This is part of Das Tor’s ongoing Internship Insights series, in which students write about their internship experiences while at Thunderbird.
Upon completing my undergraduate program at the University of Oregon, I began working in Israel for the China Israel Exchange. This organization’s primary mission was to connect Israeli startup founders with financing opportunities from China. This was my first taste of global business.
During this trip, I lived in community housing with people from all over Europe, Canada, and the United States. During the week, we would work all day, but then we had the chance every evening to relax and trade stories over group dinners. Their stories were so compelling and made me want to go travel the world to explore as they had.
After that contract was up, I began working for a local Arizona company, Truce. At Truce, we worked to provide peace of mind through the creation of safe, simple, and effective cleaning products made from familiar and traditional ingredients. Our CEO was Professor Leclerc, and he would tell stories about the work that Thunderbirds were doing in the world and the lessons they learned in the classroom. It sounded too good to be true, but I was intrigued. So I visited the campus and met with some administrators who validated all that he had told me. From then on, I knew I had to be a part of Thunderbird. Once I arrived at Thunderbird, one of my main goals was to land a summer internship.
Without the entire Career Management Center (CMC) team, I would have never landed my internship at Western Union. Just like many of my peers, I had been sending out well over a hundred applications to receive only a handful of interviews. After hours and hours of preparation, I was not getting the offers I had hoped for, but the CMC was still advocating for us. They brought Western Union to campus to offer opportunities to interview for their internal audit team. After a few rounds of interviews, I was given the position. Western Union is working to move money for better as one of the largest money transfer services in the world. On the internal audit team, we independently and objectively evaluate risks throughout the business to improve global operations. I was primarily on the IT internal audit team; however, I also was tasked with assisting the compliance internal audit team as well.
The CMC was a crucial component of my internship search. Their relationships with alumni and organizations all over the world help to give us students a foot in the door. Additionally, the preparation work that the CMC assigned us early on gave me a stronger foundation to build on when entering the application process. Specifically, my career advisor, Angelique Tatum, was instrumental in helping me to define my career vision, which gave me the clarity I needed to strategically enter the internship process. My Thunderbird Mentor Scott Johnson’s advice has helped me to further understand the steps I need to take to get where I want to go. Lastly, I could not have gotten through my first year at Thunderbird without my friends and fellow students.
My advice to other students is something that I learned from some close friends at school – you can truly rely on your fellow Thunderbirds. When you have been working hard, grinding through application after application; you feel that it is not going your way; or you need some advice, time off, or even a practice interview, we are here for you.