From Boot Camp to Internship: How One Henley Business School Event Shaped My Career

What began as a single extra-curricular event back in November became perhaps the most formative professional experience of my career to date.  I am a first-year Business and Management student at Henley Business School.  I secured an internship with Exactimo, a business education company, following attendance at their Digital Skills Boot Camp at Henley Business School in November.  This article reflects on how I gained that opportunity, and on the internship itself.

I had not heard of Exactimo before attending their bootcamp in November. Within the first ten minutes, they had firmly captured my attention.  The pace of the bootcamp was brisk and efficient; it was densely packed with highly relevant information—practical information which applies so materially to the current corporate landscape.  This included valuable knowledge of the way search engines and large language models (LLMs) work.  What’s more, we were not illuminated by such information just for the sake of understanding it; one of the central notions of the bootcamp is the ‘Sit-Up Statement’.  This is the principle that job applicants should bring to the interview esoteric pieces of information about the companies they are applying to, demonstrating keen enthusiasm and insight.  This will spur the interviewer to sit up and take notice.  In turn, this distinguishes applicants from their peers.  The bootcamp’s insights serve as a strong foundation for students to develop Sit-Up Statements of their own, and underline the kind of inquisitiveness needed to do so.

This knowledge was delivered with clarity by Frederic Kalinke—head of Exactimo—who has a wealth of experience from his time at Google and YouTube, and from starting his own marketing business.  I was eager to meet Frederic after the bootcamp and learn from his insights.  We had a brief yet informative conversation about prompt engineering, after which we connected on LinkedIn. Frederic was pleased with the interest and knowledge I displayed.  On account of this, he proposed a prompt-engineering-based internship under Exactimo’s Virtuoso programme.  After submitting my CV and covering letter, and meeting with Frederic, I secured the position.

When discussing why he had decided to hire me, Frederic noted my attention to detail.  This attribute is widely prized, not least at Exactimo.  The fact that I had spelt his name correctly was just one display of this.  Seemingly trivial, but fundamentally important.  But I also forgot to bold one of the dates on my CV. I quickly realised this after sending it, and asked Frederic if he would use an amended version instead.  I did not think much of this then, but it had a meaningful impact on Frederic’s perception of me.

Whilst effective presentation of my skills and abilities was crucial in gaining this opportunity, the importance of serendipity cannot be ignored.  I was in the right place at the right time.  Henley organises a broad variety of events, and the more you go to, the greater your chances of successful networking are. The logic is simple: opportunities multiply when you consistently show up.

I had two overarching projects during the internship: (i) to conduct research and offer my thoughts to help develop a prompt-engineering-based bootcamp; (ii) to research real examples of AI use in business.

Before submitting my CV and covering letter to Exactimo, I had completed the online Google Prompting Essentials course on Coursera to bolster my credentials for the application.  My first responsibility centred on this.  I was to compile notes on the prompting framework used in the course, research other prompting frameworks (e.g. Anthropic’s), analyse the frameworks, and convey my own thoughts on how suitable they would be for the in-development bootcamp.  Thankfully, I had already taken notes when completing Google’s course, illustrating the value of keeping notes for future reference.  Nevertheless, I did have to transform my rough notes into something more… organised.  Quite routine, yes—but there was something intellectually satisfying about this task.  And organisation remains a crucial skill.  Conveying my thoughts on the frameworks was easily the highlight of that week’s work.  My favourite tasks are exercises of perception—where I am not constrained by having to reference my sources in Harvard style, or any other style for that matter, but where I can just wax lyrical.

We determined that Google’s basic prompting framework—Task, Context, Reference, Evaluate, Iterate (TCREI)—would be advantageous for the bootcamp.  It encapsulates the core ingredients of an effective prompt, and presents them simply.  Based on my research, I also recommended that the concepts of prompt chaining and chain-of-thought prompting should be emphasised within the bootcamp.  Prompt chaining breaks complex tasks into smaller, sequential steps, whereby the output of one prompt becomes the input for the next.  Chain-of-thought prompting encourages LLMs to ‘show their work’ by breaking down problems into smaller, more logical steps before giving a final answer.  These are relatively simple, intuitive techniques that allow users to better leverage AI for heavier tasks.  This makes them a worthwhile addition to the bootcamp.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”  This aphorism represents a guiding principle underpinning Exactimo’s bootcamps: the championing of practical, engaging learning over mere exposition of theory.  In accordance with this principle, Frederic initiated the development of a digital tool to teach the TCREI framework to students during the bootcamp.  Experiencing the prototype stage of such a tool was a tremendous privilege.  Serving as a test pilot for that prototype was an even greater privilege.  I recorded my experience of the tool and my thoughts on it, which guided continued development.

Despite the rapid adoption of AI across the professional world, as well as in daily life, it is difficult to find a clear, easy-to-use yet extensive database of business process automation examples.  This is what Exactimo is building: a clear, simple framework which succinctly illustrates each step of the AI use process in business.  It also illustrates, often in quantitative terms, the benefits companies are deriving, and can derive, from AI use.  My second overarching project of the internship was to research case studies and extract the most pertinent information from them, in order to populate this database.

Overall, this experience has shown me the value of curiosity, initiative, and simply putting myself in the room where opportunities happen.  My work challenged me at times, but this has only deepened my determination and honed my skill set.  Furthermore, working in a cerebral role has given me valuable preparation for the corporate world—preparation that has been enhanced by Frederic’s guidance.  I would like to thank the Henley Business School team for creating an enriching careers curriculum that complements my academic course.

Thank you Taylor for sharing your experiences from your internship, and encouraging other students to be bold and take the lead with their careers!