Beau Baker is a senior marketing major who completed an internship with Aetna this past summer. Aetna is a health care company, which sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance plans. His responsibilities included assisting and shadowing account managers with their day-to-day activities. When we asked Beau what he learned from having real world experience, he honestly stated, “Corporate America is not nearly as efficient as I expected.” Even though it was not what Beau anticipated, he still enjoyed his internship and got an inside look at a corporate company.

Throughout the summer, Beau realized how much his marketing classes have helped him. He said his professional selling class was important because it taught him how to look at consultative selling and his OPIM courses worked with Excel, which prepared him the most for the internship.

Beau heard about the Aetna internship through professors at UConn and attending the Insurance and Financial Services (IFS) Career Fair in Hartford over last winter break. Over the course of his internship, Beau received plenty of advice from employers at Aetna. The best advice was “one of the most important aspects of going into sales is learning how to lose with grace and to be patient.” He said all the advice he was given over this past summer will help him with the next steps of his future.

Beau’s advice for others: “Get started looking and applying for internships early, if you can find an internship earlier you’re going to be less stressed come spring break and the rest of the semester.”