Boeing Business Intern Summer 2012

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>So, check this out. I went to my school's career fair to speak with Boeing about their 2012 B internships. So this guy (who is apparently a high-ranking recruiter as I learned from another recruiter) looks at my resume stone-faced. Now, my resume is really pretty decent EXCEPT my GPA (which is a 2.8). He didn't say much other than "wow, you are a busy guy...tell me about some of the stuff". So I explained to him what I do as a supervisor at my job, what I do for my work study job, what I do as a state president, and what I do for as a VP of Marketing. Then after I was done, unprompted I told him what I knew about Boeing, their internship program, and their company culture. I told him that I really wanted to go to Seattle to do my internship. His face lit up and he said, "that sounds great! Let me get you the exact job ID that you are looking for". So he went and wrote it down and handed it to me. "Now, go online apply, and as soon as you apply, send me an e-mail to let me know. I'll call the hiring managers in Seattle and have them call you for the first 1:1 over-the-phone interview". I said "that sounds great! Thanks a lot!" and then he ended it with, "yeah, I think you'll do great in the northwest...this is your internship to lose now."</p>

<p>But...I have a 2.8 GPA! WHAT?! I mean... Im not saying that I dont have A LOT of extra activities on my resume (nor the fact I work almost 40 hours a week because I have to 100% support myself) but that is so LOW for Boeing in general...but then to have a high-ranking recruiter tell me its basically mine to lose?! No way!</p>

<p>At the end of the day, I was at work (like always) and I saw the other Boeing recruiter in attendance and spoke with her about it.</p>

<p>She said and I quote: "he really likes you, he will be busy for the next couple of weeks but he is good at keeping his 'promises' and he will get you that interview". She asked what was on my resume (but not about my GPA) and she said "Yeah you sound just like the type of person he likes to hire for the job, he will more than likely send someone here to do a mock interview with you, just to make sure you are prepared. You should relax, he has your back and you definitely are several steps in front of the crowd at this point. If you do half-way decent in your interview, they will give you a job. They love having students from this area of the country to go to Seattle."</p>

<p>And I just stood there, shocked. Could he really have been that impressed with my resume that he just completely overlooked my GPA?</p>

<p>Can I, a marketing major with a 2.8 GPA actually get paid to move to Seattle for the summer to work for Boeing?!</p>

<p>I mean, I do have reasons why my GPA is so low, I ended up with lower than a 2.0 because my mother fell violently ill with cancer/Hep C/Cirrhosis of the liver all at one time and she literally almost couldnt feed herself so I had to work all the time to pay for gas and her medication/doctor visits and to drive 3 hours to my house almost twice a week to take care of her. But the recruiter knows nothing about that.</p>

<p>All I can say is wow, can this be real?</p>

2

<p>Haha! congrats!
GPA is not everything…and I’m sure he saw what your GPA was…so he knows what he’s doing. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>So this entire post really had no point other than to tell us you got an interview? Want a cookie?</p>

<p>In all seriousness…don’t carry this giddiness in to the interview. Be confident in what you’ve done. The fact that you are questioning yourself is a bit silly considering everything you’ve been told, right?</p>

4

<p>^ not entirely true. :slight_smile:
There’s a lesson to be learned from his experience. :B</p>

5

<p>There is a point, the point is GPA is ********. He is the recruiter from STL and he would be giving me the interview himself if I wanted to go to STL. Having a great resume outside of a a gpa still gives you a chance to get a great internship and a great job. Or at least a fighting chance.</p>

6

<ol>
<li><p>Wait until you actually get the job before making the post. If things end up falling through and you end up not even getting the interview, you’re going to feel pretty foolish.</p></li>
<li><p>It may be more of an indication that the internship just isn’t that competitive, rahter than gpa isn’t important. </p></li>
<li><p>He doesn’t even work for the group you are applying to. Don’t act like you have this in the bag, even if it may very well be true.
Keep looking for other jobs as well.</p></li>
</ol>

