Summer Internship Series: Vanessa, Joseph and Swathi

CPG, IT, Pharma - we've got it all this week! Thank you Vanessa Duvert, Joseph Jao and Swathi Rangan for sharing your internship experiences with us! 

Vanessa, concentrating in Marketing and Marketing Research Insights & Analytics, is working at Campbell Soup Company this summer...

"I was super excited to find out that I was assigned to the Chunky Soup brand this summer. It's a beloved brand that has a unique position in the enterprise. As an Associate Brand Manager Intern, it's a particularly exciting time to be on board. This year, the marketing internship program was revamped to provide a more robust experience. During the first two weeks of the internship we were spilt into two groups of five. One group worked on a recommendation plan to advise the company on corporate transparency efforts. My group worked on advising the company on how to capture millennial consumers. After presenting to the marketing leadership team We each moved on to our brand assignments. My project is to develop a marketing strategy for Chunky to create value and differentiation in the market. To do this I'm considering positioning and promotional tactics to drive demand. It's been a great experience and I look forward to presenting in the next 2 weeks. 

Although the office is in Camden, I've been living in Philadelphia. There's been so many fun activities planned for the intern class like Phillies games, consumer test kitchens, and bowling downtown. What I've enjoyed most are the weekly coffee chats with senior leaders including our president, CMO and several VPs. The level of exposure is outstanding and it's made for a great summer."

Joseph is a Supply Chain Management student spending his summer working in Boise, ID...

"This summer I am interning at Micron Technology, which is the last and only memory chip maker in the US. Micron provides comprehensive memory solutions in four major applications which are PC, mobile device, enterprise storage, and automotive. The company, founded in 1978, is based in Boise, ID and has global operations with manufacturing sites in the US and Asia.

I am working in the mobile business unit, which is the fastest growing segment in the company, as a Product Line Management Intern. One month before starting my internship, my supervisor took on a new role called Program Manager, and is responsible for executing and facilitating cross-functional team efforts to ensure smooth delivery of projects through a product life cycle. It is a new function area in the new organization. The selected projects are critical to the company’s growth and security of market share. So far, I have been working with my manager to get the alignment with all the stakeholders that are responsible for different function areas like marketing, R&D, manufacturing, supply chain management, etc. My job requires me to hold strong product knowledge, process familiarity and good communication skills to succeed. Since Micron has been expanding its operations through acquisition, we need to work with different geographical locations like Asia and Europe. I find it challenging, but very exciting to participate in the process as the program manager plays a key role in the success of the projects. The work culture in the company is good, I feel very comfortable working with my team. People in the company do not treat you differently because you are just an intern. People are so respectful of each other, and this is what the company appreciates and I like it very much.

Micron recruits most of the interns in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science from schools on the West Coast and in the Midwest. As a MBA student from New Jersey, I feel like I am a rare species in the intern groups. But it is very nice to hang out with those engineers after work hours and on the weekends, discovering Boise and its proximity. I am close to some interns who are living in the same complex with me and we have done some fun outdoor activities like mountain hiking and river rafting together in Boise. I still have six weeks to finish my internship and have been enjoying everything here so far. I think Boise is an underrated city in the US and I would love to come back for work!"   

Swathi is pursuing dual concentrations in Pharmaceutical Management and Marketing, as well as an MS in Biomedical Sciences...

"This summer I've been fortunate enough to intern with the US Marketing group at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a (insert surprised reaction here) diagnostics firm based out of Raritan, New Jersey.  Ortho Clinical was initially a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, but mid-last year was acquired by The Carlyle Group- a private equity firm.  This divestiture has actually resulted in immense growth for the company, as it now functions as a stand-alone global firm that is able to specialize on certain product lines.

One of the greatest advantages I've had during this experience was in essence taking over a marketing role rather than an internship- while I do have one major 'intern project' within our clinical chemistry line, I get placed on other tasks as they rise in importance.  I've learned about pricing promotions, marketing communications, developing customer facing content and a vast majority of other marketing functions.  This has been accomplished all while interacting with sales teams, executives, engineers, and scientists proving to be a truly cross functional role.  Another huge benefit is that I've been able to travel to multiple locations- my internship actually started with a week in LA for a product launch within our transfusion medicine line.  I'm currently in Rochester this week for a series of meetings, and next week I will be off to Atlanta for the annual AACC conference (American Association of Clinical Chemistry), which is one of our most important events for the year. 

