YU Students Spend Their Summer in Tech
Many YU students take a gap-year in Israel prior to arriving on campus, which means that they typically spend only three years on campus - hardly enough time to focus on core requirements and courses required for their major. For business students looking to expand their horizons, summers can serve as a crucial time learn about the different industries and professional tracks that will be available to them at graduation. In this article we’ll take a look at the experiences of two students, both of whom spent their summer as interns for tech startups.
Moishi Eisenmann, a senior and Management major at Syms, originally hails from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Upon graduation, Moishi hopes to apply his entrepreneurial edge in the high tech industry. Moishi spent his summer working for a Digital Customer Experience (DCX) Management company called Clicktale, which helps businesses track their customers’ activity on their websites. The company operates globally and was recently ranked as one of the 20 fastest growing companies in EMEA by Deloitte. Clicktale serves notable companies like MetLife and Wal-Mart.
Moishi worked in the marketing department, performing tasks such as video editing and marketing research. He noted that over the course over the summer, “there was never a dull moment.” He highlighted two of the most interesting functions he performed. One was competitor analysis, in which he studied a competitor and compiled a report about it. Another was social media analysis. While summer interns across all industries sometimes perform menial tasks, Moishi was proud to point out that his research based suggestions on how to improve Clicktale’s social media presence has already been implemented by the company.
A second YU student who worked in the tech industry this summer is Adam Kramer, originally from Boston, MA. Adam is studying Political Science in YC and is pursuing a Business minor at Syms. He worked for a startup that is creating a system for home-service companies to manage and schedule their employees. Adam commented that today, with many industries becoming like Uber—where a user can summon a ride at his convenience, with the freedom to choose the type and level of car in the process—it was an enriching experience to work for a startup that is helping companies revolutionize their own industries with on-demand software and product.
Adam worked as a Customer Success intern. He assisted the start-up in on-boarding new clients onto the company’s service platform, which turned out to be more challenging than anticipated given that technicians in the home-services industry aren’t adept with technology—some don’t even own smartphones! Adam designed a Help Center with over 40 articles explaining to the companies how to use the system. Among his other tasks, he created video tutorials for the startup’s software, which provided explanations of its various functions. Adam also wrote blog posts that highlighted different elements of the application and ways that users of the application could maximize the product.
Adam reflected on the unique culture of the startup, noting that it took him some time to acclimate to working at a fast pace and actively seeking out new projects, but that he had an extremely rewarding experience working in this culture. He commented that having an internship at a startup provided valuable experience in terms of understanding what it takes to succeed as a small company that works with, and competes against, larger players.
