{"id":8756,"date":"2012-12-17T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2012\/12\/17\/gaining-practical-experience-for-successful-summer-internships\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:18:27","slug":"gaining-practical-experience-for-successful-summer-internships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2012\/12\/17\/gaining-practical-experience-for-successful-summer-internships\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaining Practical Experience for Successful Summer Internships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

by Tom Stokes, MBA ’13<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Tom<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After participating in the Strategic Marketing Immersion<\/a> last spring, I headed west to S.C. Johnson as a marketing intern. The Immersion’s curriculum was highly valuable in providing marketing knowledge that would allow me to succeed as an intern, and I believe it gave me a significant advantage compared to interns from other business schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most valuable aspect of the Marketing Immersion was having the opportunity to work on a student-staffed team to solve a real marketing business problem through a semester-long consulting project. Our client, a recent Johnson graduate now at S.C. Johnson, assigned us a legitimate issue faced by his business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were required to collect and distill secondary research, interview our client, and analyze Nielsen scanner data. In addition, we developed a survey that was completed by more than 800 consumers, and analyzed the resulting data to segment potential consumers and identify a target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the specific activities involved in the project were very useful, the real value came from the experience of developing a compelling “story” for our client. Based on the expertise we had gained from examining a wealth of information, he expected us to guide him through only the essential data that would ultimately inform our recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A successful marketer must be able to filter a significant amount of disparate information to develop a concise and convincing story. With coaching and insights from Professor Thomas<\/a> and Professor Park<\/a>, our client, and marketing executives Warren Ellish<\/a> and Scott Sainsbury, we cultivated this essential skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I received my project assignments from my manager on the first day of my internship, I felt very well prepared to tackle several complicated issues because of the experience I had gained from the Marketing Immersion. I knew that I would have to convince my manager, through logical and data-driven presentations, that I had the best answers to their business problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I carried out my research with the assistance of my S.C. Johnson colleagues and delivered presentations of which I am very proud. The team-based practice I experienced prior to my internship was indispensable to my success.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tom Stokes, MBA ’13 After participating in the Strategic Marketing Immersion last spring, I headed west to S.C. Johnson as a marketing intern. The Immersion’s curriculum was highly valuable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":8757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[199,200,180],"ppma_author":[],"class_list":["post-8756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-graduate-student","tag-immersions","tag-two-year-mba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGaining Practical Experience for Successful Summer Internships - Cornell Business Centers & Institutes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Tom Stokes, MBA '13 After participating in the Strategic Marketing Immersion last spring, I headed west to S.C. 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