Carlos Martinez (03:09):

All right, welcome back. And we are here with Niki Ramirez, who is the University Relations Manager at the Kellogg company. Right. It's, it's April. We chatted about a bit in the intro. I know a lot of you are getting ready to for summer. Many of you have plans already, but, but you know, there's a good chunk of people who have no idea what's coming next and that's kind of what we thought make you would be a good person to come in. I'll let her introduce herself and we can just take it from there. So, hi Niki.

Niki Ramirez (03:37):

Awesome. Thank you Carlos! It's great to be here! Thank you for having me today. It's hard to believe it's near the end of the semester already. Summer's around the corner. I've been with Kellogg now for coming on nine years, which is incredible to think about. I was West Michigan, born and raised here in Grand Rapids. I went to Hope college and started working with the company right after school. I have been working in HR for those last nine years and working in recruiting specifically for about six of them and university relations ever since. So, I've worked with a lot of students over the years. A hundred hundreds of students have come through our doors and I try to remember all their names. We have a good time together and it's a pleasure being here. I'm excited to talk about our internships and internships for you guys too.

Megan Riksen (04:21):

That's great. What originally drew you to want to work in university recruiting specifically?

 

Niki Ramirez (04:26):

A variety of things. So when I first went to work for Kellogg, I went to work for the company because I had a skill set I wanted to use. I had studied Spanish in business in school and I wanted to speak Spanish every day. And Kellogg is a global company and so they were looking for Spanish speakers. So, I had kind of gotten into the organization without even realizing the, the vast number of opportunities available. And once I started working, I recognized how much I loved Human Resources. And in 2012, the company started our university relations area. So, it was a brand new space at the time, and I was fortunate to have a mentor who worked in Talent Acquisition and started working with her. And it was really up my alley because I had worked in the university space previously.

Niki Ramirez (05:12):

You know, I had gone through college, I had worked on campus, I had been doing visits back to the organiation, to our campus even after I had graduated to talk to students. And I loved it. And I loved that, that niche, right, where you can share what you've already learned. And so I came up through it working with people where I could share what I loved about the company. It had been so good to me, and recruiting was that perfect place to do it and invest back into students because I had been so heavily invested in myself. So it's been a great run.

Carlos Martinez (05:43):

Yeah. And, and with your role, you've got a chance to work with students, you know, all throughout the year and including summers. Right. And so being that you work with a lot of students during the summer, what are some of those things you see that, that really impress you? What about that potentially that aren't so impressive? Right. And that could be in any sort of capacity as interns, recruiting them, etceter.

Niki Ramirez (06:05):

Yeah, I would say the key for any student is to come prepared. There's so much information out there, there's so many resources available to you. And often students are inhibited because they are fearful or anxious about something. And a lot of that can be dispelled by preparation. So whether it's coming here to the Career Services offices or, or Googling it or searching on company's websites. For me, one of the best things a student can do is come prepared with questions, with information about our industry. My favorite thing during orientation, we have leaders come and speak to our students during the summer program. Our CEO always comes and welcomes our students.

 

Megan Riksen (06:43):

That's great.

 

Niki Ramirez (06:46):

And the best thing to seize when these students don't just ask questions that are basic questions. But when they really dive into our industry or questions about the organization and where we're going, because they start to demonstrate that they are participating and engaging with their experience here with the company.

Niki Ramirez (07:00):

They're not just at any old company, they're at Kellogg and this is meaningful to them for a specific reason. And they then show that they will be a valued contributor during the summer as well. They're not going to just sit back and wait for people to hand them things, but they're going to start questioning the status quo, right? And they're going to be participating. So that would be one of the number one impressive things to me.

 

Megan Riksen (07:27):

And that really seems to me that's something that very applicable and transferable to any work environment. So even if you're working as a server this summer, taking that same mindset of how can I show that I'm knowledgeable of this industry or this company is always going to be a benefit to your career.

 

Niki Ramirez (07:45):

People who ask better questions, get better answers. Sure. Seen it right when you're in different meetings and people who have these good questions and all of a sudden it elicits this answer that you didn't even know was out there.

