Today in my networking challenge I am interviewing Kat Krull, the Associate Marketing Director at Resunate. She was recently an intern at the company, but was offered a full-time job, so congratulations Kat! I am excited to share what you learned about getting a job with Classy Career Girl readers!

In case you are reading this at work and can’t watch the video, you can read all of the great advice below about how to turn your internship into your dream job like Katherine did!

How to Turn Your Internship into Your Dream Job

1) You have an usual career path, how did you end up at your current job?

I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with an industrial engineering degree. While I was in school, I did five separate internships.  By the time I graduated, I had a lot of knowledge about industrial engineering, and I found that wasn’t a path I wanted to pursue any longer.

I ended up volunteering for Americorps for a year and I tutored disadvantaged teenage boys. After I was done, I still didn’t know that I wanted to do professionally.  I ended up doing a lot of research and going to a lot of networking events.

Finally, I came across a product marketing engineer internship position for a startup company.  It appealed to me because I had taken a marketing class in college that I liked and thought it might something I would be interested in doing. Also, I had worked for a lot of non-profits but never for a company as small as a startup.

2)How did you get your current job as Associate Marketing Director?

I was very interested, so when I found it, I immediately called up Careerimp offices and told them that I was very interested in this position and was wondering if it was still available. They told me it was and to email them my resume. So that is what I did, I was really excited about the opportunity, so I blindly sent in my resume without tailoring it.

A couple of days later I was thinking about the job, and I realized I probably wasn’t going to get the job because I didn’t have any marketing experience on my resume. I knew I needed to think outside the box so I ended up researching the company a little more. I found that their main product is Resunate, an online resume and job application tool that allows you to tailor and optimize your resume for a specific job.

 I knew this was a perfect opportunity for me to tailor my resume for this job using Resunate and hopefully I would have a better chance at getting a job. After I finished, I couldn’t have just sent in a duplicate email, so I printed out my resume and went down to the CareerImp offices and went into an impromptu interview.

I handed my resume to the marketing manager and told her that I used Resunate and loved it and was very interested in the position and why I thought I was a good fit for the position. After that, I got an email from the marketing manager who said she really liked my initiative and she asked me to come onboard as the intern.  That was in October, and in December they offered me a full-time job as Associate Marketing Manager. So, that is the story of how I turned my resume and internship into my dream job!

3) How did it go just walking into the company and handing them your resume, since so many people are nervous about doing that?

In the past, I have tried it out and it hasn’t worked because you just hand your resume to someone and they give it to someone else later on. But I do think it is really good because it does show initiative.  Because this was such a small startup company, I was able just to go in and speak to the marketing manager. If you can get that face-to-face interaction, I think that is huge and very helpful.

4) What are the steps that you took when researching different careers?

I did a lot of research online. I also researched a lot of grad programs because I thought I might want to go back to grad school. I went to universities and talked to them about the grad programs. I also did a lot of networking and reached out to everyone that I could. I reached out to my family, friends, and acquaintances.

I just tried to talk to them about their careers and what they did and also about open opportunities that they knew of to see if it was something that maybe I wanted to do.  I also did the Myers-Briggs assessment which was really helpful because it showed me what my personality strengths were so I could choose a career that had those strengths.

5) What is your favorite part about your job in the marketing field?

I really like the fact that it is very creative. I am always doing different things and having to think outside the box which I really enjoy. I also really like the fact that I am always talking to people.  I am always brainstorming and coming up with ideas with my co-workers and creating strategies.

6) Did you know a lot about social media before you started?

I didn’t know a lot about social media. My sister was a social media consultant so she helped me a lot when I started the position. Now I feel like I know so much about it because I do so much with it. I do love social media.

7)  What do you wish you had known when you first chose a career path?

I wish I had done a little more research when I was selecting a major in school. I know I was very busy in high school just trying to get into college let alone picking a certain major or career I wanted to pursue.

So I wish I would have done a little more research and shadowed more people and really just learned about more opportunities that were out there. A lot of people when you are trying to figure out what to do will tell you because of three things 1) stability 2) money 3) you are good at math so maybe accounting would be great for you.

But, what I have learned is that work becomes such a big part of your life after college that you really want to be happy in your career. No matter what anyone else says, you really have to look within yourself and decide what is going to make you happy and what are you going to enjoy doing for the rest of your life.

8 ) What are your tips for young professionals who are currently in an internship that they want to turn into a full-time job? What should they do to make a great impression on an employer during an internship?

Make sure you show them you can be responsible and get the work done on time. Also, show that you are willing to stay a little late at work. If you are still working on a project and you are supposed to go home, stay longer.

Make sure that you have good time management skills and that you accomplish all of your deadlines on time and show that you know how to prioritize.  Also, show that you have really strong work ethic.  Go and take initiative and work really really hard. Go above and beyond.

Do the best job possible on all of your tasks. This will really show that you are very valuable to the company which will make you indispensable at the end. Also, show that you are very passionate about what you are doing. If you don’t show that you are passionate, they won’t think that you care. Show that you are passionate about the company and the project or service that they provide. The last thing I recommend is to ask questions.

I think a lot of interns and people starting out at an entry level job are afraid to ask questions because it seems like everyone else around them knows all of the answers all the time so they feel stupid for asking questions.

But if you want to turn your internship into your dream job, you need to remember you are there to learn as much as you can. That will really help you decide at the end of your internship, if you want to continue doing that or if you want to move on to something else.

Note: I am an affiliate for Resunate because I have used it and recommend it. If you purchase an account through my links I will earn a commission. When you order through my link, it helps me continue to offer you lots of free stuff, so thank you in advance for your support!