Name: Saket Kulkarni
School: Ross School of Business BBA 2024
You interned last summer at Signal Advisors, a venture-backed startup in Detroit. Can you tell us a little about what Signal Advisors’ platform does?
Signal Advisors’ platform aims to be a one-stop shop for all things financial advisory. Financial advisors can use the platform to handle all of their needs like filling out insurance applications, annuity applications, or asset management. Many of the steps of these processes are automated under the Signal Platform, making the job much easier for advisors as it removes the tedium that comes with the job. It can also help advisors track their marketing efforts and aims to include more functions for financial advisors to use in their business. The end goal of the platform is to enable financial advisory to be more accessible.
What was your typical day like as a Business Operations and Growth Intern?
Lots of meetings. A lot of my projects were very cross functional, so I would meet with people from different departments all the time in order to make sure there was alignment. This was important because BizOps projects are meant to support the entire org as a whole.
Additionally, I would conduct research on the feasibility of our projects, create documentation to support them, and ideate solutions for the team to iterate over.
What classes, clubs, or action-based learning opportunities have you taken advantage of on campus that you believe set you up for success in tech recruiting?
Currently, I’m part of a student-run environmental consulting organization on campus called ECO-UM. The project management experience I gained from that combined with the communication aspect of consulting prepared me for my work at Signal Advisors. Something I had to do a lot at ECO-UM was communicate with various stakeholders and do a lot of outreach, which was also what I had to do for my projects at Signal Advisors. It was like I was an internal consultant at the company.
What were the challenges and opportunities of working at a startup?
The biggest challenge from working at a startup is that the priorities of the company are always changing, so your project’s scope may change or it might be de-prioritized. That happened a few times during my internship, so it was important to remain adaptable.
The biggest opportunity from working at a startup is the amount of freedom you get. I was able to self-direct all of my projects and have full autonomy on them. Even though I was an intern, I felt like I benefited a lot from this independence. It made me feel more self-assured in the work that I do now.
Do you have any advice for students pursuing a career in technology?
My biggest piece of advice for students is to network. Getting a job in tech companies can sometimes come down to who you know. Take advantage of the Michigan network and make deep connections with people at the companies you work at.
Did anything surprise you about your internship or role?
I was really surprised by how I was able to connect with so many people. Despite the fact that the company was remote, everyone was very approachable. I got to know a lot of different people within various departments in the the company and get advice from them. Even if they worked in a role I wasn’t interested in, meeting with them was still a valuable experience.