Summer Internship Series: Francesca, Ike and Jen

This week we hear from Francesca Pat-Ekeji,  Ike Okose and Jen Abalajon, who are working in 3 of my favorite cities!!

Francesca is concentrating in Supply Chain Management and is based in Austin, TX this summer...

"This summer I’m interning at Dell in Austin, Texas. I’m working with the team that handles planning and strategy for global operations aptly titled ‘Global Ops. Planning & Strategy’. The first week was a boot camp of sorts followed by 2 weeks of shadowing different members of my team to learn the data, lingo and culture. I’m in the 3^rd week now and have spent most of my week interviewing different stakeholders invested in my project to make sure that I’m approaching my task from many different angles and synthesizing all that information to discover where the areas of opportunity are. The learning curve is steep because we deal with dynamic data and a lot of variables, however I’m taking it one day at a time and asking a lot of questions. Outside of my team and project, the networking has been great and that’s one of the things I really like about Dell.  Anyone is willing to sit for 30 minutes and talk to an intern and if you’re from a foreign country, there’s bound to be someone –or in my case like 25- here from your home country.

I live a 10-minute walk away from my office in round rock and the weather has been pretty nice so I’ve been walking to and from work. It’s quite sub-urban, which can mean long trips to the downtown area in search of fun and frivolity on the weekends. In terms of major summer plans, besides seeing as many musicians as I possibly can, I’d really like to drive up to San Antonio and explore for a day. I’m keeping my plans flexible though because the best plans tend to come together when you’re not fixated on them." 

Ike is a Finance student working in NYC...

"This summer, I am working in midtown Manhattan at AdvancePublications.  You may not know the company, but I’m sure you know some of their products.  Some of their products include GQ, VanityFair, Vogue, and Allure magazines, and some of you may also be familiar with reddit.com.  I am working as an intern in the finance group, and I will have the opportunity to work on projects in areas like Treasury, Financial Planning & Analysis, and Tax. 

I started at Advance Publications on June 8^th, so I’m relatively new here, but they have me working on a couple things while I get familiar with their reporting processes and systems.  One project I’m currently working on is analyzing our competitors, or benchmarking, to not only determine how well we are doing in our respective industries, but also to help determine targets to create a budget for 2016.  Another project they currently having me work on is trying to determine how much we should plan to spend on 401K expenses by month for next year based on 2014 and 2015 data.  These projects are very interesting and engaging, and I’m really starting to learn a lot here in such a short time. 

Though I’m just starting out here, I can tell I will learn a lot from this internship, and I’m excited to get to work on some of the tasks they will have me doing.  The short commute from my apartment in Hoboken is also very nice!"

Jen specializes in Marketing and is working in Princeton, NJ...

"This summer I’m doing the 10-week MBA marketing internship program at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, NJ.  Currently, BMS has a robust pipeline in the area of immuno-oncology, which uses drugs that work with your body’s own immune system to help fight cancer.  Not only is BMS a leader in this space, but these new advances in immunotherapy are truly revolutionizing the way cancer is treated, which is one reason why BMS is a very exciting place to be.  Another reason is a recent company-wide initiative to put the patient at the center of everything they do.  If you’ve ever taken Branning’s US Healthcare class, you would truly appreciate this.  Especially for patients fighting cancer, you can imagine how much of an impact a comprehensive patient support program could have, given the severity of condition, complexity of treatment and the emotionally tolling nature of the experience.  BMS wants to be there for the patient every step of the way and that’s why I’m spending my summer working with the digital marketing team to develop a patient CRM* platform for the immuno-oncology franchise.  

BMS functions as a matrix organization, so one of the biggest challenges of this project is gaining alignment on the concept of the program with seemingly disparate groups who have varying interests when you don’t have any formal power.  One employee likened it to herding cats.  Not to mention project managing several internal groups and external vendors to actually execute the program.  I’m seriously learning a ton and so far, I have fallen in love with marketing because there are just so many roles you can have, from digital to analytics to product management.  Marketing is certainly for big-picture people who can juggle many things (including personalities)!"

*CRM stands for customer relationship management and refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage, record and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the marketing lifecycle in order to drive sales growth by deepening and enriching relationships with their customer bases. (Definition taken from TechTarget)

Thanks for reading and see you same time next week! 

RBS Visits Russia - Spring Break 2015

During our Spring Break this past March, a group of Rutgers MBA students visited Russia as part of their Doing Business in Russia course. William Pollak, Full-time Class of 2015, is here to share his experience...

Students in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square in Moscow, Russia

27 Rutgers MBA students answered the call of Doing Business in Russia, an elective class that includes academic study of the Russian socioeconomic climate, as well as a 10-day trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg.  I was one of the 5 full-time RBS students who attended, along with 22 flex students and 3 faculty members.   Professors Jeff Robinson and Alex Settles, who teach Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility, and International Business at Rutgers, designed the trip’s itinerary, which included city tours, cultural attractions, and visits to businesses and startup incubators in Russia’s two most prominent cities.  We flew in to Moscow on March 12^th, and returned from St. Petersburg on March 22^nd, 2015. 

We spent our first days becoming acquainted with the historical and cultural sights in Moscow.  We toured the Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral and other landmarks, ate in restaurants suitable for royalty such as Turandot and Café Pushkin, and saw a ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre.  Moscow is a magnificent city that also has a night life to rival or surpass that of any major city in the world.  A night with more than 3 hours sleep was a rare occurrence on this trip.

