Hi! I am Miyuki Matthews, a rising senior and a Business Administration major with an emphasis in marketing and a minor in psychology! I am about to start my internship at Paramount Pictures with the special projects and events team and could not be more excited.

At first, I did not know where to start looking but knew I wanted to gain more experience with a marketing team that had hands-on experiences. I began my search for a summer internship early on in the year, and I found that spacing out applications and managing my time took away a lot of the stress. I began routinely meeting with the career center to reorder and rewrite my resume and LinkedIn. This was extremely helpful, and I recommend everyone takes advantage of this opportunity! This not only helped me apply to jobs, but it made me reflect on my qualifications and expertise to later include in my cover letters. 

I applied to multiple positions at Paramount, with Viacom specifically, because many of their job descriptions interested me. Their applications were one of the first that I submitted. I did not have connections at Paramount, and I thought this was vital to getting a job in that industry, so I did not think anything would come of applying. I continued to apply to dozens of other internships. I had interviews with them, which really strengthened my interviewing skills and made me more confident that I was a strong candidate for any position I applied for! I heard back from them months later and was shocked and excited. I had an initial phone interview with a recruiter and then was called back for a zoom interview with the specific team I wanted to work for. A few days after the interview, I received a call offering me the internship!

I could not have done any of this without lots of help and lots of time dedicated to researching companies, evaluating my strengths and weaknesses, and reworking my resume, Linkedin, and writing SO MANY cover letters. My advice is to take every single opportunity you have to learn and strengthen your skills. At the end of all of this, I would say stay persistent because you are an amazing candidate, and you do not necessarily need to have connections to get your dream job!

-Miyuki