Husker Internships: Nathan's Supply Chain Intern Experience

College of Business Author

11/26/2024 Added

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Nathan Ray, supply chain management major from Omaha, Nebraska, talks with Assistant Dean Rachel Larson about his internship experiences at DMSi, and how the College of Business at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln helped him get them. He minors in accounting and computer science. Ray is also part of the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management and works for a student-led tech startup called TeachFront.

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[00:00:00.000](upbeat music) Hi, I'm Rachel Larson
[00:00:02.010]and I'm the Assistant Dean
[00:00:03.060]of Academic and Career Development
[00:00:04.680]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business.
[00:00:07.680]I get to work with students in my role
[00:00:09.330]and one of the best things about my job
[00:00:11.580]is learning about students and their career paths.
[00:00:14.280]We're gonna talk a little bit about internships today,
[00:00:17.040]and so I have Nathan Ray joining us today
[00:00:19.230]to tell us a little bit about his internship path.
[00:00:21.660]Welcome, Nathan. Thank you.
[00:00:23.100]Yeah. I'm Nathan Ray.
[00:00:24.330]I'm originally from Omaha, Nebraska.
[00:00:26.670]I'm a Supply Chain Management here,
[00:00:28.470]or Major here in the College of Business,
[00:00:30.270]and I have Minors in Accounting and Computer Science
[00:00:32.340]along with that. Excellent.
[00:00:33.480]Thanks for sharing. Yeah.
[00:00:34.560]So tell us a little bit about your internship experience.
[00:00:37.170]So what have you done and who have you worked for thus far?
[00:00:39.360]Yeah, so the past two summers I've had the opportunity
[00:00:41.490]to work with DMSI Software out of Omaha.
[00:00:44.460]That first summer I was a supply chain intern
[00:00:47.250]doing a variety of tasks, kind of more in a business format.
[00:00:50.520]And this last summer I was a business analyst for them
[00:00:52.830]and so I was actually working on a development team
[00:00:54.990]and really handling the business side
[00:00:56.790]of kind of their software development.
[00:00:58.800]How did you find your internship?
[00:01:00.180]Yeah, I actually found 'em at a career fair
[00:01:02.250]my freshman year.
[00:01:03.450]It was a career fair that was more focused on
[00:01:05.610]computer science, but as a supply chain management major
[00:01:08.400]still interested in computer science.
[00:01:10.770]I went up to them and struck up a conversation
[00:01:12.600]and it really just kind of was a perfect fit
[00:01:14.220]from that first conversation
[00:01:15.750]and then just going through a few rounds of interviews.
[00:01:17.970]The rest is history, so.
[00:01:19.112]That's awesome. Yeah.
[00:01:19.945]Loved it so much the first summer.
[00:01:21.120]Wanted to go back another summer, so.
[00:01:22.890]So how did your internship role change
[00:01:24.600]from your first summer to your second summer
[00:01:26.850]when you were there?
[00:01:28.050]Yeah, you know, the second summer,
[00:01:29.370]I think the position I was in,
[00:01:30.570]it definitely felt a little bit more real to some extent.
[00:01:33.240]I was doing a little bit more customer facing work where,
[00:01:37.260]you know, some of the work I was doing during the summer,
[00:01:39.090]I was actually seeing it roll off into production code
[00:01:41.430]and seeing, you know, real customers use it.
[00:01:45.120]So that was definitely something that was interesting
[00:01:46.830]to see from year one to year two.
[00:01:48.450]I think also just I was able to grow
[00:01:50.190]as an intern from year one to year two.
[00:01:51.570]You're kind of used to the office norms
[00:01:53.970]after the first summer in,
[00:01:55.050]and so that was another thing with it.
[00:01:56.550]That's awesome. Yeah.
[00:01:57.630]Now I know you've taken several supply chain classes,
[00:02:00.720]you also took some accounting classes too.
[00:02:02.836]So how has that background and kinda the variety of courses
[00:02:06.510]that you've taken here at the College of Business
