Every day, there are numerous Zicklin grad students
interning in various companies throughout New York City. Each of them have
different experiences, learn new skills and come away with new ideas and goals from the work they do.
These Zicklin students shared with the GCMC their
thoughts on their fall 2018 internships:
- Yenaxika Bolate (MS Statistics '18), Data Scientist Intern at a data and insights communications agency
- Xinyue Chen (MS Accountancy '18), Financial Reporting Intern at a banking and financial services holding company
- Lingfeng He (MS Quantitative Methods and Modeling '19), Financial/Quantitative Analyst Intern at a global RegTech platform
- Meng Huang (MS Statistics '19), Supply Chain Finance Intern at a global CPG firm
- Jing Yan (MS Accountancy '18), Accounting Intern at an investment management firm
- Jing Zhu (MS Information System with Concentration in Data Analytics '19)
We asked each of them the same four questions, but their
answers were hardly the same.
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- Yenaxika Bolate (MS Statistics '18)
What has been one of the most important things you’ve
learned at your internship?
One of the most important things I've learned at my
current internship was effective communication. Prior to this internship, I
assume as many STEM majored students do, that communication was an easy thing
to do as long as you have solid technical skills. But then I realized
communication is actually an art, and good communication skills will not only
be beneficial to work but also to life. It requires strategy and lots of
practice.
How have you approached networking at your internship?
Share any one specific example that has been impactful for you.
I would say during my internship, the way I approached
networking is by being prepared and take opportunities to talk to people. For
example, there will be some in-company social events, or just generally when
people sit together during lunchtime, I would just talk to other colleagues and
get to know them better.
What has been the biggest contribution you have made to
your team at your internship? Why?
My biggest contribution would be applying a quantitative
problem-solving strategy to building out the company product. Our product is to
quantify cultural signals through news-article analysis, and I developed simple
but informative metrics in collaboration with my supervisor, and approached the
metrics through a mathematical structure.
After this experience, what would you like to learn next?
I hope to continue working at my current employer after
graduation. I like what I'm currently doing, and wish to gain more experience
in the data science field. There are still some interesting ideas that I'm
hoping to try out and apply.
For students having a difficult time finding an
internship, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
I would say that the most important thing is, make sure
to be good at what you have learned. Although networking and applying to jobs
are also very important, a solid and proper understanding of your professional
knowledge is one of the keys to a successful interview and to your work. Also,
be planned and strategic in terms of networking and job application instead of
being anxious.
- Xinyue Chen (MS Accountancy '18)
What has been one of the most important things you’ve
learned at your internship?
From this internship, I learned a lot from my colleagues.
My colleagues gave me an important tip that you should talk to as many people
as possible. The quickest way to adapt yourself to an environment and get
familiar with your daily tasks is to ask questions. You should feel free to ask
questions of your coworkers, supervisor, etc. Talking to them will give you at the
very least a broad view of your job and a sense of the contributions that you
can make to your team. Also, talking to people outside of your team will give
you an understanding of the industry you are working in and help you learn how
several teams coordinate to achieve a goal.
How have you networking at your internship? Share any one
specific example that has been impactful for you.
I think the easiest way to approach networking is to
attend some networking events. You get an opportunity to meet different
professionals and peers at events, which give you a chance to learn from
others. For me, in my current internship, I attended an event that gathered
managers from different departments together, where they shared their
management style and skills. During the event, I met our department manager and
she shared more with me about her experience in leading our team. I got a much
deeper understanding about our team and what my role was in it.
What has been the biggest contribution you have made to
your team at your internship? Why?
The biggest contribution I have made has been helping the
team build our fee database. Before I joined, we didn’t have our own fee database.
When we need to analyze our fee structure, we had to ask the billing department
for information or go to the file room to find contracts. It can be a cumbersome
process since the fee we are charge what contracts state can sometime not
always match. I spent several weeks talking to the billing and operation teams,
and finally built our database. It’s much more user friendly and easier for us
to do analysis for our fee structure, revenue, performance and so on.
After this experience, what would you like to learn next?
In my current internship, one part of my job is to
compare and report the difference with our actual revenue and what is planned.
One day I asked my supervisor where we got our planned revenue number and how
we calculate it. She told me they come from the financial department, but she
had no idea how it was calculated. Then I talked to a director in the finance
department and he introduced me to the procedures involved in planning,
budgeting and forecasting. I have become more interested in corporate finance
and would love to get into this area next.
