Tag: Day in the Life

A Penn Road Less Travelled By: A Career in International Development

By Hannah Peterson (C ’12)

“Wow, that’s so amazing. I wish I could do something like that!”

“I’m so jealous of you. You’re actually going to be helping people, while I’m sitting stuck at my desk all day”.

“That’s such a great decision, I wish I had decided to travel while I was young.”

These were the responses I heard over and over again by my friends, classmates and family when telling them my decision to move to Nicaragua to work for a community development non-profit after graduation.  There were feelings of jealousy, regret and paralysis, and I couldn’t understand it, because there was absolutely nothing stopping them from making my same decision.

As I was starting my final year at Penn I was stuck in the age-old dilemma of coming to terms with my future. I put on that pants suit I had spent treacherous hours searching for in the mall the summer before.  I bought myself one of those fancy leather Penn folders and I pasted a smile on my face.  I walked around the OCR career fairs pretending like I was enjoying what I was seeing.  I went through all the motions as I thought I needed to, yet I kept having the feeling that I was choosing the best of the worst option.  Their pen design is better, so I must fit in there.  That recruiter gave me a ping pong ball with the company’s logo on it, they must have a fun work environment.  When trying to write my cover letters it was painful to find reasons I wanted to work at each firm.  In fact, what I found myself searching for on each of their websites was their charity work they in order to convey any genuine interest in my statement.

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Day in the Life: Consulting

@PennCareerDay is back! We’re excited to feature our award-winning, Day in the Life program for the third year on Twitter.

Ever wonder, what is it really like in consulting? What can I expect? What skills should I have and highlight to break into this field? Well, our first @PennCareerDay contributor, Shahbaz Alam, addressed those questions and more on Thursday, September 13th. To learn more about Shahbaz, read his bio below. To read his tweets, check them out on our Storify account.

Shahbaz Alam is a Manager in PwC’s Advisory (Consulting) practice focusing on helping companies improve their technology and operations.  Shahbaz’s projects spanned from designing, architecting and implementing large scale technology solutions to helping companies redesign their business processes to assisting companies develop forward looking strategies on how to meet the demands of their changing business and/or regulatory environment.

Shahbaz graduated from Penn in 2007 (and recently attended his 5-year reunion) with a concentration in Operations and Information Manage (OPIM).  While at Penn, Shahbaz was an RA for Harrison College House, a Freshman Experience Coordinator for Harrison, PHINS, Wharton Ambassador, College House Alumni Ambassador and worked for the School of Medicine.

Over the last 5 years with PwC, Shahbaz traveled throughout the US to places such as Arkansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Chicago, Orlando, DC, San Francisco and the world (Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, the Netherlands).  You can see Shahbaz during his multiple visits to Philly and Penn throughout the school year both in his role as the co-lead for PwC’s Advisory undergraduate recruiting for Penn and as an active alumnus.

In his spare time, Shahbaz enjoys catering to his wanderlust by jet-setting around the world (and calculating how to maximize the miles and points he earns from airlines and hotels), running, finding and eating at new restaurants (especially hole-in-the-walls) and nerding about by reading the NY Times.

Day in the Life: Business Development Leader at The Dow Chemical Company

There are a wide range of opportunities for alumni, undergrads, grads and ph.ds alike.  This semester we have highlighted a ton of these options through our alumni on @PennCareerDay.  To check out their feeds, visit our Storify page here.  We are excited to wrap up our semester by looking at life in Business Development at The Dow Chemical Company with alum, Matt Quale, on Tuesday, April 24th!  Matt will discuss a day in his life, and will address how he collaborates with Ph.D’s that chose industry over academe.  To learn more about Matt, read his bio below and remember to follow him on your last day of class!

Matt Quale is a Business Development Leader in the Ventures & Business Development group at The Dow Chemical Company.  Matt is responsible for rapidly assessing and cultivating strategically enabling technologies and new business opportunities to drive Dow’s growth strategies.  As the commercial lead on a collaborative team including a technology and finance partner, Matt focuses on the commercial aspects of new business development projects including market evaluation, industry trends, risk assessment and business model development.

Leading up to his current role, Matt graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998 with a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering and joined ExxonMobil where he worked on hydroprocessing research.  In 2000, Matt joined the Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials Business where he worked on Product Development, Technical Service, and Plant Support for the slurry products used in processing semiconductor wafers.  Then in 2005 he moved to the Coatings Business where he led two process development groups.   In 2009, Matt received an MBA from Villanova University and became the Global Process Automation Technology Leader for Dow Coating Materials (Dow acquired Rohm and Haas in April of 2009) where he led a global team of Process Automation practitioners.

Outside of work Matt serves on the Penn Engineering Alumni Society Board and enjoys photography, playing volleyball and soccer, and spending time outdoors with his wife and daughter.

Day in the Life: Global Client Group at BlackRock

What can you expect as an analyst with a leading investment management firm?  Alissa Eisenberg posted to @PennCareerDay on April 4th, to shed light on this popular question among Penn students and alumni.  Read Alissa’s posts about what goes into her day at BlackRock and the diverse responsibilities that come with her position. Read more about Alissa below, and check out her feed here on our Storify page.

Alissa Eisenberg is an analyst in the Global Client Group at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager by assets under management which were $3.X trillion as of 12/31/2011. She is responsible for supporting BlackRock’s relationships with key retail distributors including wirehouses, regionals, independents and RIA service agents. Alissa’s daily activities span a diverse set of projects, from attending client conferences to compiling strategy presentations on the firm’s partnerships.

Alissa graduated in 2010 magna cum laude from the School of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. in Health and Societies. While at Penn, she was President of the Panhellenic Council, Assignments Editor at the Daily Pennsylvanian, Captain of Quaker Girls Dance Team and Co-Producer of CityStep.

Day in the Life: Business Intelligence Consulting

What does Business Intelligence Consulting have to do with technology? And, what is it exactly?  We’re excited to welcome alum, Corey Hulse, to @PennCareerDay on Friday, March 30th.  Corey will talk about this unique career path that combines technology and business development in the consulting arena. To learn more about Corey, read below and follow him on the 30th!

Corey Hulse graduated from Penn in 2007.  He concentrated in Operations Information Management (OPIM) and Legal Studies (LGST) at Wharton.  During OCR his senior year, he was fortunate to find a job as a Consultant with Thorogood Associates, a Business Intelligence consulting firm, and has been with the firm for just about five years.

Thorogood’s clients are large multi-national enterprise organizations that have large amounts of data, and they work with them to implement solutions that allow them to make faster, more informed, and better business decisions.  The company will work with the client to figure out what’s best to address their challenges, and implement solutions using technologies from Microsoft, SAP, IBM, Oracle, QlikView, and Tableau.

During his time at Thorogood, Corey’s worked with retail clients like Chanel and multiple different clients from the Consumer Packaged Goods sector.  He’s been able to learn about, work with, and build solutions for multiple different business areas like finance, logistics, human resources, and factory production.  He’s also been able to travel to the company headquarters in London on multiple occasions for both client work and to contribute to internal company initiatives.

When he’s not working, Corey enjoys photography, board games, and spending way too much playing in Excel.  He’s developed a passion for interesting graphs and visualizations, and blogs for both GraphGraph.com and Geekadelphia.com.