This past summer was one of the best summers of my life! I left Madison, WI and moved to Charlotte, NC to work with Wells Fargo. I worked as a credit risk associate in Small Business Banking in the Corporate Risk Development Program for Masters students. In this role I researched the commercial real estate market to create a market monitoring report. This report evaluated current market conditions as well as our current small business real estate secured loan portfolio to ensure that we were implementing proper risk controls as the market changes.
This summer was a big learning experience, both substantively in terms of material, and professionally. Of course, I learned about commercial real estate, credit risk, and corporate risk functions within the company, but I also learned how to interact with others and utilize my time. The biggest thing I learned this summer is that there comes a time when it doesn’t make sense to keep looking for an answer yourself. Of course it’s best to try to figure things out yourself if you can. But it’s likely you may need to ask someone who might know so you can get there faster because the utility of your time will continue to decrease the longer it takes. I’ve found that there’s a balance between being an independent learner and being efficient.
Leaving Wisconsin and my previous role for the summer was a great choice. Getting new internship experiences within different companies through my dual degree has been one of the highlights of my time at UW, and the MBA program has helped me create new, valuable skills and knowledge to be successful in a wide variety of different roles.