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When I received the email from Dell Technologies informing me that they wanted to interview me for an internship, I did not know what to think. On one hand, I was excited. In today’s job market, sometimes it even feels like getting to the interview stage is a huge accomplishment, let alone the job. Yet, I was quite nervous with the knowledge that I would have to present myself at my very best. And to make matters worse, I had lost the job listing in a sea of emails, so I could not find the exact specifications of what I was applying for.

Luckily, I had the Isenberg Office of Career Success on my side. Before the interview, I stopped into the School of Management’s career center, where I met a professional career advisor who helped me find the listing, analyze what Dell was looking for, and prepare questions for my interviewer. I was especially thankful to prepare these questions because I had struggled with asking them in the past.

When the day of the interview came, I was relieved for an in-person interview held right on campus in the Chase Career Center. I was sick of the awkwardness and technical difficulties that came with a Zoom interview. Instead, I got to shake hands with my interviewers and begin with a casual conversation rather than troubleshooting my microphone. The interview flew by and went just as smoothly as my practice with my advisor had gone. I even got a few compliments from my interviewers for my thoughtful questions.

Not too long after that, I received a call from a recruiter offering me a position as an undergraduate summer intern. To my surprise, they were willing to pay for my housing and transportation if I moved down to Austin, Texas. I accepted and was rewarded with a junior year devoid of the stress of career uncertainty. Yet I was definitely apprehensive about moving down to Texas, a place I had never been to before. Luckily for me, I was far from the only Minuteman down there. Many of my fellow interns went to UMass, and my intern manager was an alumnus. It was a nerve-wracking experience at first, but being around so many other people who loved UMass made it easier.

As I got into the swing of things, I was repeatedly challenged by my intern position. And when I encountered trouble, I called upon the things I had learned in Isenberg. I impressed my manager with my Excel knowledge from OIM 210 Introduction to Business Information Systems, I communicated with coworkers professionally thanks to SOM 310 Business Communication, and I navigated calls with stakeholders in India and China with techniques learned in the International Marketing class I took abroad.

At the beginning of my junior year, the idea of having an internship, let alone a full-time job offer, was unthinkable. Yet after only a year, I have a position lined up for post-graduation, largely thanks to UMass and the Isenberg School of Management.