Wharton/Lauder Blog

Summer internships in the downturn: Wharton/Lauder advantage

Summer internship search is never easy, but it was especially tough to be hunting for a summer job in the midst of the worst recession of the century.

Fortunately, for those b-school applicants who are wondering if it is worth paying extra for the joint degree from Lauder, I have a lot of good (although arguably subjective) news. In my subjective view, the Lauder Institute does give its students extra coaching resources and practical leads to summer employment around the world, and I am a prime example of this.

Last May, in the midst of the global recession, ubiquitous cost-cutting, layoffs, pay cuts and a general situation where companies see little to no sense in hiring interns (what I call “corporate summer intern allergy”), I had two offers for competitively paid internships – both of them through Lauder network.

While Lauder students have access to all the resources at Wharton, there are additional Lauder-specific resources:

1. Summer immersion contacts
a) Corporate visits
During the Lauder summer immersion that takes place prior to Wharton core classes start in the first year, Lauderites have the unique opportunity to communicate face-to-face with senior executives of a whole array of companies. In the case of Chinese track 2010, we decided to visit a dozen companies: consulting, manufacturing, luxury retail, education services, private equity firms, banks, main-stream media, high-tech, Internet services. We visited world-known companies who are at the forefront of what they are doing, e.g. Philips, McKinsey, Baidu, Caijing Magazine, EF, etc.

b) Wharton and Wharton/Lauder Alumni and second-year students
It just so happens that wherever you go there are alumni from both Wharton and Wharton/Lauder many of whom understand the challenges you face and are actively involved in the Wharton community. Dialogue is often very informal and friendships are made at a party, dinner or over a pint of beer in a bar after work.

2. Global Knowledge Lab (GKL)
I have already blogged about this innovation at Lauder several months ago, but I have not mentioned that GKL is yet another opportunity to get contacts with companies you may be interested to work for. At least one Chinese track student worked at a GKL partner company this summer in China. I myself had a chance to work in the Middle East for a GKL partner company.

3. Estee Lauder Co.
Estee Lauder hires at least one marketing intern for its New York HQ every summer from the Lauder Institute: it is a highly competitive internship opportunity, and they are quite selective in who they interview, but it is a super cool and unique opportunity for those interested in luxury retail and marketing.

4. Alumni Grape Vine
Many Lauder alumni in hiring positions often require their hires to have the specific skill set they once acquired while at school themselves. The logical solution is to source this talent where it is abundant – Lauder. As a consequence, there was a considerable number of summer internship positions that our alumni looked to fill with Lauder students.  I want to send special thanks to the board and the management of the Lauder Institute for having gone out of their way last spring to tap into their personal network and to further engage the Lauder alumni community in summer internship search for the students.

5. Contacts from other Lauder Institute Initiatives
There are seminars, speech series, Lauder-specific company presentations (or Employer Information Sessions) that are organized at the Lauder Institute. These events often provide a unique opportunity to make contacts with very interesting and influential people. While I do not know of any cases where these contacts led to summer employment per se, I have experienced the exceptional quality of career advice that is available through this interaction. I am grateful to all the people who have given me guidance and advice last spring.

These extras generated a large number of real employment opportunities last spring–a true competitive advantage and an extra value add of the Lauder degree.