Hi everyone. My name is Emily Williamson and I graduated from the class of 2020 with an honors double major in marketing and operations management. When I first started at University of Delaware, I'll be completely honest, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do moving forward. And I think that there was a big part of me that felt like I was the only one who didn't know what I wanted to do. I had a roommate who was pre-vet. I had a roommate who was marketing and I came in as business undecided. It can be pretty intimidating to feel like you're the only person without a five or a 10 year plan post-college. But what I found pretty early on was that there were quite a few people that just like me, knew that they were interested in business but didn't know exactly what they were interested in. I had a prereq danger, ended up graduating with computer science and French. My marketing major roommate. I ended up graduating with an English degree. So things flex and things flow over time. And if you come in with a plan and that changes, that's fine. And if you come in with no plant and you find your plan over time, that's fine. And if you come in with a plan and that's the plan you end up pursuing. Amazing, right? So I think the biggest piece of advice I have is not to be too harsh on yourself if your pledge ages or you don't come in with a precise plan in mind. You're just starting school. You probably don't have experience in the field you're interested in. So it would only make sense that as you collect experiences and get education in different fields, that your opinions might change over time. My first piece of advice would be to keep an open mind. You never know what you're going to fall in love with or what isn't going to be maybe your favorite class or your favorite job until you experience it. With that, my second piece of advice would be to collect as many experiences as possible as you can when you're at school, you will never have an opportunity like you do for these next four years to just do a little bit of everything. So when I was on campus, I had a handful of jobs. You could say that I do mess when I have a busy plea or full plate. So I worked as a teaching assistant for the intro to business class my sophomore, junior, and senior years, I was an orientation leader my freshmen summer, I was a peer mentor. I also worked a few other jobs on Main Street, Um, and I also was a member of Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business or Carnegie on campus. For me, being a TA and being an Alpha Kappa, sorry, I were two of the most integral experiences I had over those four years. Through my different jobs and experiences on campus, I was able to utilize connections I had made as an orientation leader to secure my first internship with Rosewood farms, a family owned wedding venue in Elkton, Maryland, right off campus. I had a coworker who knew that I was interested in marketing, who knew that I was interested in analytics? And when a social media and SalesRole opened up for an internship, my sophomore year, I applied and because I had a good recommendation from my co-worker and varied experience from my classes and my jobs. I got the internship. And in that small family-run company or not to wear many different hats in many different experiences. And selling wedding packages certainly gives you some impressive numbers to put on your resume. So my sophomore year, I knew that I didn't necessarily want to work for a small company. I was interested in keeping my options open. So I went to the career fair a little bit early, since most companies didn't start recruiting until junior or senior year. But I thought it was important to really see what options were out there and to start looking early. So I knew what to be prepared for. Because career fairs are very intimidating to be transparent, maybe not for everyone, but for me, they were very intimidating and having that dry run stakes is definitely something I recommend. But my sophomore year, I had a family friend who work for PepsiCo and she said, You know what, I think that you might like working with Pepsi. And I thought, no, I don't think that's the right fit for me. You know, I worked for wedding venue in high school. I sold prom dresses like, you know, I'm used to selling things that are a little more glamorous than soda, right? But I said, you know what, she knows me, she knows my interests. Why don't I just go check out the table. So I went, I introduced myself. I talked about my family friend who worked for the company. And he got my name, my name out there with Pepsi. So my following year, I went and I was eligible to apply for the internship. I ended up walking up to the same person I met the year before. That woman then interviewed me and by some stroke of faith also was my manager for my internship. So when they say connections and connections matter and to utilize them, they they mean it. Right. So I had just happened to meet her year before, but that was what made me stand out in her mind when we were in line. And the experience I had gained at Rosewood farms and experiences again in my classes and being a TA and being a peer mentor helped me stand out among my other students who had high GPAs who were actively involved. I was able to utilize all those different aspects to secure that internship with Pepsi my junior year. During my time as an intern at PepsiCo, I found that I was definitely more interested in selling soda than I had originally thought. But what really drew me to the company was the people that I worked with. I had the opportunity to work with frontline employees. I had the opportunity to work with students who came up in the campus hire program. And I saw a lot of opportunity for myself to both learn from people with varied backgrounds. Also to help give back in the future through that campus hire program. And when it came time to look forward to my full-time role, I ended up leaving that summer thinking, you know what, I think that Pepsi could be the right fit for me. And after our final