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Summer Internship | Student Spotlight: Charlie Adkins

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Summer Internship | Student Spotlight: Charlie Adkins

Unknown-1Where did you work and what was your title and department?

This summer, I interned with the NFL in the User Acquisition department. The department is part of the Digital Media group, and our products include Game Pass – an international subscription product featuring live games – fantasy football, and other digital subscription products. The head of my business unit was a BHP alum, which I did not know before starting there. Once we learned of each other, we were able to immediately connect on a more personal level, due to our BHP connection.

 What did you expect to gain from your internship this past summer?

I expected to gain an understanding of how various departments all work together for league-wide success. I wanted to see how football operations interacted with digital media, accounting, sponsorship, legal, and all of the other departments around the league. Each piece is crucial to the success of the NFL and its 32 clubs, and I wanted to understand how the league operates. Additionally, I wanted to learn and develop a new skill set in digital media, as it was an area that I had never been fully exposed to.

Did the internship meet or supersede your expectations? How?

My internship definitely exceeded my expectations. While I aimed to learn as much as possible at the league level, I gained a broader understanding in many different functional skill sets in digital, marketing, and branding. I had never worked in a digital media role before, and I was challenged with a new task each and every day.

Each week the interns interacted with a different department through presentations that showed insight into various pieces of the business and how they fit together to form the NFL and serve the 32 clubs for the ultimate benefit of the fan. My department constantly worked with other teams, so I was able to gain insights from other departments into how and why they perform the functions that they do.

Tell me about an interesting encounter you had during your internship.

During my internship, I took advantage of many external opportunities and events, which I would highly recommend regardless of your interests. As someone who intends to enter the sports industry post-graduation, I attended various sporting events during my time off of work. I visited Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Camden Yards, and Citizens Bank Ballpark. At each stadium, I walked around to experience the different features of the ballpark, and I paid close attention to the little things – ballpark layout, game presentation, sponsorship activation, concession options, and many others.

While I was not “working” at that time, I was adding to my knowledge base within the industry and will be able to share my takeaways from each in the future. As a sports fan, I attended the Belmont Stakes and witnessed American Pharoah win the first Triple Crown in the last 37 years, which was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

 Sharing that moment with 90,000 screaming sports fans to root American Pharoah to the finish line is something that I have never experienced before and will never forget. Additionally, I witnessed Alex Rodriguez’s 3000th career hit, a feat that has only occurred 29 times in MLB history.

 

Ultimately, the important piece is to truly utilize all of the resources and opportunities that are around you during the internship – both on the clock and off.

What did you learn about yourself that you did not know before?

I learned how much I enjoy strategy and understanding why things are done a certain way. I like to set (or help to set) the vision and strategy for an organization, department, or product. Then, I like to put the vision into practice and execute it. I am very curious and always seeking to learn something new, and that did not change during my internship. I asked questions and read frequently to better understand the landscape and why we did things a certain way. I searched for opportunities to provide a better product for our fans, both domestically and internationally.

What did you contribute to the company?

During my time at the NFL, I worked on a variety of different projects. My workload changed daily as new projects came on board. I developed new recruiting materials, created tracking links for our affiliate program, and provided growth opportunities in international markets. I wrote a sizzle reel commercial to communicate product value and grow the reach of the NFL internationally. I worked on our marketing plans for this season and consolidated research on our fans in core international markets. In short, I worked on a variety of different projects and brought my perspective to the table in every discussion.

What advice do you have for other students who are recruiting for internships?

Make sure to take advantage of the opportunity that you have been given. Take the time to get to know others on your team, as well as from other departments that seem interesting to you. One of my favorite parts of my internship was the opportunity to interact with others around the league, as I enjoy learning from other people’s experiences. Others in the office are willing and eager to talk to you, especially when you take the initiative to reach out to them in a respectful way. Look for new opportunities for your team and provide a new perspective to the group, as you never know where it could lead.

Summer Internship | Student Spotlight: Bethany Rolan

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Summer Internship | Student Spotlight: Bethany Rolan

Bethany RolanCompany: FIAT (FCA)

Position: Analyst – Resin Strategy Team
Chemicals Purchasing Department
Auburn Hills, Michigan

What did you expect to gain from your summer internship?

My goal for this internship was to get a taste for what a Supply Chain Management job really looked like in the “real world.” I hoped to gain analytical skills and have access to a global supply chain. I also wanted to work outside of Texas and get experience living in another state.

