by  Yujie Sun (MS Statistics ’19) Finding an appropriate internship opportunity is hard for students. During my journey in finding an internship, many resources at the school were useful. Tools for Clear Speech helped me improve my English, and the GCMC Advisors helped me modify my resume and urged me to take steps that would help me get where I want to go. Attending the Graduate Internship Course Networking Sessions also helped me learn about internship opportunities from other students. Eventually, I got my internship opportunity by applying on Zicklin CareerLink. The company where I interned, Tal Solutions , is a FinTech company that provides insights to financial-services clients. My job is as a Data Scientist, not as an Investment Analyst. Therefore, it’s possible to be a Data Scientist in the finance industry even though you do not have a background in finance. My daily responsibilities are to train and tune machine learning models, analyze data provided by clients, a...

by Shokolatte Tachikawa (MBA ’20) I am a nontraditional MBA student with mid-career experience prior to my undergrad at CUNY Medgar Evers College. I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Finance and Economics from Medgar Evers in January 2018 and came straight to study at Zicklin School of Business from June in the same year. Before college, I had worked mostly in finance companies such as Citibank, Merrill Lynch, and Bloomberg having only a high school diploma. My plan when I started undergrad was to go back to those finance companies because I was familiar with the corporate culture. I enjoyed studying finance and wanted to continue, but then I decided to pursue my MBA. I actually never thought I would every attend grad school in my lifetime. When I started my studies at Zicklin, my goal was still to go back to where I used to be but with an MBA degree. However, in my second semester, I realized that the MBA is not just about learning management or counting money. I met great ...

Now that on-campus recruiting season has winded down, I have been debriefing with students about their interview experience. As graduate students, many are looking to make a career change, and for some, this is their first time interviewing in the US. The one topic that keeps popping up as an area of development is questions candidates have for the interviewer. Here are some common questions that students have asked interviewers and my suggestions on how to make them better. Question 1: What are the day-to-day duties of the position? Oof. Why don't I like this question? Because you should know what those are already! A way to make this question better is to rephrase it. Say something like, "Based on my understanding of the job description, I would be working on X and Y. Can you tell me more about X and/or are there other important projects coming up that are not listed in the job description?" Question 2: Can you describe the company culture? I am sure either you ...

By Anna Baturina MBA ’21 Concentration in Finance Long before I became an MBA student, I had been curious about how companies raise capital, especially through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). What constitutes a successful valuation that helps to identify the right price point? Having pondered these questions for some time, I was eager to take part in a site visit to Nasdaq in August that was organized by the Graduate Career Management Center. Zicklin Site Visit to Nasdaq I imagined Nasdaq to be a typical Wall Street firm that comes with a grueling work schedule, enforces a strict dress code, and provides little room for its employees to find their voice or make an impact within the organization. What I learned from the experience was that my preconceived notions were totally wrong. When you think of Nasdaq, you might think of all the companies listed on its stock exchange, such as Microsoft, Apple and Netflix. But Nasdaq is more than simply a stock exchange. Helping many t...

by Alexandria Bottiglieri MBA '21 Concentration Analytics and Quantitative Modeling As a graduate student studying analytics and quantitative modeling, I am continuously fascinated by the ways in which data is utilized to help organizations make strategic business decisions. Meeting the modeling team at Neustar on a site visit with other Zicklin students in August offered more insight into how data is used within the business sector, and how companies can leverage data in myriad ways. Coming from a technology background myself, I was excited to learn more about what professionals are doing within this field, since it's where I will be in the future. Zicklin Site Visit to Neustar I am pursuing a graduate degree in business analytics to learn the ways in which corporations use quantified data in order to better serve and understand the needs of consumers. My career goals include utilizing scientific processes to help streamline business operations and create product i...

Hiring managers talk all the time that they want “curious” people on their teams. If you even Google “importance of curiosity,” you’ll get pages of results from places like Harvard, videos of thought-leaders like Bill Gates, and articles from psychology blogs about why it’s important for individuals to “be curiosity.” Many of us have a sense of what “having curiosity” means, but what is curiosity and how can you make sure you are and stay curious? In this episode, we speak with Zicklin alumna Elyse Kane (MBA ’87), who was most recently Vice President, Insights and Analytics, North America at Colgate Palmolive. With a professional background in consumer research as well as experimental psychology, Elyse discusses curiosity with us, including: Why hiring managers want curious people on their teams Why it is so important to be curious – both for you personally and for your teams at work How curiosity is tied to making the world a better place Ways you can flex and main...

By Tanuja Ramchal It’s reported that 85% of job openings are filled through referral. This means your network is a critical factor when it comes to advancing your career. Yet, for so many job seekers, networking is one of the scariest aspects of the career process. Why does it induce such fear? From my experience, it boils down to how networking has traditionally been viewed from a career perspective - to schmooze when you need a job. This approach treats other human beings as a means to an end, a way to gain favor. And since for most people it feels icky to use others for their own gain, they resist networking. If this is networking, I would rather mindlessly watch Netflix than interact with others too. Fortunately, it’s not. You see, the reason networking is emphasized ad nauseam is because statistics prove that most jobs come through a person's network. What many overlook, though, is that the contacts through which these jobs came in most instances were not p...