunity was worth the time to write an application.

To start, I noticed that the internship was in Pittsburgh, which offers many advantages. First, I am familiar with the city and the people in it. Also, there is a lot of stuff I’ve been wanting to do in Pittsburgh (visit the Mattress Factory, hike in Frick Park, ride the Duquesne Incline….), and (presumably) I would have more time to do it over the summer. Then, there is the consideration of cost. Of all places to live during the summer, Pittsburgh is definitely one of the cheapest. The second thing I noticed about the internship was its broad scope. The description mentioned a handful of things, including business development, case analyses, social media marketing, and analytics. The broad scope is valuable to me, because I am still unsure about what field of business interests me most. Finally, the qualifications made my decision to write an application final. These included an “analytical mind, self-motivation, initiative, [a] can-do attitude, passion for entrepreneurial ventures, [and the] ability to ‘see the big picture.’” These qualifications made the internship seem like a perfect fit for me. Plus, the personal touch in the posting [“We are confident that experience here will open opportunities up for you – our interns have told us this in multiple occasions”] made Vteractive appear welcoming, and so I applied the same day. (The other advantage that the posting won’t mention is that an unpaid internship is less sought-after. Therefore, it is one of the best ways to gain business experience if you are not a rising senior and don’t have the greatest qualifications.)

I was happy to get an e-mail back from Kenneth Hendrata , the President of Vteractive, a few days later. We scheduled an interview at Carnegie Mellon’s Project Olympus (a building that has housed several successful CMU startups). I was pretty nervous for the interview, but I shouldn’t have been, mostly because I WAS well prepared (thanks to the Career and Professional Development Center at CMU), but also because Kenneth Hendrata was extremely kind and personable. In fact, I should mention: if interviewing with your boss –to-be, the interview can serve an added purpose of getting to know what your job environment will REALLY be like. I guess you could say the same thing for all interviews, but you can observe a lot more first-hand than from HR’s formalized description. I was really impressed with Ken. He seemed very intelligent, but not arrogant, and he had excellent communication skills. Best of all, I could tell he would support me and motivate me to work to my full potential as an important member of Vteractive.

I left the interview for a class presentation. Ken wished me luck. He told me to follow up with him over e-mail, but he didn’t formally offer me the position. I e-mailed him a week later to tell him I wanted the position and let him know when I could start. He responded that he appreciated my enthusiasm and attached an offer letter for me to sign.
I’ll let you know about how my internship has gone since then in my next blog post.

Talk to you soon.

-Chris

Operations with My Le

2011-06-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

My name is My Le and I’m a rising senior at Tepper. I will be graduating in May of 2012 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Manufacturing Management and Consulting. I am 20 years old and am from the Bronx in New York City (yay NY! :D)

This summer, I am working at DuPont as one of their Supply Chain interns (there are only about 15 of us, and most of us are located at the Wilmington, DE site). I've been working here for about a month now, and have been enjoying it very much! Each intern is assigned to a different business; I am in the P&IP group under the ECP business. My group manufactures plastics and industrial polymers that go into various applications across all consumer, as well as commercial, products. As an intern, I have 3 mentors with whom I work very closely with. One thing I love about this internship is the access I have to my superiors. I have had lots of opportunities to sit down with each of my mentor for one-on-one sessions to learn about their role in the company, as well as the business.

I have 4 projects that are to be completed by the end of my 13 week internship. Thus far, I must say that all of the track classes that I have taken at CMU has helped prepare me for this internship. It's pretty cool that all the terms that are thrown around in the classroom (safety stock, demand planning, supply schedule planning, etc) are being used, and it's even better that I know what they mean! :) Okay, time to get back to work.

I'll write more for next week!

