My e-mail has been flooded with questions about why there haven’t been any blog posts for a few days (just kidding, but I bet someone out there noticed, right?). In any case, we are back in full swing with today’s “Plan A” featuring recent Communication Studies graduate Natalie Baryla! Remember that the goal of these posts is to share information from those recent grads who already have the next stage of their lives planned out… their Plan A is in place! Natalie just began her full time position as an Associate Training Program Manager at Yammer Inc. here in San Francisco. If Yammer sounds familiar to some of you, it is because Natalie talked about her internship there in an “Internship Ideas” post several months ago. I asked Natalie to share with us how she came about being hired full time at Yammer and what advice she has for our students.
Yammer's new Associate Training Program Manager, Natalie Baryla, BA!
“I’m not sure if anything completely tied to academics really led to me getting the job, rather it was the skills that I learned through going to school that helped me. I started interning at Yammer last February when I saw the job posted on the USF career site. I put in my resume and got a call back. I didn’t know much about Yammer but after I googled the company it sounded like a cool place to be. I originally got hired for a specific lengthy project that was basic data entry, which took about eight months but when it was done, I, and the other interns were rewarded and put on more projects.
Yammer started hiring rapidly at the beginning of the year and we only had one person doing all the training. Seeing the need for assistance, I approached the director of field enablement during one of our happy hours and offered my help to her. Within a few weeks I was writing training materials for her and got moved to be a training specific intern. Eventually I started helping with our onboarding process, and I am starting a position at the end of this month as an Associate Training Program manager where I will keep writing training material as well as training our new employees. I am extremely excited to start this role as Yammer is a great place to work and I have fallen in love with the place over the last year.
My advice consists of a few key points:
#1: Use the USF Career Center! Seriously, there are amazing and will help you craft a resume that will definitely help you land any internship.
#2: When in school look for jobs that will give you actual experience. No one in the business world is impressed that you were a sales associate at Urban Outfitters, get a job or internship that is relevant to what you want to do after graduation.
#3: Once you get an internship keep a positive attitude. When I was being hired for my full time position the main reason I was hired into that role was because of the attitude I had towards my job. As my manager put it: I have little experience but my great attitude and willingness to learn definitely makes up for that.
#4: If you don’t know what you want to do after graduation, try something new. Last February I had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. At one point I was even thinking about law school because I was just that clueless. I was looking for a job and the tech industry was definitely something new for me, and who would have guessed that it would turn into where I want to be after graduation.
Good luck to all the new graduates and soon to be graduates!”
Thanks, Natalie, for the great advice! I remember several of our pros from “Pizza with the Pros” talking about how a great attitude and willingness to learn goes a lot way (and so does the a bad attitude… just in the wrong direction!). Congratulations on your position! We’re so proud of you!
Hey recent grads… did your Plan A work out? Contact me at edoohan@usfca.edu to be featured!