Niki Ramirez (07:54):

So that it would be a huge thing. We don't hire our interns because we think they have tons and tons of experience. Okay. We hire them because we think they have a lot of potential. And so those questions really help us see their potential and where their passions are. So that would be one of the things I'm coming prepared. And also kind of transitioning to some of the parts that might be less impressive has to do. Also with just business etiquette. There are a lot of things. It's, it's your internship to lose, right? Where we are looking for you to come prepared and to show up on time and to be respectful. I think we all struggle with this sometimes. But to put your phone away that, I mean, is that something you're seeing? Yes. We challenge, we see, and it's, it can be difficult because students keep a lot of things on their phones, right?

Niki Ramirez (08:46):

So, maybe they have their questions on their phones or writing down. But it can also be a distraction. And so students aren't in anyone. You go into a meeting, you have your phone or your computer and you're not engaging. You're not looking at people in the eyes. You're not listening to what they're asking. You have to ask them to repeat. Things like that. Are quickly noticeable by leadership, by people in the meetings. So paying attention and demonstrating respect to those people who are investing in you as a student is hugely important.

 

Megan Riksen (09:21):

Would you even say like, don't even bring your phone into a meeting there. Things like that can be helpful. Tricks to keep yourself from checking it.

 

Niki Ramirez (09:31):

Yes, exactly. Set goals, set it up, put it aside, buy yourself a good notebook, right. Put your notes in it beforehand. Things like that. We all know our weaknesses and so trying to overcome them ahead of time is really powerful. Great. Great.

Carlos Martinez (09:38):

Yeah. You know, a, a positive attitude and a willingness to learn will go a long way. And you know, when, when a lot of things fail, try to model that behavior of some of the successful people around you in the company. Right? The fact that, and this goes for any organization, you might see people with phones and in meetings you might see people texting, but you know, that's not the best etiquette. And so, you know, go with your better judgment instead of following the, some, some of that. Some of the, the modeled behavior that might not be the best, right?

Niki Ramirez (10:08):

Set the standard. That's what we want to see. And one of the things that Kellogg that we have are our, what we call our Kellogg values, ourK values. And that's what we want to see in our students in the part of the criteria by which we assess them even is we want to say, are you demonstrating these, these values that are intrinsic to the way we interact with each other? And each organization is going to have their own set of values. Kellogg for example, one of ours is that we have the humility and hunger to learn and we want to see that in our students. Just like you were saying Carlos, right? We want them to come in with that eagerness and you can see it, the passion that comes through. Um, this is a short term opportunity and internship is, so for you guys who are looking forward to May and starting the summer, right? It's, it's going to go by so quickly on this end of things, it seems like, Oh, 12 weeks is an eternity. I've never worked 40 hours a week before. When am I going to sleep, when I'm going to see my friends? But think about this as this opportunity to really go above and beyond and focus, focus on this opportunity because it's going to be gone before you know it.

Carlos Martinez (11:13):

That's so true. Right. And while we're on the topic of the, you know, the Kellogg company in terms of internships, could you share, what were some of the different opportunities are that exist, you know, with the Keller company and maybe how you seek interns? Is it, are you very strict on a particular major or you know, what are the different factors you look at?

Niki Ramirez (11:32):

It's a great question. So we have a robust intern program. We do hire about 90 interns every summer across almost every area of our business for the us so that includes sales and marketing, it, finance, HR, supply chain, you name it, right? You name it, we got it type thing. We are a major organization and often students might not even recognize that, right? They think, Oh, Kellogg and food manufacturing. Well, I'm not studying supply chain or food. And it's not the case. So that's the same for other organizations. For you students out there looking for jobs, you may not realize that if you're studying HR or it, there might be all these other opportunities out there. So we hire students for the summer. Our Flagship program is our intern program. it runs from May to August the 12 weeks full time, type program. And there are positions all over the US so not only here in West Michigan, but also in our offices in Chicago.

Niki Ramirez (12:28):

We have plants in our bakeries around the country as well as our sales offices. And we recruit students from targeted universities. So we strategically select universities that we see students coming into our organization and being successful. And that includes Grand Valley. We have great Grand Valley students who have come and worked for us not only in our intern program, but also we have a secondary student position that we call Student Support positions. And so these positions run during the school year. So for local students, if they're interested in getting that professional work on a more part time basis, they can come work at the company, whether it's up here in our Grand Rapids offices, right off right near the airport or down in Battlecreek at our corporate offices as well. And those are great opportunities within smaller teams to get experience as well where you're being paid for this time.