Did it meet or supersede your expectations? 

This internship definitely met my expectations. I gained a lot of insight into what my day-to-day life could look like working in a Supply-Chain-related role after graduation. One of the best things about FCA is that it is an incredibly open company. Almost everyone working for FCA in the US (with the exception of those working at the manufacturing plants) works in one giant HQ building. That means that everyone from legal to finance to design and everything in between, are all in one place. As an intern, I was given a lot of exposure to other departments and I was allowed to shadowBethany Rolan 3 or meet with anyone I wanted. I was also included in several high-level and cross-functional meetings, so I got exposure to several different roles.

Share an interesting encounter you had during your internship.

As part of the direct purchasing department, part of my job included visits to suppliers. This was one of my favorite things to do because I got to drive all around the state of Michigan and see the car parts actually being made. A few weeks into my internship, I was invited to visit a supplier with the engineering team. Since the visit was not primarily about a purchasing issue, I was the only person in the meeting from the Resin Team. To everyone’s surprise, one of the executives from the supplier starting asking about the Resin Program, something no one else was very familiar with.

Unexpectedly, I got to speak in the meeting and answer questions. It was really cool that I was trusted to speak to clients after just a few weeks as an intern, but it also boosted my confidence since I proved to myself that I could accurately articulate what I had learned about the Resin Program.

What did you learn about yourself that you did not know before?

Being in a work environment for 40+ hours every week taught me countless lessons about myself. I think the most important lessons have been about the kind of work I enjoy doing and how I prefer to do that work. I  learned that I really enjoy project-oriented work, where I can see something from beginning to end. I really found myself craving work that I felt would affect how the company did things, not what they did. I also learned that I like to talk through things with others, instead of sitting alone in a cubicle. Knowing more about in what type of environments I work most productively and what type of work I enjoy most helped me to give feedback to my supervisors which helped them place me on projects that were more and more exciting for me as the summer progressed.

What did you contribute to the company?

One thing that I identified as I was learning about the resin buying strategy was how segmented the Resin Team was from the rest of the purchasing department. Bethany Rolan 5There was a definite lack of understanding about how resin should affect and was affecting all of the other commodities. I started setting up meetings with other groups to better understand how resin fit into the larger picture and using the information I gathered to create training documents. I presented to individual departments in the hope of creating more cross-functional alignment so that everyone can both support and benefit from the overarching resin strategy.

Alumni Spotlight: Tera Highbarger Hogan, Class of 2004

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Alumni Spotlight: Tera Highbarger Hogan, Class of 2004

TeraTera Highbarger Hogan, BHP 2004, is the incoming chair of the BHP Advisory Board. Tera is currently a Staffing/Recruiting Manager for Google, based out of their Austin office. Before joining Google, Tera was a management consultant at Accenture for many years and worked for Novotus, both in the area of program management.

Why did you decide to get involved through serving on the BHP Advisory Board and do you have any goals for your time as chair of the advisory board?

I really enjoyed my time in BHP and valued the programs that BHP offered. As an alum I want to be a part of making sure our great base of alumni is doing what it can to support the program. During my term, I will look for ways that alumni can provide more support and help to the program and how we can raise the profile of the program nationally. I would love to see more out-of-state applicants and more diversity of in-state applicants.

You had many roles at Accenture and stayed there for eight years. What did you most enjoy about working for Accenture and how did you develop professionally during that time?

What I enjoyed most about my time at Accenture was getting to see a variety of types of work and clients. I was exposed to a breadth and depth of businesses early on in my career. I was also fortunate to have a lot of client relationships at senior levels, especially considering how early I was in my career. Each project was different than the one before. I had to come in and learn a new area, identify what the clients’ needs were and be able to deliver on those. Throughout my experience at Accenture, I built my client relationship and program management skills and ensured that the clients’ needs were met.

You spent the majority of your career in program management and then switched to recruiting. What prompted that change?

I loved my time at Accenture and wouldn’t change that for anything. It was a great place to start my career. I had been doing the same thing for a while though, and I was interested in other types of work and in being in a business, instead of just being a consultant for one. I was also looking to get off the road and spend more time in Austin. I decided to take a job with Novotus, a recruiting firm where I was still leveraging the program management and client relationship management skills I had built.

I have always been most interested in the people side of business. When I was working for Accenture, I enjoyed career development with my staff and recruiting activities, so I was drawn in by these parallels and the opportunity to spend more focus on people.

What are the challenges of recruiting and staffing for a company the size of Google?

