Smith MBAs Make a Global Impact with Internships

his fall, second-year full-time MBA students at the Robert H. Smith School of Business returned to campus after a summer of making recommendations and presentations to C-level executives and delivering value while leveraging the skills and knowledge they developed over the previous year.

Given the economic crisis that changed the face of Wall Street and caused serious financial pain for most businesses, internships were initially hard to come by. But the Smith School committed itself to finding or creating summer internships that would help MBA students build the foundation of their careers. On-campus opportunities across various functions helped close the gap for some students, and most were also able to find internships off-campus—many with top firms, and some of them doing the kind of work they had only dreamed of.

As students returned to campus, stories of the exciting work they did over summer 2009 are abound. This summer, the students worked with firms such as Marvel, Discovery, Intel, GE, Activision Blizzard (producer of games like Guitar Hero and the World of Warcraft!), MedImmune, Time Inc., PBS, Hershey's, Volkswagen, and many more. The noteworthy part in these internships being that many of these internships were out of the league of the conventional finance, consulting, or marketing roles, spreading across domains, and required creativity and innovation in addition to the application of core business knowledge and skills.

Adam Hack, who interned with Activision Blizzard, Inc. in Santa Monica, California, was responsible for researching the historical performance of a $1 billion franchise that will be released in 2010. Additionally, his project included detailing a digital engagement plan for activating the franchises and reaching out to new markets to expand the client base. He was also charged with publishing a Web site engagement strategy and creating a fully functional web presence in 10 weeks. Hack, who had a choice of internships and chose Activision, said “I like working in a constantly changing and evolving environment, so the entertainment industry really fits my personality style. In addition, I grew up playing video games and have been a fan of Activision’s portfolio. The chance to work with the products I have admired for so long was an opportunity I could not pass,” he added. About his experience at the firm, Hack said, “The corporate culture was fantastic. The company is very entrepreneurial and really values creative thought. This was a wonderful fit with my personality and skill set.” 

Ross Dodd, who worked for the Moisture Control Services (MCS) division at the German headquarters of Munters in Hamburg, chose his internship because it provided him the opportunity to take ownership for a project, lead others in the organization, and deliver results to the customer that brought them great, and even unexpected, value. Dodd travelled to nine different German cities, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, and Galway, over the summer and his work consisted of performing a job analysis study on three different management positions, conducting gap analysis to determine the development needs of the managers, and designing a development plan for each manager based on the organization's and the managers' needs. On being asked about how his MBA curriculum helped him in his role, Dodd said, “The MBA actually helped me the most in the soft skills I needed during the project. I noticed that since the beginning of my degree, I have become more aware of the people I work with and understand what drives them to succeed on projects. I have also become much more self-aware so I can better monitor my behavior and be sure I act appropriately to different situations.”

Lauren DeStefano, had a good time too, at the Folsom, California’s campus of Intel Corporation. DeStefano, who worked within Intel’s Operations Finance division, excitedly said, “The neat thing about Intel internships is that they are testing you on two levels -– one trying to discern your actual intellect and capacity for addressing business problems, and the other is from a project management side. Intel wanted to see how I approached an issue that others had taken a stab at before, that too with a very few resources at my disposal. Specifically, I had the summer to address a forecasting issue within one of the company’s business units. My challenge was to identify the source(s) of volatility within the forecasting model and to facilitate a manner for addressing them accordingly,” she said. About being able to translate her studies to her work, DeStefano said, “My project required me to look for atypical solutions outside of the traditional finance sphere. I ended up using quite a bit of theory imparted from the operational finance class, which ended up playing an integral role in my solution. In addition, I think that my earlier participation in social venture consulting and case competitions really afforded practical and applicable project management and strategic frameworks.”

Timothy Lewis, who interned at the world headquarters of Discovery Communications, the company that owns and operates the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, etc., worked in the creative marketing division (print, on-air etc.) for the TLC Network. About his experience, Lewis said, “Because I was the only MBA in an office of very creative people, I chose to take on an analytical project, in which I measured the effectiveness of various features in the network's advertising spots. It was, for me, a perfect blend of creative engagement and analytical thinking.” Lewis enjoyed his work at Discovery and had this to say about the company: “Discovery has talented and professional people, who are driven to perform and develop their careers, but there is still a sense of excitement about the products (shows) that they produce. The people love their jobs, and it shows. In addition, the company is dedicated to rewarding hard work. In the few months I was there, I went to many company-wide parties: an afternoon concert on the rooftop, a visit from a real lion, a crab-themed event for DEADLIEST CATCH, and several others. Discovery is a great mix of relentless work and extreme fun.” 

Scott Lewis spent his summer working in the Global Strategic Marketing group at MedImmune Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca, a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry. Over the course of the summer, Lewis completed two major projects for the Oncology Team. Lewis had this to say about his work: “The projects were particularly interesting because they blended my knowledge and skills from working in biopharmaceutical research prior to business school with my first-year MBA curriculum. I was able to digest detailed scientific market research reports and apply that information to a report on global pharmaceutical pricing and access schemes and a database of key competitor benchmarking data.” Lewis, who was able to witness first-hand, the impact a small group of high performers on a billion-dollar corporation, knew this would be a fast-paced environment but found the group budgeting time for team building and fun as well. Narrating one of the instances, he said, “One of my favorite experiences was my first time 'behind the glass' collecting primary market research on a drug in clinical development. Sitting behind one-way glass and listening to industry experts lay out the good, the bad and the ugly of current treatment regimens, was a completely new experience. My internship with MedImmune was an excellent opportunity to prepare for a post-MBA career in biopharmaceutical strategic marketing or business development,” he added. 

Damon Patrick spent this summer working in the central office of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) as an education pioneer. Education pioneers take graduate students and place them in urban, high-need school districts, while training them to be leaders in the education industry. "My primary project focused on the equitable distribution of budgetary resources throughout DCPS. I was able to identify and quantify resource inefficiencies on an individual school level. I also worked on recruiting and reviewing potential master educators, a human capital project in which award-winning teachers are hired to review the practices of DCPS teachers, ensuring quality teaching for district students. I had a wonderful experience not only working in the school system, but learning about the challenges that face urban districts nationwide. I fully encourage my colleagues to look into working in education, and specifically Education Pioneers. It was a special, defining experience!"

There are many other similar stories about the great work the students did over the summer for their internship, and every one of them have their own set of subjects they learned or skills they developed in the first year that they were able to leverage in challenging and exciting real time business issues. Being able to create value for the firms by delivering results with high impacts within a short duration of time, utilizing not only their analytical skills and business knowledge but thinking creatively, the Smith MBA’s have what it takes to lead organizations in uncertainty, and in a responsible manner.

Siddhartha Jain - Smith Media Group, MBA Candidate 2010