Students Working with the GCMC: Internship Success
What has been one of the most important things you've learned at your internship?
Working at a tech startup can be daunting to those who don’t know what to expect. There is no snack bar, there are no happy hours, perks, and benefits that a big established company provides. However, a startup can provide invaluable experiences that build one's character. Qualities like self-discipline, passion, and instinctive strategic decisions are embodied into each employee. The day I started I was told that I shouldn’t think of myself as an intern. I was told to assume I was running the company and act/think accordingly. And for someone who intends on starting a company of his own, this experience was a goldmine. The most important thing I was taught was the value of “uninterrupted focus work.” We used to have 2-hour sprints where no one talked to each other. Each was given a problem or a task and was told to come up with a solution in those 120 minutes by any means possible. Sometimes it entailed scheduling, hosting meetings, and implementing software platforms. The goal of this exercise was to prove that any task is doable in 2-hours. Or one can make significant progress with focus. At the end of the period, we used to have an all-hands meeting and discuss the solutions. I wasn’t micro-managed, told what to do at each step, or even assigned tasks. After the first week of learning what the company is about, how it functions, I made my own to-do lists and ran them by the COO, Clem and started working on it during the focus work. This method has helped me in school and I will use it moving forward with every aspect of life. A task that I push away due to how scary it is seems less intimidating with this 2-hour method. I just tell myself that it will be over in 2 hours, and for the most part, I am either done with the task(s), or have made a lot of progress that I initially anticipated taking much longer.
How have you approached networking at your internship? Share any one specific example that has been impactful for you.
As a Bearcat since my first year in undergraduate school, Baruch has engraved the importance of networking. Having attended a dozen networking sessions, and speaking with recruiters during info sessions, career fairs, and coffee chats have taught me a lot more about how the job market works. It's no breaking news that 70%-80% of jobs are filled due to networking and referrals. In my experience, all my internships have been due to referrals from friends and colleagues. CLIP is located at Brooklyn Navy Yard, at Newlab, a company that has 200 tech startups focusing on sustainability and eco-friendly inventions, within the space. I happen to be the type to strike up a conversation with the unknown person sitting next to me and that is precisely what I did at CLIP. I was working and started conversing with a Newlab employee. After discussing our respective roles, he mentioned that I’d be great for a role of an Infrastructure Analyst that he has been looking to fill at Newlab. I sent him my resume after briefly talking about my qualifications and a week after that, I was offered the position. It's surprising what a 20-minute conversation did for me that hundreds of online applications failed to do. I love the Newlab space and had always wanted to work at a company with a similar work culture. I will be starting there this summer of 2022 and cannot wait to embark on this journey.
What has been your biggest contribution to your team at your internship? Why?
I have helped CLIP make crucial research regarding their target market and competitors. My team was very impressed with my research even before my interview. Using my experience as an SEO analyst, I was able to come up with a strategy to boost the organic ranking on Google. I presented this strategy during my interview and applied similar techniques during my time at CLIP.
After this experience, what would you like to learn next?
All my projects so far have been on an academic level and I am excited to leverage these skills out in the real world. I do well in the behavioral sections of the interviews but the technical rounds always seem like a big hurdle. I want to get my hands muddled with real, big data. I want to learn to use Python and R on a much higher scale and I believe my summer internship will help me do just that.
For students having a difficult time finding an internship, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
Research what skills the company that you are looking to apply needs. Every company is different and is looking for a niche skillset that you may have. Check the job description and their website. And one important insight, do not hesitate to be honest on your resume. We all exaggerate our accomplishments a little bit, but there is a sweet spot where you have the working knowledge of the tools and can grasp the concept easily. If you have skills on the resume that you cannot back up in your interview, the recruiter will know and it won’t look great. If you showcase that you are familiar with the concept and are willing to learn, the recruiters/ interviewers will view this as a sign of dedication and may give you a green light.
Connect with Rohan Manvatkar MS '23 on LinkedIn.
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