The volume, scale and complexity of Google is a challenge in everything we do. Google is looking to hire the best of the best for each and every role. There is such a variety of things at which people excel and for which they could be a good fit. Matching people with their perfect dream job, not just the next job, is our goal.

My teams are focused on passive candidates – people who haven’t applied, but that we have gone out and found because they are the best in their field. We get in touch with them and get to know them, to find out what they are interested in pursuing. We find out what they are passionate about and what their goals are to see if we can make that happen for them at Google.

Google has long been considered one of the best and most fun places to work. How do you sell your recruits on working there and what do you enjoy about working there?

We sell our recruits more on the work they will be doing. The fun is certainly a piece of it, but what they are most interested in is working on cool, challenging projects and how they can really change the world by what they will be working on. It is a fun, laid back environment to work in with free meals on campus, scooters – all those fun things. We work hard, but we also have fun.

As a recruiter, what advice do you have for students interviewing for jobs and internships?

Do your homework on the company and be yourself during the interview. They are assessing if you are a good fit for the job as much as you are assessing if it is a job you would want. You will be doing this job 40 hours a week, at least, so you want something that is a good fit and that you will enjoy. Also, don’t stress so much, it will all work out!! It’s easy to get wrapped up in thinking this is what you will be doing forever, but that isn’t the case, and really you’re looking for the best starting point for you (which won’t be the same as everyone else).

How did BHP prepare you for the work you have been doing?

The small classes and project focus of BHP prepare you for the real world because that’s how the real world is structured. You have to work with others to solve problems. There are also many times when you will have to work with people you don’t have authority over and in school you practice that when working with peers on group projects.

What are some of your best memories from your time at UT?

Making new and lifelong friends, and spending time with those friends. Also having a flexible daily schedule, which you don’t get when you start working. I have been in a book club with some of my BHP friends who live in different cities, and even different continents, for over 10 years now. The BHP friends you make are always going to be people who understand things you are facing in your career and will be there to provide great advice and guidance, because they are probably walking down a similar career path to you, even if it is in a different industry.

Summer Internship | Student Spotlight: Ashwin Ramakrishnan

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Summer Internship | Student Spotlight: Ashwin Ramakrishnan

Ashwin RamakrishnanIntroducing BHP Intern Ashwin Ramakrishnan

What company are you interning for and what is your title or department? I’m working for DreamWorks Animation in Glendale, California as an intern in their post production department.

What did you expect to gain from your summer internship ? I expected to gain a better understanding of the feature animation pipeline, but mostly I wanted to develop good relationships with the studio’s artists, employees, and the other interns.

Has it met or superseded your expectations? Why? This internship has really surpassed all of my expectations. The people here are extraordinarily friendly and always willing to sit down and talk with you. The studio hosts dozens of classes every week (from drawing to public speaking to improvisation), Dream Works Logoand has a huge video library of recorded lectures from industry professionals. Our internship coordinator brings in a different company leader each week to speak to us, and helped us plan intern socials throughout the summer. With a beautiful campus, free breakfast and lunch everyday, and movie screenings every Monday, DreamWorks is a wonderful place to work.

Share an interesting encounter you’ve had during your internship. Post production handles all the sound recordings, so I’ve gotten to record Jack Black and Bryan Cranston.

What have you learned about yourself that you did not know before? I’m more of a self-starter than I thought before – I’m really proud of myself for being proactive about arranging meetings with the people I wanted to talk to and tackling my own projects.

What have you contributed to the company? I helped prepare the Kung Fu Panda 3 movie trailer for release, as well as ready our TV shows for Netflix. I’ve also organized and archived footage from older films and shows and recorded our voice actors.

Ashwin Ramakrishnan - Dreamworks“I really love animated movies like How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda and wanted to be a part of the studios that make those stories happen. It can be scary to follow your passion – especially if it falls off the beaten path – but I think you’ll be happier for trying.”

Thinking Big and Bold at PepsiCo: A BHP Alum Shares Advice for New Hires

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Thinking Big and Bold at PepsiCo: A BHP Alum Shares Advice for New Hires

As you head off from this semester to start your summer internship or first full-time job, you may be wondering how you can make a big impact at your company right out of the gate. Courtney Duncan, BHP Class of 2012, and Kent Hoffman, a 2012 University of Michigan grad, work for PepsiCo in Finance and Marketing, respectively. They took the time to share how they were able to bring bold thinking to PepsiCo in their first few years on the job through a unique program called Connect Tank.

