My Internship Experiences in the Human Resources Function of a Consumer Packaged Goods Company

by Hilori Kaloti, MBA ‘13

The Strategic Operations Immersion provided me with a solid background for my internship this summer, where I worked for a Consumer Packaged Goods company. When I heard business leaders refer to concepts regarding capacity planning, supply chain management, and human capital management I immediately had a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of what this entailed. I also had a great understanding of its impact on future business decisions.

I think the skills and knowledge I gained through this Immersion helped differentiate me from my peers. I was also equipped with the appropriate background, skills, and conceptual knowledge to apply operations concepts to practice.

Specifically, I worked in the human resources function in my internship. I supported operations from supply chain, to logistics, to manufacturing, and I could immediately speak the language of the business. I also understood how operations decisions impacted employees.

I worked on the “Integration Team” for a large acquisition in North America, where I helped introduce specific quality and safety improvements to two manufacturing facilities in Canada. By having an operations background, I was able to hit the ground running with functional leaders on some of the key priorities that needed to be implemented. I could also identify and develop strategies to encourage the workforce to embrace the changes and priorities.