Georgetown MBA Internship Diary: Teezar

Extreme Home Makeover: U.S. Bank’s Edition

No, this is not the ABC reality show. It is actually called “A Brush with Kindness”—a program of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. U.S Bank has been part of this program for several years. The goal of the program is to revitalize homes and strengthen neighborhoods by providing services such as painting, landscaping, and minor household repairs. I signed up two months ago and was fortunate enough that my internship schedule allowed me to take part in this program. 

Last Saturday, I joined the U.S. Bank’s Controller group to repair a house in St. Paul, Minnesota. The house owner is a retiree, who could not afford to maintain his house. His house looked almost like an abandoned house in a middle of a beautiful neighborhood.

My task was to paint the front siding of the house. The caveat is it was my first time holding a paint brush. I never did any wall painting or yard work before. After getting a few tips how to paint, I started creating my piece of art with a bucket of white paint on my left hand and a brush on my right hand. Gladly, the front siding was well-covered by the white paint and the piece of art ended on my skin and t-shirt (i.e. my arms and t-shirt were full of white abstract painting).

It was really a rewarding opportunity. I could help people while getting to know more people in the bank and learning new skills (i.e. painting). However, the best reward was when the neighbor of the house owner stopped by and thanked us. I guess what we did was not really extreme. Many people have helped me throughout my journey. This is just my way to pay forward the kindness of those people.

Baseball: Minnesota Twins vs. Cleveland Indians

Last week was an exciting one. At work, we were rushing to prepare financial models and some pre-due diligence works in order to meet the bidding deadline. In this very short time, we had to get the relevant data from the treasury department and the corresponding business line. It was hectic but it was fun.

In the meantime, all of the interns had been looking forward to go to our first official social event. On Friday evening, we went to the Twin game. We got one of the best suites in the stadium. Our suite is located behind the batter's box. The view was perfect. Generous foods and drinks were also served.

Well, I was new to baseball. I learned for the first time that there is a salary disparity within the team. I wondered how such remuneration structure can bolster team spirit. However, I had a lot of fun on that evening. What I enjoyed the most was that I could actually know my fellow interns, colleague, and managers in more personal level. It was really a nice casual night to get to know everyone,

The Twins won the game (4-1), good news for most of Minnesotan. This baseball game perfectly ended this exciting week.

Weatherman: Beautiful Rainbow...Where Are You?

When I first came to Minneapolis, tornado warning was something new to me. It seems the weather forecast in the financial industry has always been reporting stormy global weather as well. For instance, Monday's headlines news said: "Monday's Bank Stocks: Downward Spiral". Of course, there had been a few sunny days in financial industry but there weren't many in the past few months.

A few days ago, I also had a chance to speak with the Director of Business Development of a big public company in bay area, which was recently acquired by other company. His department basically also handles all the merger and acquisition activities of his companies. His advice was simple: "Do your best and have your umbrella ready. Isn’t it what we all do when we know that it is going to rain?". He also said that I have Georgetown MBA in my bag and everything will work well.

During my first year, I read the Wall Street Journal almost everyday. However, it didn't give me much meaning. Now, it is totally different. Whatever I read in the news is relevant to the projects that I am doing. My current goal is to apply the director's advice by using my knowledge to come up with better strategies so that I have my umbrella ready and enjoy the beautiful rainbow after the rain. Wish me luck!!! Thank you.!!!

P.S:  Minneapolis is a nice city to spend your summer for leisure and work.

Sunny Days are Finally Here…

Whenever I told people that I would be in Minneapolis only for the summer, their response had always been "Good Timing". Summer season is really the best time to enjoy the city since it can be very cold in the winter here. Moreover, I can escape from the hot and humid summer in DC.

Unfortunately, the weather has been unpredictable in the past 1 month. According to the local people, it does not usually happen. The good news is the sunny days are finally here. Interestingly, it just comes right before the 4th of July holiday and other summer events/activities.

At work, I got some other assignments which actually allowed me to interact with the management in various departments. Being here only for 1 month, I need to quickly learn the organization structure, who to contact for certain information, and a long list of new glossary. I hope this will be a good exercise to enhance my diplomatic skill. By the way, I myself was also surprised that I have already collected a mountain of documents, forms, contracts, valuation models on my desk.

In my first year in MSB, someone gave me an advice, which I would like to pass along to anyone interested going into finance world, especially the career changer: "accouning classes are as important as finance classes".

Reflection: The First Four Weeks

I would say that the nature of the internship here is very hands-on. My supervisor has pulled me to assignments that would have been given to any other full-time associate. I am glad that I have completed various kinds of assignments and quickly learned the economics of banking business as well as the merger and acquisition landscape in the financial industry.

The journey has also been very challenging and the learning curve has been really steep, however, it is not as difficult as it sounds. The people here implement the company’s motto: “Five Star Service Guaranteed” on daily basis. Whenever I need to collect information to complete assignments, I get excellent assistance and prompt response from respective departments. My two assigned “buddies” have also been very helpful to ensure my adaptation to the new environment.

