Summarizing Some Summer Internships - Part 1

One of the hottest topics of conversation at Carlson, and I imagine at any MBA program, is centered on people's summer internships. Who got what? Did they enjoy the experience? Did they get an offer? Will they still be recruiting this fall? Even for a small class like Carlson's, it is a subject of endless discussion.

To get ahead on the gossip, I decided to cut straight to the source–and interview a few of my fellow 2nd years to get their official account of their internship experience. Three classmates,

• Annie Lanzen, an Associate Marketing Manager Intern at Land O'Lakes, 
• Laura Gerdes, a MBA Consulting Intern at Upton Hill, LLC, and 
• Mike Jennings, an Insights MBA Intern at LinkedIn, 

were happy to answer a few questions and provide their perspective. 

*****

What did you do for your internship?

Annie: At Land O'Lakes, I set the strategy for spreadable butter – meaning that I evaluated where the next largest business opportunity would be and looked at the current portfolio to see if Land O'Lakes was in the appropriate sizes and flavors of butter.

On a day-to-day basis, I examined a lot of a lot of consumer data, directly from grocery stores, to look for different consumer trends. How were consumers buying products? What products were growing in the market? What was declining? When was it purchased on-sale? Off-sale? Basically, I was looking at all the different types of things that factored into a consumer's purchasing decision. It was a lot of quantitative analysis; was trying to use data to tell a story.

Laura: Upton Hill is a health care consulting firm, focusing on health care IT, regulations, operations, and change management. I started off doing some business development work and research with the CEO, and helped to package information for major clients. I then did more business development work, looking at developing and communicating key messages to potential clients. I also spent 3 days a week at a local insurance company. There, I conducted some market research through surveying, and then spent a lot of time with process improvement. I engaged with people to understand the current process, teased out areas of improvement, identified key stakeholders, and then documented those workflows. 

I really enjoyed it. Upton Hill had the right fit and people for me. It made me more interested in consulting, and definitely gave me the "yes" in knowing that this is what I want to be doing.

Mike: I spent the summer on a big data analytics team at LinkedIn called Insights. My project involved working with our Executive Engagement team, which brings leading executives to LinkedIn headquarters to learn more about our company and how our solutions can support their business priorities. I was tasked with developing a new and innovative way to engage these executives using the power of LinkedIn's data.

I remember firing up my laptop the first time to see about 25 meetings pre-scheduled for my first week. It was unexpected, but I was grateful by the end of the week. It allowed me to get up to speed quickly and establish key connections that became go-to resources for me. I had great support from my manager throughout the summer and had two mentors assigned to me as well. To better understand the executive audience for the project, I joined several of the executive engagement events, which was a pretty incredible experience.

About four weeks into the project I presented a set of ideas for new technology tools we could build to engage these executives and spent the remaining time taking one of those ideas from a prototype mock-up to a fully functioning product. Along the way I learned a lot, met some amazing people, and had a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to returning next summer.

*****

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

Annie: The biggest thing was the project management experience I gained from being in the Carlson Brands Enterprise. Knowing how to write a work plan, how to scope out your project, how to be organized, and how to have a communication plan – these skills were constantly used in my internship.

Along with that, it was great to practice the skill of storytelling during the school year. For my final presentation to the whole marketing team, it wasn't just, "Here's the data. Boom." It was telling the story from the consumer's point of view, from the company's point of view, and making it clear to someone, in half an hour, what I had worked on in three months.

Laura: I used marketing skills from the Brand Enterprise to help define and communicate our message. The guiding principles from my Marketing Research class were useful when I was writing, distributing, and analyzing my survey. Additionally, the project management and client communication skills learned from my second semester projects in the Brand Enterprise and MILI lab (Medical Industry Leadership Institute) were helpful at the client site.

Finally, the background information I learned through my MILI classes ensured I was a step ahead on the learning curve for someone new to the health care industry.

Mike: My experience working on a project in the Carlson Consulting Enterprise [CCE] definitely helped me this summer. Like a CCE project, your internship has a client and a firm end-date. The CCE taught me the importance of defining the right project scope early on to be sure you hit that project deadline. You want to have impact, take on something big, and say yes where you can, but if you take on too much, you can't get another week or two to finish the project. The process of effectively communicating with and engaging stakeholders is another area where I drew on my CCE project experience to help successfully manage my internship project.

*****

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

Annie: Make sure you fit at the company. It's important to know that you like the work, but it's also really important to know that's the culture that you want to be in. Know who want you want to work with, and what type of environment you want to be in every day. Look for that early on in the networking process.

Laura: For me, what was important, was to be very, very true to myself. I knew, to an extent, what I liked and what I was good at. It took me a while to figure out consulting and healthcare. I did not know those fields coming into school. I also knew that consulting was very appealing to me, but I knew traditional consulting wouldn't fit with my personal life. 

So I had to find the right fit for my life – not what Carlson wanted for my life, nor what my peers were doing. I didn't do some of the traditional paths or on-campus recruiting that other people did, because I knew it didn't fit what I wanted. There are firms out there that do fit. You have to do the right thing for you.

Mike: There's a common misconception among some MBAs that to get into a tech company like LinkedIn, Google, Amazon, Salesforce, or others, you have to be highly technical.  It doesn't hurt, but tech companies hire MBAs into marketing, finance, internal consulting, and a lot of other roles that don't require that you to be highly technical. 

If you like a company, its culture, its products–if you have a general passion for technology, and get excited about the thought of being in an entrepreneurial company, you shouldn't limit yourself. Explore the MBA opportunities at tech companies and don't be afraid to take a swing.

If you do go after a tech company, especially coming from the Midwest, it's important to find a warm connection in. If you don't, you risk being another resume in a large stack of impressive applicants. Find a connection and then invest time to prepare. Know the company, how they make money, the role, and the culture. I can't overstate the emphasis placed on culture fit. At many of these companies, you can have all the skills and be incredibly talented, but if you aren't a culture fit, they'll move on to the next candidate. If the company's culture and values resonate with you, you're in a good position.

*****

A big thanks to Annie, Laura, and Mike for chatting with me. See part 2 of this series for more interviews!!