​Start as an intern - end up with a fulltime job

“Everybody has a story to tell”. Have you ever heard this before? This blog is my story of how I convinced my employer to offer me a full time job a year before I was supposed to graduate.

I would like to limit this blog to three main areas that I mark as my main turning points.

1) Make contributions!

Many times, I have seen students joining the job to fulfill daily corporate needs of updating the reports, sending customary emails etc. In my opinion doing this is a modern form of asking interns to make copies and coffees. As an intern at Nestlé, I experienced nothing like that. I had the chance to be a member of the team and not just “the intern”.

Last year, we had a sudden rise of consumer contacts within our category due to various reasons. Now, in order to answer these many contacts my line manager wanted to understand what the consumers were asking for – and to me reading each contact was surely not a wise idea. Therefore, she came to me with a request asking if I could make sense of these contacts and present some actionable insights within short time-period. While accepting this challenge, I was well aware that the assignment would be an uphill task and I had to go an extra mile to fetch the data to tell a convincing story. Also, to put up a presentation, which is nothing short of best, demanded to myself to learn extra skills both technical (Salesforce, Customer Relationship Management system) and non-technical (persuading Consumer Service Team to agree upon a universal solution for all the departments) in no time. All those efforts bore fruit, when the solution was not only appreciated by the line manager but also by the European Business Head.

This is a great example of how Nestlé asked me to contribute with my knowledge, to their team. To prioritize and help your team when it is required the most and delivering the long lasting solution which counts.

2) Don’t say it, do it!

For example, during my job interview I mentioned that I am passionate about breaking down complex problems into easy solutions. This I had a plan to demonstrate. Just a month into the job, I was asked if I could prepare a solution of how to see how a certain, individual unit of a product is performing in terms of sales and profitability. Up until then, no easier solution existed and the existing solution requires patience to deal with the SAP system.

To prepare a solution, I took time to learn some cool excel tricks and when I delivered the solution, the first word of my colleagues were “WOW!”

Remember, you were hired with a purpose. You have told highly about your plans during your interview. Now, it is time to prove it through your actions and then perceived among the best to carry out that task.

So, next time you say something, make sure you have a plan to show it. This will also enable other coworkers to look forward to you with trust and confidence.

3) Do some Targeted Networking

Remember, the purpose of your job should be to learn new things in a short span of time. Sometimes students are hesitant to come out of the shell of their respective department and meet new people. I cannot enough emphasize the importance of networking in particular targeted networking.

What I mean by targeted networking is to pick up an area of your interest for instance finance or marketing and then identify who are the different hiring managers in that field throughout the company. Talk to these people over a coffee or lunch about what difference are you making in your current team and how you want your future to be like. Ask them what they do on a daily basis and what skills you should pick up to stand out from the crowd?

Finally, do regular follow-ups. Show your real interest in the person you are meeting rather than just putting up a show for a while. These short meetings will come in handy when the next opportunity turn up.

In the end, I hope I have provided you with 3 important traits of a contribution mindset, demonstrated competence and targeted networking. Again, do not copy them literally but treat them as guidelines to build your OWN story.

About myself:

I came from Pakistan to Denmark in 2014 as a merit scholar at CBS, I was selected in the winter of 2014 to join Nestle Infant Nutrition Business Controlling team as an Intern. Based upon my performance, I was offered a role in Digital Marketing team in 2016 which I happily accepted. These days, I spend most of my time in the power point world rather than excel but I still visit excel sometimes as it is something difficult to live without :-)