Internship - Decision Finalized
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This one came down to the wire - literally. I happily accepted the position with Walmart.com today at 5:00pm EST. Not two hours later, StorageTek Europe finally came through with their offer. Needless to say, the timing was less than ideal. I was hoping to have more than a couple of hours to ponder my decision. The STK Europe opportunity sounded interesting. My role would've been working with the European business development team to roll out a new service across Europe. The internship itself sounded rather unstructured, though, whereas Walmart.com has been well organized and timely from the get go. Therefore, I am thrilled to be working at Walmart.com this summer for several reasons.

First - the philosophy at Walmart.com is ideal. Innovation is the cornerstone of business development and growth. Here's the way Walmart.com puts it:

At Walmart.com, we like to think we have one foot in California's Silicon Valley and the other in Bentonville, Ark. Our headquarters is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have access to the world's deepest pool of Internet executive and technical talent. But we think of ourselves, first and foremost, as a retailer. In that respect, our ties to Bentonville, where Sam Walton opened the first store that bore the Walton name and where Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., is still based, give us our foundation.

With the support of Bentonville, we're able to tap into many of the things that have made Wal-Mart a universally known brand -- things like excellent supplier relationships, highly efficient back-office systems, an unswerving commitment to Sam Walton's "Always Low Prices" philosophy and an unrivaled group of experienced retailers who strive each day to make the customer number one.

In short, at Walmart.com, we're passionate about combining the best of two great worlds, technology and world-class retailing, to give our customers easy access to more things Wal-Mart: a wide assortment of their favorite products, Every Day Low Prices, guaranteed satisfaction, friendly service, convenient hours (24 hours, 7 days a week) and a great online shopping experience.

Here are some other reasons I am excited to spend the summer at Walmart.com:

• I'll be working with great people
• I finally get to see what all of the excitement about the Bay Area is really about
• I'll be close to friends who live in the area
• I'll get to show Amazon.com that they made a serious mistake by dinging me
• I'll be making money again - although I'll still be a starving student

Most importantly, I'm excited to experience a new business environment, one that I expect will be fast paced, challenging, and stimulating. It'll be a good summer.

posted by Jake B. @ 7:21:00 PM