Consulting with Jamie Yieh

2011-06-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
I hope this summer has been treating you well! I am very excited to be able to offer my insights this summer regarding my internship with Deloitte Consulting. Let’s do a quick introduction: My name is Jamie Yieh. I am a rising senior, proudly born and raised in Houston, TX. I am double majoring in Business Administration and Policy & Management. I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to intern with Deloitte Consulting this summer under their Strategy & Operations (S&O) division as it will provide me (and in essence you..) a 10-week sneak peek into the mysterious life of the always traveling, never sleeping, but nevertheless accomplished consultant.
My first week at Deloitte involved an orientation day where I met both undergraduate and MBA interns from the Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Detroit, and Boston offices. Throughout the remainder of the week, we each received project assignments and on-boarding materials and were expected to meet with our counselors to talk about our summer goals.
I was staffed on the Aetna project in Hartford, CT and would be traveling there every Monday and traveling back to Pittsburgh every Thursday for the next 9 weeks. My on-boarding materials consisted of about 8 powerpoints and a document with a list of 50 or so acronyms commonly used in the healthcare/pharmaceutical industry. Decipher these: COB, MAC, DUR, MOD, PBM. Yeah, I was expected to go through these materials prior to arriving in Hartford so I would be caught up with all that has been happening at Aetna. With tons of information thrown at me all at once, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. I was reassured though that even senior consultants and managers feel overwhelmed when they start a new project and soon enough I would feel comfortable conversing in acronyms. I’ll let you know if this really holds true.
I arrived in Hartford on Monday morning, drove to Aetna’s office and introduced myself to the team. Immediately, I was thrown into a 4-hour conference call. I was asked to take meeting notes which would be submitted to the project management office (PMO, yes another acronym) so the notes should probably be pretty good. I’ll be honest, taking notes sounds easy but I struggled a lot trying to understand the lingo they were using. Every time I didn’t understand an acronym or action item, I added a question mark to remind myself to go back and see if I could better decipher the sentence that was said. By the end of the 4 hours, I had a good 20 question marks. I submitted it anyway to my manager and received feedback right away. He said my notes got better as It went along and that I would have another try tomorrow to reach his expectations. Yes, I was thrown into another 4 hour conference call and it was a challenge to get the meeting notes to be at what was expected from the PMO but I appreciated being thrown into a blazing fire from day 1 or else it would have taken me twice as long to understand the project’s goals and timeline.
So far, I have really enjoyed my work. It’s challenging but also exciting to see how my deliverables fit into the bigger picture of impacting Aetna’s operations. Being consumers, we never really take note of operational changes because transitions are strategically streamlined. Being behind the scenes is a big eye-opener for me and I am excited to get involved in some client interaction with Aetna next week. More updates soon!

Blogging about the BOC w/Jake Yosafat

2010-08-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

While you may not know it, chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve read a lot of the stuff I’ve written this summer. As the BOC Intern, I’ve been the person primarily in charge of the upkeep of the blog, the BOC Facebook page, and writing new HTML content for the BOC website’s company listing.

While not an official member of the Tepper Interns blog team, I though it would be a good idea for me to lend some insight into what it’s like being part of an internship program that is less formal and in which you are working for a lot of individuals who already know you. Chances are that many of you will be faced with the potential situation of working for a small business or interning at Carnegie Mellon. Here is my take on the whole situation.

The hardest part of the job is autonomy. Being the only individual on campus working for the BOC day in and day out doesn’t lend a lot of oversight to the process. I decide when to come in, when to leave, and how many hours to work (within reason of course). No one is here telling me what to do each day, whether it is researching additional companies, writing recruitment letters, tracking down bad debt from past conferences, it is largely up to me. I can guarantee this is not going to be the case with most internships, but I can attest that it is a great exercise in self-motivation.

The other primary challenge is coordinating all the committee members. This summer we have had directors in the Eastern and Central U.S. time zones, the United Kingdom, France, a semester at sea in the Mediterranean, Rwanda, India, Singapore, China, Malaysia and Indonesia. Having to coordinate email schedules and cycles of productivity has lent insight into what transnational corporations must go through on a day-to-day basis.

I can assure you, I along with the rest of the Committee have been working to make this the best conference in years. We are already ahead of where were last year on company recruitment and we have six times as many high-level sponsors as we did last year. The BOC is still a mammoth operation, so I encourage you to get involved. Attend, volunteer, interview for a director position. I continue to look forward to September 16^th, as I’m sure you do to.

Until Then,

Jake

The Core of a Consulting Internship w/Byungwoo Ko

2010-08-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer. I want to give you guys quick updates on my internship at Accenture.

Last weekend, all Accenture interns were invited to St. Charles, which is located outside of Chicago for a leadership conference. It was awesome to see people from different locations, different backgrounds and different projects. The conference focused on teaching interns how to become better team members and better leaders; it entailed a series of lectures, team-building activities and seminars. It was really fun. I got to know so many new people and got to listen to what senior executives at Accenture had to say about leadership. Only bad part about it was that I had to go back to work on Monday after a busy weekend… haha.

