Name: Bisma Abbaali, MBA ’20

Company: Advertise Purple

Position: Account Manager

Industry: Marketing and Advertising

Graduate Degree/Year: MBA 2020

What excites you about this internships/company/job?

What excites me the most about this position is that I will have the ability to work with clients across a variety of industries that I am interested in such as media, beauty, fashion, tech, CPG, etc. In addition, with this position, I will be able to utilize both my creative and data-driven mindset to assist in client growth using marketing strategies, which is exactly the kind of position I have been looking to get. Advertise Purple is also known to have a great corporate culture (and even has won multiple awards for this!), so I am excited to be part of a team that values their employees so highly.

How did you strategize landing this job?

Chapman’s MBA Alumni Network helped me land this position. I reached out to a Chapman MBA Alumna who has a background in Marketing and currently works at Advertise Purple, for an informational interview to learn more about her career path and experiences. I didn’t know much about the company before speaking to her. As I listened to her story, I noticed how passionate she was about her job and the company. I decided to take a look at the Advertise Purple careers website and saw that there was a position open for an Account Manager, which aligns well with my skillset. I immediately applied for the position and reached back out to her to see if she would pass along my resume to the hiring manager. She did. 😊

What career advice do you have for other students, or anyone, looking for an internship or job in this market?

Make LinkedIn your best friend! I encourage all students, whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student, to take the time and reach out to professionals on LinkedIn, especially Chapman alumni, who have positions at companies that you are highly interested in. After reaching out, do informational interviews with these professionals to help you create a connection with them. I would talk to at least 3 professionals a week during the course of my MBA program in order to build up my network. Even if it is only 15 minutes per call, this can make the biggest difference to your future career. I have applied to hundreds of jobs in the past and the ones that I was able to get interviews with were from internal referrals.