BIG UPDATE!!

Hiya, guys & dolls!!

So sorry I’ve been away for a while, but once you read this post, you’ll understand why!

Let’s start where I left off.. 2 weeks ago today.

The week of 9/4-9/11 was a preparation week for IR, which is the Industrial Roundtable, which is a HUGE career fair where hundreds of company representatives come to Purdue and recruit for summer internships, co-ops, and full-time positions! So the previous week I was working on my resume, getting it critiqued and revising it, as well as attending interviewing practice sessions to prepare myself for a possible interview.

A few exciting things happened that week though! On Tuesday, 9/6, a representative from Mary Kay came and spoke to my Women in Technology (WIT) organization and she gave us make overs! That was a nice stress reliever! Also, from Friday 9/9-Saturday 9/10, I went on a retreat called the Emily Mauzy Vogel Sophomore Leadership Development Conference (EMV). In order to go you had to be nominated by a faculty member on campus, complete an application, and be chosen. 900 of my sophomore peers were nominated and applied, but only 200 of us were chosen. That 200 included myself and many of my close friends, which in my opinion means I’ve chosen some pretty awesome friends! The conference was amazing! On Friday night we heard from a phenomenal speaker, Darren Cecil, had a big bonfire and cooked s’mores, and had  crazy dance party in the lodge! Saturday we woke up and heard from a professor at Purdue who spoke on ethics, which was veyr interesting. Then we broke out into small groups for team building activities! The low ropes courses were my favorite! The conference taught me a lot about myself and my leadership style.

9/12-9/15 IR: The Real Deal

The Industrial Roundtable took place from 9/12-9/14. Monday, 9/12 was mostly get-to-know-companies day. Each company had an assigned room and time in Stewart Center to hold an informational session. They presented powerpoints about their company and what positions they’re looking to hire for and then opened the floor up for questions toward the end. I went to Kimberly Clark’s informational and it was awesome! I’d never researched into that company before but they’re doing a lot of neat things there! The next day when I visited their station at IR, the head recruiter invited to me go to dinner at a very nice steak house with him and his KC team that evening! The dinner was great and I had good conversation with the team. I actually got an interview with them on 9/15 which went really well, probably because I’d already gotten to know the interviewer pretty well by then. They’re looking to hire 3-term co-op students. As a co-op student, I would work at Kimberly Clark for 3 “terms” (summers and/or school semesters), starting my internship working for them in the summer of 2012 and staying with them until December 2012. So yes, I’d miss a semester of classes at Purdue that’d I’d have to make up for later, but 8 months straight of experience is a lot more valuable than a short 3-4 month summer of experience. Then I’d come back to Purdue in January of 2013 for spring semester and finish my co-op with KC in the summer of 2013. I might end up graduating a semester late, but co-ops are 5 terms so those students graduate a whole year or two later than expected. I think 3 terms is a good deal and I’m looking forward to hearing the decision they make.

I also interviewed with John Deere, a company I’ve been interested in for the past year! My advisor, Mrs. Munguia, invited a representative from John Deere, Casi Shelton, to speak to her class on Friday 9/9 and after class Mrs. Munguia told Casi all about me, my successes at Purdue, and my interest in her company. Casi requested I meet with her at John Deere day on campus the following Monday, which I did! She introduced me to a head Mechanical Engineer and recruiter and everyone was very welcoming and friendly! I visited the John Deere station at IR the following day and they called me later in the day for an interview! The interview went well. They ask a lot of situational questions like “Tell me about a time you were in an uncomfortable situation and you had to come up with a creative way to get out of it.” You’ve really got to think when answering these questions because you wants to WOW them and stand out from your competition.

Most people say it’s a little nerve-wrecking to approach the big companies such as John Deere, General Electric, General Mills, Kimberly Clark, etc. but I love it! If you just take the chance, you end up realizing that the representatives are just people too, excited to meet you and possibly add you to their team! Everyone was totally nice.

Here is some very exciting news!
So Thursday, once the madness of IR and interviewing was over, I was upstair in Knoy doing my statics homework when a former professor of mine came and sat by me. He asked how IR went and what I was doing to follow up. Then he asked if I visitied General Mills, because he knows I had an interest in them. I actually did visit their station, but the representative told me that they were looking for candidates with prior job experience in the field of MET, which is understandable. However, my professor is very close with the VICE PRESIDENT of General Mills, Donzel Leggett! So he texted him and so coincidentally  Mr. Leggett was on campus, in the same building we were in! My professor asked if he’d meet with us and I was introduced to the VP of General Mills! Not only that, but I guess my professor had talked about me to Mr. Leggett before so he said he’d heard a lot of good things about me and if things didn’t work out with the other companies, contact him and he could more than likely get me a summer internship in one of the 10 plants me oversees!!! That was the most random, but awesome, occurrence that happened all week!
After all that hecticness and excitement, you can only imagine what I’ve done this weekend…… SLEPT! Lol, I relaxed and got caught up on my rest.

I’m gonna get going now to work on some homework and study for my exam this Thursday.

Take care, everyone!

Erika