Originally from Oakville, Ontario, Gillian Kirk is in her third year of study at Dalhousie and her second year in the Bachelor of Management program. After her first year at Dal she decided to switch to Management because of the option to participate in the 8-month internship program, allowing her to gain valuable work experience before graduating.
Gillian has secured an internship starting this May with PepsiCo Beverages Canada, a worldwide company that distributes hundreds of food and beverage items to more than 200 countries and territories. What stood out to Gillian about PepsiCo specifically was their “strong emphasis on providing employees with meaningful work opportunities to build and maintain a strong career from the start”. She was keen to pursue this company because even though they are a big corporation, they are committed to supporting their team and communities. In her role as Sales Intern, Gillian will work with a diversified list of retail customers to educate and excite them about PepsiCo’s products, as well as assist the company in achieving sales and customer service objectives.
Prioritizing networking and making connections is what Gillian contributes to landing the position. To secure her internship, she began by “reaching out to a personal contact who also started out as an intern, but worked her way up after working for PepsiCo for 10 years. I saw this as an opportunity to gain insight on how large corporations operate”. Her personal networking efforts led to an internal referral for an interview, in which she was offered the position.
Gillian is looking forward to gaining the work experience that comes along with completing her internship. “I’m most excited to build new relationships with customers and fellow employees, to work hard to achieve high sales volume, and to be the best representative of all that PepsiCo has to offer for their customers,” she says.
Gillian’s advice for you:
- Make use of your connections early on in the work search process. Reach out and learn about their experiences. You will be surprised where this takes you in being exposed to potential job opportunities, and building relationships and a good support network with professionals with a vast amount of experience and knowledge for career growth.
- The internship prep seminar course I took this fall with Jennifer Coombs [MCS Career & Recruitment Specialist] was very beneficial in helping me learn how to create a professional resume and cover letter, build my LinkedIn profile, network, and how to prepare for and have a successful interview (especially focusing on virtual interviewing). This knowledge made me feel more confident going into my interview with PepsiCo, and I was prepared to represent myself and effectively tell my own story.
Pronouns: She/Her
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