11-25-2024
In the first year of college, no student knows what the future holds. Each of us trusts that our education will move us toward a thriving career, but we don't know how one experience or class builds upon the next. Not until my junior year when I took a business strategy class as part of my marketing program did I know. That class opened an unexpected path for my career.
In the class, we learned about how business works in the real world, both on the finance and the product side. The assigned projects mimicked authentic business proposals. For our final project, we partnered with the Indianapolis-based company dormakaba Americas.
dormakaba provides safety, security and sustainability to infrastructures such as locks, door hardware and entrance systems. Our project was to come up with a new product designed to specifically serve higher education and then explain our thought process. My group decided on a remotely controlled door with the explanation being that this would increase fire and emergency safety in university buildings. We correlated this with core concepts such as new product ideation, target audience and financial predictions. It was a lot of hands-on work, based on real business and product development strategies.
When the time came to present our final project to the dormakaba team in front of Anne Hainline, dormakaba’s HR campus recruitment specialist, she sent me the application to apply for their summer internship.
I was extremely nervous during my interview, maybe because I thought this internship was perfect for me. What if I didn’t get it?
I applied for over 100 roles and hadn’t heard back from most of them. Everything seemed to rely on this opportunity with dormakaba.
My heart was pounding when I received a phone call from Anna. I nearly cried in relief. I was offered the job, and the summer going into my senior year would be spent in Indianapolis.
At first, I anticipated living in Indy because I always saw myself moving there after graduation, but I did get nervous closer to my start date because I didn’t know too much about the area. Finding affordable housing was not easy. Those Facebook subletting groups have become popular, but it was hard to tell what was a scam and what wasn’t. I eventually found a place through FurnishedFinders.com, a site originally made for travel nurses to find temporary housing that my mom heard about through a friend. I wound up renting a carriage house decorated as a red-and-white man cave--which I had a complete aversion to as a proud Boilermaker!
Working at dormakaba was the dream I envisioned for myself, and the transition into life in Indy was easy. I worked on their marketing team as a strategic marketing intern. My personal team was made up of three marketing professionals and myself.
The other company marketing interns and I clicked immediately and became pretty good friends, which relieved me. We relied on each other to proofread and check our work before sending it out for review. Our marketing team in general was young, outgoing and talkative so I found it easy to connect with everyone. Having those personal connections made working together professionally so much more enjoyable.
My boss entrusted me to lead my own project. I led the initiative to provide our sales team with additional demo mounts showcasing a variety of locks, door closers and strikes, and exit devices, some of our best-selling products.
At first, I was a little nervous about the responsibility, but my team helped guide me in the right direction and encouraged me to just give it my best. Knowing the team trusted me with these projects and that I’ve met their expectations has instilled a lot of confidence in me and my skill set.
I used my newly acquired marketing skills -- analyzing data, juggling different perspectives and priorities, and thinking more strategically -- to show how versatile our products are. Through surveys and conversations with sales leaders, I collected feedback from the sales team on their projection of my demo mounts project and am lucky enough to continue leading this project as I work remotely during my senior year.
I loved working with our channel partners and sales team because I interacted with so many people, learning how they use our products and solutions. They helped me better understand what I was marketing.
During my internship, I gained new skills, like evaluating support tools, creating mockups of branded material and providing sales support.
By the end, I fell in love with the marketing team, the uplifting atmosphere and the project I was leading.
The people at dormakaba made my experience incredibly enjoyable. Together we strove to produce high-quality work and had fun while doing it. That balance, along with the friends I made at work, brought a pinch of sadness as the summer closed.
Imagine my pleasure when my team brought up conversations about me co-oping, which means extending my internship, and returning after I graduate. Knowing dormakaba’s people liked me as much as I liked them was validating.
My managers, Shelby Vogl and Danae Arce, advocated for a position designed specifically for me. I currently work virtually as their intern, and when I graduate in May, I’ll have a full-time position with dormakaba and lead many more projects. Amazing how the class, Making the Business Case, could impact my career like this.
Molly Tkach is a senior from Saint John, Indiana, studying marketing at the Mitch Daniels School of Business. Tkach is an executive officer for the Women in Business organization at Purdue, where she is the Vice President of Marketing. She is a former Daniels School MarCom intern and a current marketing intern with dormakaba and will start full-time upon graduation.
