Name: Sheldon Fields '16
Hometown: West Orange, NJ
College/Major: Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Economics/Management
Pre-Business School: Sales & Trading at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Investment Banking at Royal Bank of Scotland
Summer Internship: Corporate Finance at Nike, Inc.
Post-Anderson: Manager, Global Business Planning @ Nike, Inc.
PRE-ANDERSON
Childhood dream job: I wanted to be a NBA Player. I used to be somewhat good at basketball so why not dream big?
Why business school? I wanted to transition from a career in Investment Banking to a career in sports and thought business school would be the best way for me to revamp my career.
Why Anderson? Anderson was particularly appealing to me because of the MEMES Center, Sports Business Association, and alumni working in the sports industry. Since recruiting for sports is a fairly unique career path in business school in general, I knew at Anderson I would be surrounded by peers with similar goals and have the appropriate academic/alumni resources to get my "foot in the door."
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ANDERSON
Anderson Activities & Leadership:
ASA VP of Social
VP of Anderson Admission Corps (AAC)
Member of African American Students in Management
Orientation Leader of the Section E Champs!
Member: Sports Business Association, Entertainment Management Association, High Tech Business Association, Anderson Wine Club, Basketball Club, Soccer Club
Favorite class and why? Sports Management with Jeff Moorad. Jeff is a legendary agent in the sports business, so it was pretty awesome to hear his perspective on the sports industry. Besides bringing Alex Rodriguez as our first guest speaker, we were also able to present a strategy plan to the senior managers of the Anaheim Ducks. Overall, the class gave me great insight to the numerous opportunities in the sports business.
Favorite Anderson event/trip? Why? Last year the Sports Business Association did a DOJ (Day on the Job) to Portland to visit Nike and Adidas. On those visits, I had the opportunity to meet Lance Johnson '12 who helped orchestrate the DOJ. Lance eventually served as an unofficial mentor during my internship and was instrumental in me landing the full-time offer at Nike!
Applied Management Research Project: We worked with a well-known ad agency based in LA that has traditionally collaborated with large corporations to provide marketing services. Since growth opportunity in LA is now with small businesses due to the rise of Silicon Beach, they wanted us to explore the possibility of exchanging equity in the start-ups for marketing services.
Best Anderson memory thus far: As the VP of Social, I am a little biased on this question! Tailgates were awesome, Anderween was a blast and AnderProm was epic. Anderson has plenty to offer and social life is certainly one element!
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RECRUITING
What did you do the summer before business school to prep for fall recruiting? As a member of the Consortium, I had the benefit of working with the Parker advisors over the summer in preparation for recruiting. I was able to get some early edits to my resume as well as some interview prep since we interviewed with some companies for summer internships prior to school starting. The Parker CMC is amazing!
How many informational interviews did you conduct? Over 100
How did you utilize Parker in your job search and interview prep? Jessica Christopher was very instrumental in my job search and interview prep! She not only kept me calm during the nerve-wrecking interview process, but helped me figure out the best ways to approach tough interview questions. To me, Anderson is like a family. In fact, I told Parker about my offer before my parents!
What helped most in your interview preparation and career search? I set up a ton of informational interviews with current students, Anderson alumni and personal connections. Recruiting for sports is unique as there is not traditional recruiting path and it starts much later in the school year. With that said, the Parker CMC taught me the power of Linkedin and creating a contact database. Before you knew it, I had a list of over 100 people in the sports industry that I contacted for advice.
Did you participate in any internships during the school year? I was a Corporate Strategy Intern at NBCUniversal during the Winter and Spring quarters. As I was looking to transition careers, it was great to gain a real understanding of a work culture outside of the finance world. It also helped to make a few extra dollars because business school is expensive!
Describe your summer internship. During the summer, I worked in the Finance department at Nike. My main project was assessing the appropriateness of using a 12% hurdle rate as the minimum rate of return for capital budgeting on global projects.
Sheldon taking full advantage of the Nike Employee discount during the internship!
How did you land your internship? Since Nike did not recruit on campus at the time, I submitted my resume on their website. Luckily, I received a phone call from HR a few weeks later to invite me to a first round interview, which took place the following day. I immediately reached out to the Anderson alumni at Nike who I had met at the DOJ in Portland to see if they had some time to chat before my interview. All of them responded within 15 minutes and I was able to get great insight on what working life at Nike is all about. In fact, Lance Johnson '12 worked quite closely with the hiring manager and was able to put in a good word for me....talk about the power of the Anderson alumni network!
-Jessica Devereaux, Communications Manager, Parker Career Management Center
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