As a 1-Year MBA Student at the University of Florida, Shelby Scoggins (Warrington, ‘21) recently went through the full-time MBA search, and landed a full-time role in Sustainability and Supply Chain at AB InBev. Despite a full-course load, Shelby was able to navigate the challenging recruiting process. During this interview, Shelby spoke about her job search journey, the challenges and opportunities of virtual interviewing and recruiting, and her advice for other MBA students who are searching for jobs.
MBASchooled: What was the virtual recruiting process like for you?
Recruiting overall was quite an intensive experience. With the amount of interview preparation, informational interviews, research, and career fairs that goes into this process, it’s a full time job. I’m in a one-year MBA program and already taking an above average course load per semester, so balancing full-time MBA recruiting on top of a rigorous class load and my two leadership positions left me little time for anything else. After doing three career fairs and four final round interviews in a one-month period, to be honest, I was quite burnt out. I took a step back from the recruiting process for a couple of months to focus on self-care and my academics. I also used that time to look internally and figure out what I wanted to do post-MBA. After some reflection, I decided there was only one company I was truly passionate about, and was able to focus all of my energy there.
In my experience, the success of the virtual career fairs was very dependent on the opportunities and limitations of the platform used. I attended three virtual career fairs (Gator Graduate Career Fair, NBMBAA, and ROMBA) during my MBA. National Black, for example, only allowed connections with a recruiter through virtual chat rooms, so it was quite difficult to even have a conversation with employers, let alone a meaningful connection.
At National Black, it ended up being a lot of “30 second pitches” spammed in the virtual booth chatrooms. ROMBA, however, I found to be much more engaging. This platform allowed you, when joining a booth, to actually jump into a zoom room managed by the employer. From here, based on your interest, you were typically routed to a breakout room where you could have a face-to-face chat.
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?
One pro of everything being virtual was that I found people were very open to informational interviews, so those asks were easy, saved time, and allowed me to network with a ton of companies that I was interested in. These 30-minute or so chats were instrumental in getting to know a company and whether or not I’d be interested in pursuing a career there. They allowed me to ask the real questions I wanted to know, without the pressure of a real interview, and I believe they gave me a huge leg up when it came down to the official interview, because I gained insights that just aren’t available through primary research.
The specific LinkedIn tool I mastered was the “search by company and title” feature to find 2nd degree connections at companies I was interested in. I upgraded to Premium so I could use the Direct InMail feature to send personalized messages briefly explaining who I was, why I wanted to talk to them, and a specific time I’d like to connect. I found that the more pointed you are with your ask, the better response. For example, “would you have 30 minutes sometime next Thursday or Friday to connect over zoom so I can hear about your experience in X Position?” rather than “I’m interested to connect and talk about your company.”
One specific recommendation I have for virtual recruiting is to follow the company’s LinkedIn page and look for recruitment events they are hosting. Often, big companies will host events outside of career fairs and they are typically much smaller, more intimate settings.
I went to two recruiting events for a company that I was super interested in, and met people currently in the jobs I was applying for. I made solid connections at these events that I was able to leverage later on in the recruitment process. For example, once I was invited for an actual interview, I reached back out to these people to ask for their specific insights and advice to prepare for my interview.
MBASchooled: What did you like about it? What were some of the challenging parts with it?
I found that I struggled with showcasing my personality and passion through a zoom screen, which is an area I’ve always excelled at in person. There’s already a layer of artificiality during interviews, and when you add in all the downfalls of technology, it can be tricky to portray the right balance of excitement and professionalism.
In particular, I struggled with looking at the camera vs. looking at the person’s face on a screen. It seems like a minor detail, but I put a sticky note with a little cartoon next to the camera, to remind myself to periodically look straight into it, so that the interviewer felt they were looking into my eyes. Not all the time – where it’d be creepy – but the same way you’d use a pause for effect.
MBASchooled: How did you end up at the company where you accepted an offer? What was the recruiting process like?
I just accepted an incredible offer to join Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Global MBA Program within the company’s Global Procurement & Sustainability team in Switzerland. Traditionally, the GMBA program recruits for interns, which serves as a pipeline into their full-time position. As a one-year MBA student, I was seeking full time roles, but I was super set on the GMBA program, so I decided to recruit for their internship anyway.
The Global Procurement team holds a case competition each year as a main avenue to recruit interns. This year it was called the “Got Cans?” Competition, and was focused on implementing sustainable technologies through a low-carbon aluminum initiative. My team from University of Florida entered and took second in the competition, which earned me a fast-track into a final round interview for the role. Although I thought I was recruiting for an internship position, I ended up being offered the full-time position!
MBASchooled: What was your most difficult interview, and what was hard about it?
My most difficult interview was in a final round for the AT&T Leadership Development Program. The format was actually a 20 minute case-based presentation to past LDP alumni, followed by a Q&A and interview questions, for a total of 45 minutes. This was the most challenging interview for me because it required an insane amount of preparation.
I spent an entire week researching and developing a strategy for AT&T’s transition from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. During the interview, I was very confident with what I put forth, but ultimately I felt like this format didn’t allow me to showcase who I was and how I would be a great fit for the role. I was asked no personal questions about my interest in the company or my experience, so it was difficult for me to connect with the interviewers in a meaningful way. It was quite a sterile process and ultimately confirmed my suspicions that AT&T was not the right company for me, so in the end I’m so happy I didn’t get that role, because it came several months before the offer from my top company, and I might have accepted because of the pressure to find a position early on.
MBASchooled: What did you learn from the interviewing process?
The AT&T story is a perfect frame for what I learned throughout my recruitment experience: trust in the process. I felt a lot of pressure to secure a position early in the fall because all around me, my peer MBAs were receiving and accepting offers. You start to get anxious and ancy about not having an offer, but you really just have to be patient and trust that the right position is coming along for you. Which is easier said than done, of course. Looking back now, all of the interviews I had that didn’t manifest into offers taught me something and prepared me for the moment when it really mattered.
This is what the MBA is all about – building the poise and confidence to communicate your value with the world – and the only way that comes is through the trials and tribulations of actually doing it. You have to be okay with failing and you have to fail forward, meaning find a takeaway from each failure, learn from it, and ultimately use that failure to become better.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for others who are trying to navigate the virtual recruiting process?
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” It is super disheartening to apply to ~50 jobs but hear back from none, and also to get so far into a process, but rejected at the final round. I firmly believe that if you have the intention and determination to find your dream job, a path towards it will follow. The hardest part sometimes is sifting through all of the options to find the one you truly want, but once you do, keep it in laser focus and work hard to make it a reality.