Husker Internships: Carly's Finance Intern Experience

College of Business Author

11/26/2024 Added

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Carly Gorter, finance and management major from Shakopee, Minnesota, talks with Assistant Dean Rachel Larson about her internship experiences at Farm Credit Services of America and Target, and how the College of Business at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln helped her get them. Gorter is also part of the Nebraska Business Honors Academy and Clifton Builders program. After graduation, she plans to return to Minneapolis to work for Target.

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[00:00:00.510]Hello, my name is Rachel Larson
[00:00:02.490]and I'm the assistant dean
[00:00:03.600]of academic and career development
[00:00:05.220]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business.
[00:00:08.190]Part of my role is to work with students
[00:00:10.020]and their career paths,
[00:00:11.160]and so I'm really excited to talk
[00:00:12.660]to Carly Gorter today about her internships.
[00:00:16.380]Hi Carly.
[00:00:17.213]Hello.
[00:00:18.046]How are you?
[00:00:18.879]I'm good, how about you? Excellent.
[00:00:19.770]Very good, so tell us a little bit about you.
[00:00:22.380]Where are you from, what's your major?
[00:00:23.820]Yeah, so I'm originally from Chokio, Minnesota,
[00:00:26.460]so it's a town just a little bit south of Minneapolis.
[00:00:29.640]So it was really fun kind of growing up there
[00:00:32.160]and kind of warmer right here, which is kind of fun.
[00:00:34.500]But also kind of spent summer in Minneapolis
[00:00:37.710]this summer as well.
[00:00:38.580]So I am majoring in finance and management
[00:00:41.670]as a double major and I've been really enjoying
[00:00:44.460]kind of being involved in that,
[00:00:45.570]as well as a few other programs here
[00:00:47.100]in the College of Business.
[00:00:48.480]Well, I know you've had a couple internships,
[00:00:50.430]so tell us a little bit about those internships
[00:00:52.440]and what you've done in those.
[00:00:53.850]Yeah, so between my sophomore and junior year,
[00:00:58.050]I interned at Farm Credit Services
[00:00:59.790]of America in Omaha.
[00:01:00.930]So I was an internal audit intern there,
[00:01:04.020]which is a lot of fun getting experience working
[00:01:06.690]for a financial services company.
[00:01:08.490]And then between junior senior year,
[00:01:10.560]I worked at Target headquarters in Minneapolis,
[00:01:13.950]so spent last summer back home
[00:01:15.990]and it was a lot of fun.
[00:01:17.310]I did corporate finance,
[00:01:19.410]specifically capital markets finance,
[00:01:21.330]so I was able to learn a lot there from a big company,
[00:01:24.390]which was a really great experience.
[00:01:26.610]Well, and I know that Target internship
[00:01:28.890]really kind of solidified your career path,
[00:01:31.440]but the first internship you had was really great,
[00:01:33.810]but maybe showed you that there was areas
[00:01:36.600]that you didn't really like.
[00:01:37.433]So tell us a little about that as well.
[00:01:39.540]Yeah, definitely.
[00:01:40.380]So when I originally did internal audit,
[00:01:42.000]I was kind of thinking about the audit accounting route
[00:01:44.490]and it was a lot of fun.
[00:01:45.630]I gained a lot of really great experience.
[00:01:47.460]I mean, internal audit is a really great way
[00:01:49.320]to get to know the organization
[00:01:51.330]and all the moving pieces in it.
[00:01:53.160]You get to talk to a lot of leaders
[00:01:54.840]and work on a lot of different projects
[00:01:56.940]that are really impactful to the business.
[00:01:58.560]But I think that I learned,
[00:01:59.970]I liked a little bit more of that collaborative teamwork
[00:02:03.420]kind of thing and you can get that in internal audit,
[00:02:05.790]but I think that it kind of made me realize
[00:02:08.010]that I wanted to try something a little bit different.
[00:02:10.530]So I kind of pivoted and was like,
[00:02:12.240]let's try a finance internship.
[00:02:14.310]And ended up switching my major
[00:02:15.870]to finance from business administration
[00:02:18.030]and went to Target and I realized
[00:02:19.650]I just really loved the environment.
[00:02:21.690]It was a very fun environment, a very people environment,
[00:02:25.590]got to do a lot of teamwork, different stuff like that.
[00:02:28.050]So I think it just made me realize,
[00:02:29.790]like I love the numbers side,
[00:02:31.320]but I also like that collaborative piece,
[00:02:33.150]that strategy decision making side of it.
[00:02:35.760]And that's kind of what led me here, so.
[00:02:37.680]And I hear that you've maybe accepted a job
[00:02:40.050]back at Target?
[00:02:41.160]Yes, I did.
[00:02:42.060]So I'm really excited to be going back this summer.
[00:02:45.120]Excellent.
[00:02:46.080]So how'd you find your internship?
[00:02:47.910]Yeah, so what I did to find my internship,
[00:02:50.520]it's kind of a funny story.
