Name: Siddharth Panandiker

Year: Junior

Major: Economics

Minor: Mathematics

CFS Class: Business Field Studies

Employer: Blaige & Co. LLC

This summer I completed an internship with Blaige & Company, a boutique investment bank that specializes in sell-side M&A in the plastics, packaging and chemicals industries. During this internship, I gained truly valuable exposure to the world of corporate M&A and was given the chance to contribute to various stages of the investment process. My role as a marketing and research intern gave me the opportunity to help draft confidential memorandums, produce client deliverables, lead a segment marketing initiative, research landmark transactions, and gather and input sales data. The practical experiences gained over this summer were nicely complimented by the Business Field Studies course, which was an immeasurable help to my professional development. Over the course of these weekly meetings, I learnt to network, improve my presentation skills, and broaden my understanding of various aspects of the workplace. One of the highlights of my experiences with Blaige & Co was being given the responsibility to lead the creation of a segment-specific marketing initiative. This assignment involved leveraging several years of industry research to produce a highly targeted slide deck, as well as updating prospect lists, and deep-dive market research. Since I’m continuing this internship beyond the duration of CFS, I’m excited to see how our efforts come into fruition as we begin to execute these marketing initiatives. The projects I worked on have been very helpful in honing my Excel skills, collaborating with team members and taking initiative when asking for feedback from supervisors. I really enjoyed this internship especially because it was different from my previous experiences in the workforce. The Field Studies program has definitely equipped me with useful tools I can bring with me to my next job.