Back in Charlottesville

I'm a week into my second year at Darden and I'd just like to take the opportunity to dispel the notion that second year is a breezy, golf-filled float to graduation. True, I no longer have 15-case weeks, or hours-long learning team meetings, but I still spend a ton of time on-Grounds (maybe even more than last year!). Each day this week there has been reading to catch up on (in some cases, entire books), bonds to price, club meetings to attend and events to help plan. And to think my expectation was to have wide open gaps in my Outlook calendar!

Yet while the schedule and pace may not have improved, my ability to manage those things certainly has. One of the greatest skills I think we acquire here at Darden is the ability to prioritize what needs to get done, focus in the free hours we have and quickly jump from one thing to the next.

Almost home

Just three more days until my summer in DC ends and I make my way back to Charlottesville. And I have to say, I'm pretty excited about going home.

While I've loved my internship and the chance to explore a new city, I've missed my life at Darden. I've missed my friends, I've missed my apartment and I've missed the b-school community I've become apart of. And what's struck me recently isn't just how much I enjoy being at Darden, it's how temporary my stay there is. One more year and I leave the bubble for good.

Post-presentation work

With my final presentation done, life at the office has entered a new phase. Gone is the feeling of intense pressure once so palpable atop my shoulders. Gone too is the compulsive need to update my PowerPoint decks every 15 minutes. Now, I just have ... work. With a week and a half remaining in my internship, my presentation may have signaled a peak in my summer workload, but it certainly didn't mark the end of it. Today, for example, I had three different meetings on three different projects (two of which I presented on last Friday and one of which is new).

Without the all-consuming stress of my presentation bearing down on me, this return to routine has been a relief. I've gotten the opportunity to work on another new product concept and through it, investigate a couple new marketing channels and meet with a few new faces around the company. But it's also been pretty busy. As I realized during an 8 a.m. Monday chat with my boss, the real world offers no post-presentation reprieve, no prolonged pat-on-the-back. It's simply back to work. Until of course, it's back to school.

Final presentation

For many MBA interns, the summer's work culminates in a big, make-or-break final presentation to company execs. It's a chance to show off the work you've done, bask in some c-level exposure and leave a lasting (and hopefully positive) impression. My final presentation was Friday. And I'm not going to lie, it was a pretty nerve-wracking experience. In the weeks prior, I'd met with employees throughout the firm, fine-tuned business and marketing plans for a new product concept and slaved over dozens of PowerPoint slides. By the time Friday rolled around, I thought I was ready. I'd done five run-throughs, practiced with the projector and clicker and written out my talking points. It still didn't quell my nerves. I think I literally shook as I walked to the front of the boardroom to deliver my presentation ... and then, 45 minutes later, it was done. And the relief set in. While I wasn't sure I handled the Q&A part of my presentation as well as I could have. It was done. I'd achieved one more milestone in my MBA journey.
To celebrate, I went home, poured myself a generous glass of wine and got ready for a weekend that, when compared with my Friday, could only be restful and relaxing.

Plantlife

My office plant is dying.

Okay fine, maybe it's not dying. But, if it's browning leaves are any indication, it's suffering. This plant, or actually this basket of assorted plants, was given to me by my boss as a way to liven up my otherwise sterile office. As a result, its deteriorating state is of great concern. I mean, it's a bad sign when you let the office plant die, right? Doesn't exactly scream "Hire me, I'm responsible!"

Sigh.

Dinners with Nick

Every week, usually on Mondays at about 6, my 16-year-old brother Nick and I meet for dinner. The meals aren't lengthy and they won't continue forever -- we're both in DC this summer as interns -- but they've provided a great way for Nick and I to build a relationship. See, my brother and I haven't always been close. In fact, with 11 years between us, this summer is the first time we've spent concentrated, one-on-one time together. But when Sunday nights like these roll around and I'm staring another 5-days of work in the face, my weekly dinner with Nick is something I look forward to. It serves as a nice reminder of who I am and where I'm from at a time when I'm introducing myself to both a new career and a new city. It's also great to see how much Nick's grown up. When he was a toddler and I was a teenager, he was sometimes mistaken for my child (yes, this is strange). Now, I often wonder if he's confused with my college friends.
Another perk? Because neither he nor I know DC well, we've used the dinners as excuses to get out and explore the city together. A couple weeks ago, we had Thai food in Dupont, last week, it was Mediterranean food in Woodley Park and tomorrow, we'll meet for pizza in Chinatown. Over plates of pad thai and baskets of pita, we chat about work (he's interning with a member of Congress, something I did 10 years ago), family and friends. We laugh. And sometimes, I forget all the years between us.

Work: The Half-Way Point

While it seems like just yesterday I was sweating through first-day-of-work jitters, a second glance at my Outlook calendar confirms it: I'm half-way through my summer internship. My final presentation is a mere three weeks away. And my stay in DC ends in just over a month. I guess that means it's time for an update ... and this time, I'll try and stick to what I've learned on the job.
First, there's definitely something to be said for being part of a well-established MBA internship program. For decades, the company I work for has hired its next generation of managers from its pool of summer interns. As a result, the internship program emphasizes real world experience, impactful projects and significant company exposure. Each week, my fellow interns and I have lunch with at least two or three executives. Casual and intimate (there are only 5 MBA interns), these lunches give us the opportunity to learn about a variety of departments, introduce ourselves and share our impressions of the company and the industry. It's been great.
Second, "impactful projects" = real responsibility. And this is particularly true when you're in an industry like media, which is under significant pressure to change. One of the projects I'm working on involves taking a new program from concept to launch. I realized pretty quickly that the figures I keyed into my spreadsheets represented not only real dollars, but real risk: the risk of trying new things at a time when resources are scarce and the need for innovation is palpable.
Third, you can learn a lot about a place from the way people approach their jobs. One of the things I appreciate most about the firm I work for is the enthusiasm people have for the product and its legacy. There's a real sense of pride that comes through when executives talk about their commitment to journalism. And that pride trickles down throughout the organization.