I would like to share my internship experience with you a wholesale financial analyst this past summer at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, but let me introduce myself first. My name is Beatrice Artadi, and I am a second year full-time MBA student specializing in international business from Indonesia. I obtained my bachelor degree at chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and worked at 3M in Minnesota for about two years as a research engineer.
- Why did I decide to take part in an internship?
An internship was important to me in giving a glimpse into what I will do once I graduate from the MBA program. Especially coming from a non-business background, I was really curious about how the working environment would differ between business and research/engineering.
- What does the internship process look like?
I looked outside of the province and applied for internship positions in Toronto, Ontario. Both my resume and cover letter were prepared with the help of the MBA Career Management Office (thank you Linda!) and we made sure that I tailored my application materials to the requirements of the positions I was applying for. Despite not having any network in Toronto, I was selected for a phone interview with RBC Capital Markets. The final interview was via Skype with my prospective manager and two other managers. The offer came about two to three weeks after the final interview.
- What was my role and the projects I worked on?
As a wholesale financial analyst at RBC Capital Markets, I worked under their broker-dealer division and worked on two major projects. The first project was to classify if all of their clients who meet the criteria given by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) to determine capital margining when dealing business with these clients. The second project was to analyze why the weekly margins fluctuated with no predictable patterns and find out if there were other causes besides foreign exchange rate and market movement.
- What did I learn from the internship and how I can apply it to my studies and future career?
I learned that I should always make time to get know my colleagues because they are also my teammates and friends who I will spend so much time with at work.
- What advice would I give to new MBA students on how to land an internship?
Don’t give up and keep trying to apply for internship you’re interested in. Sometimes luck does play a factor on whether you’ll get called for an interview and you never know for which opportunities that luck may come into play.
Written by Beatrice Artadi
UAlberta MBA Blog 