Niki Ramirez (13:19):

You're getting exposure to the professional world, you get to engage as a member of the organization.

 

Megan Riksen (13:27):

That's great. And are those positions available to students at a certain number of credits, like an internship would be, or can they do that a little earlier? A little earlier?

 

Niki Ramirez (13:42)

So the student support is a great segue, almost a pre-internship into the intern program. We just require that they have at least that they're enrolled in at least six credit hours of class during the semester so they can be a part time student even. But we take freshmen and sophomores into that program and it's a wonderful segue into the, the full on intern program, which does require a bit more rigor around it. So for the intern program we are looking for students who are pursuing specific majors or career paths. There is some flexibility around that, but if you can articulate why you're excited or why this aligns with your interests we are open to that.

Niki Ramirez (14:12):

We also have a GPA requirement, so we have a 3.0 GPA requirement that goes along with it. And we're always looking for students who have demonstrated leadership experiences as well. So, that can be through an a student organization on campus. It can be through a volunteer organization that you are a part of. You can go out and start your own initiative if you're excited about that. We want to see that you're passionate about certain things and that you're going out and creating opportunities for yourself. So, practicing articulating that is huge, right? Can be all up in your head sometimes and you think you know it and then you come to a career fair and you're talking to someone and you get tongue tied. So practicing is very powerful.

 

Megan Riksen (14:52):

So that leadership piece is really something you do look for on a resume. Involvement on campus, things like that. Because yes, we hear from students all the time, how do I get experience in order to get kind of that first piece. But yeah, it can be a lot of the things that just happen here and one on campus.

Niki Ramirez (14:56):

One of the things I tell students all the time is that it doesn't have to be paid to be valuable. And one of the things that students don't always realize is that it can be even in the simplest experiences, that they gain the most value. And if they can't articulate why it's valuable, I might not see that it is. And so whether it's stocking shelves at the grocery store or I'm working at the local ice cream shop, that's what I did right in high school and into college. And so it's not, it doesn't mean you have to have had three other internships to be considered for Kellogg.

Niki Ramirez (15:41):

Yes, we'd love to see that, but if you've gone out and taken the initiative and you can share with us that you'll continue to do it, that's going to be very powerful. Something you students probably have practiced before is behavioral interviewing and the whole concept of behavioral interviewing is that past behavior predicts future behavior. So if the work that you've done in the past, if you can share that you've been hardworking, that you've driven results, you've done cost savings initiatives, you have gone out and created networks or initiated change. Yup. That behavior is what we want to see at Kellogg. We want to see you engaged with our company. We want to see you taking on extra opportunities. So if you've done it before, odds are likely when you come and work for us, you'll do it here too.

 

Megan Riksen (16:29)

Yeah. Do you have any examples of students interns or the student support positions? Stories of students who have done, who have kind of gone above and beyond in their roles and done something that was impressive done?

Niki Ramirez (16:36):

Yeah. So many stories at the end of every summer and we put together a booklet. We have different success stories and projects that our students have done and we share it with our senior leadership. Our senior leaders are very invested in our students. They love to come talk with them. And one student that comes to mind in particular was one of our summer 2016 interns and she was a Sales Intern. She worked in our corporate offices and she was very engaged throughout the summer, had an exceptional experience. And near the end of the summer she had shared an interest in really honing in on her leadership skills and taking her experiences to the next level. And she had a mentor who introduced her to our Chief Human Resources Officer and she was given an opportunity to interview her during a, an HR town hall meeting, basically, and be that main contact not only to represent the intern program, but also to create that network with Melissa as well.

Niki Ramirez (17:37):

So, that was very powerful for her. It had given her exposure, it had put her in front of a lot of other people within the organization and she's still with the company and continues to thrive. So, she even has volunteered and helps us with our incoming sales interns now. Because it empowers you when you have those types of experiences, when you feel invested in, when you know that you're supported and you can go out on a limb, push yourself out of your comfort zone, you're going to be more eager to do it again later. Right? It's stretching those muscles. And often we go off into the work world. You guys are students? Right? And you feel like you've got these kind of weak professional muscles and the only way to strengthen them is to do it. And it's tough sometimes at first, but the more you practice pushing yourself out of that comfort zone, the more successful, and I love the idea of volunteer for things.