For students having a difficult time finding an
internship, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
I think the most important thing is to keep motivated.
Getting a job is not always easy and sometimes your need a little bit of luck.
For me, I had two rounds of interviews for this internship and waited for more
than three months to get the offer. One of my school friends told me he used to
apply for more than 200 positions per month and send more than 20 follow-up emails
each day and finally he got a job at JPMorgan. Keep motivated and active in your
job search, and never lose heart from rejections and failures.
- Lingfeng He (MS Quantitative Methods and Modeling '19)
What has been one of the most important things you’ve
learned at your internship?
One of the most important things I've learned is that
building a professional image is important; especially if I want to work in
this company for the long term, or if I want a reference in the future. As
someone who works in a finance department, building an image of being detail
oriented and professional is important to me. Building an image of being good
at communication and leadership will also be helpful for potential promotions.
How have you approached networking at your internship?
Share any one specific example that has been impactful for you.
I've approached networking at my internship mostly with
my colleagues, including the ones working at the same department with me, as
well as people from other departments and companies. One example is the President
of our company, who used to work in investment banking and has many strong
skills. He joined the company not long ago and is very open-minded to talking
to employees. I got an opportunity to learn some Excel skills from him, as well
as some advice for my future career development.
What has been the biggest contribution you have made to
your team at your internship? Why?
The biggest contribution I think I've made is the idea of
developing a new report for reporting purposes. In the past, we have all the
information for the deals that our company participated in, but we've never
combined everything into one source that can be updated on a daily basis. We
have a development IT team, so I helped communicate with that team about the
logic for building the report, as well as communicated with people from other
companies who can provide us with the information we would need. We ended up
building a report which can be used internally as well as presented externally
that had the information we wanted.
After this experience, what would you like to learn next?
After this experience, there is a lot that I want to
learn. I want to gain more leadership skills by dealing more with people inside
and outside of the company. I would also like to get into a more professional
and well-developed team, so I would have more people to learn from. I would
also love to find the opportunity to combine more of what I've learned in
school to my daily work.
For students having a difficult time finding an
internship, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
There's always a way to find an internship as long as you
try. Even if you don't have enough of a network to get referred, don't give up
on searching online. And don't forget to get help from the career center. Talk
to people to get as much information as you need. The first step is always
difficult, but it’s possible.
- Meng Huang (MS Statistics '19)
What has been one of the most important things you’ve
learned at your internship?
One of the most important things I have learned has been
to keep a diligent and communicative attitude. There was one time I made a mistake,
which slowed down the efficiency of our work flow and my boss was really mad
initially. After she told me about the mistake, I apologized sincerely and sat
with her for four hours working on the issue. I also proposed a few ideas to
keep the problem from happening in the future. In the end she was relived, as
she saw that I was trying to make up for the mistake. We also made a clearer
structure of the problem.
How have you approached networking at your internship?
Share any one specific example that has been impactful for you.
Although my internship position is officially off-cycle,
I made a meaningful relationship with HR so that that they included me into the
Lunch and Learn Series with other interns from the summer program. During the
two months of the Lunch and Learn Series, I got to network and speak with
senior managers and directors from different departments, such as corporate
finance, financial accounting and North America. I even had an opportunity to
have sit-down lunches with the company CFO and COO. I have learned a lot about other
departments that I would never have known had I not initially connected and
networked with HR, and showed my interested in learning more about the company.
What has been the biggest contribution you have made to
your team at your internship? Why?
The biggest contribution I have made to the team is
reconciling accounting information for a newly launched product. So far we have
made sales since beginning of the year, and I have been in charge of reconciling
Accounts Receivables, Accounts Payables, and Inventory. Specifically, I communicated
with our partner companies and colleagues in different offices, identified
duplicate invoices or checks, and corrected inventory management mistakes. Such
activities allowed me to demonstrate my value the most, through thorough
examination of accounting book entries and inventory management for an actual
nuanced product sold worldwide.
After this experience, what would you like to learn next?
After this experience, I would really love to learn the
nuts and bolts of supply-chain finance. I had only obtained a degree in general
finance but nothing related to supply chain. However, this internship allowed
me to broaden my horizons in how networking capital is managed, including cash,
inventory, accounts receivables and accounts payables. It also involved
tracking and overseeing first-hand sales and shipping processes, which really
interested me and could be an area I would love to get into.
