Jimmy Jencarelli
Name: Jimmy Jencarelli
Major/Minor: Economics/Entrepreneurship
Year: Junior, Class of 2016
Where did you do your internship?
Dun & Bradstreet, New York, NY
http://www.dnb.com/
Time period for the internship / Number of hours?
10 week program. 40 Hours a week.
Responsibilities/Duties as an intern:
I was a Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis intern. In that role, I had two main responsibilities. The first, were the day to day activities on the FP&A team. I worked on packaging financial information for the CFO, forecasting investment spending, and presenting a financial analysis of our competitors to the CFO of strategic alliances and other executives that I worked on. The other part of the program was to work with the other interns in teams to come up with an initiative at D&B and then present upon that to the senior executive team. My group redesigned the internal ordering system (i.e. where an employee would put in a request for a new laptop), making it more efficient and effective.
Positives/Negatives:
Positives:
-I learned an unbelievable amount about finance and just corporate life in general.
-I figured out what I liked to do and what I didn’t like to do.
-I was able to network with so many people, including senior leaders and some of the best students from other business schools
-I got to work on my soft skills including communication, public speaking, time management, etc.
-Paid internship
Negatives:
-Working 40-50 hours a week for every single day in the summer with practically no days off really didn’t leave me much free time for hanging out with friends and family.
-1 hour and 15 minute commute each way, every single day
Skills you have developed.
-Critical thinking
-Problem-solving
-Active-listening
-Public Speaking
-Professionalism
-Time management
-Leadership
-Taking initiative
Describe the environment.
D&B had a great environment. Although, it was your typical office building with cubicles and meeting rooms, the people there were great. Our CEO was ranked one of the 15 most interesting CEOs in the country and our CMO, won top digital marketer of the year award in 2013. All around our leadership team did very well, but not just that, they made an effort to connect with you. There was a day were I met with my CEO 4 times in one day and had a full on conversation each one of those times. People were more than willing to help you and I’ve already had multiple offers to come back.
How has your internship changed you?
There is saying that goes, “experience is mother nature’s greatest teacher.” Having the hands on experience and being able to apply my studies in the business world really has given me such an edge compared to other business students.
What steps did you take in seeking out this internship?
After taking the initiative to contact someone within the company, I networked with a Scranton alum who worked at D&B. From there, they helped me go through the interview process and ultimately through that hard work I got the offer.
Did Career Services help you search for or secure your internship?
Career Services helped me with both my resume and I ran through a mock interview with them. Both of these services made a huge impact with helping me to secure my internship.
Any recommendations for students looking to start the internship process.
Begin networking right now. Attend all of the networking events and conferences that Scranton offers, you never know when an opportunity will pop up. People, especially executives and other leaders, love when you take initiative, plus it makes their job for searching for people that much easier. Get to Career Services and polish off your resume and interviewing skills. It is so key to making a great first impression and both of those things will help. You also should begin looking and applying for internships asap. The most important though is to become involved at school with clubs and the other offices on campus. Not only will this help you, but employers will look highly upon your level of engagement and participation.
Other interesting items about you and your background and interests.
I originally came in as a pre-med major. I was doing very well in all my classes, but I was taking an Economics class at the time and ended up really liking what I was doing. So, I became an Economics major and after working with the Entrepreneurship club I was accepted into the Entrepreneurship minor. I have a passion for Entrepreneurship, which would explain why I so involved with conferences and competitions dealing with it. On campus I like to stay involved. I’m the president of the Ultimate Frisbee team, I’m the Vice President of Social Entrepreneurship in the Entrepreneurship club, I’m the Macroeconomic team leader for Prism, the investments club on campus, and I’m part of BLDR, which is the business honors program. Although I’m still not exactly sure with what I want to do in the future, I know I want to go into finance, investing, or sales. Starting and owning a business is of extremely high importance. The end goal is to take all that I’ve learned, get my Ph.D. and become a professor.