Megan Riksen(18:28):

You don't just have to be doing the things that are listed on a job description. Yes. if you have an interest in another area, explore that, talk to your supervisor about that.

 

Niki Ramirez (18:46):

One of the things we always, we tell our students is that you have intern Teflon when you come and work with us, right? You can do anything, right? You have this wonderful title and this almost free pass hall pass that says go meet with people. And it's true no matter who you are at the company, but interns in particular, you have this very finite amount of time and you can tell them, I'm an intern and I'm interested in your role. Set up informational interviews. I just want to learn. Yeah, go out and create opportunities for yourself. And as I said in the beginning, it might mean putting in extra hours or doing things that puts your comfort zone, but volunteering for things.

Niki Ramirez (19:17):

One of the things that we do is offer during the summer, a lot of voluntary engagement opportunities. So, our students all come in and they have a manager and a mentor assigned to them. They have specific project work given to them at the beginning of the year where they basically receive with what we call a performance development plan. And it's their syllabus for the summer, right? It tells you this is what you're expected to do and this is your, these are your deliverables that you'll be assessed against. But that's just the beginning, right? Not only as an employee can you get involved in our employee resource groups and be a leader on those teams. You can help plan events, you can get exposure cross-functionally. But we from my team from University Relations put on additional events. We have an intern speaker series and we have different leaders come and speak.

Niki Ramirez (20:04):

We've had interns speak as well, and we do a case study actually our Venture Capital fund had done a Harvard Business School case study with them. And so we host that during the summer where students can come do this case study with our VP of Venture Capital who wrote it. He's, his name is in the case study. Right. And then we also do a variety of other things we do in an innovation challenge where students can come and form committees to come up with the next great Kellogg product. So, all of these things are above and beyond that just performance development plan. And it's not that you have to do everything but find those things that are the intersection of your passions and your interests and really make the most of them take on those leadership opportunities, do things that maybe you wouldn't have done in a normal classroom setting because you will come back in the fall and all of a sudden your classes are going to become that much more alive. Cause you can say, Hey, when I was at Kellogg, I was working on this project and this actually drove business results and this is where we saved $3.2 million or whatever. It might be.

Megan Riksen (21:06):

Really nice examples there.

Carlos Martinez (21:11):

All right, so, you know, besides internships w what are some other activities that students can be doing it to, to maximize their summer? Yeah.

Niki Ramirez (21:20):

So some of the things that I would recommend if you are one, if you haven't secured an internship for the summer, it's not the end of the world, especially if you're early in your college career. There are so many, there are always so many things you can get involved in. But talk to people, raise your hand. One of the things I always think about is we don't know what we don't know. And if you don't go out and talk to people, you may not even know that around the corner is something you're really excited about. And so, I encourage you as you look toward the summer to set goals for yourself. And maybe that's, I want to do at least one informational interview every week, this summer. So 12 informational interviews. Leverage your network. Come and talk to Career Services. Ask them for people that they may know, that you can connect with and take out to coffee.

Niki Ramirez (22:08):

Your parents might know people, you have friends who are interning other places. There are different events that take place during the summer. One of my favorite events that we encourage our students to go to is a Hello West Michigan's Intern Connect that's going to take place in June. And our students love to do that. They love to go and meet other interns in the area and to learn about living in and being in, playing in West Michigan. Right. And so that would be one thing. Another thing is volunteering. I said it again, it doesn't, it, you don't need to be paid for it to be meaningful, and so there are many organizations out there who would love to have your help. They would love to give you an opportunity, but they're unable to pay you for the summer. Go out, find time to do that.

Niki Ramirez (22:55):

Get an opportunity. Raise your hand. If you have a great idea. If you know, Hey, I need some project management experience. Go ask. I have this idea for a project. Do you mind if I run with it and do it? Because if you're working under the umbrella of an organization, you have that equity behind your experience and you have that information in those systems. And all of it that comes with it. Another thing is you might realize that you need a skillset to be competitive for a position. If you don't have an internship this summer, I encourage you to begin reviewing job postings now from last year. You can reach out to us, for example, here at Kellogg or your career services offices where we, we outline what we're looking for and look at it and say, what do I have and what don't I have and how do I go out and get those skills or those experiences that are going to qualify me for those roles.

