Summarizing Some Summer Internships - Part 2

As mentioned in another post, the class of 2015 had the chance to participate in many fantastic internships. To shed more light into what my class did during this summer, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview a few more fellow second-years:

• Sarah Hawkenson, a Sales and Strategy Intern at PepsiCo
• Luke Wilcox, a Summer Associate at McKinsey & Company 
• Kaizen Yang, an MBA Summer Associate at Groupon

And I’m happy to share their insights from the summer.

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What did you do for your internship?

Sarah: My main objective for this summer was to focus on executional excellence for Pepsi beverages. Specifically, I examined and evaluated the performance of Pepsi products at Target. To do so, I looked at scanner data and subsequently connected with sales people in various regions to understand what was happening across the business. I also conducted 25+ interviews with those in the field and in similar teams at Pepsi’s various brands to identify best practices. I took all of this data and created six recommendations for my final presentation in NYC – which included subtle ideas centered on the effectiveness of corporate

communication to larger suggestions around resource allocation.

Luke: I had two projects that were fairly different. The first half of the summer I was working in global food sourcing. My job was to help clients develop long-term strategies for sourcing a few specific food commodities. I did a lot of interviews and secondary research, as well as leveraged resources within McKinsey. For the second half of the summer I was working in procurement for a client in food distribution. Here, I helped the client actually do procurement, from creating RFPs to going through the process of bidding out their product.

So the first project was much more about the long-term strategy, while the second was more practical and focused on working with the actual procurement process. For both projects I was on-site with the client four days a week. I had no previous experience with either industry before the summer (which is one of the great things about consulting) but was able to learn a lot quickly.

Kaizen: I was working with Gnome, a new Groupon product. Groupon wanted me to look at this from an operations and distribution perspective, and for me to determine a strategy to get this product out to merchants as soon as possible. In order to do that, I had to develop an understanding of how Groupon’s business works and how Gnome would be able to fit with everyday operations. I shadowed sales reps and account managers so that I knew what they did pre-Gnome and how that might change post-Gnome. Would their functions change? What if Gnome interrupted their processes?

By the end, I had created a bunch—a ton—of flow-charts. I also developed technical specifications by presenting my ideal operations flow to Groupon’s engineers and comparing that against what currently existed.

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What was the most useful skill you learned from Carlson that you used during your internship?

Sarah: My first Brand Enterprise project taught me the importance of getting your client’s buy-in throughout the entire process. I made it a goal to communicate the status of my project to someone new every week and incorporated it into my networking. The tools I used in the Enterprise—scope documents, storyboarding skills, and work plans—were quite helpful as well, and got me off on a good start in the internship. And my market research class really helped me to understand the different strengths of quantitative and qualitative data, and how to combine the two.

Luke: Learning how to manage client relationships and accompanying expectations in the Consulting Enterprise was a skill I used frequently at McKinsey. Also important was learning how to navigate and leverage resources. You learn a lot of business knowledge through the diversity of classes that we take here, and understanding how to pull all of that together correlates pretty closely with consulting. Being able to get the right information from others at McKinsey or at people at the client site is really important.

Probably the most useful classes were strategy and finance. Knowing how to analyze an industry and how to think about a company’s strategic position were important for my projects. Coming from a non-finance background, finance classes were helpful for being able to understand a company’s financial position and use its financial documents.

Kaizen: The big things were my time in the Ventures Enterprise, Graduate Volunteer Consultants, and case competitions. Other than the time constraints, those were fairly accurate experiences with what I found in the internship, as you don’t have a strong grasp of what the problem is nor do you have a lot of information when you first start.

It was also important to learn how to incorporate the frameworks and principles we learned at Carlson into my work without explicitly stating them. You don’t want to just quote curriculum during your internship; it just screams B-school. Rather, understanding how to use those ideas in an appropriate way for your audience is very important.

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What advice would you give to a first-year about the internship search?

Sarah: If you’re going to go through on-campus recruiting, it’s really hard not to get wrapped up in what everyone else is doing; it’s easy to feel that since everyone else is doing all of these informational interviews or applying for these jobs, I should be doing the same thing. I wound up applying to jobs that I knew I didn’t want, and was even upset when I didn’t get those positions!

So it’s important to have a game plan and to stick with it. Instead of comparing yourself to others, compare yourself to the goals you set. Don’t apply to everything—not that you should be super-selective with internships—but remember, you want to have a good experience and to hopefully be at a company you want to be at long-term.

Luke: Definitely network and put in the time upfront to network well. By that I mean research the company and the person you’re interviewing and have good questions. Prepare and take advantage of the resources you get access to as a first-year. Work on your resume and cover letters early. Get involved in leadership opportunities that demonstrate your career interest. And last, think about your background and the thread that links your previous experience with the area that you want to go into—especially if you have a non-business background.

For consulting specifically, be willing to put in the time to prepare for case interviewing. You need to get good feedback and advice early in the process. The ideal, I think, is to put 100+ hours into case interview prep. At minimum, get a lot of feedback so you can know if you’re on the right track.

Kaizen: Probably the biggest thing is to know yourself. Honestly, it’s really easy to get caught up when people are landing interviews at X, Y, Z companies and you’re wondering why you aren’t also interviewing for those positions.

Do your due diligence instead; be a good check on yourself to see if you’re doing enough, but if you are, you know the companies that interest you the most and know what aligns for your goals; don’t let other factors from the outside—you can let them be guideposts—but don’t let them dictate your actions. And once you find the company and position that interests you, set up connections and network. You need to reach out to people because otherwise you’re just a face among many. Do what you can to stand out.

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A big thanks to Sarah, Luke, and Kaizen for their time and willingness to chat!