By Heavyn Jackson, Senior Communication Studies Major
Today’s “Alumni Spotlight” shines on the 2011 graduate, Nick Benza. Nick works as a recruiter at Sungevity, a solar panel company. Since graduation, Nick has been working diligently. I asked him what his plan had been after graduation and if in any way it had shifted. Benza told me that he indeed had a plan going into graduation and he stuck to it! He was older than most students in his graduating class because he’d chosen to work and to attend community college. In 2007, most of his high school friends were beginning to come back from college, showing off their degrees and new salaries. This resulted in Nick thinking about the life that he could have after graduating college, and from there he chose to apply to USF. His plan at USF was to get in the sales industry and, on top of this, his dad and friends were very supportive. They would tell him that technology sales were a great way to get money and also that he had a great personality for it.
Although tech sales was something Nick wanted to pursue, recruiting wasn’t always a passion that he had or even had thought about. The way Nick stumbled onto this career was by putting his resume on websites and getting job offers to be a recruiter. When this first started happening Nick was very confused, and he began to consult with his friends and his dad. Hiring managers continuously reached out to Nick to see if he would like an interview. At first, Nick was hesitant. However, he still took a few interviews, and then the rest is history. He took a job offer and from there learned about recruiting. At Sungevity, Nick works as an internal recruiter which basically recruits people in house. He told me that with his job comes a bit of pressure because there’s a certain amount of people each month that he and his colleagues have to recruit and hire for their company. As a recruiter, he spends most of his days at work in interviews, meetings, or skyping potential hires. Even though there’s pressure with his job, he also told me about some of the perks!
COMS graduate Nick pictured outside his job skyping with me for this interview!
Check out some of perks that come with Nick’s job:
- Free breakfast and lunch
- Short commute because he lives fairly close
- Great view of Jack London Square
- 100 percent paid medical and dental care
- $1,000 each year to go towards professional development
Nick’s advice to a graduating senior:
- Always have your resume ready, especially one month before graduation
- Always tailor your resume to the specific job you’re applying for
- Get as much experience as you can because internships look amazing!
- Networking is huge!
- Get a LinkedIn profile
It was such a great pleasure being able to connect and learn from an alumni from the University of San Francisco. From the COMS department, we wish you all the best Nick!
