Internship Search: How did I get to Blue Cross?
The adventure theme
continues with my internship search this past spring semester. It started all
the way back in November and continued through the spring. If you read my last
post, I talked all about my externship experience in New York City. Now that I
was well equipped from the externship, it was time to put those skills to work.
Being a sophomore competing
against experienced juniors and seniors for the intern position was not an easy
task. As a sophomore, I was always proving or needed to prove companies wrong
every time I was being interviewed. Despite my knowledge or interview status,
they were looking for at least one previous internship experience. Yes I did
get a lot of compliments on my resume as a sophomore and I do have a very wide
variety of work experience, but I didn’t have an internship – a real world
experience. I did well in my interviews according to my evaluations, and
improved as time went on, but I got no love! Talk about frustrating huh?!
Just to clarify my level of
frustration: I applied to seven internships; Shields MRI, Angels Healthcare,
Blue Cross Blue Shields of Mass (BCBSMA), Owens & Minor, Aflac, HR
Knowledge, and Training Fix. Of the seven, I got an invite to interview at all
the companies except Shields MRI & Blue Cross. Believe it or not, I
received zero offers from all the companies I interviewed with. I went 0 & 5!
Damn! Such depressing times. But then you may ask, “how are you interning with
BCBSMA if you didn’t even get an interview?” Well, that’s the story of the
century. I didn’t get an interview. I went straight past the interview to a job
offer. Interesting huh?
You are probably wondering
how the heck that was possible. Well...what had happened was; I started looking
for internships back in November. Let’s just say I lived in career services
this past year. I went up to Christina Burney and told her I wanted to intern
at BCBSMA. I love Christina but I’m sure she didn’t take me seriously. Why Blue Cross though? Believe it or not, it is
nothing complicated. After taking healthcare foundations second semester of
freshman year and officially declaring a major in Healthcare Administration, I
knew I wanted to do something within Healthcare. I wasn’t certain which
direction to take it and I’m still in the process of figuring it out.
Insurance, Clinical, Sales? Only time will tell. As a member of HMO Blue, I
thought, “how amazing would it be to actually work with the company that
insures me?” I saw it and still see it as a dream job. That was really the
reason I became interested in working for Blue Cross.
Once again nothing
complicated. Long story short, Christina connected me to Jason Dekow, the
senior recruiter at Blue Cross. I first attempted to have him be my mentor
through Career Connection (an opportunity to built relationships with Stonehill
Alums) but he couldn’t because he wasn’t a member of Stonehill’s Alumni Network.
He couldn’t officially be my mentor, but I kept in contact with him all
throughout November, December and the start of January. The second opportunity
came back in December when a mentor and friend of mine (Paul Burton) connected
me to Jeff Bellows, the Vice President of Corporate Citizenship Community
Relations. I kept in touch with Jeff via email; well mostly his assistants
because he was too busy to deal with me. Jeff passed me along to his assistant
who then referred me again to Jason Dekow. It’s interesting how that works.
Don’t mean to be dramatic or anything but it was destiny.
The third opportunity came
back in April, during the Internship fair. I was hoping the recruiter was
Jason, and it surly was. I knew that was it, my first time meeting this guy in
person. The externship program, all the time I spent in the career services,
all those interviews; it all came down to this moment. I needed to sell myself;
I needed to refurnish my elevator pitch (30-sec of fame prepared for a future
boss) & SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats) analysis. I walked
up to him and immediately he knew who I was because I was also connected with
him on LinkedIn. He obviously had done his research and I most definitely did
mine; I knew exactly who he was. One slight change though, he was a lot
skinnier in person, which was great because he was clearly moving towards a
healthier lifestyle. Now why am I talking about my recruiter’s personal health?
It’s a passion for healthy living, don’t judge me. Anyway I had a long
conversation with him, spoke to him like I knew his personal life, passed on my
resume and hoped for the best.
I hoped for the best and the
best is what I received a month or so later. I hadn’t heard from him in a while
so I became a little worried. After applying to other internships and interviews,
I was getting anxious. I didn’t want to be annoying, but I made sure to send a
couple follow ups. Here is a copy
of my last email:
“Hello Jason,
It has been a while since I heard from
you. I hope things are going well. I would appreciate an update soon. I am
currently also looking to hear back from Angels Healthcare Companies, Aflac,
and HR Knowledge. Of these three companies Blue Cross is no doubt my number one
choice, so I hope to hear from you soon. Hopefully about an interview.
Thank you!
Thomas Noah”
Now read his reply!
Hi
Thomas,
Sorry
this took slightly longer than expected….
Via
our past conversations about an internship opportunity within the area of
Performance Measurement and Improvement more specifically as the Network
Contracting Intern. I am delighted to extend an offer to you to become an
intern with the Network Contracting Intern reporting to Stephanie Graham!
I
wanted to let you know about the next steps. You will notice that I have
attached some information to this email. It represents your offer letter,
directions on how to start our standard background screening for all associates
and interns, once you have accepted the position.
Please
follow the directions in the INTERN APPLICATION GUIDE to initiate the process
around the background screening.
Thomas,
I am sure you might have additional questions about the process and the program
and I am happy to answer any and all questions you might have. Please feel free
to reply to this email of contact me directly. You can find my direct line
listed below.
Congratulations!
Jason
Say what?! It truly couldn’t
have gone any better. The power of networking and persistence. Talk about a
dream come true huh? I plan on telling you guys all about it at the end of the
summer, while I’m in….wait for it…..Italy! The format will be nothing like
you’ve seen before, on my blog at least. That’s because I plan on using the
weekly recaps/journals written for my supervisor and academic advisor at school.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my experiences this past semester. I know I said
in the introduction I was going to include academic updates. That is
unfortunately not going to happen. Not saying it was boring or anything; the
adventure never stops. Just didn’t have as much time as I had hoped.
I also wanted to say Rest in
Peace to my first Art History Professor, Professor Calo. She unfortunately lost
her battle with Breast Cancer during the first month of the semester. It was a
pleasure having her as a Professor although our time with her was cut so short.
Only a month into school we discovered her struggles with cancer. This kind of
stuff breaks my heart because I witnessed my mom undergo chemo for breast cancer
for several years. I indirectly felt her pain. Unfortunately she couldn’t
overcome her struggle like my mother did. God bless her for spending so many
years at Stonehill and making such an impact on the Stonehill community, Art
& Theater Department for the twenty or so years she was there. I’ve been at
Stonehill for two years and for some odd reason I’ve already had to experience two
tragic deaths. Why is that? I don’t have the answer either but it surely hasn’t
slowed me down as you can see. One of my favorite motivational quotes says, “it
ain’t about how hard you can hit, its about how hard you
can get hit and keep moving forward.” I guess it’s all apart of the adventure? I’ve
realized death is a major part of life. I may not have experience any of this
the first 20 years of my life but I am now! I guess it was just a matter of
time until reality kicked in. No matter what happens from here, “No weapon formed
against me shall prosper!”
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