Previous UpSpring, Nielsen IQ and Henkel Walton MBA interns and corporate recruiters shared their insight into the Full-Time MBA Internship Program.
Internships are required and included as class credits in the Walton MBA coursework. Over the course of the program, students have several opportunities to network and connect with corporate recruiters.
“The student internship gives them the hands-on experience necessary to succeed in the business world after graduating,” said Lindsey Steiger-Muck, assistant MBA director.
MBA ‘21 student and UpSpring supply chain intern Raleigh Woods sourced her internship through the Walton MBA career fair, where she had the opportunity to connect with 10 to 20 companies.
“We got to hear about what companies were about, what positions they had open, and from there we applied, had interviews and heard back,” Woods said.
Students have the opportunity to attend office tours with various companies. MaryJohn Richmond, MBA ‘21 graduate and associate client manager at Nielsen IQ, met several Nielsen IQ employees at an office tour that included a social event prior to her interview.
“When we went into the interviews, we were able to speak not only on what we would do on a day-to-day basis, but also why we wanted to be there and the people we had met,” Richmond said.
UpSpring, Nielsen IQ and Henkel recruit students from the Walton MBA Program. Students and recruiters at UpSpring, Nielsen IQ and Henkel share the many benefits of the internship program.
Buster Arnwine, general manager at UpSpring, prioritizes his involvement with the program and students.
“UpSpring is a consumer goods company. We do focus on female health — particularly health for soon to be moms, moms and recent moms,” Arnwine said. He believes that the company aims to solve problems through innovation and recruits individuals who believe in the company’s mission.
“They have to be very passionate about what we are doing,” Arnwine said. “We’re trying to help millions of people out.”
UpSpring employees include MBA ‘22 student and finance intern Madeleine Corbell and MBA ‘21 graduate and business intelligence manager Jason Conners. Before joining UpSpring, Conners held an internship at Reckitt that Arnwine helped him source. According to Conners, his duties at UpSpring include “improving [the company’s] use of data and making it so that [it] is making more and better data driven decisions.”
Corbell enjoys the high level of responsibility and tasks that she is involved in at UpSpring.
“I help with daily sales reporting. I also work closely with my manager, our CFO, and our senior accountant to support the finance team and assist with accounting duties,” Corbell said.
For many interns, the knowledge and skills they gained during the MBA program prove useful in their positions. Conners and Corbell believe that their coursework helped prepare them for corporate internships.
“I did the business analytics track and got a lot of technical experience that a lot of people don’t necessarily get in an MBA program,” Conners said.
“The Walton MBA helped prepare me for my internship by giving me a framework of knowledge that I could build upon during my internship,” Corbell said. “This really did come in handy since I was coming from a non-business background and didn’t have real life experience that I could apply the knowledge I was learning in classes to.”
Justin McDowell, client manager at Nielsen IQ, discussed recruiting for Nielsen, which he describes
as “a global information services company who focus on data analytics to help support
and lead our clients to stronger decision making.” McDowell stated that Nielsen IQ
has been a top hirer of Walton MBA graduates in recent years.
“The MBA program has brought us so much phenomenal talent over the years for interns and full-time positions,” he said.
According to McDowell, Nielsen has clients and offices in over a hundred countries and the company’s local groups include client consultants, data insights, analytics, business intelligence, business operations and data engineering. MBA ‘21 graduate Ethan Washispack worked as an intern at Nielsen before joining the company full-time as an associate client manager.
“We spend a lot of time meeting with clients, whether that be face-to-face or virtually now and also doing project work,” Washispack said.
Kim Griffith, Walton MBA hiring partner and head of field sales in U.S. Consumer Beauty Care at
Henkel, discussed Henkel’s internship program and mission.
“Henkel operates worldwide in three business areas: adhesive technologies, beauty care and laundry and homecare,” Griffith said. “Our future is based on a long-term framework around purpose and values.”
Griffith also detailed Henkel’s mission to enable its “employees to grow personally and professionally through their work.”
MBA ’21 graduate Sydney Wendfeldt described her internship at Henkel. “It was an unprecedented opportunity for me – being new in retail – to see what it looked like to be in multiple businesses,” Wendfeldt said.
Henkel sales analyst and MBA ’21 graduate Meritt Rae believes that her internship with Henkel allowed her exposure to a variety of projects on sales, category management and insights teams.
“I never really felt like an intern,” Rae said. “I always felt like I was part of the team and got to work and own projects that were innovative and interesting, which really brought value for the company.”
MBA ’21 graduate and previous Henkel intern Molly Bombonato enjoyed working on projects that pertained to school learnings. “It was wonderful getting to apply what we were learning in school immediately into the job,” Bombonato said.
Steiger-Muck enjoys working with the internship program.
“Discussing skills our corporate partners seek in candidates joining their team is one of my favorite parts of my job,” she said. “It helps us build our professional development and classroom learning experience to make sure students are as ready as possible to step into full time roles after completing their MBA.”
The following Walton MBA Perspectives videos detail Walton MBA internships at UpSpring and NielsenIQ. Stay tuned for an upcoming video on internships at Henkel.