7

<p>So you missed the point of the entire post and tried to tell me I am making mistakes? Good job, buddy.
First of all, the post was made because I was wondering if I was just given the normal run around “we will call you in a week” scenario, or if this might be the real deal even with a low GPA. Never did I say that I had ANYTHING in the bag, I just restated what they stated. Of course I am still looking for other positions, even if I had a 3.9 I would be looking for other positions. </p>

<p>But thanks for the great advice. I appreciate that.</p>

<p>Oh and P.S., I got my interview scheduled and its for next week.
Whether or not I get the job, still proves the point people have a shot at getting good internships with extra activities over GPA.</p>

8

<p>I was just given an official offer on Oct. 26 for the Boeing NW Business Intern Program in Washington State. Boeing recruits at my university, so my process went:</p>

<ol>
<li>Researched the company heavily and then talked with the recruiters a ton at our Career Fair on Sept. 28. </li>
<li>Submitted the weird unformatted resume Boeing forces you to make or copy/paste online.</li>
<li>A few hours after the Career Fair ended, I was called to schedule an interview the next day.</li>
<li>I had the on-site interview, which was a standard set of behavioral questions – nothing difficult or out-of-the-ordinary. I made sure to drop several facts I knew about the company and industry, and ask lots of questions at the end.</li>
<li>On Oct. 21 I was sent an email saying that I passed the initial resume review, and I was now allowed to fill out an employment application.</li>
<li>Five days later I was called by the NW Business Intern Program Coordinator with the offer.</li>
</ol>

<p>I’m currently a Junior with majors in Supply Chain Management and International Business and minors in Spanish and Political Science. My GPA is a 3.78 while never taking less than 18 credit hours per semester, and I had an internship in Supply Chain Management with Northrop Grumman last summer, but I felt my strengths came from the fact that I’d held 28 distinct leadership positions across multiple organizations by the beginning of my Junior year. Even if the statement that Boeing values extracurriculars/work more than the GPA isn’t true, having 28 positions worth of experiences (even though I only use 3 of them on my resume) to pull from when answering behavioral questions I felt was a huge advantage. Yes, I matched all the requirements they were looking for in the job description, but the practical experiences I’d gained from interacting with a myriad of different personalities through my internship and fraternity involvement made the interview extremely smooth.</p>

<p>I actually found out from another recruiter that their particular recruiting team ended up having to drop resumes with GPAs below a 3.4 before interviews were even decided. Some may say that’s stupid, that they should evaluate the resume in its entirety before they look at the GPA. The problem is that for many Fortune 500 companies, even the applicants they choose to only interview usually have excellent resumes AND excellent GPAs. Gone are the days where a line exists between those with good GPAs and those that do a lot of extracurricular work; you have to have both nowadays to be competitive for top internships.</p>

<p>If you got the position, then congratulations. Your recruiter must have really recognized something in you to make them detract from the normal weeding out procedure. Working 40+ hours a week to pay your way through college is an immensely respectable experience that companies like Boeing will understand. I had friends that thought they aced the interviews and ended up not being selected, and after seeing that their GPAs were around the 3.2-3.3 range, I knew why for the most part.</p>

<p>I just hate it when people think they can just skate by with poor GPAs and no excuses for them except that they were busy with other activities. That excuse doesn’t work when there will always be people that work just as hard outside of school AND maintain the GPA, that this was your case :P</p>

9

<p>Well, Marlow, my recruiter talked to me about my GPA. I told him the truth about it, which is irrelevant here. He stated to me that he would write a note on my interview form that my GPA is basically negligible after I proved to him that it wasn’t due to laziness, partying, etc.
I interviewed several weeks ago. However, apparently there was an issue with the uploading of my interview documents online. I have contacted both NW business coords. and both said that they have reviewed my resume, that it is “strong” and that my interview results will determine whether or not I get the job. That was of 3 days ago. So I am assuming they are waiting from contact with the recruiter.</p>

<p>Also, the fact that have already been interviewed and the fact that my recruiter was willing to explain my GPA for me still gives me high hope.</p>

<p>And what do you mean by “that this was your case?” That I just did random other items and skipped out on school?
That wasn’t my case.</p>

10

<p>28 distinct leadership positions? really?</p>

11

<p>They asked us four questions…
one of which was education and experience…otherwise those experiences were useless</p>

