With or without a pandemic, Manning School of Business student Nisarg Jhaveri was going to be communicating remotely with colleagues this summer in his global operations supply chain internship with Dell Technologies.
“Communication is one of the most important soft skills you can develop, and doing so remotely is important,” says Jhaveri, a junior business administration major from Acton, Mass.
Working remotely from home during his internship, Jhaveri has had the opportunity to take on an end-to-end supply chain compliance process review, which involves working with teams across the globe and also includes robotic automation. Jhaveri has daily check-ins on Zoom with mentors in North Carolina and Cork, Ireland, to help him guide through the process and ensure the project deliverables are on track.
“I’m learning a lot about project management and the regulatory compliance process,” says Jhaveri, who applied for the internship after connecting with Dell at last fall’s Career Fair.
He accepted the internship offer in early November, but then had to wait to see if the company would still run its summer program once the pandemic hit. Ultimately, the internship was shortened by three weeks and converted to remote work, but Jhaveri was thrilled to learn that it was still a go.
“The fact that they were able to continue the internship experience despite the pandemic, which I assume was a very big challenge for them, is amazing,” he says.
Jhaveri has still been able to experience the company culture while working from home. He has participated in virtual meetings with senior leadership that Dell hosts for small groups of interns, and he has also joined an employee networking group that focuses on environmental and sustainability issues.
“It’s small things like this that show the company cares about the way people live outside of work,” says Jhaveri, who has been impressed by how Dell accepts and integrates people into its corporate culture.
Originally from Ahmedabad, India, Jhaveri moved to Acton with his family while in high school. He says he chose to attend UML because of its quality business school and because it was close enough to home to allow him to commute.
With concentrations in accounting and finance, Jhaveri landed an internship as an investor services associate at Putnam Investments in Andover the summer following his freshman year. When the internship ended in the fall, he was asked to stay on as a part-time employee through the remainder of 2019.
“It was a great way to broaden my horizons in what the finance industry is about,” says Jhaveri, who encourages every student to take advantage of the real-world experience provided by internships and co-ops. “The exposure allows us, as students, to understand how so many different things work together to make a company function so well.”
Jhaveri, who is open to a career in either finance or accounting, was one of four Manning School accounting students to recently receive a $5,000 scholarship from the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants’ Educational Foundation. He learned about the scholarship in an accounting class with Assoc. Teaching Prof. Laura Christianson.
“The Manning School of Business has amazing faculty and staff. The way they support the students is state-of-the-art work,” says Jhaveri, who makes a point to visit professors during their office hours — even if he isn’t in their class.
“I like to visit with professors like Dr. (Khondkar) Karim and Dr. (Luvai) Motiwalla,” he says. “I like to just chat with them and learn more about their day to day. I’m interested in what they are doing.”