The Fall semester is really heating up, with events ranging from happy hours and tailgates, to company visits and career fairs. As always, I’ve been in the middle of it all, and am eager to share some of these experiences with you!
Classes
My class schedule this semester is heavily focused on Marketing, which is my core concentration. One of the more unique courses I am taking is a class called Field Studies in Marketing. My group is basically acting as consultants for Frontier Natural Foods Co-op, an organization that specializes in natural and organic foods. Additionally, Frontier strives to be a leader in social responsibility and has founded the Well Earth program to enrich the lives of their suppliers from all over the world. Check out Frontier’s website; they have some really cool products including the organic spice category’s leading brand: Simply Organic. We have several deliverables to produce by the end of the semester. Our first task will require us to organize and conduct several focus groups to evaluate how closely aligned the Simply Organic packaging is to the product’s positioning strategy. We will also be revamping the company’s social-media marketing plans, so stay tuned…I’m sure I’ll have lots of updates as the projects progress!
Job Hunt
The fulltime job hunt is proving to be more difficult for me than last-year’s internship search. I’ll be attending the NSHMBA conference in Minneapolis next week and have been spending a lot of my time researching companies and applying for jobs at the fair. I also traveled to New Orleans last week for the NBMBAA conference where I was able to land several interviews. It is too soon to say whether these interviews will produce any results; however, I have a good feeling that several of my classmates who attended this event made some really great traction with some top-tier companies.
Football
Fall means football, especially in Iowa City! So far our Hawks are off to a 4-0 start, including a HUGE win at Penn State last Saturday. The MBA has enjoyed the benefits of several company sponsored tailgates (thank you Aegon and Eaton!); these types of tailgates are a really great way to informally network and learn more about each company. This weekend we will be tailgating at the home of an MBA student…rumor has it a bouncy-house will be present! Until next time….GO HAWKS!!!