[00:02:51.540]So two years ago, I went to a career fair
[00:02:54.210]and I talked to somebody at Target
[00:02:56.040]and I wasn't really thinking about,
[00:02:58.710]you know, what it could mean.
[00:03:00.030]I talked to them, I got their LinkedIns
[00:03:01.920]and I think they gave me a bullseye stuffed animal.
[00:03:04.260]So that was really fun,
[00:03:05.730]but I didn't really think much about it
[00:03:07.530]until a few years later
[00:03:08.520]and I was thinking about places I wanted to apply
[00:03:11.070]and I think I just looked up Target's website
[00:03:13.590]and applied and then I got interview
[00:03:15.990]and I wasn't really expecting that.
[00:03:17.910]I honestly was just gonna try and see what happened.
[00:03:20.910]But during the interview the recruiter mentioned
[00:03:23.430]that they remembered I talked to them two years prior.
[00:03:26.430]So it really kind of showed the importance
[00:03:28.470]of making those connections early on
[00:03:30.330]because those people will remember you
[00:03:32.010]and want to, you know, offer you stuff
[00:03:35.040]'cause you've been interested in a long time.
[00:03:36.690]And I think that's a really valuable thing to accompany.
[00:03:39.540]Well, and you mentioned the career fair.
[00:03:41.070]So as part of the business degree program,
[00:03:44.910]we have what's called
[00:03:45.870]the Professional Enhancement Program courses.
[00:03:48.360]So those are four required courses,
[00:03:50.310]otherwise known as prep, that help prepare students
[00:03:53.040]for their career and professional development.
[00:03:55.380]So things like internship searches,
[00:03:58.350]how to find graduate school,
[00:04:00.810]how to interview, those types of things.
[00:04:02.460]So what has been some of the most valuable things
[00:04:05.190]that you've learned from the Professional Enhancement
[00:04:07.440]Program courses in order to help kind of secure
[00:04:11.220]or do well in your internships?
[00:04:13.240]Yeah, I think the most helpful part
[00:04:16.110]for me has been all of the help on perfecting my resume,
[00:04:20.700]perfecting my cover letter and my LinkedIn.
[00:04:23.280]And I think LinkedIn is something
[00:04:24.600]that's becoming increasingly more important
[00:04:27.120]to people just seeing, do you have a nice looking LinkedIn?
[00:04:30.480]Do you have the posts on there?
[00:04:32.010]Are you someone who's really invested
[00:04:34.320]in that side and involved?
[00:04:35.520]And you can really tell that from that.
[00:04:36.900]So I really enjoyed the classes that we took that, you know,
[00:04:40.680]not only gave us appointments with a career coach,
[00:04:42.810]which I found super helpful,
[00:04:44.250]but were able to tell us this is what to expect
[00:04:47.460]to put in a LinkedIn,
[00:04:48.510]this is what you should put in a resume.
[00:04:50.430]And I think those things have definitely been the reason
[00:04:53.580]that my resumes have made it to recruiters.
[00:04:55.380]I think it was a super valuable tool for us to use.
[00:04:58.770]That's great.
[00:04:59.850]And what about your classes here in the College of Business
[00:05:02.670]with your majors or outside of your major,
[00:05:05.100]what have you learned from those
[00:05:06.120]or what skills have you developed
[00:05:07.230]that's helped you in your internship path?
[00:05:09.600]Yeah, I think honestly with the classes
[00:05:12.060]that I've taken, I am in Business Honors Academy.
[00:05:14.640]So we've had classes that were,
[00:05:17.370]our gen eds were kind of catered to us
[00:05:19.170]and they had some additional,
[00:05:21.690]maybe chapters or other things
[00:05:23.130]that they included in there for us.
[00:05:24.330]And I think that really provided me
[00:05:25.950]with a great challenge and really challenged me to learn.
[00:05:28.800]So, you know, when I got to an internship I was like,
[00:05:30.907]"I sat in a hard class before,
[00:05:32.550]I can get through this internship."
[00:05:34.650]So I think just providing that challenging piece,
[00:05:37.050]but then also just providing great people
[00:05:39.780]to work with and learn from.
[00:05:41.160]I think honestly the way I've gotten through college
[00:05:43.260]is through study groups and using the resources around me,
[00:05:45.780]whether that's the professors or the classmates around me,
[00:05:49.200]or you know, I've actually gone down
[00:05:51.030]to the tutors we have as well in the TLC.
[00:05:53.160]So those have been just super helpful resources
[00:05:55.890]to kind teach me that you can use other people,
[00:05:59.220]you can ask for help.
[00:06:00.150]And that's kind of key to success really.
[00:06:02.010]So I think the classes and the challenge
[00:06:04.200]they've provided me have really pushed me
[00:06:06.120]to reach out to those resources to succeed.
[00:06:08.250]What's kind of one project that you're proudest
[00:06:10.800]of that you accomplished?
[00:06:12.510]Yeah, I mean there's actually two
[00:06:14.700]great answers I could have to this question.