Megan Riksen (23:43):

I love the idea of being really intentional, systematic with that to not just say, Oh, I think I need to work on my communication skills, but to say, no, I've looked at five job descriptions or internship positions and I see that that is listed. I think I'm pretty good at that. But could I join a student organization where I get an opportunity to do some public speaking, right? Or over the summer, volunteer for a nonprofit locally and help run their events and, and gain communication and networking skills through that.

 

Niki Ramirez (24:21):

Right. I want to see the concrete examples that you've been able to do that. Right? So it's not enough just to write on your resume. Oh, I have strong communication skills we're going to ask you, well, talk to me about a time that you had to communicate. Right? And if you don't have this, it's this concrete evidence behind it.

Niki Ramirez (24:33):

It's going to fall a bit flat. And so make sure that you're prepared to do that. And so you can always take courses, whether it's here at Grand Valley or at the community college or online. I mean YouTube has a lot of things if you need to learn new experiences. A lot of our interns are part of, so our IT interns for example, have been part of launching new softwares at the company. So, one of our students has been an integral part of the launch of Microsoft Teams at Kellogg. And so it's been neat to watch her as the main champion for it. She was an intern for two summers and just recently started in February full time. And so she has been a huge part of that. And it's something that you, if you have a technology or if you have a system or if it's Excel that you know that you want to be good at and that can be your competitive advantage, go out and now is the time to make those mistakes, to try hard to fail. Like make it happen now before you where you're in front of people and it really counts. So, this is your summer to learn a skill and say, these are my own deliverables for these 12 weeks.

Carlos Martinez (25:38):

Okay. Now, you know, a real big topic oftentimes is students who, who are, who are interning somewhere and decide that they want to end up working there. Sometimes it's possible we know that at other times it's just not a possibility. You know, when, how should they approach this if they have that interest with their employer.

Niki Ramirez (26:00):

Yeah, for sure. We love to hear that. And that is at Kellogg in particular, the, the ultimate goal of our intern program. It's our promise to our interns that if you perform well, there's a job offer tied to your internship, right? The first and foremost thing though that you need to do is perform well, right? So, before you have that conversation, make sure that you've demonstrated high performance, that you have something to show for a couple of weeks. So, at Kellogg in particular, what we do during our intern program is have performance reviews. So there are two of them. There's one at the midterm and one at the end of the summer. So that can be pretty quick.

Niki Ramirez (26:41):

And so you should be having a regular meetings with your manager. If your manager, whether it's at Kellogg or elsewhere, hasn't set up regular meetings with you. Take the initiative, put some time on their calendar, be respectful of their time, but say, “Hey, can we have 15 minute check-ins every week?”, or whatever it might be. But we have this formal performance review that takes place in kind of the end of June. And that's a wonderful time to start looking towards the end of the summer and even afterwards. So by then you should have that evidence and whether or not your manager has it prepared to share back with you. You should come prepared with a summary of your accomplishments so far. Be able to say how you've contributed, if you've done cost savings, have that, um, those concrete experiences to share with your manager and then from there, share with them your interests, and share with them what it is that you see going forward.

Niki Ramirez (27:32):

You're not entitled to an experience, but you do need to express where you want to be. Again, if you don't raise your hand, we don't always know. We can assume and we hope that you want to work for us, but start talking about that and, and, and it will look different for most students. So, some students are local and they would love to keep working on a part time basis. It's a wonderful time to begin the conversation because it gives us a number of weeks to introduce you to other teams or to find the budget or whatever it might be to keep you on for the summer. If you have a specific project that you think you could continue to help with, how you would add value. Again, share those things with us as well. And be willing to be flexible because you may stay on the same team and maybe you'll go work for a different manager, right?

Niki Ramirez (28:19):

But if that's what your end goal is, let us know. Also, for many of you who are looking towards your internships and then full time roles ask the question, what else do I need to do to secure this position? You might be doing really great work, but maybe there's one other thing that you need to do. We try very hard to give constructive feedback. We want you to succeed. We know that's what you're here for, but it can also be hard to give hard feedback to. So open the door for your manager to be very honest with you. If there are things that you're not doing that you should be doing, ask them for that.