12

<p>You had 28 leadership positions? #1) Why don’t you have a life. #2) If I interviewed you I would consider it a red flag because you failed to concentrate on just a few positions and really do well with them. </p>

<p>Congrats. You tried to make yourself look like some all-star student and you just came off as self-gratifying. Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a bit…</p>

13

<p>And these are the kids Boeing hires? Well this must be a terrible company to work for then…</p>

14

<p>He said up until his junior year. He probably included being class leader of the day in pre-school and being one of the “captains” who picked people for soccer teams during recess as leadership positions.</p>

15

<p>Interviewer: “Tell me about a time you had to rise to the occasion and lead people around you.”</p>

<p>Marlow: “When I was in 3rd grade I was picked first for kickball. I knew I had to kick it as far as I could everytime. We won the game after I kicked an inside the park home-run and we got the ice cream party. That night I got a PB&J without the crusts as a reward from my mom for such a great game.”</p>

16

<p>But remember… He also has nearly 28 majors and minors</p>

17

<p>^^ and a job and a good gpa, neither of which you have.</p>

18

<p>last time I checked… I had to internship offers on the table… Boeing is just my number one. But shows what you know… Which is again, absolutely nothing.</p>

19

<p>@wlw2009 - The last line was a typo. It was supposed to be “not that this was your case.” There must be a timer set on when you can edit a post, because I noticed it when I checked the thread the next day and it wouldn’t let me edit it. I was respecting you working to completely support yourself. I was agreeing that, in your case, your GPA would be a strong exception to break their status quo GPA. For the majority of people, however, a 2.8 won’t cut it. Unless someone has a similar extreme life situation, large, well-known companies are going to look for both great GPAs and leadership experience because they have enough applicants to be that selective. It is not an “either/or” situation anymore. </p>

<p>The information I included in my post was not meant to be self-gratifying in the least; I was merely detailing how my process went as far as interviewing with Boeing. I included some stats to give you an idea of someone who was accepted for the internship since no one thus far had done so aside from the OP. I’ve been on CC for a few years, and I know I always found it helpful when people posted stats so that I could get some sort of an idea about what type of person the university (when I was in high school) or company I was applying to was looking for.</p>

<p>Also, in each interview, do you honestly think that I mentioned how many positions I had? Recruiters don’t ask enough questions in (typical) interviews to cover that many positions. My point was that having so many positions helped be prepared for any type of question without having to resort to the same one, two, or even three every time. That’s all. </p>

<p>For the record, the 28 positions were including my freshman year of college through now. Each position I’ve held I came out knowing I made a strong, noticeable difference, and yet I’ve still had a great time having fun in college with zero regrets. Each one of those positions has contributed to how I lead and view life today. I’m sorry if it’s hard to imagine balancing one’s time, but that’s honestly all it was. I’m not an all-star student, nor am I at any prestigious school. I took the time to research the company, build up my resume and experience early on, and prepare myself for the interview. Even then, that may not be enough in some cases. I had 14 interviews and 11 offers at our Career Fair, yet the three that denied me I never even thought about having issues with. You can believe my stats or not, I don’t care. I’m just saying that there are definitely exceptions to every hiring standard, but for the vast majority of people, those standards are held true. </p>

<p>For many people that don’t make it into this internship, or any competitive internship for that matter, it may be simply because someone may still have been better qualified out of the tons of interns that apply every year. Their first-round interviewers could also have taken worse notes than another person’s, or recorded things that the hiring manager didn’t find as relevant. I love hearing stories of success against adversity, but a 2.8 GPA wouldn’t get even a “regularly” exceptional applicant into the interviewing pool the majority of the time. That’s simply the way things are.</p>

20

<p>I understand certainly how a 2.8 won’t normally cut it. But I have things on my resume such as chancellors leadership award which is given to 3 students per class for leadership in the community and on campus. I’ve actually been on the deans list 3x I have 2 academic based scholarships, two jobs which I have been promoted in one twice to a student manager. I’m a national VP of an organization and state pres for another. I interned at a local company all year long last year while raising my GPA significantly.
I had plenty of situations to talk about in the interview.</p>