Internship Spotlight: Karen Chen ’16
What are you doing this summer? We asked rising second-year MBA students to check in from their summer internships, where they are applying the lessons of their first year at Yale SOM.
Karen Chen ’16
Internship: Deloitte Consulting LLP, Human Capital Summer Associate – New York, New York
Home Country/State: Taipei, Taiwan, and New York, USA
Favorite Yale SOM Class: Negotiations (elective)
Clubs & Affiliations: Consulting Club and Marketing Club Leader
One of my goals for business school was to test out consulting as a possible career. As a first-year student, I had the opportunity to meet with a variety of consulting firms via corporate presentations, coffee chats, and informal networking sessions. One company that immediately drew me in was Deloitte Consulting, especially its Human Capital practice. Coming from an HR/recruiting professional background, I loved learning about how I can draw on concrete lessons and experiences I gained from my pre-MBA life to shape and drive a company’s strategy and growth.
My summer internship certainly allowed me to do just that. For my project, I was tasked with assisting a client with integrating their cross-border HR organizations. To do so, I led working sessions with members of the client team to discover pain points and methods for resolution, then I created a living document that synthesized my findings into a comprehensive and digestible packet. I also received the opportunity to flex my quantitative skills when I analyzed client data to determine how the organization should move forward with its change management strategy. My team gave me full autonomy on this work stream so I was in charge of discovering key findings and creating recommendations for the HR vice presidents. It was an exciting opportunity, and I loved every minute of it!