Orem, UT; Property23; -Rachel Tan

My internship experiences have been rather unique from the others listed because I am on the Bio-Business track as a Genetics and Biotech student. I went to the Marriott School Undergraduate Association Internship fair and talked to employers there looking for interns over the summer. I was interviewed by the Chief Operating Officer at a real estate investing company called Property23 and was accepted for an internship that actually started about two months before the semester ended. It was a business analyst internship position. Granted, it had nothing to do with science, but the business principles I had been learning about in my classes in the Tanner building were extensively applied during my internship.

I learned about the importance of marketing, and observed firsthand the intricacies in the relationships between the Sales team and the Marketing team. In many companies, there is a disconnect between these two functions--the sales team feels like marketing doesn't really do real work; and the marketing team feels like they are superior in intellect to the sales team. I learned that the most important indicator of effectiveness is whether the material produced by the marketing department was beneficial to the sales team and used by them consistently.

I also observed office dynamics and went through the experience of having a company split into two different directions due to a difference in leadership styles. I went with the COO to a new company called R1 Real Estate, and experience anew the startup environment. It is fascinating to be in a startup culture because the company is young, everyone is working really hard and there is an excitement in the air when new things happen and strides are made. I have focused all my internship experiences in young companies as a result of enjoying that atmosphere. Business principles are easy to learn in a class, but require much more effort and flexibility in application, and I was able to experience that firsthand in this internship.

For more information visit:  http://www.property23press.com/.