I am currently working on a couple of big projects. First, the fiscal year for Accenture ends in August, so our team has been putting a lot of effort in reviewing the numbers for the current fiscal year and planning for the next fiscal year. This has been a very exciting experience as I get to learn how professionals plan and decide what their goal should be for the future. There are many factors that must be considered and every factor should be considered very importantly. You learn to constantly question yourself on how this process is going to affect your team, your company and your client, how much are we going to save, how can we generate more review and so forth. I am sure many of you have already done this through some classes but the process gets extremely intense when a huge amount of money is on the table. Secondly, my supervisor assigned me a summer project that I need to present to his team members. The project needs to cover the overall contingent labor industry and how our team can improve to lead the trend and not follow it. I have been doing a lot of research to understand how contingent labor works, why companies want to use contingent labor, how can we our services to our clients and etc. I just want to make sure that I deliver something that can be useful to the team and Accenture. I will be holding interviews this week with some team members to get their input and to learn how they fit into the big picture of the procurement process. The presentation is coming up soon, so I will be working long hours for the remainder of my internship. Wish me luck!

Selling IT w/Kimberly Chan

2010-07-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

HELLO!

Johnson & Johnson is going so well! I am so grateful that I landed this internship that utilizes both Marketing and IT. I'm currently a little past my halfway mark and I finally feel like I am making a contribution to the group. My role has changed since the beginning, so I act as more of a Communication Strategist for the team. I find the best ways to showcase and market the group to other companies under the J&J umbrella. To my surprise, J&J is MUCH bigger than I thought and the services my group offers can go unheard. Thus, I have been exploring avenues of communication.

A few projects that I've been working on include writing articles for our IT portal. These news pieces keep other J&J employees up-to-date with what other departments are working on. Lots of operational companies within J&J go there to see what new technologies are out and whatnot. It's a great medium to get our name out there!

Additionally, I've been acting as a Project Liaison for the Reach brand. They have new additions in their toothbrush line and want updating to their website. My role is to communicate between the creative agency that does the artwork and global services as well as the Reach employees. So far, I've created the pricing sheet as well as the Statement of Work (Sow). An SoW basically outlines the finances, activities, and timeline of a particular project. Now I’m just waiting for that to be approved!

Last but not least, I've also been working on creating a leave behind for clients who visit our Creative Lab. The Lab has aesthetics mimicking that of a marketing or advertising agency to brand J&J's IT in a more creative way. We take clients in here to have brainstorming sessions of how our group can help theirs. Areas of the Lab also showcase potential IT and Digital capabilities we have, website development, mobile application development, e-commerce and augmented reality. So this leave behind I'm creating has to capture the 'creative' aspect of IT. My ideas include creating a recycled notebook which has a few opaque pages in the background to feature part of the portfolio. This way, the parts of our portfolio will be staying with the client at all times (assuming they use the notebook). This unobtrusive advertising concept is the main sell for my pitch. I will be presenting my idea to the Director next week! Wish me luck!

Stay tuned to my next post!

Best,

Kim

Wall Street Power Hour w/ Jay Kapoor

2010-07-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Things have finally slowed down a little bit - both of the deals I was on are finished and I'm on to new things and working on an entirely new deal.

This seems like a good time to talk about how the work flows in a group such as mine and the day-to-day work environment in a bulge bracket bank. The team, like most enterprises, is a hierarchy where Analysts – recent college graduates i.e. the bottom of the food chain - are accountable to their Associates, who report to Directors or Executive Directors who work under their respective Managing Director. As one climbs through the ranks, the job becomes more client relationship oriented and in a product group such as mine - MDs and EDs tend to have 2 or 3 specific industry sub-sectors that they attend to.

An MD's job is to generate ideas for their clients in, say for example, the construction equipment sector. As we are focused on High Yield, these ideas generally come from the sector. Their compensation is also based on their P&L (profit and loss), meaning, how much did your deals net the bank and how much did they cost. The higher ther P&L the better the bonus -- in that way banking truly is a meritocracy.

An MD or ED will target a client to "pitch" an idea and will request the deal team (an MD, ED or D, Assoc & Analyst) to help prepare a presentation with highlights on an opportunity for the client. We also fill it with facts about how our bank is the best and better than all the other banks.

