One Intern: Informed and Insecure

As she starts her summer internship in banking, this first-year MBA finds that, despite her worries, she knows a lot

by Rachael Klein

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Rachael Klein
Georgetown
MBA Class of 2008

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I finished my last final on May 11. My head was an unspeakable scramble of management accounting, advanced corporate finance, unwritten e-mails, public policy, international business and the effects of trade, the layout of New York City, and the related concept that despite the fact that the Bronx and Brooklyn are in New York City, when people say "The City," they mean Manhattan.

Nevertheless, I had a few things I needed to do before I collapsed on my bed for an extended 20-hour nap, including planning and executing the 300-person spring barbecue, finding a sublet to live in for three months, getting all my forms and pre-employment screenings in order for my internship, and calling my mother on Mother's Day. But my internship is extremely important to me, as is earning a job offer at the end of the summer. So, I sat down, pushed all that stuff out of my head, and thought over my school year. I needed to make sure I could remember at least one thing from the year that I could take with me to add value in my internship as a first-year MBA.

So I thought. And thought. And thought and thought and thought. And out came nothing. I was completely and utterly burnt out. All I could think about was picking up an easy page-turner and reading about Jack Reacher's mission to rescue his fellow special investigators who had uncovered some bizarre unpatriotic plot that I didn't even entirely register.

Look at Me Now

I was disappointed. Did I learn anything this year? Why can I only traipse mindlessly through bookstores, too tired to even read the birthday cards?

By May 15 I was sitting at a dinner table with my family, nuclear in the atomic sense, made up of people with strong opinions who love to talk about stocks and the market, JFK, and my career prospects. Historically, this would have been a conversation that, though interesting, did not leave many openings for me to add value. Stocks? Dunno, but they're interesting. The market? It's exciting. Career aspirations? Can we please discuss something else?

But this time we were just chatting and the next thing I know I'm discussing JetBlue's (JBLU) business model and David Neeleman's genuine philosophy on customer service despite this year's earlier disaster. "He's brilliant," I say with my nose in the air, "I know, because I listened to him speak to an audience of about 50 people."

After that our discussion hits on whether Southwest (LUV) will be able to sustain its successful corporate culture as it expands, and I realize I started it. "Where is JFK in all this?" I ask myself. No one even mentions him. They are asking me what other cases we worked on in school.

A Specialized Knowledge

Later on I find myself arguing with my mother about the importance of incentive in ensuring productivity, then explaining to my grandfather why private banking is different from having a stockbroker. After I explain it and why I want to do it, I see a smile spread across the face of a 92-year-old man. He's proud of me.

And all through this it dawns on me: "Wait a minute," I think to myself. "I am informed. In a few (and I mean a very few) cases, I am informed, more so than my PhD mother, MD father, and CPA grandfather. I know more about (a very few) certain things now than they do. I am pursuing information in a field that is beyond informed common knowledge."