When M.S. in Human Capital Management (HCM) student Alma Madina decided to pursue a master’s degree in human resources, she not only researched different university programs but also continued her due diligence after being accepted to Columbia. She spoke with Dr. Steve Safier, director of the HCM program, faculty members, and alumni, and attended an online HCM class open to the public.
She even researched the weather.
“Southeast Asia only has two seasons,” explained Madina, who is from Indonesia. “Here in New York, it is four seasons, so the weather is going to be an additional variable that will help define your success during your studies. Because if you’re not prepared for the winter, you won’t be able to focus on your studies.”
In the end—notwithstanding the threat of winter storms—her research confirmed Columbia’s HCM program as the perfect choice for what she was seeking: a program that didn’t just teach the knowledge and theory behind human resources, but one that would also provide her with “a real-world context.”
A critical part of that real-world experience has been an internship Madina completed this past spring semester with Columbia University School of Professional Studies (SPS) Human Resources (HR), the first of its kind offered by SPS HR for HCM students. Madina is busy these days—she is working another full-time internship with a Fortune 500 company while she takes classes at night and finishes her capstone project—but she took some time during her lunch break on a recent June afternoon to talk more about her experience at Columbia and the inaugural internship program.
Can you tell us more about the internship and your experience with it?
It’s a collaboration between the Human Capital Management program and SPS Human Resources, and it gave me the chance to work with the SPS HR team. It was a unique opportunity for me because I had previously only worked in human resources for corporations in industries like pharmaceuticals and technology. But now I was doing HR analyses in the education industry, which is a very specific experience.
Because HR covers a very broad spectrum, for example, recruitment, compensation, performance, and labor relations, SPS HR asked me what I am passionate about at the moment. I told them about performance management and people analytics, so they customized my projects to what I am interested in and what they were looking for help with.
I got to work with Nick Sanchez, the assistant director of HR at SPS, who gave me two projects to explore. The first one was a workforce analysis, and I created a model to perform this kind of analysis, which assesses the likelihood that staff are most likely to leave based on the data provided.
The second was a dashboard planning project. An HR dashboard lets you see a snapshot of the population of a company or organization. So, for example, you can see how many people are in the resignation or notice period, what the visa status of staff is, and other demographic information.
Now that you are doing your second professional internship, what are some differences that you have encountered between working in HR here in the United States versus back in Indonesia?
Generally, in terms of the principle and execution, it’s pretty similar. The lingo here is much different, and so is the culture. What I really like most about the work culture here is that everyone emphasizes having a work-life balance. I started to open my laptop at 9:00 p.m. to crunch some data, but when my manager found out about it, he told me not to work after office hours. Here, they just want me to have a work-life balance.
Do you have a favorite course or professor in the HCM program? Any other memorable experiences from your internship with SPS HR?
One of my favorite professors is Dr. Solange Charas. I took two classes with her: the first was Transforming Total Rewards, and the second was Finance for Effective Human Capital Management. From these two classes, I learned how to quantify HR proposals or programs in a more tangible way. Because when you are talking about HR, you always have to relate it to the cost. Hiring employees requires an investment, and initiatives such as performance management and incentive programs also carry costs. I learned a lot from Dr. Charas on how to measure the return on investment for HR programs. It’s very fascinating.
During the spring internship, I built a very solid relationship with the HR team at SPS. Usually, with an internship, you only have one mentor or one manager, and that’s it. But with this internship, I had the chance to collaborate with each of the specialists and across different teams.
Alma Madina enjoying winter in New York City on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus
About the Program
The Master of Science in Human Capital Management at Columbia University prepares graduates to be world-class HCM strategists able to address changing needs in building and motivating talented, engaged workforces in the private, public, academic, and not-for-profit sectors.
The program is available part-time, full-time, on-campus, and online. Learn more about the program here.