presentations, and actually a week before school started my senior year, I received an offer from PepsiCo for a full-time role through their campus higher rotation program in Philadelphia. So right after graduation, I started my 10 month rotation program where I was able to gain experience in delivery, merchandising operations, the warehouse, sales, and sales management. So in ten months time, I was able to gather an incredible amount of experience and really have hands-on opportunities to learn and to make impactful decisions and get results as a first-year employee. If you're someone like me who is an entirely sure what you want your path or your future to be. I would definitely recommend, like I said, that being open minded, getting a lot of different opportunities and experiences throughout your college career. Also pursuing a rotational program as your first internship or as your first full-time role. Because you're going to quickly find out what you like and don't like. And you're going to get an incredible amount of experience that will prepare you for that next role. So right after my 10 month mark, an opportunity opened up in Philadelphia for a large format sales management position. I applied for the role. And through those ten months of beanie experience with Pepsi and my very experienced from both campus jobs in prior internships, I was able to get a promotion and start managing a team of four within less than a year. I realized when I say that it sounds a little bit like a brag, but I don't mean it that way. I truly believe that I was able to move this quickly because I was a part of a rotational program that allowed me to gain skills in so many different functions of the company. And I don't think that you can move as quickly in other positions if you're not cross trained, if you don't have that deep dive of the business as a whole. So I cannot recommend any kind of rotational program enough, whether it be with PepsiCo or another company. I am currently managing a team of four. And I had about 70 stores underneath of me that I'm responsible for hitting targets, executing priorities. And to be transparent, this role is not my dream job. And even though I graduated from college and I've started my career, I still don't know what my dream job is. A big part of pursuing that for me is continuing to you in different experiences. So being involved in things outside of my day-to-day role. So I do my day-to-day job, but I also am a member of our Connect team where I'm making connections with different employees in different buildings, with different backgrounds. I've connected with various alumni who work with PepsiCo to learn about what their jobs look like. I've worked with HR to try to fine tune the campus hire program. I've connected back with my roots as a TA by creating a project for freshmen at the University of Delaware. I started a sales competition for upperclassmen that we pilot University of Delaware. And as I gave more and more experience, I see what exactly I like more on and what I'd like to pursue more. I also see what I like to pursue less, which is just a factor of gathering experience and it's just as valuable as knowing what you do want to pursue. But with that said, I think just that reminder. I don't know if anyone really knows what they want to do long-term. So if you're nervous as a freshman thinking I should know exactly what my five-year, ten-year plan is. I'm a working adult and I still don't know what exactly my five to 10-year plan is. What I know is that I'm continuing to gather experiences to narrow that down until I get into my next role. And then I get into my next row, and then I get into my next role and eventually I find that niche. That's exactly what I've been looking for, even though I didn't know it yet. So be open-minded. Don't be too harsh on yourself. Gather experiences. If you're someone who doesn't know exactly what their path is looking like yet. Don't be afraid to reach out to people and ask questions and to gain experiences even if they're outside of your comfort zone. You have four years in college to really explore your interests to make the most of them. Nothing else is quite like college, so I definitely recommend taking full advantage of your time at the University of Delaware. I certainly miss it and I wish you all the best of luck throughout the next four years. I thought of something once I had left. That is just my one last piece of advice. Already talk to you about being open minded and taking all the opportunities and experiences you can. But a really big thing that you have presented to you as a learner student is the learner career services. They offer so much programming that will help you stand out as an applicant. You can get free headshots at the career fair. You can get resume reviews, you can do mock interviews. You can even set up 15 minute interviews or coffee chats with various Fortune 500 companies that partner with our school. So take advantage of where in career services, take advantage of your professors. If they have industry experience you're interested in, pick their brains about it. Join our ISOs, join fraternities, sororities, professional fraternities and sororities. Again, so many connections and learned so much from my brothers and Alpha Kappa Psi. And I had even more opportunities to do mock interviews and have brothers review my resumes and have brothers giving you suggestions about jobs or opportunities that were out there. So just make the most of your time and the resources that are available to you when you're on campus. Because they are absolutely incredible and are worth so much when it comes to making yourself stand out in the future. So you can get that dream job if you have one.
BUAD 110 Alumni Videos Emily Williamson - Sales District Leader
From Alice Pawlowski August 24, 2021
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Graduation Year: 2020
Majors: Marketing and Operations Management
Current Employer: Pepsi
Current Position: Sales District Leader
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