[00:02:08.370]helped you in your internships?
[00:02:10.200]Yeah, one I'd really touch on is Accounting 309,
[00:02:12.780]accounting systems that I took.
[00:02:14.880]That class really kind of showed me the combination
[00:02:17.010]of accounting and supply chain,
[00:02:18.960]which in the role I had in the internships
[00:02:21.000]was very applicable, learning about like
[00:02:22.800]management information systems
[00:02:24.270]and enterprise resource planning.
[00:02:26.610]Yeah, so really learning the ins and outs
[00:02:28.380]and how those two fields combine together.
[00:02:30.060]That was really applicable.
[00:02:31.980]As well, just, you know,
[00:02:33.000]I think generally supply chain classes,
[00:02:34.530]learning about logistics management and you know,
[00:02:38.220]supply chain 444, extremely important.
[00:02:40.800]Learning about like the reorder cycle
[00:02:42.450]is extremely important for ERP.
[00:02:44.400]And so just lots of courses that kind of fed into,
[00:02:46.830]you know, during the internship you're seeing all these
[00:02:48.810]little areas where you're like,
[00:02:49.643]hey, I remember that in a lecture from last semester, so.
[00:02:51.900]Yeah, well, and I know you have a tech background too,
[00:02:54.750]so, and supply chain can go a number of different ways,
[00:02:57.910]procurement, logistics,
[00:03:00.060]and then there's also really the tech side of that.
[00:03:02.460]So how have you integrated kinda
[00:03:04.140]your computer science experience with supply chain?
[00:03:07.110]Yeah, I think, you know,
[00:03:08.250]just understanding from the backend if knowing, you know,
[00:03:12.150]Python or R are two languages that I've used
[00:03:15.450]and then even like the querying languages, like SQL,
[00:03:18.630]in my internship, it wasn't exactly SQL,
[00:03:20.430]but it was a language very similar to that.
[00:03:22.080]And so being able to do that and access backend databases
[00:03:25.200]and know kind of how to wrangle that data
[00:03:26.610]was just so, so important.
[00:03:28.380]And then even like as I look to a future career
[00:03:30.390]in supply chain, being able to have those technical skills
[00:03:33.870]just in my back pocket, you never know what's gonna come up,
[00:03:36.180]but being able to have those technical skills
[00:03:37.860]is so important. Yeah.
[00:03:39.210]So you mentioned technical skills,
[00:03:40.650]but what about kind of what are termed
[00:03:42.810]a little bit more soft skills?
[00:03:44.040]Yeah. Or essential skills,
[00:03:44.880]vital skills, what have you learned
[00:03:46.920]in your college experience here through classes,
[00:03:49.230]extracurricular activities
[00:03:51.090]that have really rounded out your skill set?
[00:03:53.774]Yeah, so much of it is the soft skills.
[00:03:56.580]I think communication is kind of the name of the game.
[00:03:59.070]So, so important if you can communicate
[00:04:01.680]in a variety of settings and know how to adjust
[00:04:03.330]your communication based on who you're talking to
[00:04:05.430]or the form of communication.
[00:04:07.320]As well, I think just responsibility
[00:04:09.831]and just, you know, holding yourself accountable
[00:04:12.360]for your actions and getting the work done
[00:04:14.310]that you've promised to get done is super important.
[00:04:16.710]So I know part of those essential skills,
[00:04:18.870]leadership is also pretty important and you've had a few
[00:04:21.810]leadership experiences here on campus,
[00:04:23.700]so tell us a little bit about those.
[00:04:25.470]Yeah, so I currently serve as the president
[00:04:27.360]of Bathtub Dogs, which is an acapella group here on campus.
[00:04:29.937]And so in that role I'm really able to lead
[00:04:32.130]our executive board that then leads our entire organization.
[00:04:35.820]And so dealing, lots of people skills and kind of,
[00:04:38.550]you know, transparency with the communication,
[00:04:40.680]making sure we're all on the same page,
[00:04:42.420]as well as just being quick on our toes of, you know,
[00:04:44.580]sometimes issues do arise.
[00:04:46.230]And just being able to adapt and overcome those quickly
[00:04:49.440]and make sure as an entire group