Of immediate note was the importance of reading and speaking Russian.  English is not widely spoken in this city, and nearly all of the signs are written in Cyrillic.  Basic commerce is possible through hand gestures and a smile, though Muscovite retailers are less motivated than their American counterparts to engage with customers, particularly foreigners. 

After a few days of sightseeing, we visited the Higher School of Economics and listened to speakers from the Russian business world articulate their experiences doing business in Russia.  We also toured Startup October, an incubator connecting financiers with startup entrepreneurs, and learned about Moscow’s growing entrepreneurial culture.   Finally, we visited an industrial park which housed Oriflame, a Swedish cosmetics firm, as well as other tenants.  The industrial park generated its own power as opposed to connecting to the local power grid, which can be a prohibitively difficult task in Russia.  I was sad that Oriflame did not offer Swedish meatballs in their cafeteria.

An overnight train brought us to St. Petersburg on the 19^th.  St. Petersburg is the same latitude as Alaska, and has few sunny days throughout the year, though we were lucky enough to enjoy unseasonably warm weather.    We heard from consulate and state department officials who provided insider knowledge into how to protect our data and identity, as well as the secret, non-touristy spots to visit in St.  Petersburg.  We also spoke at length with business leaders such as the CEO of Subway in Russia, and a software developer for Oracle.  At night, we saw the Jenufa opera at the fabulous Mariinsky theatre.  I’m glad I packed my tuxedo.

Our last day in Russia did not disappoint.  We took a tour of the Hermitage, a palace converted into one of the largest museums of art in the world.  We saw original artwork by all of the masters, and took hundreds of pictures of paintings and sculptures.  No amount of time seems sufficient to soak in all of the art at the Hermitage.  For lunch, we followed the state department employee’s advice and found a secret Indian restaurant in the heart of St. Petersburg modeled after a prohibition-era speakeasy.  The entrance was located behind a secret passage in a bookstore, and inside they served cocktails made up of their own special blends of alcohol.  This was the best meal I ate in Russia, even though Beef Stroganoff was not involved. 

It is truly hard to capture in words how rewarding this trip was.  We explored two of the greatest cities in one of the largest and most misunderstood nations in the world.   We also experienced Russian academic and business culture, and learned about the similarities and differences which make Russia an intriguing but challenging place to do business.  I hope to go back again soon.

Visiting the Oriflame Distribution Center in Moscow

Enjoying the sights in St. Petersburg

Attending the Hamlet Ballet at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow

William at the World War II Museum in Moscow

William Pollak is finishing up his 2nd year in the full-time RBS MBA program. He is a fellow of the Rutgers Center for Supply Chain Management and former treasurer of the Student Government Association. After graduation, he will begin his career in Inventory Control Strategy with Dell in Austin, Texas. 

Alumni Wisdom

By Barak Epstein, MBA '12

After graduating last spring and moving my family down to Texas, I'd like to drop in to share a couple of words of Alumni Wisdom.

1) Support the students in the year after you.  They will become the future of the program.

Several years ago, a student from the Class of 2010 shared a Dell contact (himself a 2003 EMBA alum) with a Class of 2011 student.  That discussion led to the hiring of two Class of 2012 interns last year.  Those two interns were both hired by Dell and worked to strengthen the relationship.  This past summer, four students from the Class of 2013 were hired as interns and did fabulous work.

Needless to say, I am proud of the Dell-Rutgers relationship.  The larger point is that the selfless work of forward-looking students and alums has led to a strong relationship where none existed before.  Please consider doing your part to add to the RBS legacy while you are in school.

2) Rutgers continues to make a name for itself in the world of Supply Chain Management: This past week, I had the opportunity to speak on a panel at the Council for Supply Chain Management's Global Conference.  Professor Dale Rogers was also featured in a talk about reverse supply chain logistics in Brazil.  During my talk, I had the opportunity to reference Rutgers' #3 ranking in SCM (as determined by Gartner Research).  Professor Klock, who was in the audience, also shared some of Rutgers' recent successes.  Our school accordingly was called out by a VP on the panel as a specific example of a strong academic program.

There are good things happening for the RBS brand in a number of areas and venues. Every little step counts towards making our name more visible and our school better connected, and our students and graduates more successful.

Gearing Up For a Summer in Austin with Dell

By Jennifer Du

This summer, four interns and two full-time hires will be headed to Dell to begin a new path in our careers. I'm lucky and proud to be one of those going. The six of us met up for lunch this week at Rutgers' local spot Martini 494, so that the 2nd years could share their experiences and answer all the questions we curious and eager 1st years had, like: "Does it really get THAT hot there?" "How's the Mexican food?"

We aim to strengthen and continue the great relationship RBS has with Dell and it's awesome to have such support from our predecessors. I've noticed it's one of the great qualities of Rutgers and of having smaller class sizes. It's always easy to reach out to 2nd years who were in our shoes last year but moreover, they are always excited to help.

Austin here we come!

The Usual Suspects (from left to right): Barak Epstein (2nd year),

Jennifer Meekel, Jonas StoeckerJennifer Du (me!), Ling Lan and Zona Chen (2nd year)