The ED or D quarterbacks the process, setting up meetings with the client or clients and oversees the creation of the (notorious) Pitch Book materials that he/she will use to "win" business. The associate and analyst(s) put together the materials used in the Pitch which uses the full extent of your MSOffice skill set.

If the team wins the Pitch, we get "mandated" to work on the deal, and the process starts all over again -- marching orders come from the top and the analysts serve as infantry to carry them out. Even so, the process is not as bureaucratic as I would have expected and is often pretty collaborative up and down the chain of command, i.e. your MDs actually take the time to listen to your suggestions.

The analyst work culture is definitely focused on learning and MDs, EDs and Directors are happy to explain things to you because they know it is in their best interest for you to the most efficient at their job. One caveat -- if you need to ask a question, ask it but make sure you really listen to the answer. Listening attentively is the hallmark of a good analyst and asking questions just for the sake of asking questions wastes both your time and the other person's.

Also important is to always take pen, paper and calculator with you when you go to any meeting and take extremely diligent notes. Once, my deal team was asked to recall how many times oversubscribed a debt offering was, from a phone call that was two days earlier. I was the only one who remembered to write it down -- I didn't know that it was important at the time but ended up being very useful later. Also became a good way to show attention to detail - which is absolutely key in IBanking. As my associate wisely said – “there is so such thing as an almost right number."

Lastly, for those of you with a little reading time this summer and want to get some more information about how Banking is and was - here is some stuff from my reading list

1) "Monkey Business" by John Rolfe and Peter Troob

-- Famous account of Analysts at DLJ in the 90's. A little outdated, still very informative and ridiculously funny. Might scare some away from banking but still, a really honest and good read.

2) "The Accidental Investment Banker" by Johnathan A. Knee

-- Monkey Business for the upper level exectuive. John Knee's narrative features a lot more than just his personal experiences climbing the ladder at Goldman and Morgan Stanley. It also has some good history on the golden age of banking and where it has gone. Highly Recommended.

Hope everyone is having a good summer!

Jay Kapoor

New Team Member

2010-07-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I hope your summers are all going well. We've recently added a new team member to expand the Blog's offerings. In addition to BK's Consulting, Jay's Finance, and Kim's IT experiences, we're proud to introduce to you Jackie, who will clue you in to some of her marketing experiences. Enjoy!

Hello all!

My name is Jackie Zhang, a Business Administration major (class of 2011) in Tepper tracking in General Management with a focus on Marketing and Manufacturing, Management and Consulting. This summer, I'm working in none other than Pittsburgh, PA, with USG Insurance as part of their marketing department, innovations.

As one of five interns in the program, I work on projects both marketing internally for USG, as well as for other companies in the service industry. While our work is mainly separate and on a variety of different projects that are given to us (ranging from creating advertising campaigns for our clients to redesigning internal materials), we often come together to work on larger projects, or to collaborate on parts requiring brainstorming. In the upcoming weeks, it is also an intern project to research, create and present a complete proposal to higher execs.

While working in insurance may not have been anyone's first choice in career as a kid (it certainly wasn't mine), it's actually quite interesting what you can learn from it. Since basically all industries and individuals need insurance, we learn a lot about various industries because we have to cover their basic activities. Additionally, as part of the marketing team, I have a say in every part of the new service creation process--in contrast to marketing for physical products, it's definitely more interesting and challenging to think of innovative methods of marketing the intangible.

Recently, my main projects have focused on doing thorough market research on areas of business that we plan on moving into, editing and creating proposals for the insurance and financial services software developed by our IT department, and designing marketing materials and advertising for external clients, as well as our own insurance agents. Our work environment is pretty casual (in stark contrast to the underwriting agent work area outside our office)--we play music, go out to lunches, and sit on green chairs.

The only real downfall of the internship so far is the long commute: living in the same house from the school year that neighbors the CMU campus, it's an awfully long drive to get to the Southpointe business park (especially hellish during rush hour back through the Fort Pitt tunnel!). Otherwise, living in Pittsburgh over the summer is surprisingly pleasant with more sunshine than you'd ever see during the school year (and a lot less stress in the air).

-Jackie Z

The Lay of the Internship Land

2010-07-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hey readers! Welcome back for another update on the Tepper Bloggers. All three have progressed nicely in their internships and are eager to share their experiences with you. We're happy to announce that we have a fourth blogger, Jackie Zhang, who will be joining us starting with our next post. Jackie is a Marketing Intern here in Pittsburgh and should round out our team nicely along with Kim's IT, Jay's Finance, and BK's Consulting experiences. I hope you enjoy and learn from this post and you'll be hearing from us again soon.