[00:04:51.180]that we're all kind of on the same page there.
[00:04:53.460]As well, I served as the Vice President
[00:04:55.380]for Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity,
[00:04:57.210]and so in that role I was one of 11 on an executive board.
[00:05:00.630]So really honing in on that communication,
[00:05:03.150]doing a lot of event planning with that,
[00:05:04.830]making sure that when I am making a decision,
[00:05:07.620]all the stakeholders were on the same page.
[00:05:09.900]And just making sure overall that our chapter
[00:05:11.940]was functioning in a, you know, a good way.
[00:05:14.190]So yeah. (upbeat music continues)
[00:05:15.030]So like the supply chain and logistics of events.
[00:05:17.580]Yes, exactly. (they laugh)
[00:05:19.800]So what's one thing that you accomplished
[00:05:21.360]in your internship that you really was like,
[00:05:24.060]that was, that was awesome?
[00:05:25.830]One thing I was really proud of,
[00:05:28.080]they approached me with a project idea and they said,
[00:05:30.360]hey, we really want to develop kind of a new system
[00:05:32.820]for tracking our Agile, like scrum processes
[00:05:35.490]in the development department.
[00:05:37.320]And so the tool that they recommended I used
[00:05:39.240]was Power BI dashboard and I had never done that before,
[00:05:43.470]but I was up for the challenge.
[00:05:44.670]And so I took a quick,
[00:05:45.960]it was like a two day course over Power BI
[00:05:48.390]and then started working through the project
[00:05:50.400]and had a lot of great mentors
[00:05:51.570]that were helping me out throughout all of it.
[00:05:53.340]By the end of it, I was able to kind of demo it
[00:05:55.890]for a few different employees
[00:05:57.210]and then actually have it deployed
[00:05:58.560]to the development department.
[00:06:00.120]So, you know, starting from complete scratch
[00:06:03.480]with something I hadn't learned before.
[00:06:05.370]And then by the end of the project,
[00:06:06.720]having something that was actually benefiting
[00:06:08.580]a large team of employees
[00:06:10.350]and really bringing value to them was like super impactful
[00:06:12.930]for me to just kind of see it from end to end.
[00:06:15.390]That's awesome.
[00:06:16.223]Know that I was making an impact, yeah.
[00:06:17.056]Yeah. So what's next for you?
[00:06:19.170]I think you've got an internship lined up.
[00:06:21.690]Yeah, so this next summer I'll be heading out
[00:06:23.580]to Washington DC working as a Business Analyst
[00:06:26.340]at Capital One, so really excited about that opportunity.
[00:06:29.640]Something a little bit new for me,
[00:06:30.840]a little bit more off the beaten path than what I've done
[00:06:32.520]the last two summers, but still really exciting
[00:06:34.860]and I know I'm gonna learn a ton.
[00:06:36.180]That's great. Yeah.
[00:06:37.260]So what do you think that you've utilized
[00:06:39.000]in your internship or learned in your internship experience
[00:06:41.700]thus far that you're gonna take to Capital One
[00:06:43.860]and your future career beyond?
[00:06:45.780]Yeah, I think saying yes to things,
[00:06:48.420]like I said with the project, I hadn't had experience before
[00:06:51.060]and they were like, do you wanna do this and say yes, right?
[00:06:54.210]It's like you're there to learn
[00:06:55.710]and also provide value to the company.
[00:06:57.510]So, you know, each day is kind of a new opportunity
[00:07:00.150]to learn new things and you know,
[00:07:02.160]really just grow as a student,
[00:07:04.620]but also as a future worker.
[00:07:06.180]And so I think that's the one big thing
[00:07:07.560]is when I get to Capital One, I'm gonna say yes
[00:07:09.540]and just kind of go after any opportunity I can.
[00:07:12.000]That's awesome.
[00:07:12.833]I love that message. Yeah.
[00:07:13.860]Well, thanks so much for sharing about your internships.
[00:07:15.940]Of course. And your experience
[00:07:16.773]here on campus. Yes, I'm happy to help.
[00:07:18.420]Yeah. (upbeat music continues)

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Husker Internships: Nathan's Supply Chain Intern Experience

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