This is more of a full-time job search story about the importance of networking. A friend sent me a job lead with an executive recruiter. I had a phone interview with the recruiter and I was blatantly told I didn't have the experience necessary for the job. I was disappointed but I kept in touch with the recruiter and even helped him find someone else for the job. Networking is about helping those in your network as they help you. It's a 2-way street. Anyway, the recruiter called me about another job that I ended up getting an offer for after interviewing for it. You never know where a job lead may come from so never underestimate any lead you receive. Also, networking is about helping others as they help you. Networking is a long-term process about relationship building, not asking othe...
Amazon was my top choice for an internship. I talked with a 2nd-year student that interned there about his experience and the company culture to see if the company would be a good fit for me. In January I went to lunch with a BYU MBA grad working at Amazon to get additional insights on working there and to ask what the company looked for in employees.
During the Seattle tech trek we attended an info session at Amazon headquarters. Afterwards I went to lunch with an Amazon employee/BYU alum that I had been introduced to via email by a fellow student. After lunch I spent the afternoon on his floor talking with his coworkers and asking them about their jobs. I tailored my cover letter and resume specifically to the traits Amazon valued. The previous year’s intern gave me some interviewi...
I had a provisional offer from Kimberly Clark that they said they would honor as long as they had one person not accept. That didn't happen.
I flew out to the final interview for Nestle in Glendale CA with high hopes. I flew to Europe to tour Nestle headquarters to help prepare for the interview. I again missed getting an offer by a small margin. Missing out on Nestle was devastating. They were my top choice and it hurt pretty bad not to get that one.
I felt sorry for myself for a few weeks in disbelief, but then I got back to work. I made a list from the Alumni network, still focused on brand management, and started calling and asking for advice. I think approaching Alumni asking for advice instead of asking for an internship was key. I worked at this for several weeks. One alum me...
I didn't want to attend NSHMBA because I'm not Hispanic and I'm a cheapskate. However, I finally decided to go because some of my target companies were going to be there. Unfortunately, with only a few weeks until the conference, everyone had already filled their interview schedules. I still went, but I knew the deck was stacked against me.
The first thing I did was visited my Top Ten (NSHMBA-specific) Companies and express interest. Some were interested in return, some were not. I axed those who weren't from the list and then went back to chat with the rest again. By the end of the first day I had spoken with every target company multiple times. [Just FYI, my target list looked something like: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Ford, Marriott, Chick-Fil-A, Darden, Burger King, etc.]...
I received an email through a LinkedIn group about an internship opportunity. It was in an industry that I didn't want to be in and I didn't know what the job would be, so I just deleted it. However, my wife was checking my email and saw the same thing and made me call up the guy to ask more about it. It turns out, it was interesting, and I got a phone interview a short time later and an offer followed that. It all worked out from an initial impression that I didn't want the job.
I started out just going after every company. I was so worried that no company would want me that I wasn't very focused in my search. This did not lead to success. I had about 10 interviews with different companies with no second interviews. I asked for some feedback. Some of the feedback that I got was that I didn't appear very focused and that I wasn't selling my skills well enough. Essentially, I wasn't interviewing well. I continued to practice interviewing, tried to really focus on why I wanted to work for different companies, and then put even more effort into my strength, the networking piece, to make sure that people liked me before I even went into the interview. I believe that made all of the difference. Then, the interviews felt more like them getting confirmation of what they a...
I had thought that I wanted to work for smaller companies, and so I networked my way into a company that I had had interaction with in the past. I had an informal internship set up with the company president. When I got the offer from Lands' End, and we decided that we wanted to live out of state for the summer, I had to call the president and tell him that I could only do it for 6 weeks. I offered to do it without pay, and he accepted. I was able to do a thorough analysis of their inventory systems in those 6 weeks, and leave the door open for further opportunities in the fall and beyond. So I would say two things: 1) Be upfront with people if you're still looking even after accepting an internship offer (obviously only for informal ones) and 2) It is possible to do projects t...
At the NBMBAA conference, I was doing everything I could to build contacts with P&G. No one was willing to give out their information. While I was standing in line, I found a business card on the ground from someone at P&G. I emailed that person and expressed my interest in their company. This person introduced me to someone who helped me learn more about their internship program. This person then introduced to another person who then introduced me to another. When I got to the NSHMBA conference, I dropped a name to a specific recruiter and she immediately set me up for an interview. She never even took a look at my resume. My connections were the only thing she was interested in. To the best of my knowledge, I was the only BYU marketing student who was given the op...
No interview. No interview. No interview. My focus was tech, my background is tech. Did I say no interview yet? Emily Tanner was contacted by a former mission friend who was looking for someone in HR with a technical background. She contacted me, put us in touch and I landed the internship. I learned that hard work and keeping the faith are difficult and stressful, but prayer and sticking to it lead to blessings.
I was a career changer, and so I struggled at first with focus, and throughout the process found that my "non-traditional" background was a liability, although I strove to find ways to pitch it in a positive light. I did a lot of interviewing, but in the end, two companies told me that they had narrowed their decision down to me and one other person, and because the other had traditional corporate finance experience, they had to go with them. Another time, I was actually the top choice for a different company, but the projects I was going to work on were put on hold until the fall. Meanwhile, I continued to search for opportunities, and found a great internship outside of the career center because of connections I had made. Ironically, the week that I accepted the offer, I received two oth...
I didn't want to attend NSHMBA because I'm not Hispanic and I'm a cheapskate. However, I finally decided to go because some of my target companies were going to be there. Unfortunately, with only a few weeks until the conference, everyone had already filled their interview schedules. I still went, but I knew the deck was stacked against me. The first thing I did was visit my Top Ten (NSHMBA-specific) Companies and express interest. Some were interested in return, some were not. I axed those who weren't from the list and then went back to chat with the rest again. By the end of the first day I had spoken with every target company multiple times. [Just FYI, my target list looked something like: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Ford, Marriott, Chick-Fil-A, Darden, Burger Kin...
I chased every company I was at all interested in, including Amazon.com with whom I didn't think there was a chance I would even get an interview with. But, I felt good about going on the Seattle trip to visit Amazon, so I went. I did all that I could to network while I was there but I left still feeling like there was no chance they would call me for an interview. I believed that so much that I actually threw away my paper with my Amazon contacts. When they called me for an interview a couple weeks later I was grateful to my classmates who shared their contact with me! The interview process took over a month, but I went into each one determined to do my best. I think because I still felt like there was no chance I would get an offer I was less fearful in the interviews. I fe...
I tapped into my family network to make a contact with an Intel employee. The employee directed me to specific internships to apply for. When it came time for the interview, the extra STARs and interview practice paid off. (I hate doing those things, but it worked.) It was also important to keep following up with the contact. It took a couple of months to get an interview, but it worked out in the end. Keeping contact let the company know I was still interested. Also, during that time I changed my resume, so I had a reason to contact them and inform them of the update. A new resume made them review mine again. The key in the whole search is patience. The time will come.
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I was overwhelmed with schoolwork when that first semester started so I had to pick one class that I wouldn't do any of the reading in and in stead do job prep. For me that class was operations. I didn't read any of the cases unless I had a group project. When I should have been reading cases for ops I was networking for jobs, doing resume prep, and mock interviews. That was the only way I had time to prep enough for my job interviews before NSHMBA. I ended up getting a B+ in ops, and ended up getting 4 internship offers from some amazing companies. I'd say it was worth the B+.
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