The Reward Of My Job Hunt Struggle: How Tenacity Helped Me Land My Internship

When it comes to Rocket Companies^®, I am no stranger as far as internships go. I have been fortunate enough to intern with this amazing company twice prior to my summer 2021 internship.

In fact, Rocket Mortgage^® was the first job I ever had, starting with my first internship as a Capital Markets intern in 2015 my senior year of high school. During that internship, I had the opportunity to sit in on meetings about the stock market and how our products are used.

My second internship was a summer 2016 Career Exploration internship, before my freshman year of college. This internship showed me various aspects of the company, from technology all the way to recruiting.

During both internships, I was able to make great connections with recruiters and good relationships with my fellow team members. I enjoyed working at Rocket Companies so much that I kept applying year after year following my last internship in 2016, but I wasn’t successful. I felt discouraged, but I didn’t give up hope just yet.

Whenever Rocket Companies had an event on Michigan State University’s campus, I made sure I was present to see what information they had to offer. In doing so, I ended up seeing some of my former recruiting team members. They gave me some free swag and their contact information which allowed me to keep in touch.

The biggest semester of college came up in the blink of an eye. Senior year was crunch time for me in my job search outside of school; I was so worried about having a place to stay after graduating and finding a role somewhere that I could fit in.

During that year, I polished up my resume and updated my LinkedIn and Handshake profiles thanks to a Media Driver’s License course I took. I cut my hair at the time and started dressing more professionally so that I looked more presentable when going to career fairs to network.

I was an advertising major who felt out of place because the roles that were available were either engineering or finance based. There were ad agencies available, but I doubted myself because I didn’t believe I had the credentials they needed. Regardless, I approached them with a smiling face.

The clock was ticking so I took a leap of faith and reached out to an old recruiter I had from my first internship with Rocket Mortgage. She was able to point me in the right direction and I landed an interview to be a Talent Brand Marketing intern.

I made it to the final round of interviews and got the worst news: I was diagnosed with COVID-19. I was able to fight through the virus itself, but the aftereffects took a toll on me. I had to stay in the hospital for 8 days due to having a blood clot in my lung and pneumonia in my body.

Because of this, I kept rescheduling my leader interview and they were completely understanding and told me that my health comes first. However, my recruiter said I wouldn’t be able to keep rescheduling so if I couldn’t make this last appointment they would need to move forward. Fortunately, I got out of the hospital in time and crushed the interview. My start date was May 21, 2021!

I know how it feels to be lost or feel like your back is against the wall with everything seemingly crashing down around you. But in reality, things are not crashing down – you just need to be still and think deeper about your next move.

Start your job hunt early and meet with career advisors at your school regularly. Find out what you are interested in or passionate about and follow that - you won’t steer yourself wrong. Even if what you have a passion for is not directly related, it is still relative.

Build your brand early and establish connections that can help you out of tough spots. Get help building your LinkedIn profile and other career site profiles so you can be a candidate that stands out.