Hello everyone!

A few weeks have passed and I'm slowly getting assimilated with the work culture at Johnson & Johnson. I must say, it's taking me awhile. I feel like I just got here and yet it's been 4 weeks already! My impressions of the company are overall positive. I love that it's a big corporation full of people from diverse backgrounds and new things to learn. Everyone here has a story of their own and SO much to offer. They are so helpful and friendly, I literally can ask anyone anything and I won't feel dumb.

Lately I've been thinking about balancing work and social life. It's a toughy during the week. It seems like I have no time for myself. I get up around 7am, get to work around 8:30am and leave around 5pm, get home at 5:45pm. Settle, cook dinner, and it's 8:30pm already! Dilly dally for a bit and it's time for bed. The whole cycle begins again. My body is slowly transforming to just fat and bones because I never exercise. It's quite sad. The most exercise I get is my walk to the bathroom at work. I need to figure work-life balance. Suggestions?

Till next time! Have a good one!

-Kim

Hi Guys,

Things have gotten a lot busier over the last few days which means the nights and weekends have started getting longer and longer. Before I get into my personal experience in the Leveraged Finance group these past few weeks, I wanted to offer a brief primer on the Investment Banking Division and my specific group if to give you some idea as to how my internship is structured.

Groups in the Investment Banking Division are classified as either industry groups or products groups and unlike most Sales & Trading Internships, which rotate you through 3 desks over the course of 9 weeks (after a week of training) we spend our entire internship in one group. Industry groups are responsible for covering a particular sector, such as Technology, Media, Power & Utilities or Real Estate, etc. They manage relations with corporate clients and get specific expertise on their industry over a wide range of deals, be that M&A. Equity/Debt Offerings or Restructuring. On the other hand, the Product groups focus on one specific deal type, such as Mergers or Leveraged Finance and your deals range over all the different sectors but you become an expert in that one product.

Leveraged Finance is a product group and focuses on High-Yield Debt financed deals. These range from leveraged bond and loan origination to refinancing a company's bank debt (which is exactly what it sounds like -- you take out a new loan with the sole purpose of paying off the old one, generally to get a better rate or for strategic reasons). We also spend a good deal of focus on Leveraged Buyout (LBO) opportunities.

Going off the principle in Finance that greater risk must show greater returns; high yield debt is corporate debt that is rated below investment grade by ratings agencies (Moody's, Fitch, S&P) and offers percentage returns that are much greater than the High-Grade AAA rated bonds of blue chip companies. A Leveraged Buyout, therefore, is where a Private Equity investor will buy up full stake in a public company in order to take it private. The investor then makes changes to the company structure/operations/assets/strategy and soon after takes it public once again to reap the financial benefits. The assets of the target company are used as collateral for the acquisition --- creating the need for high-yield debt (reflecting the higher risk of an LBO) as a vehicle for potential investors who provide financing for the deal.

After the first week of training with the entire intern class, our joint Financial Sponsors/Leveraged Finance (FS/LF) intern class of 14 had another week of in-depth high-yield debt training, led by Analysts on up to Managing Directors in the FS/LF team. We covered topics from Debt Covenants (the legal documents surrounding the bond or loans we offer) to different Bank Loan and Bond options we offer to the basics of Bond Math. Now that we are done with both training regimens we are officially part of the FS/LF team. We spend most of our time helping our Analysts/Associates on the deals we get assigned to.

These include among other things, making Debt Comps (a "Comparable Companies" analysis - focusing on debt ratios of the company like Total Debt/EBITDA), which are useful when pitching a company's characteristics against their competitors to potential investors. We've also been building "Quick & Dirty" models (starting at the Income Statement and working down to a projection of EBITDA and Free Cash Flows over the next 5 - 10 years) in preparation for building the financial projection models we use to price and justify the bank lending/originating $XYZ Million of leveraged loan/bonds to/for a company or Financial sponsor. When people say banking gives you "modeling experience" -- this is actually what they are talking about.

Phew.... that was a lot of information condensed into a very quick breakdown. It is actually amazing to think back to less than a month ago when all this felt like a foreign language - working through it day-in-day-out is starting to make this second nature. If any of this is unclear or you are interested in learning a little more, feel free to reach out to me and I'll be happy to share more.

