Internships can be invaluable for students speculating about their futures; not only do internships offer an impressive boost to a student’s résumé, they also provide windows into the career world so that students can get a grasp on what types of job would be right or wrong for them.
A series of different public financial management internships with the state of New Jersey—one with an economic revitalization planning authority determining the future of Fort Monmouth Army Base, two with the treasury department in international finance and investment analysis, and one with a New Jersey assemblywoman - taught Julie Meurer ’11 that she ultimately was best suited to work in corporate finance. Meurer, who recently graduated from Hamilton with a degree in economics and government, will take the next logical step in pursuing her career when she begins work next month in financial analysis in Mountain View, Calif., for the technological powerhouse, Google.
Meurer’s last internship was with Google in the summer of 2010 and was part of the Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) program, which is designed to provide undergraduate students with exposure into the technology industry. Meurer worked in global revenue operation for Google’s Emerging Businesses and Acquisitions team, where she was involved in a diverse array of projects, including an evaluation of the financial integration of AdMob and Invite Media and an evaluation of the frequency and reasoning code for Google Affiliate Network credit memos.
Meurer notes that the structure of the BOLD program was part of what attracted her to continue her relationship with Google. Google is a growing company, and management is always looking for enthusiastic young workers to add to the ever-growing staff, so they take special care to make their BOLD program interns feel like they are part of the Google team. Buzzwords for interns’ tasks are words like “develop,” “build,” and “create,” because Google is committed to providing interns with exciting, productive experience with important company projects and initiatives. BOLD interns also participate in the Friday Series, a series of talks which expose them to higher-ups in Google’s corporate management, and gives them opportunities to hear directly from upper level management about how the company is run.
At the end of last summer Meurer applied for a post-graduate position with Google and she was offered a job and signed a contract in November. She says that knowing so early on that she had someplace to go after graduation took a lot of the stress out of her senior year. “The job search is like taking a fifth class, and one that I was glad I didn’t have to take this past spring,” Meurer says. “I still wanted to do well in school, but it became less stressful and to a degree I was working on my thesis more for me and less for my resume or to use in an interview.”
At Hamilton, Meurer was involved as a member of Hamilton Action Volunteer Outreach Coalition and Hamilton Alumni Leadership Training, and competed as an athlete on the women’s varsity soccer team and the women’s rugby football club. She was a peer tutor at the Oral Communication Center and the Quantitative Literacy Center and served as a resident advisor and first-year orientation leader. She was co-founder and president of the Hamilton chapter of College Against Cancer.
Meurer says that her interest in finance began in earnest after she took Industrial Organization with Professor of Economics Betsy Jensen in 2009. She later conducted an independent study project on marketing in duopoloy markets with Jensen, and wrote two theses during her senior year: “Military Exceptionalism and the Diminishment of Religious Liberty Standards” in government and “Nowcasting in the Mobile Phone Industry with Google Search Queries” in economics.
After her positive experience with Google last summer, Meurer is fairly certain that she wants to work in corporate finance for the rest of her life. She plans either to go to business school or to enter into an executive MBA program within Google in the 2-6 year range. “In terms of ultimate goals,” she says, “I want to love what I do and really get a feel for the whole company in whatever company I’m working for.”
Meurer is a graduate of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in New Jersey.
