Great expectations
Summer internships allow Kellogg students to put MBA lessons to the test
Editor’s note: At Kellogg, first-year students have the opportunity to take their future careers for a test drive on internships with top companies each summer. We surveyed a few students about their experiences this summer:
Name: Jordan Walker `13
Internship: Merchandising (Buyer) Intern, Target, Minneapolis, Minn.
Responsibilities: “The intern experience at Target consists of an internal consulting project and shadowing a buyer mentor to better understand the day-to-day role. My project was related to in-store merchandising strategy for the Decorative Home division.”
How I benefited from the experience: “Target offers a great deal of training, which really helps newcomers like me get up to speed in merchandising and retail. The practice of identifying a problem, analyzing applicable data and providing solutions — all while gaining buy-in throughout the organization — was a great opportunity.”
Name: Ryan Bunn `13
Internship: Associate, Anavo Global, New Delhi, India
Responsibilities: “I evaluated venture capital investments in social healthcare companies. In particular, I supported GloCare, an Anavo-backed telemedicine startup in Vijayawada, India, focused on increasing healthcare access for ‘bottom-of-the-pyramid’ individuals.”
How I benefited from the experience: “In addition to gaining exposure to the business landscape in a developing economy, I learned techniques to evaluate both the economic and social impact of potential investments. The experience of working in a start-up environment was incredibly valuable.”
Name: Ronald Jin `13
Internship: Investment Research Analyst, Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), Newport Beach, Calif.
Main responsibilities: “My role was to provide portfolio managers with single-name investment recommendations across the capital structure based on bottoms-up research.”
How I benefited from the experience: “I was challenged and pushed each day. It taught me that fundamental research on a company or industry involves incorporating every major topic taught in year one of business school.”
Name: Katie Utts `13
Internship: MBA Intern-Marketing Leadership Development Program, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Responsibilities: “As a member of the Global Marketing-New Product Development team, I worked closely with engineers from R&D and global partners to develop a marketing strategy for a new medical device.”
How I benefited from the experience: “My internship brought to life things I learned during my first year of classes. As someone coming from a different industry and function, I got an in-depth view of marketing in healthcare. My managers gave me a lot of ownership over my project and encouraged me to introduce new ideas to the team. There were multiple opportunities to network across teams and functions, including the executive level, in order to broaden my learning experience.”