Allan Christopher Carranza, 2012 BFSI Participant

A little over a month ago I traveled to Seattle, Washington for an interview process with Microsoft Corporation that might have been as stressful as the couple weeks in the middle of HBFSI that no one ever forgets. (Business Plan, Venture Capitalists, Presentations, Stock Market Report, MARKETPLACE DECISIONS!) I am proud to say that even before I left Seattle the day after my interviews, I received and accepted an offer for a 2013 summer internship position as a Mechanical Engineer Intern with Microsoft Corporation. Not only was I proud of this accomplishment, but I have also found out since my acceptance that I am the first Mechanical Engineer from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin to be offered this position with Microsoft.

The Microsoft recruitment staff raved about my business etiquette and knowledge and I can thank you all for that. During my specific interview date, there were only 9 students who had been invited for the Mechanical Engineering position, of which only 5 were eligible for the internship position while the others were full-time position seeking. It is safe to say that this position is a very selective one, especially since I had overheard only about 35-50 were offered last year. Seeing that Microsoft is an internationally recruiting company, the odds seemed to be against me. As I heard the rest of the interviewees talk about their 4.0 GPA's and schools like Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Cal-Berkely, I knew I lacked the GPA and the glory of the top 5 engineering school but could still compete with my own bragging rights.

One thing I did have that they could never compete with was a McCombs education. I was even the only interviewee to wear a business suit, knowing that Dr. Riekenberg and Dr. Loescher would not dare allow me to leave Austin without my own "power suit."  I had four interviews in a four hour time span that were supposed to be focused on engineering skills, but through each interview I was able to speak business with my interviewer. There is really no language that treats you better than the language of business in the job market. I spoke about every aspect of the five classes we were enrolled in (Accounting, Finance, International Business, Management, and Marketing) and a couple of the interviewers could not believe we had the opportunity to complete a simulation like Marketplace in only 8 weeks.

I cannot thank you all enough for the amount of knowledge you helped me gain this summer…each and every one of you was able to create a strong connection with all of the students, which made learning so much easier. I understand that completing a Business Foundations certificate is an achievement, but completing the HBFSI program is an honor. I know that many of you speak about past students and how [they] talked about how rewarding the program was once they felt the effects of it. You can definitely include me in that group of students. I have been meaning to thank you all for quite some time and finally found the time to do it. I understand that devoting an entire summer to this program is a sacrifice you all make and I will never be able to thank you all enough for the impact you had on not only my upcoming career, but my life.

Russell Brockett, 2011 BFSI Participant

(Russell is now a graduate student at the McCombs School of Business, studying Finance.)