Student Internship Experiences

 

Chad Osborn, MBA ’06
Concentration: Supply Chain Management
Company: VF Corporation

Chad Osborn, MBA ’06, completed a Summer 2005 internship with VF Corporation (formerly known as Vanity Fair). The internship took him to Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Mexico, among other places.

 

Q. Why did you pursue an internship this summer? And why did you accept the one you did?

A. I wanted to get experience in the supply chain field (my concentration) to see what opportunities exist out in industry. I also wanted to broaden my understanding of the opportunities within supply chain to assist with my career decisions upon graduation. I accepted a position with VF Internal Audit due to the unique nature of the assignment. The internship required quite a bit of travel, something I was not accustomed to. Moreover, I was told that there may be some international travel involved as well. Since my interest is in global supply chain, I felt I could not pass up this opportunity to learn about a large corporation's global supply chain.

 

Q. What in your MBA program or prior experience prepared you for the internship?

A. I feel that my background in industrial engineering and my three and a half years of experience with Intel Corporation prepared me for the internship. Also, Bart Queen's communication seminars (in the MBA program’s Managerial and Career Effectiveness course) helped tremendously since I had to interact with and speak with a lot of people from different cultures and backgrounds.

 

Q. What did you hope to gain from the internship?

A. I hoped to gain a better understanding of global supply chain and the effect it has on a company's bottom line. I also wanted to meet and learn from professionals in the industry who have been successful in their careers, and to use that knowledge as a springboard for my own career in the supply chain field.

 

Q. How did you personally prepare for the internship, so that you could achieve your goal and bring value to the company?

A. I read a lot of articles on the Internet about VF Corporation to get a better idea as to what it was all about. Since I am new to the apparel industry, I had a lot to learn in a very short period of time. I researched the company itself via its impressive websites. Through all of this, I started the internship with a sizable amount of information about the company and department and was able to maximize my time during orientation by asking more detailed questions pertaining to the internship itself.

 

Q. What would you say to first-year MBA students about the internship experience, from the search to actually working on site?

A. My suggestion would be to start looking early and apply for as many applicable positions as possible. My atypical internship provided me with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. First of all, the internship was in Internal Audit. With an engineering degree and only one MBA accounting course in my portfolio, I was surprised at how my skills lent themselves to a new area. VF was looking for CPAs and Big Four experience. I did not have either of those and I ended up with an internship that was exactly what I wanted…and needed! I was exposed to different facets of the business as well as the opportunity to work and interact with executives in the company. I got to visit some amazing places and learn the template for success within a global economy. I visited New York City, Hong Kong, mainland China, Los Angeles, Mexico, and several locations in North Carolina. In each, I got to see the inner workings of the operations including factory visits, port operations, and critical internal operations.

 

Photo cutline:

Chad Osborn ate at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Hong Kong while being oriented to the area by one of VF Asia's vice presidents. "You actually have to ride on a boat to get out to the floating restaurant," Osborn said. "A typical Chinese lunch (so I was told) is a variety of dim sum (dumplings filled with various meats and vegetables) served family style. And of course hot tea to wash the meal down. It was really good."