REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES
The Way to Jumpstart Your Career A recent School of Business graduate is optimistic about her career after gaining real-life experience through the co-op program. article by Jennifer Blomquist • photography by Jeffrey Crane
“Right before I graduated in December, I wrote a paper for school about working while you’re in school and how it will set you apart from the rest when you graduate because employers want someone with real experience, not just a degree,” says Kendra Giant of Fort Wayne. Giant graduated in December from IPFW’s School of Business with a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing. During the second semester of her junior year, she was accepted into a co-op program with Cintas of Fort Wayne. Cintas is a full-service uniform rental company. “I was looking for something that was sales-driven,” says Giant. “At Cintas, I was able to work in the sales department and was given a number of responsibilities, including creating company logo sketches for mats, preparing packages for prospective customers and even going out in the field with members of the sales team.” Giant says she spent an average of 18 to 23 hours working at Cintas each week, while also completing 19 credit hours of school. “It was a heavy schedule, but I loved applying what I was learning in school to what I was doing at Cintas.” “I have seven sales reps who each own their own territories and are extremely busy trying to obtain the business of prospective clients 10 | THE DOERMER DIFFERENCE - WINTER 2017
while maintaining relationships with existing clients. They have a full plate,” says Nick Hartman, sales manager at Cintas. “Kendra not only helped to take some of the chores off the sales reps’ plates, but she did so efficiently and in a way that made her a true asset to Cintas. We started out with simpler tasks, but by the time she was nearing graduation, she was going out in the field and selling accounts.”
Kendra says she wasn’t always very interested in school, but found herself feeling the opposite when she started the co-op program.
“The co-op just solidified for me the fact that sales is what I want to do with my career,” says Giant.
If your company would be interested in hiring a co-op student please contact (260) 481-6939 or cooped@ipfw.edu.
“As a sales manager, I can attest to the fact that when I’m considering a candidate for a position, I have to ask, ‘What kind of business to business experience does that person have?’ If I could go back in time as a student, I would do the coop like Kendra has, because it just sets those students up for success and the opportunity to jumpstart their careers.”
“I liked being able to take what I was learning in school and use that information to help me in my work at Cintas. It really changed the way I looked at school and I know it has made a difference for me as I enter the workforce as a professional.”