What to do with a $200,000 undergraduate degree from GW

Right now, I am two exams away from graduating from the George Washington University with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. I have been a full time student since September 2005, and I am graduating a semester early. I am also the Marketing Coordinator at Ballston Common Mall, a shopping center in Arlington, VA. I started working there part-time in January 2007 as the Marketing Intern. I worked full time that summer, and part-time again that fall once school began. When I returned from studying abroad in Rome, Italy, I worked full time again through the summer and will finish this month.

I started because I wanted to get marketing experience I could put on my resume, make some extra money, and because I knew I worked more efficiently in school if I had more responsibilities to juggle. I've stayed because of the amazing learning opportunity it's given me, the tremendous ways my duties have grown, and because I have an amazing boss. I have helped develop marketing campaigns for the mall, and been a part of them from the initial planning stages through the evaluation process. What I have learned from working I've been able to use in my school assignments. For instance, last year I worked on editing a script for a contracted marketing research company to use for in-mall interviews. That same day, in my Marketing Research class, we discussed the benefits of using in-mall surveys, and I was able to refer to my firsthand experience. Since I started nearly two years ago, I have taken over the responsibilities of the Marketing Coordinator. I do copywriting for our website, newsletters, and advertisements.



This summer, I took on a special project for the corporation's Vice President of Marketing which let me create, design, and implement a direct marketing campaign using Google Adwords and Survey Monkey to run a contest. As an hourly worker, I don't usually check my e-mail at home, but the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did before I fell asleep was monitor those results. The most rewarding part for me was when one of my superiors told me, "this is your baby now." I was so proud to do what I was doing, and I was having so much fun with it. The final reason I work at Ballston Common Mall is that I've been blessed with an amazing boss, and incredible senior staff members. The woman I work for trusts me, and knows I will capably complete my tasks. She also knows that my education is more important than revising the mall's meal vouchers, and when I have a test, she encourages me to study. She is part of a group of three talented marketers who I have been lucky enough to find to act as mentors. Each of them has provided professional guidance to me and they do everything in their power to help me succeed. Once I found a place where I could develop my skills and learn from people I admired, I knew I had to stay until I graduated.

I want to learn more about marketing than retail promotions. As a (soon to be) recent college graduate, I am at a professional fork in the road,
and I don't know what direction I want to go. I'm hoping to gain more experience in order to find my niche. We live in a knowledge-based era, and to gain a competitive advantage, you have to learn and change. In school, almost all of my assignments are group projects, and I've learned how to work with fantastic people and awful ones, and I know my performance improves when I work with great team members. This program would give me a chance to work with extraordinary people with shared interests. I want a chance to take away new skills I could only learn by being a part of this specific group. I want to see how a phenomenal marketer develops projects, and more than anything, I want to gain the knowledge to be a phenomenal marketer.

Ideally, my new knowledge would help me select an industry or market where I want to succeed. While I have had more opportunities than many of my peers to work in a field I love, my exposure has been limited and I want to learn more so I can find my perfect fit in a marketing specialty. I haven't been happy with what I've learned from my marketing classes, but I know I've gained remarkable skills from my other management and business courses, as well as a great deal from my marketing internships. After I can better understand marketing from a once in a life time experience, I know I could implement unrivaled marketing strategies no matter where I work. I want to use those skills in a successful career, working on innovative projects with great people.

I have saved thousands of animals by being a vegetarian since I was ten (until yesterday.)

Yes, slightly, but it was more of a speed bump than a true Dip. Towards the end of my first summer working full-time at Ballston Common Mall, I was getting bored. I was an intern, and there simply wasn't enough work for the internship to be full time. I watched as my peers completed their summer jobs and moved on to new employment for more money at more exciting companies. I started to think that I had reached the end of my relationship with Ballston. But I knew it was a slow period, and that I loved the job, so instead of leaving, I spoke with my superiors and explained how the job was becoming monotonous. We worked to develop new projects and responsibilities which I could work on and that would help me learn.

I worked for an organization called Look Good... Feel Better. It is a partnership foundation between the American Cancer Society and the Cosmetology Toiletry Fragrance Association that provided cancer patients with tools to help them feel more positively about their changing looks, including makeup tools specifically for patients - eyebrows, eyelashes, etc. I was an intern for two semesters, and I did intern work - I put together direct mail, I did database entry, I maintained the volunteer list. I loved it. My mom had cancer when I was in high school, and she was incredibly lucky. She had an insanely positive attitude during treatment, and I think part of her easy recovery was because of that. Firsthand, I saw my mom, who had incredibly curly thick hair, excited to lose it because she could wear a wig with whatever hair she wanted. I knew how important a cheerful disposition was during recovery, and being a part of helping create that possibility for others was amazing.

I wish I could find my dream job in DC doing puzzles for lots of money, and have tea with the Beatles.

I do my best to be a cheerful person, no matter how grumpy I may feel. I don't know if it's that I grew up in the Midwest, but I smile or say hello to people I see walking down the street. It makes everyone else more pleasant, and makes me feel better too. My happiness lets me feel comfortable talking to anyone, including strangers on the street or the checkout lady.

I like to solve problems, and I'm good at finding different solutions. This ability lets me look at a problem from multiple angles and experiment with different ideas before making up my mind.

I have shared this opportunity with some peers, especially a classmate of mine who loved this entry of yours, but most of them are still in school and the recent graduates have recently gotten jobs which they aren't ready to leave. But I have shared this opportunity with my mentor at Forest City, who thought it was brilliant and will show it to others.

My secret competitive advantage is my age. Knowledge is a critical resource, and as a recent student, I know how important it is to be open to continuous learning. My education, in school and in the workplace, has given me a great foundation, and I want to continue increasing my insights into the world around me. My age gives me a different perspective than a lot of applicants who may have more years of field experience, but less practice at taking in brand new vistas.