MBA Student Spotlight: Rebecca Blei Interns at Credit Suisse

Rebecca Blei, a Tepper MBA and Heinz MSHCPM student, spent her summer interning at investment bank Credit Suisse. She caught up with us to share her summer experience, which ultimately led to a full-time offer. Congrats, Rebecca!

Tell us more about you.

I moved to the U.S. in 2012 from Italy and enrolled at Emory University, where I pursued my undergraduate studies in Business and Neuroscience. Upon graduation, I moved to New York City and worked as a management consultant at Kearney for three years.

As I moved up the ranks, I was able to join the firm’s health practice. I decided to come to CMU to deepen my knowledge in healthcare and business, thereby pursuing a dual degree with an MBA at Tepper and an MS in Healthcare Policy & Management at Heinz.

You recently completed a summer internship. Can you tell us about it?

This past summer I interned as an Investment Banking Summer Associate at Credit Suisse. I was a part of the Healthcare group and focused on Biotech with the team in San Francisco. Among various projects, I worked on two live IPO deals, and one of them closed while I was interning.

I loved my experience at Credit Suisse, and really appreciated being close to the science again, working with extremely inspirational and driven leaders within the biotechnology industry.

How did you approach the process of securing your internship? How did the Masters Career Center (MCC) support you?

My internship search journey began on the biotech side, rather than the investment banking side. After having secured a few offers early on in the year, I broadened my search and expanded to explore options within banking. My investment banking internship search was very targeted toward biotech and allowed me to keep a narrower focus with offices in San Francisco.

The Graduate Finance Association (GFA) and the MCC were instrumental in helping me secure my investment banking internship. Jackie Goslin from the MCC was extremely helpful and supportive, as well as a few of last year’s second years in the GFA who constantly helped me with interview prep.

What skills or tools from the Tepper School helped you most during your internship?

Finance and Accounting classes were definitely helpful, but what was most helpful was the network built between first and second years who interned in the industry. The GFA helped a lot with the network as well as some of the banking specific technical skills through preparatory sessions with second years and Wall Street Prep.

We heard you also secured a full-time offer! Congrats! What are you most looking forward to when you start your full-time position?

I’m very excited to move out to the Bay Area and to work at the center of biotech. I look forward to working in investment banking — a fast-paced, apprenticeship environment, with a continued emphasis on learning and development.

What knowledge from Tepper will help you most in your new role?

Due to the nature of my dual degree program, I will spend most of my second year at Heinz taking healthcare-related classes. I’m excited to gain a deeper understanding of the industry before deep-diving into my new career.

Moreover, I will be completing my Healthcare Analytics concentration at Tepper, and look forward to being able to apply the learnings in my full-time position.