Editor’s note: This article is a humor column.
As the Spring 2025 semester comes to a close, students are gearing up to embark on summer endeavors and break from the academic grind. Some will step into leadership positions, like wrangling 30 8-year-olds as a camp counselor. Others will work at their hometown ice cream store, forced to serve waffle cones to their high school opps. Fourth-years, however, face different prospects — entering the corporate world.
Whether applying for jobs like consulting associate, management consultant or associate manager, the demand for this diverse range of professional opportunities is high. Yet, according to statistics from the University Career Center, students continue to face rejections. In 2024, each fourth-year in the College of Arts and Sciences submitted an average of 492.4 job applications while receiving only 0.11 offers. The Center provided no comment on this ratio, other than extending an open invitation for free tissues if any student needed to dry their tears.
To help students navigate the challenges of job hunting, The Cavalier Daily spoke with three recent graduates about their career paths and advice for students seeking corporate positions.
How did you land your current role?
Ben E. Fits, Strategic Synergy Optimization Associate at Beloitte: A thousand applications and attendance at every career fair – it’s all about persistence. I had so many coffee chats during my fourth year that Grit had to cut me off from espresso so I didn’t go into cardiac arrest. I tried to use that as a foot in the door to their finance office, but they blackballed me for being a corporate security risk. Once, I was so caffeinated that I mistook my Media Studies professor for a giant latte. Luckily, my classmates intervened before it was too late.
Liv Ingpaicheque, Administrative Operations Associate at Opulent & Company: My experience stalking former situationships on social media paid off. I memorized every detail of my recruiter’s background — education, past jobs, parents’ addresses. The key was using the information strategically. During the interview, I casually slipped in a fact found in an archived 2003 Facebook post about his old babysitter’s maiden name. I think he was so stunned he hired me out of fear?
Chad Vantage, Senior Analyst at Birthright Incorporated: My dad’s golf buddy decided I was the right fit. I don’t know, I can’t really explain something like that. Either you mesh well with the bros at the company or you don’t.
What do you wish you’d known before starting your job search?
BF: Honestly, I was too late in the game. Once you enter the corporate world, you realize there are always opportunities to connect with recruiters if you start paying attention. One of my biggest regrets is not taking advantage of these opportunities earlier — I should have been on LinkedIn in sixth grade instead of trying to dig tunnels in my backyard.
LI: That ‘entry-level’ actually means you need three degrees, 20 certifications and 10 years of work experience in related jobs. Now, I make minimum wage filing papers despite having a McIntire School of Commerce degree. That definitely wasn’t something my business fraternity with a five percent undergrad acceptance rate prepared me for. But in this real-world economy? I’ll take it.
CV: How much time I’d spend pretending to know what was going on during chats with potential employers. Like once, my parents’ friend mentioned ROIs for his company’s investments. How the hell am I supposed to know what ROI stands for? I majored in Economics, not English. But I quickly learned to just say, ‘Let’s circle back on that’ and hope they didn’t follow up.
Do you have any advice for future star associatemanagerconsultants?
BF: If your elevator pitch is even a millisecond below 30 seconds, you’re basically unemployable. And no more than two exclamation points in a follow-up thank-you email. Also, get those resume boosters. Teaching your grandparents how to send an email while they type with one finger? That’s consulting experience. That conspiracy theories slide deck you created when you went on an internet rabbit hole? Voila, a new project for your resume.
LI: Negotiate everything. Your salary, benefits, even your job title. I talked my way from Auxiliary Administrative Operations Associate to Administrative Operations Associate. People still don’t really know what I actually do, and neither do I.
CV: Don’t stress. I have a theory — the number of offers you receive is inversely proportional to the number of applications you send in. Learned that the second time I took STAT 2120! I got 12 offers from 10 of my dad’s poker and golf buddies, and guess how many applications I submitted? Zero.
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