CMC
'Success Workshops' offer practical advice for interns
From
the basics of business communication to the particulars of
PowerPoint, a good prospective student intern knows to be
prepared for anything. But exactly what constitutes "anything?"
What catches new interns off guard? More importantly, what
can the Kellogg School do to help prepare them to excel and
meet such challenges?
During
the summer of 2005, Professor Robert
Korajczyk, then senior associate dean, and Assistant Deans
Michele Rogers and Roxanne Hori ventured across
departmental (and state) lines in search of answers to these
questions. First, they identified a number of students with
summer internships in a variety of industries around the United
States. Then, after giving the students a six-week head start,
the three deans — respectively representing the Office
of the Dean, the Department of Student Affairs and the Career
Management Center — traveled to Seattle, San Francisco,
Chicago, New York and Minneapolis, where they discussed the
students' challenges and successes over lunch.
Hori
says the CMC's decision to speak with students halfway through
their internships rather than at the very end was a strategic
one. After six weeks with a firm, students have had a chance
to become comfortable in their positions, but they are still
new enough to "know what they didn't know" as beginners
and to give helpful advice to students just starting out.
And since the possibility of a full-time job offer is still
a bit abstract, Hori adds, students are more likely to speak
candidly.
Using
the knowledge gleaned from these roundtables, the CMC developed
"Success Workshops for Summer Interns," a series
that offered specific, practical advice for this year's interning
class on how to manage everything from large data sets to
elusive managers. Rogers said the students also expressed
interest in learning to use research resources such as the
Bloomberg database and the Northwestern University library
more effectively, prompting the workshop "Resources Only
a Student Could Love." — AH
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