Vladimir Gogish
Vladimir Gogish graduated from White Plains High School in White Plains, New York.
“I spent the summer working for Deloitte Consulting, and I was staffed on a project in Piscataway, New Jersey at one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. I was engaged in a big HR consulting project. My role on it was two-fold. One aspect of it dealt with change management—helping folks deal with the new systems that were being implemented at the company."
“The other half of my time was spent with organizational design efforts—modeling what the structure of the organization would look like in the future after the systems were put in and new people were hired and jobs were changed around.
I had never actually done an internship at a consulting firm before. I have heard of students making copies and getting coffee, but this internship far exceeded any expectations that I had. I was really treated as a first year employee rather than a student intern. It was an incredible summer."
“I sat in on meetings. I took notes during interviews with clients. I really felt like the firm put a lot of trust in me and basically told me, here, run with it and see what you can do. I think working hard and making the most of the opportunities I was given really built up their confidence in me."
“I believe that this internship really helped me to understand just how important effective communication is on the job—and this could be applied to any internship or any permanent job. I was working on a team of Deloitte consultants, and often I would be taking direction from two people and sometimes more. It demanded flexibility and prioritization on my part. And the way that the consultants interacted with each other and with the clients really helped me to increase my level of professionalism and my interpersonal skills. It took good communication to structure the work in a way where I could be productive and not become overwhelmed. "
“Prior to the summer, I was strongly considering going to law school, but after my experience with Deloitte, I really shifted my focus, and at this point I am contemplating going into human resources or consulting.
Law school could be somewhere in my future, but right now, I really don’t want to go back to school after college. I loved working so much that I just want to get more experience and either get my MBA or my law degree in the future."
“I think any student can learn a great deal about the ‘real world’ from both school and work. Here at Cornell, everyone works hard—that’s a fact. But, just like college is different from high school, the working world is different from college. Just the routine you get into—all that really took a toll on me at first. It’s a great lesson for any student to learn—what it’s like to actually go to work and be there from at least 9-6, and then to go back and do more work at night.
In the real world, there is no month long winter break. My summer internship was really a great lesson in time management and showed me what the working world is like. It's one thing to think you want to go on to one particular job or graduate school, but working during the summer really helps you figure out where you want to go and what you enjoy doing.”