Point of Success: My Journey

Do you know that Kelley School of Business Indianapolis is sitting square in the middle of the startup revolution?

Students looking for undergraduate business internships, one of the best bits of advice or recruiter memes is "If you want to be interesting, be interested." 

Meaning that if you're really passionate about something you'll likely be learning more about it or be actively involved in it. This is HUGE for recruiters, passion really dazzles in an interview. The new trend in recruiting is hire for attitude, train for skills. Companies can hire endless amounts of average workers, they're really searching for interesting and talented people that are good at a lot of little things. So do your homework on the company you're contacting or interviewing with, odds are they have something about the culture of their company on their website. If you make an effort to be interested in them, they might reciprocate. 

If that whole reciprocation thing doesn't happen make sure to not end the relationship on bad note, because that recruiter might be keeping you in consideration for a future position or might suggest you to another recruiter. Odds are that they'll say something about your background starting with experiental education, something that the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis excels at. A little tip that recruiters find thoughtful is to send a handwritten letter after the interview to thank them for the opportunity.

Kelley Indianapolis students have a unique opportunity to network with recruiters because all of the professors have strong ties in business the community, they know all the right people to connect with. Tip #2 is to chat with your professors and dare I say engage in class.  

So remember "If you want to be interesting, be interested." Do your company culture/identity homework. Network your face off. Be confident in yourself and your abilities. Showoff your passions. Never stop learning. If you can manage to do all those things some sparks should fly in your internship search. 

If any inspiration came from these little thoughts of mine...tell me via twitter @jckilgore. 

Sometimes I rush to finish projects that are extremely exciting or I spend more time on them than I should due to that high interest. Right now, it feels like I'm getting ready to reach that crossroad with school and life, in the first week of my internship I'm totally in love. I mean who wouldn't love freedom to perform, a highly contagious culture, and sheer trust that you are more than capable to take on anything that is thrown at you. All of those things were conveyed to me in the first week of Slingshot SEO's bootcamp experience. It was made clear that Slingshot will completely expect me to fully utilize the experiential education that Kelley Indianapolis provides me, which is definitely exciting. So to recap, my internship is going to be awesome!

For those of you that know me well, the silver lining of the first day of school is that my birthday typically falls on it. Exciting stuff, right?! My final semester at Kelley School of Business is going to be challenging with four marketing classes, the analysis of business decisions capstone class, and history of 70's and 80's rock online (It can't be all of about the business right :) ).

I'm definitely up for the challenge of juggling all of these classes and an undergraduate business internship.

I was recently told to "keep my enthusiasm high" by someone that I feel will be one of the best business professors I'll have ever had. I really feel that positivity and enthusiasm are thoughts that are highly contagious and keys to great starts.

As always follow me on twitter to track my daily thoughts and to follow my journey @jckilgore 

 In response to Prof. Kim Saxton's excitement for the beginning of school, I would have to say that I too heavily anticipate the beginning of my last fall semester in pursuit of my Marketing and Supply Chain Management degree. The last month of my life has been really exciting with the 3rd annual Indiana Innovation Showcase and getting hired at Indiana's foremost Search Engine Optimization company, Slingshot SEO . 

The Innovation Showcase was a great showing of some really cool startup companies locally and even nationally. Amongst the booths of super Indiana startups stood a stage for elevator style pitches of companies aspiring to join them in next year's showcase. If you've never tested the waters of this environment I highly suggest it, because of its high potiential for networking and the ability to share your passions on an open stage. Some of my top highlights of the showcase include learning more about up and coming ebook solution provider CourseLoad LLC, listening to a really cool pitch from James Paden on his new side project Emaillium, and chatting it up with my favorite Chief Research Officer/Future Boss Jeremy Dearringer from Slingshot SEO. 

I have to blame my recent internship offer from Slingshot SEO on the experiential learning and tremendous educators here at Kelley Indy (a sponsor of the Showcase). I really have some of the best business professors. I look forward to learning as a part of the Slingshot family, after all the best way to learn the science of marketing is to experiment and actually do it. I really can’t wait to return to the excitement that is Kelley Indianapolis during the school year. 

"Focus on the Journey, not the destination. Joy is not found in finishing an activity but in doing it!" 
Follow my journey on twitter @jckilgore 

  

The semester is coming to a close! Hooray! New opportunities await with the summer classes and internships. The last two days of the semester are all testing with one final on Thursday and two major finals on Friday. The nights of sleeplessness will all be worth it in the end is what I keep telling myself. Here's to the summer and working towards being a professional with only one semester to go til graduation.