Name: Isabel Olivos

Year: Senior

Majors: MMSS, Political Science

CFS Program: Field Studies in the Humanities

Employer: Nielsen

This quarter, I’ve had the opportunity to intern at Nielsen in their Innovation practice area on the forecasting and activation team. I’m a senior majoring in MMSS and Political Science, and I decided to take on a full time internship during winter quarter where I could apply the analytical and technical skills I’ve acquired in the classroom in order to better position myself for full time opportunities. My previous professional experience has been across a variety of industries—politics, non-profit, small business consulting, academic research—and I wanted to explore a different path, this time in market research.

My internship experience thus far has exceeded my expectations, and I’m very satisfied to have made the choice to work at Nielsen this quarter. Coming in, I wasn’t sure what kind of work I would be doing or what exactly the Innovation practice consisted of, but I feel very fortunate to be placed where I was. My first few weeks were filled with rigorous trainings, learning Nielsen’s internal software, and becoming familiarized with the team. Since then, I’ve worked on several interesting projects, producing results directly for clients as well as internally for the rest of the forecasting and activation team, and have gotten to review with upper management throughout the process. I’ve found that I’m provided with a good balance of support and independence; I can take ownership of projects while knowing I can ask questions to anyone on the team. The forecasting team is a fairly small department within Innovation, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them as well as learn from them.

I really enjoy my CFS in the Humanities course as well. Last spring I took CFS in Civic Engagement with Liz McCabe, and knew if I was doing CFS again, I wanted the class to be with her. I haven’t taken many humanities courses throughout my time at Northwestern, and I wanted a crash course of this discipline. Learning about cultural representations of work in modern history has been really interesting and, sometimes surprisingly, applicable. I like having the chance to reflect on my internship, as well as my future professional experience, in a larger context. Overall, this quarter’s CFS experience has been extremely rewarding and I would recommend both my internship location and class to prospective CFS students.