Bird’s Eye View: Evaluating Your MBA Internship City

In our first 12 months of our MBA packages, the perfect feeling is studying the place we are going to spend our summer season internships. As a result of pandemic, some corporations have declined to convey interns to their places of work in recent times. This summer season, enterprise returned to regular for MBAs. Firms determined it was time to open their company places of work and welcome us again for the summer season. Meaning many internships will take us to new cities and areas that we have now by no means been to earlier than.

Right here’s what folks instructed me: an internship isn’t only a technique to study whether or not you need to work for a particular firm, but in addition should you get pleasure from residing in that metropolis. In lots of instances, town the place you’re spending your internship will be the metropolis the place you reside. So it’s important to see should you’re snug calling that metropolis residence. I requested my classmates how they felt concerning the location of the place they’re at present interning. If something, their recommendation helped them really feel extra acclimated to the literal “the place” they work.

Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Artistic Commons photograph

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

One well-liked answer is doing old-school analysis on town. Understanding the structure of town is an effective way to learn to navigate it. For instance, you’ll be able to look into scorching meals spots, nightlife, and different metropolis points of interest that function excellent previews for the brand new metropolis.

“I did a whole lot of analysis earlier than I headed there,” mentioned my classmate Ryan, who spent his summer season as my roommate in Portland, Oregon. “I appeared on journey guides, social media, web sites, and different locations to higher perceive the place I used to be coming to.” His outcomes revealed to him the large meals scene that resides within the metropolis – a serious constructive for somebody who says to “lives to eat”. Ryan was capable of finding pleasure in his residence metropolis the summer season primarily based off the analysis he did earlier than touchdown.

As soon as within the new metropolis, it helps to take a weekend and discover what you’ll be able to. Seeing what town is like in particular person is a window into the life you could possibly doubtlessly have. Discovering the meals spots, cultural hubs, and different locations of curiosity would assist paint the whole image of what life may very well be like in your summer season residence. My methodology of alternative has been choosing a neighborhood of curiosity and exploring it in the course of the weekend. Beginning within the morning, I’ll deliberately take the metro system into town heart and discover. I’ll decide native meals spots for breakfast and lunch. Then I stroll across the neighborhood. Doing so permits me to see town in its ingredient. This manner, I get to expertise the lifetime of my non permanent residence is and study the persona of the place I’ll spend the subsequent nine-to-twelve weeks.

Myles T. Henry

SOAK IN THE ATMOSPHERE

In my tour, I took the metro system from my condominium in a neighboring suburb to the Pearl District, usually thought to be the liveliest a part of town. This neighborhood options eating places, procuring, and a walkable space that may present you one thing new at each block. I then stopped to maneuver to Southeast Portland: a neighborhood that has multiples strips of bars and ranging cultural and fusion cuisines to supply. I had a good time on this space as a consequence of my love of regional meals (one thing I share with Ryan).  The perfect a part of the Portland meals scene is by far the meals vehicles. I couldn’t stroll greater than two blocks with out seeing a special meals truck able to serve me a special kind of meals. From pizza to tacos to sandwiches, if it’s edible, chances are high there’s a meals truck for it in Portland.

One other tip from a classmate was to get inside info from the full-time workers. Personally talking, this was one of the precious approaches for me this summer season. As a Black man, I wished to ensure I may discover the Black neighborhood within the metropolis. I used to be involved concerning the metropolis’s range as an alumnus of an HBCU (Howard College) and as a previous resident of Washington, D.C. and a present resident of Atlanta, GA – two American cities identified to be hubs for Black tradition.

Nonetheless, the members of the Black ERG at Nike (the place I spent my summer season internship) assured me that the Black neighborhood in Portland is a mighty (even when a small) pressure. To check this principle for myself, my fellow interns and I took to discovering the Black neighborhood within the metropolis. Our search led us to a Black-owned spot named Capitol Bar proper as its post-brunch day social gathering was beginning to decide up. Anybody who is aware of me, is aware of that this can be a state of affairs I thrive in. Between the group and the music, I virtually felt like I used to be proper again in Washington, D.C.  Getting that real-time view of how the Black neighborhood congregates collectively constructed my confidence to find a house in Portland ought to I get a proposal and return post-grad.

Emory Goizueta Exterior View

A NEW HOME

My ultimate tip is to reap the benefits of what the summer season has to supply. The summer season is usually probably the most energetic a part of the 12 months for cities. This offers the chance for various occasions. A part of having fun with the summer season internship expertise is watching how the native space involves life at these occasions. In Portland, the Pearl District has month-to-month farmer’s markets the place folks have been capable of purchase contemporary produce and different gadgets that distributors promote. Throughout the market occasions, you could possibly see how Portland comes alive in the summertime. I used to be capable of go to one in all my first live shows since my undergraduate years. To not point out, Portland experiences daylight up till what felt like 11:00 pm – leaving a lot time for day actions like climbing, which is a staple exercise in Oregon. The Portland summer season may assist make the placement really feel like residence.

A brand new metropolis will all the time really feel overwhelming, regardless of how lengthy you’re there. I skilled this firsthand with my time in Portland. It was my first time ever seeing that a part of the nation. Nonetheless, I used to be decided to seize town by the horns and introduce it to a possible new resident. My time at Nike and Portland challenged me to develop outdoors of my consolation zone by way of actions and pushed me into new horizons. Portland was a metropolis that challenged me to look outdoors my traditional technique of discovering enjoyable and neighborhood. It charged me with shifting my expectations of what a metropolis ought to appear like. I imagine any metropolis one stays at can do that, all one must do is take the chance.

Bio: Myles T. Henry is a rising second 12 months at Emory College’s Goizueta Enterprise Faculty learning Advertising and marketing & Digital Technique. He’s a New Jersey native and Howard College alumnus. Myles has all the time been serious about telling tales, and believes his calling is to “hear, create, and amplify tales of characters that have been as soon as ignored or unheard.”