Since I'm still in New Jersey, I've been able to see some of our Rutgers MBA folk on occasion, and have been heading out to NYC on the weekends.  Next weekend I will actually be traveling out to Chicago for some fun (and I'll be able to meet up with some business school people as well)!  While it will be nice to get out of Jersey for a weekend, my internship has been (and I am certain, will continue to be) a great experience over the three month duration, and I'm excited to see the long term results of my direct work."

That's all for now! I know the summer is almost coming to a close and many people are finishing up the last few weeks of their internships, but have no fear! We'll be back next week to hear from more members of the Class of 2016!

Summer Internship Series: Mike, James and Anuj

This week we have the privilege of hearing from Mike Koskulics, James Ma and Anuj Jain. Read on to hear about their internship experiences so far.

Mike studies Pharmaceutical Management and Marketing and is working in Whippany, NJ...

"This summer I’m interning at Bayer Healthcare in Whippany, NJ where I’m working on the Essure 2016 brand plan. Essure is a non-surgical, permanent birth control device that Bayer purchased for over $1 billion a couple of years ago from a company called Conceptus. 

So far, my experience at Bayer has been great. Working on the brand plan, I’ve gotten the chance to dive into every facet of pharmaceutical marketing—from advertising to sales training to pricing. While I’ve learned a lot, my favorite part of the experience has been seeing how marketing in the pharmaceutical industry actually works. Often times, the media portrays pharmaceutical companies as cold, money-hungry corporations that care more about the bottom line than the patients. My experience couldn’t be more different than this. On a daily basis, I witness far more discussions about the patient experience and physician support than profits. While getting hands-on experience in my chosen field has been amazing, the best part of my internship has been getting to be a part of an organization filled with people that truly care about helping people and doing the right thing. 

At this point in my internship, I have one month left before my presentation to the Executive Committee, a group composed of the heads of each business unit along with the CEO. I know these few weeks will continue to get more intense, as I race to learn everything I can and package it all together into what I hope will be a great presentation. Fortunately, I won’t be working non-stop the entire time. This coming weekend, my fellow Bayer interns and I are going to have a fun, work-free weekend in Atlantic City!"

James is a Finance and Pharmaceutical Management student spending his summer in Somerville, NJ...

"This summer I am lucky enough to be working in Somerville, NJ at Ethicon, part of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies and one of the world’s largest medical device manufacturers. Ethicon specializes in surgical care, and the Somerville site focuses specifically on R&D and manufacturing of wound closure and hemostasis products.

 

As an MBA intern in finance, one of several Leadership Development Programs at J&J, I support Ethicon’s Global Strategic Marketing department. My main project has been developing a process to evaluate and decompose the performance of our financial forecasting for new product launches, in order to gain insights for and improve future models. Because of the nature of medical device new-product development, capital investment and allocation decisions must be made years before the product reaches the market, so the accuracy of these early-stage financial models is critically important.

 

The program has been excellent at providing training and connecting me to others across the J&J organization, which is vast, but decentralized enough to stay nimble in a given sector. My greatest challenges have been learning the various acronyms and tracking down the right person to ask sometimes-stupid questions. As an NJ native, I am also eternally grateful for my 10-minute commute from within the suburbs, and the relative density of J&J offices in the area has made it easier to connect to MBA interns in other programs."

Anuj is concentrating in Supply Chain Management and Strategy & Leadership...

"Hello everyone, I’m Anuj Jain, specializing in Supply Chain Management, and interning at Ferrero. Yes, I make sure that Tic Tacs, Ferrero Chocolates and Nutella spreads are available when you go shopping.

I am working in the supply chain department as a Supply Chain Advisor/Analyst. It has been a great journey so far. The supply chain of Ferrero is very complex as the products have a very short shelf life. The products are imported from other countries, as we do not produce in US. The biggest challenge is that the business is customer driven, which is a nightmare for a Supply Chain. The forecasts are never accurate. So, even with a short involvement of 3 weeks, I have seen numerous challenges faced by my department. Since beginning my internship, I have been working on analytics based on historical data available to us, and preparing tools that can help the Supply Chain team to become more effective and accurate in their forecasting. Yesterday, I participated in a daylong consensus meeting with the Marketing, Forecasting and Sales teams. In this meeting all the departments decide on one final target number for the upcoming months and it was a great learning experience for me. The greatest one, by any means, so far. The agreements and disagreements between the departments, the challenges and questions posed at each other, and the agreement on a final number gave me an opportunity to understand the different perspectives of Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain. I was super tired, but I was really happy to have had such an opportunity. I was helping my manager with the intelligence based out of historical data using the tools that I had prepared. The most important lesson that I learned in this meeting is that communication is the most essential factor for an efficient Supply Chain.

I do not have any plans as such for the summer due to work commitments, as the next 3 months are super super super busy at Ferrero. 75% of our business of the year happens between September and December!

