Nielsen employees and interns sit on panel

Left to right: Lacey McAfoose, Zach Kennedy, Vincent Lin, Zach Cohen, and Robert Pierce

Zach Cohen (BIT ’09) and Robert Pierce (BIT ’09) answered questions from Pamplin students about what it is like to work at Nielsen during an hour-long panel discussion last month in Pamplin Hall. The recent graduates were joined by three current seniors who interned at Nielsen last summer: Zach Kennedy, a business information technology senior from Richmond, Va.; Vincent Lin, a double major in business information technology and finance from Long Island, N.Y.; and Lacey McAfoose, a finance major from Murrysville, Pa.

Cohen and Pierce are currently associates in Nielsen’s emerging leaders program that puts new recruits through a series of job rotations aimed at giving them the required skills foundation and an understanding of Nielsen’s business. The 18-24 month program offers associates roles of increasing responsibility. Cohen, of Ellicott City, Md., is completing a rotation in the Chicago-area office, while Pierce, of Lebanon, N.J., is completing a rotation in the Tampa-area office.

The panelists answered a range of questions, including the nature of work assignments; reporting relationships and other employee work interactions; flexibility of work hours, dress codes, attitudes toward women, and other aspects of corporate culture; travel opportunities; the application process for internships; and the value and relevance of their Pamplin courses.

Students stop by Nielsen’s booth at Business Horizons.

The panel was organized by its participants and coincided with the Business Horizons career fair and the campus visit of Nielsen chairman and CEO David Calhoun (ACCT ’79), who gave the first of the three talks scheduled in this fall’s Wachovia Distinguished Lecture series.