Get the Interview

Crimson Careers

Some people only hear Crimson Careers talked about. If you haven’t already, get signed up on Crimson Careers (https://www.myinterfase.com/alabama/student/home.aspx). This is a direct gateway to hundreds of companies that push for recruiting at UA.

Currently there are a few MIS focused internships up and running. Walmart has two listings in Bentonville, Arkansas. One is a more general internship where you can focus in a variety of areas, the other is more software/systems development focused (Job ID 16805 and 16776, respectively). The Home Depot has its summer IT internship program in Atlanta listed (16717). Plenty of our MIS peers have firsthand experience working with these companies, so ask around if you’re interested, for more information.

Get the Interview

Usually there’s a glaring hole between handing your resume to someone and showing up at their office. That hole is the interview itself. Different companies are looking for different things, so you may have to tailor your resume to fit. Before you’re applying for these positions, take stock of what you’re applying for. See what the job requirements are, and think about how what you’ve done will help you exceed any expectations the company may have.  Attempt to make yourself known. Even with a fantastic resume, it’s hard to make one piece of paper stick out from another. It can be as simple as dropping an email to whoever is listed as the contact for the position, or asking your instructors and peers to see what contacts they may have in the company. Unless luck is always with you, somewhere along the way you’ll have to deal with rejection. Keep your chin up, learn from your mistakes, and try again. The more places you apply to and the more interviews you do, the better (hopefully) you’ll get and the more choices you’ll have come the summer.

Put the Customer First

After going through 295 or watching the intro to MIS video, we all know that MIS is using technology to add value to a business. You can expound upon ‘adding value’ by a number of means. This can easily get you off topic, and has undoubtedly been a hang up for people who overanalyze every accomplishment they’ve made. To keep it simple: adding value to a business is doing something with the end result of better serving the customer, which drives the business. When you’re applying for internships, or going through the interview process, keep in mind not only what you did, but how it made a difference for the people that interacted with the business or organization.

What Do You Want to Know?

I don’t want to get into a rut of posting a few general things over and over again, so please let me know what you’d like to hear about: srjohnson2@crimson.ua.edu.

The University of Alabama MIS program allows students to work on real projects that provide real value to real companies. Students learn to leverage people, processes and technology to solve problems and meet the challenges of today’s businesses head-on. For more information, call 205-348-5525 or visit http://cba.ua.edu/mis.