Student Spotlight – Mason Collins, ’19 (MBA ’21) Utilized his Network to land an MBA Internship despite Uncertain Times
September 28, 2020
Congratulations to Mason Collins, ’19 (MBA ’21) on accepting an MBA internship at Katch Media!
Graduate Degree/Year: MBA 2021
Concentration: Undergraduate concentration in Finance
Company: Katch Media – a consumer facing entertainment data analytics company
Position: Business MBA Intern; reporting to CFO
Industry: Entertainment
What excites me: I am very excited to work directly for the CFO of Katch. Not many people get the opportunity to work so closely to the CFO of a company. I have an interest in starting a career in entertainment, working for a large entertainment corporation, and becoming a CFO one day. Working directly with the CFO of Katch will allow me to have better insights to the tasks the CFO handles on a daily basis. It will give me hands on experience working with the executives of a company. I am also excited to work with other executives and employees at Katch. Everyone has an expertise that I can learn from. In addition, I am excited about the network of people in entertainment that Katch has access to. The Katch executives and employees have many connections throughout the industry and I am looking forward to utilizing those connections to meet people, advance my career, and create opportunity.
How did you strategize: Due to COVID-19, internship opportunities were sparse. I utilized my previous connections that I had made networking for an independent study that I did over the summer where I wrote a report on ‘The Future of Streaming and the Battle for Content.’ During the study, I interviewed several industry professionals and experts and asked them a series of questions on the topic. I interviewed Andrew Tight, Katch Co-founder and CEO, as well as Brett Danaher, Chief Data Scientist at Katch, Data Analytics Expert and current Chapman University Professor. These two connections helped me land the internship at Katch.
Career Advice: Always network. Use your connections as much as possible. Do not be afraid to reach out to people. People like to help. Reach out to everyone that you know that could possibly have a connection for you and ask for a quick zoom or phone call. Express your career interests, what jobs, internships, and opportunities you are looking for and see what they can do to help. It never hurts to ask. The growth of your network at this point is exponential. Each person will have a few connections for you, and it will build seamlessly from there.