What is Connect Tank (CT) and how did it get started?

Courtney: Connect Tank, started in 2014, is PepsiCo’s very own version of Shark Tank! For the past 5+ years, PepsiCo has sent employees down to the SXSW Interactive conference to gather ideas that could be applied to our business. After my second year of attending, I struggled to find a way to get some traction behind the innovative ideas brought back. My committee within our Connect Employee Resource Group (think student orgs for grown-ups) set out to fix that. After a brainstorming session, we came up with Connect Tank—an 8-week development program that allowed teams of employees to vet out a solution to a topic gathered from SXSW culminating in a show during which teams stepped into the tank to pitch their proposed solution to a panel of Sharks (cross-functional Senior Leaders) for funding.

Courtney Duncan is involved in Employee Resource Groups (showcased on the wall pictured) to get unique experiences outside of her day-to-day role.

Courtney Duncan is involved in Employee Resource Groups (showcased on the wall pictured) to get unique experiences outside of her day-to-day role.

Why were you excited to get involved with Connect Tank?

Kent: CT provided an opportunity to network with and learn from great leaders in every department at PepsiCo. But what most excited me about Connect Tank was that it was led by recent undergrads from a variety of schools and departments. We were a group of passionate people who said, “Let’s go do this,” and made it happen. It’s inspiring to work with a group of employees who have a strong drive for results and a desire to collaborate.

What impact did Connect Tank have on PepsiCo?

C: In our first year of the show, all four of the teams that pitched their ideas received funding for activations that ranged from revamping how we talk to consumers to how we predict demand during inclement weather. Beyond that, CT set the tone for the “Think Bold” cultural shift that Frito-Lay values as part of its plan to build for a great future. Big growth doesn’t come without big thinking, and Connect Tank allows employees to step out of their day-to-day role to do that. We’re excited to see how year two of CT turns out as it has set a precedent for analysts making a splash from day one.

K: My CT project team, all first or second year analysts, developed an employee advocacy platform, which was funded by our CMO, Ram Krishnan. The application enables passionate employees at PepsiCo to share content about new product launches and brand programs with their friends and family on social media. Since receiving funding, we’ve launched at Frito-Lay HQ and have begun rolling out into the broader Frito-Lay organization. We even had an opportunity to meet and present the idea to the CEO of Frito-Lay, Tom Greco.

Kent Hoffman, far right, during his pitch with fellow analysts in Connect Tank.

Kent Hoffman, far right, during his pitch with fellow analysts in Connect Tank.

What kind of impact can you have at PepsiCo in an entry level role?

C: You come across unique opportunities to take your ideas straight to the top. When I worked on the Innovation Finance team, I sat down in the CFO’s office to present a holiday product that had challenging margins. I came in to ask him how we should proceed, and he instead flipped the question on me and told me to decide. Our executives understand that analysts spend a lot of time in the data to get the full story, so analysts have a very valued perspective on where we should stand on a proposition.

Tell me a favorite story about your time working on Connect Tank.

K: One of our goals for Connect Tank was to generate broad awareness of the event and inspire employees at every level to think like entrepreneurs. The challenge was that we had to break routine to achieve this – schedules are busy, attention is scarce, and time is limited. We dressed up someone from our team in a shark costume and had him take photos with employees during lunch. Was it a bit silly? Of course. Did every employee leave the cafeteria that day knowing about CT? Yes, and it resulted in great attendance at our premiere.

What tips would you have for students starting their first internship or job?

K: Focus your energy, drive for results, learn constantly, and have some fun!

C: Don’t be afraid to ask questions to A) allow yourself to learn most quickly and B) poke holes in the system. That’s how you can find inefficiencies and drive for change within your role. Companies are looking to you to bring a unique perspective to the table, so make sure to deliver on that.

 

Courtney Duncan is currently a Finance Sr. Analyst on the Net Sales Finance team in the Texas/Oklahoma region. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 with a B.B.A. in Business Honors/Finance and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies.

Kent Hoffman is currently a Marketing Sr. Analyst on the Lay’s Brand team. He graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2012 with a B.B.A. in Business Administration, concentration in Marketing.

Connect with us!

Courtney.Duncan@PepsiCo.com

Kent.Hoffman@PepsiCo.com

Twitter: @PepsiCoJOBS

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/PepsiCo/careers

Facebook: facebook.com/PepsiCo

PepsiCo.com: PepsiCo.com/Careers