By the way, the series of informational sessions ended this week. It also means that it is the start of various social activities with other interns and employees. We have a list of interesting activities lined up, such as going to baseball games, volunteering to restore housing conditions of families in need at a local community. I hope I could learn more about the culture of people in the Midwest and network with more people in the bank through these activities.

Series of Informational and Networking Events

This week is the official internship commencement at US Bancorp. Finally, I got to meet the other 8 interns. It was fun to meet them as I was the only intern for the past 2 weeks.

As part of the internship program, we have a set of informational and networking events everyday. On the first day, we had a general overview about the US Bancorp business model. It was followed by a “Banking 101” session. These sessions were really helpful to understand what is happening in the banking industry in general and how it is relevant to US Bancorp strategy. Then, there were various informational sessions where we learned various departments within U.S. Bancorp.

However, I believe one of the most important sessions was the briefing from the human resource department. The HR manager focused on the dos and don’ts if all of us want to stay in the banking industry.  The banking industry is a highly regulated industry. I have to be extra careful as I have to deal with a lot of confidential and private information.

As usual, I keep working on my social networking activity. This weekend, I look forward to meet a few alumni from my high school. It is fun to know more people in a new city and who know that I may need their assistance some day.

Another Great Weekend…. Another Great Assignment...

Minneapolis is named City of Lakes not for nothing. This weekend, I had the chance to experience the beauty of the lakes here. In the uptown area, there are three beautiful lakes (Lakes of the Isles, Calhoun, and Harriet).  These are closed to each other. I tried fishing for the first time and enjoyed watching a nice sunset over the water. Earlier in the morning, I also had the opportunity to use my rusty photography skills at the Basilica of St. Mary. The architectural details of the building were magnificent.

I started this week with 3 new assignments, i.e. post analysis of previous acquisitions in the U.S and Europe, and starting to prepare an offering memorandum. Through these projects, I was able to further understand how various American banks operate. I also became more interested in M&A transactions as they are a really complex process that require comprehensive analysis from financial, legal and organizational perspective.

At Georgetown, the most important lesson I learned is “networking”. For that reason, I joined a Facebook group this week created by my MSB classmate Omid Mashhadi.  The group caters to all MSB interns in Minneapolis. Through Facebook, I also found a group of Indonesian ladies who happen to work in downtown. I am looking forward to having a great working lunch with these ladies at Fogo De Chao this coming Friday.  Don’t you think the creator of Facebook is a genius?

Back to Work after Long Weekend

May 27: Memorial Day weekend just came in time to help me settling in the city. During this weekend, I tried to familiarize myself with the city, i.e. the bus routes, good restaurants, bars, groceries stores, church, etc. My roommate helped showing me around the city, and we went to the Mall of America. It used to be the biggest mall in the world some years ago. I also happened to meet an old friend, and we had a nice authentic Szechuan lunch.

The city is really beautiful. There are many buildings with interesting architecture. However, all these good moments were almost destroyed by the tornado warning that was announced on Sunday late afternoon. Fortunately, it was only a false warning and the thunderstorm did not really come to my area. Then, I spent the rest of the weekend reading my “Valuation for Financial Reporting” book, which focus on SFAS 141 and 142 to prepare myself for the next projects.  I had to thank Prof. Post for emphasizing this topic during the accounting class during my first year of MBA studies. The accounting class really helped me grasp the material quickly. 

After the long weekend, I completed two assignments, i.e. preliminary analysis reports on two potential acquisitions. Today, I spent the whole afternoon digesting another set of documents on fair market value analysis.

Pre-Internship and My First Day

May 20: I arrived in my rental house around midnight. After unpacking all my stuff, I settled down to attempt five hours of sleep.

May 21: Apparently, I woke up 1 hour early because my alarm clock still followed Eastern Standard Time as if I were still at school. Since I was already awake, I got ready and went to the office right away. I used the extra hour to walk around downtown Minneapolis. I was happy to discover my office is conveniently located near various shopping malls and bought myself a cup of coffee. At 8:30 a.m., I went up to the 19th floor to meet my manager.

After a quick introduction to many of my new colleagues, my manager passed me documents and books nearly 4-inches thick. He quickly ran through the organization chart and gave an overview of some logistical stuff (i.e., finger printing, setting up voicemail and computer login). To my surprise, I was given a cubicle by the window with a nice downtown view. I wish I could take some pictures to upload onto my Facebook page, but I'll adhere to our company policy which forbids taking pictures inside the office.

After a meeting with a woman responsible for auditing our department to ensure Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, I went out for lunch and a brief tour of downtown with my manager. Since the weather was nice today, we walked outside (versus the "skywalk," a series of bridges connecting many of the buildings downtown). Then, I used the remainder of the afternoon to digest the 4-inches of materials.

A Little Bit of Background

I am interning at US Bancorp in Minneapolis, MN. Though I received investment banking, private equity and program manager internship offers from other firms, I chose US Bancorp due to its active acquisition activities. I hope to be involved in the live deals and get my hands dirty.

As a career switcher, I hope to immerse myself in the financial industry, especially banking. The banking industry is unique, and the key financial valuation parameters are different from any other industry. An M&A project with sixth largest bank in the U.S. is sure to accelerate my understanding of the banking industry.