[00:06:16.170]I think, first, when I first sat down
[00:06:18.870]at both of my internships,
[00:06:20.010]I was a little overwhelmed
[00:06:21.090]with what was being asked of me.
[00:06:22.831]You know, you don't have the most experience
[00:06:24.840]when you're sitting down for an internship the first time.
[00:06:27.750]And I was thinking, "I don't know if I'm quite qualified."
[00:06:30.000]And you know, all those thoughts you have in the first week,
[00:06:32.190]but then you kind of start pushing through
[00:06:34.200]and towards the end you're like,
[00:06:35.197]"Wow, I can't believe I doubted myself in the beginning."
[00:06:37.620]So I think just pushing through
[00:06:39.540]and accomplishing something great
[00:06:41.310]in at all is really helpful.
[00:06:43.590]But I think also Target, I was just super proud.
[00:06:46.290]We had a project that was really impactful for the business
[00:06:49.350]and we had a lot of business partners wanting us
[00:06:52.080]to present our results and our work to them.
[00:06:54.495]And I think just as an intern,
[00:06:55.890]that's such a great experience to have people
[00:06:57.990]so interested in what we've been working on
[00:06:59.880]and something that really impacted the team.
[00:07:02.310]So I think that was what I was really proud of.
[00:07:04.830]So what was that project?
[00:07:06.660]Yeah, so that project was called
[00:07:08.670]a Guest Segmentation through Capital Investments Projects.
[00:07:12.630]So the team I was on was called Store Valuation.
[00:07:15.240]And kind of what we did was we looked
[00:07:17.550]at how our real estate investments,
[00:07:19.320]so any new store we build,
[00:07:20.610]any store that we remodel,
[00:07:22.290]how that impacts the guests that we have at our store.
[00:07:25.110]So, you know, building a new store,
[00:07:27.420]you have to make sure that it's gonna get enough business
[00:07:30.720]to be profitable, that sort of thing.
[00:07:32.160]And our project specifically was looking at how new stores
[00:07:35.400]and remodels look at or impact our certain guests.
[00:07:38.820]So I was on the remodel side, so I looked at, you know,
[00:07:41.490]what type of remodels do we do that are the best,
[00:07:44.910]which ones make the largest impact,
[00:07:46.770]and how can we make sure to put
[00:07:48.570]that in our strategy going forward?
[00:07:49.980]So it was a really applicable thing to our team.
[00:07:52.980]It was a really applicable strategy.
[00:07:54.240]And so I think that was a really great experience
[00:07:56.490]to be able to do something
[00:07:57.330]that I was excited about and was able to learn a lot about.
[00:08:00.690]We got a very big data set that we had to sift through,
[00:08:03.150]so me and my partner had a lot of fun
[00:08:04.980]just working on it throughout the summer.
[00:08:07.320]So what skills did you learn in your internship
[00:08:11.460]that you think will be very beneficial
[00:08:13.770]for you in your future career?
[00:08:15.660]Yeah, I think there's a lot of answers to this question
[00:08:18.750]because I feel like you learn so much in an internship,
[00:08:21.420]but I think the thing that I was really taught is,
[00:08:24.840]you know, in class you can get by,
[00:08:26.220]if you have a question, you can look at the textbook,
[00:08:28.680]you could maybe even Google it,
[00:08:30.000]you can kind of get away
[00:08:31.170]with figuring that out on your own.
[00:08:32.370]But when you're at a company, there's no Google
[00:08:34.860]to the company, there's no handbook.
[00:08:36.480]So you're gonna have to ask questions
[00:08:38.100]and reach out to people if you wanna succeed.
[00:08:39.840]So I realized how important it was to be asking questions,
[00:08:42.660]people around me really advocating for myself and my growth
[00:08:45.660]because it really affects the quality of your work.
[00:08:47.700]So I think reaching out, being confident in the questions
[00:08:51.750]that I have and being confident in the work
[00:08:54.000]that I do was important.
[00:08:56.010]Especially in internal audit,
[00:08:57.720]when we would finish an audit,
[00:08:59.220]we would meet with the leaders of that team,
[00:09:01.320]which usually ended up being vice presidents,
[00:09:03.720]kind of important people.
[00:09:04.710]And as an intern, I was a little nervous,
[00:09:06.120]but I learned, be confident in the work that we did.
[00:09:08.430]I know what I did and I am confident in that.
[00:09:11.340]And so just having to be confident
[00:09:12.960]in those conversations too.
[00:09:15.540]Great, well, thank you so much Carly.
[00:09:17.640]We really appreciate you sharing your story.
[00:09:19.470]You're an absolutely fabulous student
[00:09:21.210]and we're so excited to see where you're gonna go
[00:09:22.890]after with Target.
[00:09:24.510]Thank you.
[00:09:25.343](soft music)

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Husker Internships: Carly's Finance Intern Experience

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