International Business Government Counsellors, Inc., Washington, DC
I spent this summer working as an intern at International Business Government Counsellors, Inc. (IBC) in Washington, DC. IBC is a full-service government relations firm which provides clients with a range of services. I worked on the twelfth floor of an office building in downtown DC with two other interns, about a dozen counselors, and a few staff members. Whenever I was not downtown, I attended hearings on the Hill and at various institutions around the city. The summer provided a perfect opportunity to explore many areas of life and industry in DC.
Most of the work I performed was for attorneys and counselors who advise and advocate for multinational corporations in issues of international trade law. This summer was an incredible time to be working with international trade policy. With recent ongoing government investigations into China’s predatory trade practices, there was always something to do at IBC. Not only was my intern work plentiful this summer, it was also meaningful. I was often surprised at the level of trust placed in me by IBC’s counselors and staff. The fast-paced nature of international trade developments in Washington requires rapid work of a greater-than-average quantity. This allowed me and my two fellow interns to become immersed in real, client-specific work from our first day on the job.
My weekly tasks included attending congressional hearings and think tank panels relating to international trade. My reports on these meetings, ranging from four to eight pages each, were circulated to the firm’s counselors and occasionally to interested clients. I also often performed research and compiled information for counselors on items including new taxes being imposed on American products abroad and historical instances of such taxes failing or being removed. In addition to my weekly tasks, I performed long-term projects throughout the summer. Among these was sifting through requests for tariff removals from corporations, pulling out their central logic, and trying to apply it to our clients.
Additionally, I was often asked to compile import data and run analyses for clients. As a Russian and history double major, making charts with Microsoft Excel and examining trends in large numbers were not my strong suits before this summer. These are some of the many skills that I am excited to have gained while working at IBC. Among other skills are rapidly completing projects to meet clients’ deadlines, writing concisely and in an informed way about a topic that is entirely new to me, and triple-checking my work. Counselors at IBC would often ask me for data analysis and use my spreadsheets thirty minutes later on a conference call, or send my reports directly to major corporations after only quickly skimming them. I grew accustomed to assuming that one-hundred percent of my work needed to be top-notch; anything less would reflect badly on the firm and on me.
This internship also gave me the opportunity to meet leaders from around Washington. A major portion of IBC’s work is hosting meetings of the Washington International Business Council (WIBC). The Council includes members of several dozen multinational corporations who come together for lunch roughly once a week to hear someone speak about developments in international trade. Among the speakers this summer were ambassadors, congressional staffers, professors, and administration officials. Not only was I able to hear high-level experts present on these issues, I met and spoke with representatives from companies where I may one day want to work.
My summer at IBC affected my academic and career goals. Academically, it made me realize the value of having a diverse understanding of the world. While I plan to continue to pursue history, I also hope to take another statistics course and develop an understanding of the workings of corporations while abroad at Oxford this year. While I am not sure that I want to work directly with international trade law after graduation, this internship has certainly opened my eyes to the world of business. I sincerely enjoyed helping companies expand their interests abroad by piecing together anti-tariff logic. I am now more open than ever to the ideas of law school or consulting after graduation.
The people I met at IBC also influenced my interests. At such a small firm, I was able to get to know everyone from assistants up to the president on a first-name basis. The people working at the firm were incredibly kind and fun. I will maintain long professional connections with many of them and hope to remain friends with my two fellow interns, who made nine-hour days and five-day weeks more enjoyable than I could have expected. While at IBC, I spent time with several attorneys, among them Courtenay, a curious and loquacious Brit, and John, a kind and respected mentor. These and others with whom I worked on the twelfth floor showed me their professions first-hand. Their trust allowed me to experience true legal work; through this, I discovered how fascinating it can be.
On a more concrete level, my summer at International Business Government Counsellors, Inc. allowed me to learn about the intersections of the public and private sectors in Washington, DC. Having been an intern on Capitol Hill several years ago, I went into this summer with what I thought was a general understanding of how the government operates and the opportunities that the city offers. Working on projects for dozens of clients in as many industries within just the first few weeks, I quickly realized that I was wrong. The private sector is vivacious and active in the streets of even the city that was built for our government, and it is so much vaster than I could have imagined. Performing research on government codes for one notable client with the most niche product possible, I realized that the discussions Congress, the administration, and the federal agencies have every day make a real difference to producers, not just in Boston and San Francisco, but in small, little-known towns. The twenty-eight million small businesses in the United States and the thousands of massive firms, the names of which any given person may never hear, have a voice in Washington. Listening to their employees at congressional hearings and reading their tariff exclusion requests advanced my understanding of the vastness of industry and the numerous opportunities available to me after graduation.
I want to thank the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and the Alumni Sponsored Internship Program, particularly Mr. William L. Chapman ’64 and the Kershaw Internship, for making this happen. I gained so much from this experience, including a deeper appreciation for the opportunities available in multinational corporations, law, and the world of international trade. I look forward to continuing to advance my knowledge in this field during my last two years at Williams and during my postgraduate career. Thank you!
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