Shanti - San Jose 2005

Meet Shanti - Extreme Blue Class of 2005

Shanti was an Extreme Blue™ business intern in San Jose. She received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, with a minor in Dance. Currently, Shanti is working on her MBA in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. At Kellogg, she's concentrating on marketing, technology management, and nonprofit management. Shanti is originally from the San Francisco Bay area and worked for five years as a lead communication systems engineer at Space Systems/Loral, participating in business and technical projects.

Why do you think you were selected for the Extreme Blue internship?

My strong technical background, along with leadership roles at school and work, gave me a well-rounded skill set. Also, my communication skills allow me to work cross-functionally and prepared me for working with potential business partners. I've had experience working with different teams and multiple functional roles. My familiarity with marketing and market research gave me helpful experience for our current project. I'm very team oriented, which I think helped.

What inspired you to apply?

IBMers at an MBA conference in Fort Worth, TX invited me out to dinner, which really helped me get a feel for the people who work for IBM, and I sensed a fit. I saw that Extreme Blue would give me a great opportunity to work on an emerging technology project, but from the business side. The structure of the program and its reputation were also attractive features.

Briefly describe what your day-to-day activities and responsibilities included.

I discussed progress and feature development plans with technical interns, set milestones for development, and conducted business research (market, competition, technology). I also discussed business/marketing objectives and strategies with business mentors, managers, and EB business speakers. Other time was spent planning and organizing meetings/demos with our sponsor, mentors, potential users, and partners.

As a business intern, what impact did the technical interns have on you?

My technical background helped me communicate with the technical interns, but there was still a difference between electrical engineering majors and those with a computer science background. It helped that the technical interns had good communication skills, and they have taught me numerous things about software and code development. I've had to find different ways to adjust to communicating with members of the team, but was very impressed with the level of work they can do. The technical interns knew a good amount about the latest tools and what's going on in the technology world in general. That knowledge was helpful when looking at the market and competitors.

Were there any surprises about this commitment?

I was pleasantly surprised with the help MBAs have received with placement for a full-time position.

How did your experiences prepare you for the Extreme Blue experience?

My leadership experience and experience working with diverse groups of people prepared me for Extreme Blue. School helped a lot because it has given me a formal business education and a framework for approaching things. For example, I had one class on technical consulting and another on new product innovation; both have been directly applicable to my Extreme Blue experience.