Employer Spotlight: Internships and Branding Yourself
Samuel Shelton | Manager
Talent Acquisition | University Relations
Aflac Worldwide Headquarters
Q. What are your suggestions on how a student can make the most of an internship? How do they cultivate relationships while at the internship site? Are there suggestions how a junior can turn their internship into a full-time job offer?
A. Aflac views its internship program as an opportunity to build relationships with high potential students early on in their college careers with hopes of converting them into high-performing, full-time employees who can build Aflac’s bench for succession planning. Of course, this is a mutually beneficial perspective, as those same interns will be in the job market shortly and they may find Aflac a desired place to begin their careers. Aflac has many intramural clubs, as well as volunteer activities, in which an intern can participate during his or her internship experience. These types of activities allow an intern to network and cultivate relationships with individuals outside of their assigned area. In addition, inherent to an Aflac internship, interns are provided the opportunity to network with Aflac’s top senior executives during our integrated Leadership Engagement Series. Such exposure allows interns to gain high visibility in front of key individuals who make hiring decisions. In these diverse forums, interns are encouraged to share their future goals, aspirations, and intentions on continuing employment with the respective company, while leaving a positive and indelible impression of the value they would add in terms of behavior and work ethic.
Q. What are your suggestions how a student can “brand” themselves to help them be more marketable in the internship and/or full-time job search? What can students do to increase the marketing or “branding” of their professional abilities, skills, experiences, etc.?
A. At the onset, I find that a student best brands him or herself for an internship or a full-time job search when he or she begins with a clear understanding of the underlining goals and objectives of the particular company of interest. A potential intern or full-time candidate should start by researching the company’s annual goals, strategic initiatives, and/or recent challenges. A great way to understand this is by creating an analysis of the company’s strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats (SWOT Analysis). This will help a potential interns or full-time candidates to position themselves to meet the growing demands of the future, while simultaneously demonstrating how they have mastered the skills to meet the current business needs. Once the student has an understanding of the current business needs and future demands, then he or she should go the extra mile by taking courses that are relevant to those business needs, completing an internship (preferably with the company of interest), and/or by developing corresponding skill-sets (i.e. technical and communicative) to increase their knowledge and acumen in a given subject matter.