Top 5 Lessons from working at KKR during the COVID-19 pandemic

Growing up, I always wanted to become a teacher. I thought that mentorship, leadership, and guidance were amazing qualities that I admired all my teachers for. The idea of giving back knowledge and spreading awareness about topics like mathematics, ethics, history, and language was fascinating to me. Besides, a lot of my favorite teachers were kind and assertive women - so I identified with them.

However, something switched as I grew up. The more challenging classes I took, and the more I surrounded myself with smarter people, I found a new passion: learning. And I can’t help to sound cheesy, but I truly enjoy learning about different industries, roles, and all that life has to offer. I am often asked about my divergent interests, and why I’m hesitant to follow the ‘traditional path’. But to be completely honest, I think that the ‘traditional path’ is a little bit broken. 

When I decided to study Marketing at Northeastern, I thought about what the perfect career path could be for me: taking my required classes, joining a Marketing club, completing 3 co-ops on Marketing, and then landing a Marketing job. 

P.S. At Northeastern University, we have the co-op program. This allows us to work with companies over the course of 6 months full-time (with a semester of classes in between each co-op) to get real-world experience!

However, this all changed as soon as I stepped into the Northeastern campus and attended the club fair. Being surrounded by 500+ organizations made me aware that there is more to education and career path than only one single industry. And perhaps becoming a better Marketer isn’t just to ‘crack the code’ of Marketing, but to learn about how the machine works, and how the Marketing piece fits within the rest.

My ambition to educationally branch out was emphasized when I joined the Entrepreneurs Club and worked with 80+ student-founders over the course of one year. I learned how Marketing can be applied to several different industries ranging from ed-tech, legal services, beauty, e-commerce, software, and more. I also found myself getting exposure to other divisions that exist within an organization, like finance, engineering, UX/UI, design, and people operations. 

After completing two incredibly fulfilling co-ops at Compt as Interim Head of Marketing (learning from the ever-amazing Sarah Bedrick), and Wunderkind as Customer Success Co-op (guided by Adam Isaacson), I wanted to be thoughtful, but mostly courageous, on my last opportunity. After all, why limit myself by learning about 1 industry and 1 role?

I reflected on my entrepreneurial passions and knew that the area I felt most uncomfortable and scared of was venture capital and private equity. And this same intimidation inspired me to learn about it. As my mom likes to say...‘No the preocupes, ocúpate’. 

Meaning: ‘don’t preoccupy yourself, but occupy yourself’. 

If the thought of working in a specific field makes me nervous, then it’s a BIGGER sign that I should try it! Without a technical or financial background, I applied to become a Business Analyst at KKR & Co. After three rounds of interviews and a few weeks of patience, meditation, and optimism, I received the email.

I was in shock. And excited for my third co-op to be in the private equity industry, working with a team of incredibly smart and ambitious people.

While my role as a Business Analyst was to assist the Private Markets and Capital Raising Technology teams, I had the opportunity to work on a plethora of different projects and make connections across divisions. I found myself improving my communication and technical skills every day, constantly receiving feedback and advice from mentors and my manager.

Whether it was conducting data analysis, designing storylines for presentations, executing self-developed testing plans, or working with team leaders on long-term initiatives, I was always learning. 

Not only did I find it exciting to learn how to do a better job in my role, but I also learned a great deal about a new industry. I attended KKR’s speaker series and events, getting an opportunity to learn from leaders like Henry Kravis, and made connections with other co-ops which enriched my experience. 

And since I believe that knowledge must be shared, here are the ‘Top 5 Lessons’ from my co-op at KKR:

1) Be detail-oriented.

When working with a technology team, being detail-oriented is 80% of the job. You need to constantly think of alternative scenarios, and put yourself in the shoes of the system’s user. It is not only about creating a detailed test plan, but taking the time to think about the user journey and how they would interact with a specific report, page, or feature.

And one word of advice, if you ever think you are done...think again. Perhaps, think about it another 5 times. There will always be a scenario you are overlooking. 

2) Ask questions that put the big picture together.

My manager, Mike Giordano, was an incredible mentor when it came to explaining the big picture behind my projects, and he also wanted me to ask those questions for my own understanding. While it can be easy to get a new project or task, it’s equally important to ask how this piece fits with the rest of the machine.

Some of these questions sounded like: Who will benefit most from this project? Why is this important for X team and how does this impact Y and Z teams? Why hasn’t this project been completed before? What are some considerations and industry news to keep in mind when completing this project?

Not only does asking questions about the big-picture allow you to have a better understanding of your work, but in return, it helps you to stay motivated

3) Aim to exceed expectations and take ownership.

This is one of the greatest pieces of feedback one of my team members gave me - he encouraged me to go the extra mile in all of my projects and exceed expectations. Instead of looking at a task at face-value, it was important for me to ask ‘why’ this problem was happening, and find alternative solutions. 

4) Take your learning journey into your own hands.

Be courageous when learning, and don’t limit yourself. While your manager is available for all of your questions, put your learning journey into your own hands and ask other team members, and even read some articles on the topics you’re interested in learning more about. 

You might even find interesting stuff that you can share with your team!

5) Add your own spark to everything you do!

Whenever I felt imposter syndrome, or like I wasn’t equipped for this role, I reminded myself that the team chose me for a reason. It would be a shame for me to dim my strengths because I think they don't fit with the role description.

I often incorporated my eye for design in my projects, and the idea of user personalization. To my surprise, adding my own ‘spark’ into my projects turned out to be the best thing I could have done. Mike gave me awesome feedback on the projects where I let my creativity flow, and whenever I introduced my passion for putting the user at the center of everything.

Whatever your spark is - don’t lose it in your job. Instead, look for ways to incorporate it into your work ??

So…what’s next? 

As you might have guessed, I’m still committed to learning as much as I can with a new interest in technology.

Am I passionate about Marketing? I’m passionate about improving the customer experience for all products and services. I guess you could describe that as Marketing, but I think about it as the strong foundation for any single role. 

I’m also excited to announce that my learning journey will continue as an upcoming intern for Tesla in their Manufacture Engineering (Service Campaigns & Development) team in 2021! I’m looking forward to executing on the skills I developed during my previous co-op experiences and learning new ones.

So cheers to what life has to offer and for you to follow your personal path?? You never know where it might take you.