Author Archives: Donica Williams

Company: Quantlab Financial
Position: Technology Intern

What is your major, and how do you think what you’ve learned at McCombs has helped you with this internship?

I’m currently a junior BHP/Computer Science/Finance (Quantitative track) major. Although I got this internship through the recruiting resources in the College of Natural Sciences and it was more of a computer science internship, there were definitely aspects of my McCombs education that helped me with this experience. Since Quantlab is a high-frequency trading firm, the biggest help came from the introductory finance class I took last semester. This exposure to the world of finance allowed me to more quickly pick up the ‘crash course’ information presented to interns about the company’s business process. Plus, it’s always advantageous to have industry knowledge for software development because that provides insight on how situations should be coded.

What is unique about the company and culture of Quantlab Financial?

Something that I loved about the culture at Quantlab was the heavy emphasis on learning and personal development. There were bookshelves scattered throughout the office where you could pick up a book (on trading, software development, etc.) to read, several different groups that were doing lunch & learn activities, and even just everyday discussions that really dug into the meat of a subject (work-related or otherwise). Additionally, the people at Quantlab don’t take themselves too seriously. Once when a coworker was out on vacation, another team member brought a huge block of post-it notes, and my programming partner and I spent about an hour that afternoon discussing how we should move forward with our work while sticking post-it notes over the absent team member’s desk. By the time he came back to work, his entire desk area – monitors, desk surface, chair, etc. – was filled with post-its. There’s still a stream of post-its hanging from the ceiling on top of his desk.

What did you contribute to the company?

I was pair programming the entire summer. For our primary project, we built 2 feed handlers to collect market data from exchanges with ITCH-like protocols. Along the way, we also refactored several parts of the feed handler code to maximize code reuse, setup a shared library, and better exemplify object-oriented programming principles. In the last couple weeks, we did some more exploratory stuff like trying out new methodologies on existing code.

Why did you decide to work there?

This internship offered the most fitting learning experience for me. I knew I’d get the opportunity to strengthen my technical skills in other opportunities, but Quantlab stood out because it was in the financial industry, which meant that I would gain insight into this field as well. It worked out especially well because I was still on the fence for my additional major between Accounting and Finance, so I figured this would be a great chance to collect information to make that decision. Lastly, I was looking to work in a smaller company (relatively – I think Quantlab is around 200 or so) this year because I had the large corporation experience last year, and wanted to try new waters.

Did the internship meet or supersede your expectations? How?

I am definitely very happy with this internship experience. I met some really great people, learned a ton, solidified my choice of major, saw a segment of tech that I’ve been curious about, and made an impact on the business. Plus, I was well-fed with the Keurig, snacks throughout the office, and free catered lunches!

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

What I’ve found useful in my own recruiting process is to focus on what I would learn and who I could rely on during the internship. For the first point, it’s a strange balance between finding a role where you can convince the company that you’re sufficiently competent to do the role but where you’re sufficiently incompetent so that you can still learn a lot. You’re only going to have a finite number of internships before making a (relatively) informed career decision, so make sure you don’t limit yourself on the learning component. If there’s an area in which you have a genuine interest and are curious about, then why not recruit for something related to that field. For the second point, try to find out what interactions with the full-time employees look like (namely, mentorship/training programs). Internships can be drastically shifted towards negative or positive depending on the people you work with, so it’s important to find a place where you will be valued and where employees are willing to take time out of their day for you.

Company: ETM Group in London
Position: Marketing Intern

What is your major, and how do you think what you’ve learned at McCombs has helped you with this internship?

I am a Business Honors and Marketing major going into my second year here at McCombs. As I have not yet taken many major specific business classes, I’ve really relied on the core business classes to give me a foundation for my interests in marketing.  The most important thing I learned so far was problem solving. With the MIS class I took second semester, every week was an exercise in learning how to ask meaningful questions and teach myself skills that I needed to get the job done. Going into my internship I didn’t have the benefit of taking classes in marketing, but I was ready to learn and use my introduction into the field as an opportunity to have a fresh set of eyes looking at the company’s current framework.

What is unique about the company and culture of ETM Group?

The culture of ETM Group is extremely creative and open. The office did not have any physical boundaries between colleagues so there was always discussion and interaction taking place. It was a small office so we were able to get to know each other personally which made it very comfortable to share ideas and suggestions.

What were your overall responsibilities in your internship?

My responsibilities consisted of managing the social media channels including Twitter and Facebook. I was able to write the copy for posts as well as facilitate engagement. I also updated third-party websites and databases. In addition, I began the implementation for an update to their accounting records.  I was amazed how much my single semester of MIS helped me understand their IT system.

Why did you decide to work there?

I decided to work at ETM Group because I had some previous experience in the food industry and I liked the neighborhood where the office is located.  Since I plan to be a marketing and MIS major, the ability to get an internship in marketing was a huge plus.

Describe what it was like working abroad.

Working abroad was a great opportunity to experience a new culture not only in the workplace, but also in daily life. Being immersed so quickly into a different style of working and living forced me to be able to adapt to unfamiliar situations. I really enjoyed sitting in the office and hearing many different accents and voices coming together to make a team. I also loved being able to spend weekends exploring a new place or country. I ended up travelling to six different countries and each time I was able to take back something new to work on Monday. I was working on a lot of advertising so the travel allowed me to see different marketing strategies across the globe.

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

Focus on your own goals when you’re looking for opportunities. There is always pressure to take the most prestigious, highest paying, or historically successful job, but if you are going to wake up every morning and drag yourself to a cubicle or fly halfway around the world for a job, it should be something you are truly passionate about. It’s not possible to know when you’re sitting in a classroom what kind of office environment you will work best in, or what kind of city or town you want to live in, so being able to get off campus and trying out the possibilities is invaluable.

I am not sure that I will turn this internship into my career, but even learning that there were some things that I didn’t enjoy about this job is a data point I can use in my life to guide my future decisions.