Why This Finance Major Didn’t Intern at a Bank Last Summer

For Tyler Muraski, who’s graduating in December from Ohio State University, working in corporate finance just wasn’t something that ever crossed his mind. Instead, he always saw himself in investment banking.

Then he landed an internship with Scotts Miracle-Gro on the brand finance team. He was drawn to the office atmosphere and the chance to contribute in a big way. Now, this Ohio-based surfer (yes, there are places to surf in Ohio) is rethinking what he wants to do after college. Here’s what he wants you to know about his summer at Scotts Miracle-Gro.

You’re More than Your Internship Department

Throughout the summer, Tyler was given opportunities to learn about all of the finance departments at Scotts Miracle-Gro. “Managers are open to letting you shadow people from different teams,” he says. “So if you want to learn more about supply chain or treasury to get a better understanding of the company, you can.”

Tyler also found himself working closely with interns from other departments—like when he and seven other finance interns spent a week putting together a presentation based on a Harvard case study about Scotts Miracle-Gro. At the end of that week, they presented to more than 60 finance employees.

But the goal of that project wasn’t to compete with other intern groups (though Tyler says there was definitely some friendly competition going on). Instead, it was about introducing interns to leaders in other finance departments at the company so they’d be top-of-mind if a job opened up in one of those departments.

You’re Trusted with a Lot of Responsibility

Tyler was able to accomplish an incredible amount during his summer internship, but there’s one assignment he’s most proud of: “When new products roll out, the brand finance team works with the marketing and sales teams to do the financial work for those projects,” he says. “My manager let me do two of these myself. I even took them to VPs at the company to get them signed.”

That trust is one of the reasons Tyler knew he made the right internship decision.

Scotts Miracle-Gro was Tyler’s first internship. Now, he’s interning for a financial services firm and giving a more traditional finance job a try. That way, when graduation rolls around, he’ll have a better idea of his ideal work environment.

Whatever he decides to do next, one thing is for sure: Tyler’s time at Scotts Miracle-Gro was an incredible opportunity to discover a side of finance he never even considered.

Want to join the finance team at Scotts Miracle-Gro? Their application for the Summer 2018 finance internship program is open now, so head over to WayUp and apply!