Hello everyone! My name is Nikos Apostolidis and I come from Greece. I just completed my first year in the MBA program at the Ross School of Business, which I must admit was very challenging but looking back, I can see how beneficial it has been. Starting May 24, I will be interning with Hill's Pet Nutrition, a consumer goods company owned by Colgate-Palmolive. However, the path to securing this internship has been all but straight.
Prior to my MBA, my career evolved around sports. I played pro basketball in Greece for 3 years but a career-ending injury forced me to re-evaluate my plans. Leveraging my experience in the industry, I pursued a sports management career during which I led the basketball and business operations of two pro basketball organizations.
Moving to Ann Arbor, my goal was to go back to sports but quickly realized other exciting opportunities out there. Consulting, marketing, general management were all interesting options and the school is really strong in almost every area. Eventually, I sticked to marketing but not in sports; I decided to pursue a brand management career in the consumer goods industry (CPG).
As an international student, entering the CPG industry is more than a challenge but NOT impossible. After a couple of unsuccessful interviews, I figured I could use MAP as a way to get an offer. Thus, the majority of the projects I bid on was with companies I was interested in and knew they still had open positions. Finally, the project I was assigned to was with Hill's Pet Nutrition.
After a long two-month period of hard work with my team, we delivered exceptional results which helped me distinguish myself from other candidates and eventually get the offer. The Global Marketing Development Program at Hill's is the pipeline for full-time hires which makes it even more important. Even though I still don't know what I will be working on (got the offer a couple days ago), I'm very excited because I already know the company and the people which I think will be very helpful since there won't be any adjustment period. On the other hand, I can't say I'm nervous about it but I definitely think of the fact it is a new industry for me and have to be quick on my feet. Overall, this is what I wanted to do when I joined Ross and the fact that I accomplished it gives me great satisfaction and strength to continue working hard during the summer.
The next post will be early June and hopefully I will have more details on my project. Till then take care everybody.
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