I can’t believe that it’s already the fifth week of my internship! Summer has blown by and things are moving so quickly. So quickly… I ignorantly forgot to blog the past 2 weeks as I got caught up in the swing of life, so I will make up for it by giving a summary of what I’ve accomplished and learned over the past few weeks.
What I’ve Done: Since my last post, I’ve finally gotten into the true swing of my role. As I mentioned previously, this summer I have the unique opportunity to be an intern on two teams doing two completely separate roles. My first is MedTech FP&A, where I do sales consolidation for about 40% of J&J’s global sales and report that up to the CFOs. I also am currently assisting in close for Q2 earnings, specifically focused on Accounts Receivable and Cash Flow. Next Monday I will present with the rest of my team to the CFO for the SOX review prior to our earnings release (updates on that presentation to come next week). I’m very much enjoying the amount of executive-level face time I experience in my roles. My other role is on the competitor analysis team where I am working to update profiles for all of J&J’s competitors in both the MedTech and pharmaceutical industries. This role is a bit less corporate finance-focused and slightly more similar to banking. I do a lot of financial statement analysis, read Wall St. forecasts, and provide research and analysis on how our competitors are performing and how they’re forecasted to do in comparison to us.
What I’ve Learned: There has been no shortage of learning so far. First was understanding J&J’s corporate structure, which I thought was similar to other companies before realizing that J&J is more of a hybrid between a standard corporation and a holding company. Most in-office etiquette and corporate behavior were already known to me, but being around it more is helpful before going into the workplace. Financial skills have definitely been honed. Much of what I’ve learned in classes only felt relevant because it was only applicable to homework and tests but now, I can see the true importance and full scope of financial metrics and how they interplay with each other. Another big learn for me was just the sheer volume of money. The portion of the business I collect sales for does nearly $35 billion in revenue annually. The concept that a million dollars could be negligible or not that big of a deal was baffling to me and still sort of is. The last and probably most important takeaway has been how broad corporate finance roles are. I get to first hand see two, but the other interns I work with do nothing similar to me. I’ve met someone whose project is writing off all of our artwork and working with the art laundering team (something a medical company has???), to people who work to manage the budgets for “our” (the C-suite’s) private fleet of planes and helicopters (they’re getting two new G-8s in the next year or two). I’m fascinated by the diversity and it’s opened my eyes to be more interested in corporate finance because there’s so much variability in what one can do.
How I’ve Felt: I really feel at home at J&J, as cliche as it may sound, the culture is really really good. My team is very young and has a playful approach to work balancing a healthy level of joking, chatting, and actual work. They’ve done a great job of making me feel incorporated and welcome on the team. In addition, J&J is very network-heavy. To date, I’ve had 1-on-1s with over 25 people ranging from first-year analysts all the way to VPs. There is also a massive PSU network which has been great to make us Penn State interns feel welcomed and give us a chance to meet new people constantly.
In all, my experience so far has been excellent. I’m grateful and blessed to be where I am and to have the skills and resources needed to continue to be successful. I look forward to the second half of my internship and plan on keeping the blogs updated!
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