For students having a difficult time finding an
internship, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
I think the most important thing is to believe in
yourself, and understand that you are passionate in what you are pursuing for a
reason. Do not change yourself so that you can be suitable for a job considered
“hot” or “useful” by other people, unless you know for sure that is what you
are truly interested in. That being said, owning your hard work and owning your
flaws are equally important. Being confident about your strengths, and being
open about your weaknesses and working on them is always an appealing trait to
employers, and they will stand out in whichever industry or position that you
apply for.
- Jing Yan (MS Accountancy '18)
What has been one of the most important things you’ve
learned at your internship?
The most important thing I have learned at my internship
is to take initiative and get used to learning things by yourself. When I first
started my internship, I never used Tableau, which is the data virtualization
tool my firm uses to generate financial reports. The consultant who worked on
generating the financial reports was leaving within two weeks. He didn't have
much time to teach me how to use Tableau, but I needed to understand how he
created his reports before he left. Within two weeks, I took an online course
for Tableau after work. I looked into his reports, and wrote down all the
formulas he created so I could better understand the logistic behind them. By
doing so, I was able to replicate the dashboards he created so that I could run
them without any disruption to the team after he left.
How have you approached networking at your internship?
Share any one specific example that has been impactful for you.
I just started my internship two months ago, so I haven't
really started to networking with others. My manager first introduced me to all
of my colleagues so that I would be comfortable when I needed to reach out to
people. One example I can share is that our firm orders lunch for everyone, so
sometimes I just help other people pick up their lunch and chat with people to
build connections.
What has been the biggest contribution you have made to
your team at your internship? Why?
I think my biggest contribution to my team has been
helping my manager stay organized, especially when she has many things to do.
One of my team's jobs is to manage our vendors and services, so it's important
for us to organize our contract list and make sure none of them will be renewed
automatically. I helped my manager create a spreadsheet for all the contracts
with start date, renewal date, price, and cost allocation. I remind her
whenever we need to reach out to people for new paperwork. By doing so, I have helped
my team avoid the risk of spending unnecessary costs and ensure that we always
stay organized.
After this experience, what would you like to learn next?
I would like to learn more about data visualization and
analytics tools such as Tableau. I found that those data visualization tools
are widely used in financial reporting and analysis departments across
different industries, so it would be helpful to learn more about them if I want
to do financial reporting in the future. Being an international student, I also
believe enhancing technical skills is very helpful when applying for jobs. Even
after we start to work, being knowledgeable about those analytical tools can
help working more efficiently and effectively.
For students having a difficult time finding an
internship, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
I think starting with some volunteer work such as VITA so
you can put experience on your resume. Then they can start to apply for some
small accounting firms or corporations to get internship experience. In the
meantime, it can be helpful to improve Excel skills since they are one of the
most important skill sets for accountants. Once students have internship experience,
they can start to networking with professionals from big firms or corporations with
the hope of getting referred into a better internship or full-time job.
- Jing Zhu (MS Information System with Concentration in Data Analytics '19)
What has been one of the most important things you’ve
learned at your internship?
Always think how to add value and how to be an asset to
the company where you work. I took more responsibility than when I first
started it. I learned that employees (and interns) feel good when they have an
opportunity to take initiative and contribute to the team.
How have you approached networking at your internship?
Share any one specific example that has been impactful for you.
The research is the key to networking. When I apply for
jobs or receive an interview, I like to research on LinkedIn first. The search
on LinkedIn will let me know someone I’ve met or if someone is working in my
target firm. I will try to ask for a referral from people I know if it’s
appropriate. If I have no connection in that target firm, I will send cold
messages on LinkedIn. I tend to reach out to people that have something in
common with my background, such as having attended or is attending Baruch.
What has been the biggest contribution you have made to
your team at your internship? Why?
I took the initiative to take on more work. For instance,
I was not assigned on a particular project at first, but I was interested in
learning the logistic behind that particular project. Also, I discovered that
the colleague who was assigned the project had a full plate. I offered help on
it, and am taking ownership of that project now.
After this experience, what would you like to learn next?
My current experience is more of an accounting role. Next,
I would like to learn the financial analysis piece where my data analysis skill
can be applied.
For students having a difficult time finding an
internship, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
Never give up applying for jobs. Most people have been
through getting no response at all from many applications. Always prepare well
for an interview no matter how big or small the company is.
