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DECEMBER 2003 MBA JOURNAL: SUMMER INTERNSHIP Valerie Frazee: Learning in the Real World Classroom "Probably the No. 1 career benefit I experienced over the summer was having the time to let my mind unwind some of the ideas I was exposed to last year, so I could learn to apply them to entrepreneurial opportunity recognition." Prof. Mark Young drew this on the board for us in accounting last year. Here's what I took from that discussion: When you find yourself living in the Like Doing/Strong Skills world, you are in the flow, and enough passion and energy to move mountains courses through you. Dislike Doing/Weak Skills is sort of the antithesis (you're lucky to get out of bed in the morning). And many people operate (a little aimlessly) in one of the other two. If I remember right, Dr. Young suggested the easiest way to move your career into the Like/Strong box, is to build skills, land in Dislike/Strong, gain respect and momentum, and then transition over. What does that have to do with my summer break? My summer was a re-emergence into Like/Strong that was refreshing and exhilarating. I've been lucky in my career. I've had more than one job I couldn't wait to get to in the morning. My last one before B-school was that way. Though the work was demanding, I had never been more in the flow. Immersed in projects, I lost hours that felt like minutes. Many of my favorite people worked right next to me. And I rarely wished for more downtime, because work was play. After finding that again this summer, I'm beginning to think it's not hard to replicate the experience. Maybe all it takes is a little focus and a commitment to choosing things I like and am good at. How simple is that? SUMMER PROJECTS. Last year I opted out of the corporate internship interview process. My goal was to find a position that would relate more specifically to my entrepreneurial aspirations. I wanted to work with a business in the start-up stage, observing and participating in big-picture activities. After chasing several opportunities, I ended up with paid projects for three small privately held entrepreneurial ventures. As a person who prefers variety, this suited me just fine. The projects included: - RW3: This startup e-learning company provides online culture training solutions to multinational organizations sending expatriates and business travelers overseas. I worked as a project manager for a new product. This involved marketing strategy as well as production work. I had frequent access to the senior executives and participated in many brainstorming sessions about how to accomplish ambitious goals with limited resources. I'm continuing the experience this semester by developing an integrated service management plan for RW3 as a class project. - American Business Visions: This consulting firm helps financial advisors expand their businesses through marketing strategy and process redesign. The company delivers training through seminars, coaching, and published materials. The founder is working on some ideas for a startup venture. I helped him with his business plan. That's about all I can say about this project (the rest is covered by a non-disclosure agreement). - MarketingProfs.com: This is an online community of roughly 100,000 marketing professors and professionals. Prof. Allen Weiss here at USC launched it a few years ago. This project related directly to my personal infatuation with Web communities and online content, in general. After participating in some business-building brainstorming sessions, we settled on the idea of testing a new interactive feature on the site using blog technology. This project developed into an ongoing opportunity. I'm working with Dr. Weiss now on plans to roll out another new community feature in January. All three were challenging, fun experiences. But they aren't the kind of thing you want to hear about, if you're interested in working for a well-established company. So be sure to read Jeff's account of his summer at Nestle, if that's more in line with your goals. IMPACT ON THE FUTURE. My internship-hunting activities last spring also generated some momentum that's just now beginning to hit. I've received five project offers since school started. As I get clearer about what I'm looking for, I expect this to happen more and more. As a result, I'm thinking I may do independent consulting work when I graduate, if I haven't nailed down my startup business concept yet. Of course, my mind still floats back to what my classmates are doing. But freelancing feels like a more satisfying contingency plan for me than a corporate job. The truth is my internship projects were not a lot different from the kind of work I was doing before school. But the difference was I approached the tasks with more of a well-rounded point of view, and I was able to make a more valuable contribution as a result. Probably the No. 1 career benefit I experienced over the summer was having the time to let my mind unwind some of the ideas I was exposed to last year, so I could learn to apply them to entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. I discovered that brainstorming lists of new business ideas really is something that gets easier with practice (like exercising any creative muscle). I found that one informational interview can lead to three or four ideas. So can one copy of the local newspaper... or one, two-hour block of time for quiet reflection. I carried around (and still do) a little blue composition book. Whenever something sparked an idea, I developed the habit of writing it down. Now I'm working on assessing these ideas. It's certainly more difficult to find the time during school, but it helps that I'm ignoring the corporate recruiting process. There's not a lot of time before May. I have an awful lot of ducks to line up between now and then. After 15 classes in the first year and then a summer of working again, one thought rings clear: Work is where I'm at my best. I wouldn't trade these two years for anything, but I can hardly wait to work again when I graduate--whatever and wherever work turns out to be. Until next time... FIGHT ON! - Val  
BW MALL
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