My MBA Recruiting Journey to Landing a Product Marketing MBA Internship

Michael Madrigal decided to recruit for Product Marketing while a student at Emory University (Goizueta) While recruiting for PMM started the minute he started on his program, Michael was able to successfully navigate the Product Marketing Internship Interview Process and land a PMM MBA Internship. During this interview, Michael spoke about his recruiting and interviewing journey to landing a Product Marketing MBA Internship.

MBASchooled: What was the virtual recruiting process like for you?

The recruiting process began the moment of my acceptance into Emory University.  The initial step in my process began in July, with the creation of a target company list, prior to the start of my MBA.  This list enabled me to identify recruiters as well as Emory alumni at these target companies utilizing both LinkedIn and Emory’s directory.

The first virtual recruiting event that I participated in was the National Black Career Conference that kicked off in September.  The organizers did an excellent job of designing a virtual booth where students could visit a variety of employers to learn more about their company culture and the roles for which they were hiring. In these booths, recruiters and post-MBA’s working from the company were available for a conference attendee to speak with them one on one via chat or video call.

This conference resulted in two interviews and one offer from a company that was on my target list.  Both of the interviews took place in October shortly after the conference. The next event was the Prospanica National Conference in October which followed a similar format to the National Black Conference and yielded multiple internship interviews which took place in November. My recruiting process for Marketing related functions took place between August and November and ultimately resulted in receiving and accepting an internship offer from Microsoft.

Emory’s career center did an outstanding job of preparing us for a virtual recruiting environment when we first started the semester. Recruiting is taught as a class and is a component of the core curriculum at Emory. The career management center accomplished this by hosting virtual interviewing best practice sessions, workshops with guest speakers and conducting mock interviews with career coaches and second year MBAs. This truly helped me prepare for the actual virtual interviews with the companies and was a significant factor in choosing Emory Goizueta’s School of Business for my MBA.

MBASchooled: Why did you choose to pursue Product Marketing? What about the role drew your interest?

Pre-MBA, in my position as a Business Development Manager for a Fortune 100 Energy company, I worked closely with the marketing team. We created custom marketing campaigns for prospects across the Midwest. It was during this time that I realized how impactful marketing is to a firm and more importantly the value that it can bring to customers. In addition to my experience working with marketers, my Master’s degree in Business Analytics was concentrated in marketing analytics. My goal was to find a job where I could leverage this knowledge to help drive insights for the business and knew that an MBA would complement my background and experience for a career pivot into marketing.

Once the recruiting process began, I was able to identify the Product Marketing function as a vehicle to blend together my sales experience, background in business analytics and research to help customers. After connecting with MBA Product Marketers across the tech sector, I realized this is an area that aligns well with my background and passion for helping others. As a product marketer I can empower others through the use of digital technology.  Microsoft was a perfect match for combining these two things.

MBASchooled: Even though you did not get to meet companies in person, did you feel like you got to know them well? If so, what were the most helpful methods you used to do this?

Virtual collaboration tools such as Microsoft teams and Zoom were instrumental in working with companies throughout the recruiting process. There is nothing that can truly replace in-person interactions; however, the companies did a great job of adjusting by hosting webinars, coffee chats and interactive company presentations.

The most helpful method for me personally was attending company presentations and following up afterwards with one-on-one conversations with company representatives to learn more about their background and experience. Company presentations were mostly intended to provide information around the company culture, mission and values. They also served as an open forum to discuss the various roles that they were recruiting for. Oftentimes an Emory alumni would be on the panel to talk about their journey from Goizueta to that company and how their experience has been with the firm. These sessions really helped me to understand if this company and opportunity was something I was interested in pursuing.

I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with a multitude of exceptional employers. One important positive to the virtual recruiting environment is having a time advantage where you can meet many different employers on the same day that previously was not possible with in-person recruiting. The number of companies that recruited out of Emory also increased as a result of virtual recruiting.  The largest challenge for me personally, was learning to be comfortable on camera, having the right lighting and background, to ensure the experience was as personal as possible.

MBASchooled: What advice do you have for others who are trying to navigate the virtual recruiting process?

It is important to become comfortable being on camera, focus on the lighting and camera angle to make the interview as “in-person” as possible virtually.  Practice makes perfect, always leverage your career services at your school and fellow MBA students (1st & 2nd years) to build your interview skills and stories.. This has been a challenging time, but everyone including employers are adapting to the new environment so one must be flexible during the interview process.

One final piece of advice would be to never give up.  The recruiting process can be long, stressful and an emotional drain. But I encourage you to trust that if you are doing the right activities (Mock interviews, Networking, Company Events, Star Story practice) things will work out. Do not be afraid of rejection, it will happen. Learn from it, display grit and keep moving.