It Feels Good To Be On The Inside

I've been at my internship for about two weeks now and it's amazing how in less than a year, I've gone from being in the bottom ranks of a company all the way up to the top ranks of a company...and I'm only an intern! Before starting my MBA at Owen, I was working in biotech research where I pretty much felt like I was hundreds of levels away from the executive level of the companies I worked at. I hated that feeling and it's one of the reasons why I wanted to go back to school. Now two weeks into my internship I couldn't be happier about my decisions to get my MBA.

This summer I'm working in the business development group at Illumina and already in the first two weeks of my internship I've had one-on-one meetings with most of the senior management about the corporate strategy and what the company needs do to stay ahead of the competition. My project for the summer is to develop a screening tool management can use to better assess strategic opportunities. I've been talking to people in all departments to get input on what criteria should be in the screening tool. In talking to everyone, I've gotten much better insight into how the company plans to continue to grow and compete.  Just a year ago I was in a lab with no real idea of what was happening at the top of the company. Now after only finishing one year of my MBA, I've done a complete 180. For the first time I'm an insider!