Almost halfway there! WAIT WHAT? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? Where did the last four weeks go?
To say that the most incredible four weeks of my life have been a blur would be an understatement. It all began in late October last year when I saw some of my friends already getting internship offers and began to freak out. Naturally, I went onto my university’s web portal and began applying to any finance job that looked even vaguely interesting, and out popped the MSBA application. It looked pretty mundane at first, but man was I wrong in every sense of the word. The Student Blog posts, testimonials and internship placement opportunities caught my eye instantly. I knew I wanted this, and I wanted it bad. One month later, I still vividly remember signing the contract on Thanksgiving Day and sending it back to Lorne. Now I realize that I had no idea what I was signing up for.
“The MSBA programming has been phenomenal so far, and I only expect it to continue to amaze me. It has already surpassed my expectations by a country mile.”
Fast forward and I am currently five weeks into my internship at Foot Locker, which I absolutely love. Today was an eventful day for me, as all the interns had the chance to visit five different Foot Locker stores (Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Footaction and Lady Foot Locker). Aside from the fun aspects of a field trip, I found it extremely informative as well. I got to see first-hand how the operations side of a store works and how the orders and decisions we execute at the corporate office affect the operations of these stores. We also had the opportunity to speak to the Store Managers, District Managers and other employees to get a feel of their individual roles and how different, yet important each one is. Each person is quite literally an essential cog, without whom the giant retail machine called Foot Locker would cease to exist. As one District Manager put it best, “We sell the shoes here that pay for all your salaries back in corporate. Without us, you guys would not exist.”
The MSBA programming has been phenomenal so far, and I only expect it to continue to amaze me. It has already surpassed my expectations by a country mile. My favorite pillar of the program is no doubt the Speaker Series. MSBA does a great job of bringing in speakers from different facets of sports business and exposing us to a wide breadth of the industry. I find this extremely useful, as I always knew my ideal job would be in sports but didn’t know exactly which area of sports I wanted to pursue. I am by no means certain of the area I want to pursue just yet, but I am definitely better informed after hearing from some of the best individuals of each area in the industry. What more could I ask for?
Today’s MSBA programming was MSBA Co-Founder Ben Sturner’s 40th birthday bash at the Manhattan Yacht Club. Yes, it was just as exciting and fun as it sounds. I personally viewed it as a giant networking event, and tried to meet and talk to as many people as I could. Of course, we had numerous photo shoots to take advantage of the breathtaking view of Manhattan behind us.
Yes, this is definitely a different internship than the one I had envisioned for myself back in October. Yes, the days are long and it can be exhausting. But believe me when I say it has been one hell of a roller coaster filled with more ups than downs. And here is the craziest part: it has only been half the ride. With the first half being so good, I expect nothing less than a blockbuster last four weeks of MSBA 2016.