Networking is Key

This past week I have realized that an internship is not the same as a full-time position. While the work we do is necessary, the number of assignments we do each day is soley dependant on the number our boss chooses to give us. So this past week I was anxious to do more work, and on my own time.

I knew that Leo wanted to contact each of the countries about possible cross referencing opportunities (clients with 1/3 and 2/3 of our products), so I approached him and asked if I could head up that project and contact the countries on my own while keeping him informed along the way. To my surprise he said that I could - I only wish I had asked him earlier, but I think he now knows that I am anxious to be more productive than what he is allowing me to be.

So this past week I felt very productive in the sense that I was acting as my own boss. I prepared the spreadsheets with the data of all of the clients in each country and sent them out the managers. I then called each of them to discuss our findings and set goals on how many new products they were going to sell.

During my time at home in the evenings I have been reading a couple of investing books. Lately I have become more and more interested in fund management. I then contacted a couple of BYU alumni that are currently in the industry. Out of the three that I emailed, one of them didn't respond, another was the wrong email address, and the third one asked me to call him the following day.

His name was Dave, and he had actually just been laid off after 4 weeks of fund management with wells fargo. He told me that it was an exciting but extremely nerve-wracking business. He said that on any given day if you were to "screw up big time" you could be fired on the spot. However he did say that it was an extremely rewarding job and that I should definitely contact more people to hear more up-beat stories.

This experience definitely reminds me of how important networking is. I did this same thing with the industry of venture capitalism two weeks ago and came across another alumni. Both of them will no doubt serve as valuable contacts in case I have any more questions about either industry.

I also spoke with the my friend's father who is the CFO of a large health insurance company in DC. He told me to stay in contact with him until I graduate and we will definitely help me find a job.