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Emily Tanenbaum ’12 at her desk at Google’s international headquarters
By Michele Tallarita ’12
According to the world’s most popular search engine, Google, Emily Tanenbaum ’12 is BOLD.
That stands for Building Opportunities for Leadership & Development, a competitive 11-week internship program at the heart of the technology industry: Google’s international headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
A mathematics-economics major, Tanenbaum (Basking Ridge, N.J.) spent her summer as a BOLD intern working in Google’s finance department, where she put her skills as a financial analyst to the test. Tanenbaum’s work focused on a sector of the Google Treasury called the Portfolio Management Group.
“The Portfolio Management Group is responsible for Google’s investments in a variety of financial vehicles designed to provide a competitive rate of return while preserving the firm’s capital,” she says.
Emily Tanenbaum ’12
Her job involved analyzing returns, assessing Google’s portfolio, and developing ways of streamlining performance analysis and reporting. She also received mentorship from accomplished Googlers and participated in projects vital to the company.
Being a part of the gears behind Google marks a milestone in Tanenbaum’s already burgeoning financial career. Prior to her experience this summer, she completed externships with Jason Salgado ’92 at Merrill Lynch and John Gassner ’88 at ESPN. Last summer, she interned with Goldman Sachs.
“All of these experiences allowed me to gain insight into the broad spectrum of careers available in finance and influenced my career goals, which led me to my Google internship,” she says.
After graduation, Tanenbaum plans on becoming a financial analyst or continuing her studies in graduate school. The high level of experience she is receiving at Google, she says, has helped her toward these goals by improving her analytical skills, her software expertise, and even her time management. “Each of these skills will be invaluable to me regardless of my career path,” she says.
On campus, Tanenbaum prepares for the business world by participating in the investment club, the mathematics honorary society Pi Mu Epsilon, and the economics honorary society Omicron Delta Epsilon. This semester, she’ll join the ranks of Lafayette’s Fed Challenge team, which competes in economics tournaments and placed first and second in nation over the last two years.
Meanwhile, she looks forward to the part of a financial career that involves journeying to commerce centers around the world. “I have always enjoyed traveling,” she says, “and having the opportunity to spend the summer in California has been amazing.”