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July,

Jay Kapoor

Hey Everybody!

I hope everyone is having a great summer. I am certainly having a very busy one. In case you guys don't remember, I am interning at Accenture as part of the Business Process Outsourcing group. I have to admit I had no idea what my project was about and what kinds of topics that I will be dealing with. I am just starting to get an idea of what my role is and how I can fit into the group. I think this is what everybody goes through in the beginning; you just feel overwhelmed and lost. You are not sure what you are supposed to be doing and you don't know what is expected of you. But I learned the best way to deal with that is to go out and reach out to people around you and ask for help. There are plenty of people willing to help and walk you through the process and help you successfully fit into the organization. I've already met somebody besides my supervisor who is willing to mentor and guide me during and beyond the internship period. So, when you are starting your internship, make sure to reach out to people and meet people who are willing to teach and nurture you.

In terms of the project, my boss wants me to experience different steps of procurement from finding clients to finding suppliers. He sends me a lot of materials to read over and takes me to different meetings so I can be acquainted with what actually happens in the 'Procurement' world. Also, he recently gave me a semester long project for which I have to give a presentation to about 40 people upon completion. I hope all the presentation skills I learned at Tepper will pay off, haha.

In the next post, I will try to share something more specific about the project I am doing and about my daily tasks. Until then, PZ!

Meet the Team

2010-06-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome back students, friends, faculty and everyone else. After another great year at Carnegie Mellon, the Business Opportunities Conference Committee, in conjunction with the CMU Career Center and Tepper Undergraduate Department has assembled a crack team of interns who are currently applying the skills they have acquired at Tepper to roles ranging from Investment Banking to IT work. While this is not the whole team quite yet, we wanted to give you an opportunity to get to know the individuals who will be sharing their experiences, anecdotes, and advice:

Hey Fellow Tepper students,

Let me introduce myself first to you all before I start writing about my internship experience. My name is Byungwoo Ko; I usually go by BK. I am double majoring in Business Administration (Track: Manufacturing Management and Consulting) and International Relations and Politics and I am graduating this coming December. Hooray!

I am doing my summer internship at Accenture as part of its Business Process Procurement Outsourcing group. I am not quite sure what part of the procurement process I will be dealing with, but I know I will be working mostly with subcontracts and labor supply chains.

Right now, I am going through the orientation program and online training modules to get familiar with the company. I hope to start on my real project soon and I will update you guys on it when I do.

Cheers,

Hey guys,

My name is Jay Kapoor and I am going to be a Senior next year. I am a Finance Major in the Tepper School of Business. This past Monday, I started my internship with a bulge bracket investment bank in New York City (I can tell you which one when HR lets me know it's okay). Within the bank, I will be interning in the Investment Banking Department (IBD) in the Financial Sponsor/Leveraged Finance (FSLF) group. Currently, I am going through training with all the other interns in IBD but soon we get to join our groups and get staffed on projects.

Living in NYC has been really interesting so far. I am currently living on Lafayette Street (between Chinatown and the Financial District, i.e. downtown) whereas my office is in Midtown so I have a 30 minute commute door-to-door. On that, I have a word to the wise: Secure summer housing in New York City IMMEDIATELY after you get your internship. It is really easy to put it off but take it from someone who wishes he had that extra hour of sleep a day and book your housing. Sleep in the IBD is especially scarce so we (the interns) are taking full advantage of the shortened training hours in the evening to explore NYC.

Hope that gives you a brief insight into me and interning in NYC. In my next post I'll tell you a bit more about my group and what the IBD does. I'll be sure to update you guys on what kind of projects I work on (after clearing all confidentiality issues of course) and more about how the IBD operates for those of you that are interested in Investment Banking as a career choice.

-Jay-

Hello everyone!

My name is Kim. I'm a rising Senior at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business with tracks in Marketing and Computing/Information Technology. This summer, I will be working at Johnson & Johnson as an IT Intern in their Global Services Commercial Marketing department! I originally was skeptical of taking this IT internship opportunity because I am not a techy person. However, this summer I will be tackling IT in more of a marketing/innovation direction. My team is responsible for not only being reactive to marketing problems, but proactive in creating new innovations in the marketing realm with technology. Most of it revolves around digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), mobile applications, external websites, social media, etc. I'm really excited to learn more about J&J and what I can contribute to the team!

-Kim