Okay, now I’ll leave everything aside and talk about the serious stuff. Yes, we can eat as many chocolates as we want. So, if you don’t recognize me in the fall when school re-opens, don’t blame me. I am the victim here."

That's all for this week! We will take a week hiatus as next week is 4th of July weekend!! But be sure to check back in 2 weeks to learn more about what the Class of 2016 is doing this summer.

Good Guys Finish First?

by Matthew Lyman

Tarak Shah, RBS '12, shows us that getting exactly what you want out of an RBS MBA is 100% possible. Is it easy? No. Can MBA's learn something from him? Yes. The affable Tarak tells us what it took to get obtain a summer internship and full time offer from a Fortune 50 Company.

Quick Facts

• Born & raised in Chicago
• Undergrad: Northwestern (Engineering & Economics)
• Masters: UPenn (Bio-Tech)
• Work Experience: Automation Engineer at Merck, Scientist at Abbott Labs
• MBA: Rutgers Business School ‘12
• Selected to join the ECLDP (Experienced Commercial Leadership Development Program) at Johnson&Johnson

Why an MBA?

I really enjoyed the scientific track and enjoyed the work, but felt I could do more and make more of an impact in the commercial side of pharmaceuticals, and I saw that getting an MBA was necessary to cross over into the commercial side. Rutgers was a great fit because of its reputation in the industry, its placement record, and its location in the backyard of the industry.

Why J&J & ECLDP?

It was my target company, and my wife works there, and Johnson & Johnson believes in family values. It’s a global leader, with products, solutions, and devices that solve healthcare needs around the world. It has a wide range of career development opportunities and resources, and I saw that first hand with my wife: she’s gained diverse experiences in such a short time. The ECLDP is designed for MBAs to be placed within J&J’s operating company, Janssen, towards becoming future leaders there. It’s rotational across different business areas, and provides two 1-year rotations in these areas, followed by a return to Janssen Therapeutics in an in-line marketing (brand management) position.

What were some of the key highlights of your internship?

There were so many highlights that ranged from having a 1-on-1 with Janssen’s CFO to meeting HIV patients. From a personal perspective, my final presentation was a key highlight. I practiced so much for my presentation, and knew it was going to be a defining moment for my career. I had a lot of anxiety leading up to it, but after those 10 minutes were over, it felt great! I gave it my all this past summer (and then some), and this presentation and my project were well received. I am proud of that moment.

Can you describe the interview process? How was it (the interview) structured? Did it focus on behavioral questions?

The process is INTENSE. There is so much involved and so much you have to do. The second round was a multi day event with interviews, speakers, and networking, all a test to see if you were a good fit. You can’t let your guard down the entire time, you have to connect, be engaged, be likeable, and you’ve got to demonstrate to the J&J team that you are a future leader for their organization. The last day was for interviews, and my first interview of the day was with the President of Janssen. I was also interviewing for the Ortho Clinical Diagnostics CLDP internship at the same time, so I interviewed for two positions at once. Normal candidates have 3 interviews, and I had 5, all in one day! The interviews were mostly behavioral and there was a case study-workshop that was tied to an ethical issue.

Within your concentration, what class best prepared you for your summer position?

Brand management provided useful knowledge for the internship. Even though my project was in digital media, it brought in brand management elements: how to build brand association and portfolio recognition, engage with your stakeholders, and resonate with customers.

Outside of coursework, what prepared you for your summer position?

I did a lot of independent research, and it took a lot of personal initiative to reach out to those at J&J, and within that, those who were RBS alumni. I met with as many of them as I could and asked them how I could maximize my experience.

What was your attitude throughout the process?

Companies are envisioning future product managers – they want to see you embody elements that they want to see. You need to execute from Day 1. You need to do your job, but also perform at the other elements of the internship (networking, extra projects, etc). In a large company like J&J, there is so much going on, and you need to be involved and show that you can manage your time effectively and perform.

Checklist for to successfully obtain an MBA Internship

• Know the company & understand their business
• Know their products very well
• Know yourself; know how to leverage your strengths & weaknesses
• Get in touch as early as possible with people at the companies you want to work for
• Practice elevator pitch
• Practice behavioral questions, as most MBA interviews are of this nature; take the initiative to find web examples and practice answering them

How to NOT be invited back for a full time offer

• Be arrogant
• Arrive unprepared and aren’t ready to learn
• Not open to criticism/feedback
• Piss off your manager!
• Do not remain professional throughout the entire summer
• Assume you’ll get a full time offer (the internship is a 10 week interview not a guarantee)