The Internship Experience: Parin Chopda, MS-MIS Candidate 2015 – Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Parin Chopda
Full-time MS-MIS 2015

Industry: Information Technology

Undergraduate Degree In: Bachelors of Technology (Computer Science)

Undergraduate School: Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Symbiosis International University (Pune, India)

Career Goal: To work as an Information Systems professional leveraging my technical knowledge and business analysis skills acquired through MIS curriculum, course projects and previous work experience.

I applied on the Careers website of Motorola Solutions, Inc. in the first week of January and got an interview call in February. I was interviewed by Oliver Griengl-Schott (Director, Global Services and Supplier Management) and Meet Mehta (Sr. Analyst). They offered me the internship within a week after the interview.

Did you receive any help from the Business Career Center in finding your internship?  (Examples would be: referrals, coaching, interviewing tips, etc.)
Justin Lall from BCC helped me streamline my resume and gave vital tips to help me prepare myself better for interviews. He advised me to modify my resume based on the roles that I’m was applying to.

What factor(s) did you consider when choosing to accept your internship offer?

• The reputation of the organization
• My hiring manager explained the role and project details in advance
• Future prospects

What are your responsibilities at your internship?

I’m a part of the ‘IT Sourcing’ team as a ‘Business Analyst’ in the ‘Global Services and Supplier Management’ department. Currently, I’m working on 2 projects concurrently:

Leveraging the previously used ‘Vendor Scorecard’, optimizing it, and creating a new process to evaluate the performance of the suppliers at Motorola Solutions from IT Services, IT Software, and IT Infrastructure verticals. Using the scorecard results, I’m classifying the suppliers into a ‘Category Matrix.’

Redesigning the Intranet portal of the ‘Global Services and Supplier Management’ department to facilitate collaboration between the team members on various projects.

What do you like most about your internship?
I get to work with various key IT stakeholders from the Services, Software, and Infrastructure verticals on a daily basis who choose the key suppliers for Motorola Solutions. My mentor and manager have always been open regarding changes in the currently used business processes and it was satisfying when the recommendations suggested by me were accepted and incorporated. Additionally, Human Resources organizes something called ‘Lunch & Learn’ sessions on a regular basis, wherein various key stakeholders of the company talk about the latest trends, which Motorola has been incorporating. So far, we have had sessions with Juliann Larimer, VP of North America Marketing, and Jennifer Roberts, Director of North America Operations. Next week, Human Resources has arranged a one on one, half an hour session, with Eduardo Conrado, Senior VP Marketing and IT, and I’m looking forward to it.

What has been the most valuable lesson you’ve learned at your internship, thus far?
Be ready to embrace change, get constructive feedback and network proactively.

Do you have a mentor at your internship? If you do, what has been the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received?
Yes, Meet Mehta who is also a UIC alumnus (MBA, Batch of 2012). He keeps telling me to be curious about any project that I get to work on, research thoroughly in advance and not to get disappointed if my work doesn’t get approved even though I put in my best efforts. The needs of IT and Business stakeholders are usually different and the solution/ project submitted will not always be approved. It took me 4 iterations before the work was finally approved.