By Intern Alice Zhang
I am truly grateful for the financial planning internship opportunity at PBUCC. Coming in as a rising junior/senior from New York University, this 10--week experience brought me closer to discovering my purpose and career before graduation.
Being heavily impacted by COVID-19 throughout college, this in-person internship experience helped me reassess my strengths and weaknesses especially when it comes to collaborating in a professional setting. Balancing school, working with Travis Marks (Director of Generations University), collaborating with other interns on our Capstone Project, and balancing my personal and work relationships, tested my agility in the long run.
Culture: My first impression of PBUCC was its fantastic company culture and diversity through a three-hour interview. Soon after, orientation week ice breakers set everything off to an amazing start. Our weekly leadership roundtables were my favorite group meetings. We engaged in career talk, personal journeys, and interests, as well as insightful conversations regarding current PBUCC projects. I was quite surprised with the intern selection for this year. Everyone had defining traits that contributed to the team projects.
Career: Having not officially debuted into the professional world, I found myself worried about my future. I did not have dream career goals, all I knew is that I wanted to do something impactful in the financial services industry and to help others. At PBUCC, my goal was to improve the financial situations of PBUCC members by recommending solutions to member inactivity (our Capstone Project) and assisting PBUCC in building its financial planning services. Knowing that my efforts made a difference is rewarding, as this journey solidified my interest in combining behavioral science with finance through financial planning. I want to continue to explore/work in this area before I graduate!
Capstone Project: This summer was my first time participating in a Capstone Project. I didn’t expect that my minimal consulting experience from NYU Stern would come into play. I was very excited about the cross-departmental work and collaborating with people of different backgrounds of study to understand new perspectives. I was able to hone-in on the various functions that kept a business running efficiently, and see the significance of CRM databases, marketing strategies, and education and training. I also enjoyed receiving constructive feedback for presentations by experienced professionals. There is something about perfecting a presentation with others that I love— from design to communicating a feasible idea— each step in the progress felt amazing because it brought ideas with the most potential.
PBUCC raised my standards for company culture, gave me a clearer vision for how I want to build my career, and improved my problem-solving and collaboration skills. The concept of having only one intern per department and receiving a company project to solve together is rewarding in so many different ways. Thank you PBUCC for these amazing ten weeks!