Student Experience- Hortense Fong, Goodyear-Shanghai, China

August 8th, 2011 - No Comments

Hortense Fong is a Junior Finance major at the Smeal College of Business.  Hortense is the Co-President and Founder of Penn State’s Global Business Brigades, a Schreyer Honors students, and actively involved in numerous student organizations.

My summer internship is in Shanghai, China from June through July with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. As a Finance major, I am curious about Corporate Finance and so I work as an intern in the Regional Finance department, specifically on the FP&A (financial planning & analysis) side.

I got this amazing opportunity after speaking with one of the mentors at a Smeal Alumni Mentoring Program dinner. While talking to my mentor, I mentioned that I was interested in interning in Shanghai this summer because I had studied abroad there last summer and had an unforgettable experience. He told me he went to MBA school with the President of Goodyear Asia Pacific, and was kind enough to forward my resume. The President in turn forwarded my resume to HR and the Senior VP of Finance for Goodyear AP. I interviewed with him several weeks later and then I was offered the internship a few weeks after that.

Upon hearing the news, I was very excited about my upcoming summer. From a professional standpoint, I would get to see what working in an international setting is like. In addition, China is a country that is currently full of opportunities because of its unprecedented growth. From a personal standpoint, I would get a chance to develop my networking skills and meet people from all over the world.

I have in fact had the opportunity to meet people from all over—Germany, France, Switzerland, China, Brazil, etc. The Goodyear Asia Pacific office is itself very diverse with employees from the U.S., France, Australia, India, China, Canada, Brazil, and so on. I love hearing the different accents throughout the office more than anything. Everyone here has been very kind and helpful and it’s interesting to hear about their different backgrounds.

Thus far, I have worked on two projects: Report Factory and a project relating to products’ gross-to-net structures. Report Factory has the goal of developing a single central information system that will allow the different countries and departments to draw data from. For the project, I got to work with an incredibly nice gentleman in Singapore and I helped him to consolidate the Sales and EBIT Walks for January through May, making sure the data was consistent with the countries and what was submitted to Corporate, and develop the allocation system for conversion and raw material costs. For the G2N project, a problem exists now where salespeople and customers are unsure about the discount structure of products because of a complex discount system that differs between countries. My assignment was to gather information about the G2N structures of the different countries for the ultimate goal of harmonizing the structure throughout the region. For these projects, the main skills I have needed are basic Excel skills, problem solving abilities, and solid communication skills (since I have to work with people throughout the region). I also have a much better grasp now of what problems people face in corporate finance and what sort of tasks are routinely performed.

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