As I work hard to finish up my last term at Fuqua, I’ve also been reflecting on my simultaneous job-seeking experience, which just came to an end (yay!).

Fuqua’s Career Management Center (CMC) will tell you that during your first year, you should consider your internship search as another class on your schedule. This is also true for the full-time job search during your second year.

Many of my classmates came back in the fall from their summer internships with an offer in hand, and I couldn’t be more proud of them! However, for me, the process of finding a job for after graduation had only just begun – and proved to take a while.

Resources

There are a lot of great on-campus interviewing opportunities, as well as a whole world of off-campus positions to explore on Fuqua’s internal careers website. Opportunities are updated almost daily. Alumni also play a key role in making sure that openings at their own companies are made known to current students. I took full advantage of all these resources.

It takes quite a bit of time to tweak your resume – I have several different versions that constantly change as I gain experience while in school. And writing cover letters is also time consuming. However, keep in mind that the importance of the cover letter may vary by company – or at least, so it seems. Some recruiters and hiring managers are all about the cover letter. Several even told me that they brought me in for an interview based on something I mentioned in my letter. But others don’t even ask for the letter, so you better make sure that your resume looks stellar on its own, too!

Support

During the whole process, something I’ve been both surprised about and grateful for, is the support I’ve received from professors. Not only have they been helpful in terms of engaging in conversations with me about target companies and job fit, but they have also been incredibly understanding and flexible when an interview conflicted with class. Luckily, many of our classes are recorded and can be watched online, so if I had to miss a class for an interview, I could catch up later. Plus, I could always find a friend to provide additional insight on what happened in class. I also got quite comfortable doing my work and communicating with classmates while on a plane, in a hotel room, or even inside a convention center waiting for my interview to start.

With an offer now in hand, and the search process behind me, it’s a nice feeling to relax and enjoy my last few weeks ever of school. I also look forward to helping out my classmates who are still looking for their perfect job – just like my friends did for me when I was still searching. So many people helped me to get through the process!

Overall, the whole Fuqua community really made what could have been an extremely stressful job search into something that I managed and survived, while also flourishing in my classes.