 

Megan Riksen (28:46):

Ask them, what else can I be doing? That's a great question. Yeah.

 

Niki Ramirez (29:03):

 And if they have recommendations, go meet with this person or learn this skillset. Again, it demonstrates that humility and hunger to learn. This is your time to do that as a student, you are in the learning posture. So continue to, to leverage that.

Carlos Martinez (29:14):

Okay. Now something else we'll encounter here in the career center are those students who, who don't have such a positive experience, right? Maybe, maybe the, they love the company, but the position isn't the right fit or you know, for a variety of reasons, they just realize that they're not satisfied. It's not what they were expecting. Do you have any recommendations on how they can approach that?

Niki Ramirez (29:39):

Yeah, definitely. And so I have interacted with many employers over the years and, and almost without exception, every employer wants you to have a positive experience. The last thing they want is for you to leave there. That time with them saying, Oh, what a waste of my time. Right? And so the, the worst thing you can do is not say anything because then we can't address it. And I know it can be hard to do that. I know that it can take courage to approach someone. And so make sure you can find someone that you trust. At Kellogg in particular my team, our University Relations team puts ourselves in a position that we want you to come to us with those questions. Maybe your manager isn't the person for you. Maybe the problem is with your manager, but find someone that you can confide in, someone who can put you in contact with the right person, whether it's your university relations team, your manager, or mentor, someone like that.

Niki Ramirez (30:30):

And respectfully share your concerns or where expectations aren't lining up. And look for solutions. Don't just come with problems. Say, Hey, I think this might be helpful or this is what I was really thinking of. Could you connect me with this person? One of the things that can happen is that it's that you don't tell anyone until the last week of the summer and then it's, there's no time for us to fix it for you and there's no time for you to redeem what's left. Sure. And so tell us as soon as you can check it. And that's why I encourage you to have one on ones with your manager. Develop that rapport where you can share it with them. But again, also go out and make opportunities for yourself because no one is going to hand you your career on a silver platter. You have to go out. It's a journey and there might be many opportunities given to you and maybe it's that you realized during your internship that you just don't like that line of work. Sure. And that's,

Megan Riksen (31:28):

Internships are great for that, for figuring out what you love, but maybe what you don't love.

 

Niki Ramirez (31:36):

Exactly. So it's like try to tease apart really why you're feeling that way. Is it the industry? Is it the role is it isn't your manager? Is there something missing and what can we do to resolve that for you? But please come talk to someone and if you aren't comfortable, talk to Career Services here at Grand Valley too because you guys I'm sure would have advice or

Megan Riksen (31:54):

Yeah, we're a very neutral source for that. We don't play favorites. So, we can give you advice on how to handle the situation without, you know, being at the company where you're working.

 

Niki Ramirez (32:10):

Yeah, exactly. And you might connect your students with former alum who have interned at the company or had a similar experience and yes, that would be a wonderful networking opportunity too.

Megan Riksen (32:18):

For sure. Something you had mentioned before was mentors and then in your last response it made me think of that again, if, especially if there's a little bit of conflict or things just aren't great with your direct supervisor having a mentor, having someone else to go to at the company or at the organization can be really beneficial. Yeah. Do you have advice

Niki Ramirez (32:40):

For how to go about finding those people, those people who can serve in a mentorship role? Yeah, there are a whole variety of ways to do it. And ultimately what you're looking for is a bit of an organic relationship, right? There are mentors that can be assigned to you and that can turn out really well. We do that for our students. So, when you start, you have a mentor, but that might not be the only mentor you have for the summer. You can have multiple mentors for different elements and aspects of your career and your life. I encourage you to talk to people and find out, find a variety of mentors who create this intersection of interests for you. So maybe someone within the industry that you're interested in or maybe someone whose way of working is something you'd like to emulate.

Niki Ramirez (33:24):

Maybe there's a leader that you'd like to be in their position one day and ask them how they got there. Again, you have that intern Teflon, so setup first of all, those one-on-one informational interview opportunities. Get to know them a bit. And then after you've had that opportunity to, to understand how the conversation goes, if you feel that this is a good fit for you, ask them, ask them, would you be open to being a mentor for me, but also be clear on what you're asking them. Because a lot of these people may mentor other people, other students, other people within the organization, and they may not have a ton of time. And so be respectful of them, their time, set expectations. I was wondering if you'd be willing to meet with me once a month while I'm here and then on a quarterly basis after I am done for the summer or something like that.

