Week 6: Personal Contributions at Lincolnshire Management

I have just finished my last week at Lincolnshire Management, and overall I am thrilled by the internship experience that I have had over the past six weeks. I began my internship with little to no knowledge of what I would be doing, and who I would be working with, and by coincidence, my boss David, turned out to be a Richmond alumni. It was through this commonality that we developed a strong mentor relationship. David has been an amazing resource for me over the past six weeks, and I know that many of the contributions that I have made at Lincolnshire are because of his guidance.

As the only female intern at Lincolnshire, I believe that I have truly made an impact on both the company’s employees and some of the other interns. Through my constant defiance of gender stereotypes in the workplace, I believe that I proved myself as a competent, curious, and determined intern. Many of the older employees in the office were impressed with my drive and professionalism and made a point to tell me so. I found that many of the other interns at Lincolnshire didn’t take the opportunity to get to know their bosses very well, and felt too intimidated by them to ask questions, which greatly inhibited their learning. I encouraged all of them to reach out and ask more questions because there is no reason to be embarrassed since we are interns for the purpose of learning about the company, and the private equity industry.

I also believe that I have impacted Lincolnshire as a company directly through my diligent research and analytical skills. After reading and analyzing many prospective deals this past week, I brought one that I believed to be the most worthwhile to my boss. He was impressed with growth over the past 6 weeks, as my ability to analyze potential investments, create accurate models, and give a concrete suggestion based on the information presented has greatly improved. Due to my presentation on the company, we decided to pursue the investment by placing an IOI, or indication of interest. Within the following days, we were presented with more information about the company, and had 2 calls with the investment bank to ask follow up questions. This deal has the potential to increase the profitability of a currently struggling portfolio company, but unfortunately, I won’t be at Lincolnshire long enough to see if we end up purchasing the company that I brought forward. Nonetheless, I believe that my hard work and time spent at Lincolnshire have truly made an impact on the company.