Discovering a new organization and state as an intern

I have a tendency to plan rather far in advance (huge understatement), so I was pretty psyched to get the MBA intern calendar from Walmart in my email prior starting my internship. Opening it was actually overwhelming- there is literally at least one training / tour / meal / happy hour / concert / festival / charity event / bike ride every single day for the whole summer! I’m thankful that Walmart is helping us get to know the Northwest Arkansas area while we’re there, since they understand that not every MBA student is clamoring to move there full-time without a trial run. I’ve spent the last 5 years in Boston taking road trips all over New England, so I am excited to explore a new area and enjoy the lakes and mountains in the region. Maybe I’ll even drive the 45 minutes across the border to Oklahoma and see my 35th state…

As for time spent in the office, I’m excited about that too! It will be a nice change from sitting in class each day, and I’m curious to see how different it is from my previous job. I imagine the main difference will be the financial impact of any given project. Given Walmart’s scale, I expect to be amazed by the sheer magnitude of the numbers I’ll be seeing when I reunite with my friend, Microsoft Excel. It will also be gratifying to apply some shiny new b-school knowledge to my project and further realize what I have gained from HBS in the past year.