Niki Ramirez (34:10):

Yeah. And say, well, we'll play it by ear as it goes on and things like that. But when you do have a mentor come prepared as well. Come with questions, ask them things, make sure that you're, again, being respectful of that time. They want to get to know you as well. It should be a conversation. So it's not just you and pelting them with questions all the time. But find those people and again, push yourself out of your comfort zone. So you know, if you are a woman, maybe you find a man for a mentor as well. If you are interested in it and tech, maybe go find someone who works in, in some other, a more soft skill communications field or in an art or something like that where you can find this intersection that's going to make you a better employee. Great.

Carlos Martinez (34:57):

All right, so, so we've discussed a couple of things, right? We've talked about internships, informational interviewing, connecting with mentors, volunteering. Another huge option for students would be studying abroad, right? I think we're all fans of going abroad in this room. We've all been abroad at some point. But sometimes deciding to study abroad might mean that it's going to conflict with the internship timeline. Have you ever faced this before or you know, more in a general sense? Do you have any thoughts on how students can approach that dilemma?

Niki Ramirez (35:28):

Yeah, great question. And yes, study abroad if you can do it, there are so many opportunities. One piece of advice is to start early because there will be elements that impact you in ways you don't realize. I remember being a student and I thought in, I lived in semesters, right? It's like, well, this semester at a time, but when you study abroad, you often have to think further in advance. And that might mean just as you said Carlos, with the start of your intern program, maybe it will impact it. At Kellogg, we always tell our students, this is the order of priorities. Family comes first, then school, and then your position here at the company. And so we want you to come approach us early and tell us, this is what I have going on. These are opportunities that have been afforded to me.

Niki Ramirez (36:11):

I wanted to talk to you about what this might look like and if it would be okay. For example, if I had a delayed start or if I had to take a couple of weeks away, or if I had to end my internship early, share with us and put that before us early on. I have students, most of our students are already, they're all prepared to start for the summer, but most of them had already spoken with me before the holidays. Even that said, Hey, I'm planning on studying abroad. It's two weeks in the beginning of may, I am going to be getting back the day the intern program starts, what should I do or how should this work? And so we have a conversation. There are often, there are multiple ways to resolve that. And we don't want you to have to forgo our opportunity for this other opportunity.

Niki Ramirez (36:53):

It shouldn't be one or the other. Another thing though with study abroad is that you have many times of the year that you can go as well, right? So there might be a spring break opportunity. There might be short term during the summer. I personally am a fan of at least a semester abroad, especially for you language fans. But that is really, we, as we talked about before, study abroad is something we love to see on resumes. That's a huge opportunity for us to see you go out, take initiative, take leadership of your career. Be willing to, to deal with ambiguity, be independent, and interact with people who are different than you. Kellogg for example. We are a global company. We're in over a hundred, come in over a hundred countries. And so we need people who come back with this global mindset when people who come back and want to engage with people of different cultures. And so if you can I say go for at least a semester that gives you the opportunity to go through the whole cultural adjustment period. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of it.

 

Megan Riksen (37:57):

So very good.

Carlos Martinez (38:01):

All right, so we are very grateful for all of your time. We, we, we don't want to keep you here any longer than we need to. You're a natural. I just want to say it is what it meant in the beginning. We said, you know, we just keep talking, but you have a really good energy on the mic. That was cool.

Niki Ramirez (38:18):

Thank you! It's been great to be here.

Carlos Martinez (38:20):

But, but for everyone else, everyone who's listening, thank you so much. Please remember we're taking a little break from the podcast now, right? So the next episode won't be until the beginning of next school year, but the career center isn't taking a break. So anything you've heard us talk throughout the school year, you can still feel free to come on into our office, right? Interviewing internships networking, et cetera, getting ready for career fair or employer events. We, we are still a resource. We're here all year long, so you can always come out here and, and, and connect with us. Thanks again and feel free to re listen to all those episodes. It'll make us feel nice when our stats go up. All right. See you all next fall. Bye everyone. Thanks again for tuning in.