This year, a group of BYU Marriott School of Business students went on a two-day NetTrek to Dallas, where they met industry professionals and built connections—both with companies and their peers. While NetTreks are not uncommon, this trip was significant because of the variety of majors involved: students came together from marketing, global supply chain management (GSCM), and information systems (IS) for a joint experience.
Draper, Utah native EJ Smith, a senior in the GSCM program, heard about a NetTrek the marketing career director was planning that was open to students of other majors. She reached out to her own career director, and he offered to let her help organize the GSCM aspects of the event.
To prepare students for the trip, Smith helped organize information sessions for students participating in the NetTrek. At one of these sessions, students received a list of companies they would visit on the trip so they could reach out and make connections ahead of time.
To make the most of the contact list, marketing student Luke Hauver, from Overton, Nevada, exchanged messages over LinkedIn with several people from the companies he would visit. “It put a face to my name when I went there in person,” he explains. “I knew that if I could make a connection and do my research beforehand to make me more prepared, I’d stand out that much more."
Once they were in Dallas, the students had a busy schedule. Over the course of two days, they visited half a dozen companies. At each company, they toured the facilities and met with employees. “It was very valuable to visit the building and see people at work,” says Cienna Sieverts, a GSCM student from Bountiful, Utah. “There’s something different about hearing from the employees in person, and you can feel the culture of the company when you walk in.”
Before he went on the NetTrek, Andrew Gardanier—a recent IS alum from Missoula, Montana—struggled to get far in applications to the jobs he was interested in. “I realized that I was missing a personal aspect to these applications,” he says. “This trip presented a unique opportunity to talk with representatives directly and really get a strong foot in the door.”
Several companies also gave specialized presentations to students from each major. “It was really nice when we could go to the same place, talk to different departments, and then come together again and exchange notes,” Smith says.
On top of building connections with the company employees, students also networked with peers outside their own program. Gardanier explains, “It was nice to have this melting pot of other majors from BYU Marriott, being able to chat with them and getting to learn more about how other majors view the job market and the business landscape.”
One of the other students Gardanier met on the trip connected him to an employee at Bank of America. Their connection helped Gardanier land a full-time position at the company. “In a literal sense, I really owe my success to having other majors there on the trip.”
For some students, the NetTrek connected them to future jobs, but everyone on the trip sampled the work environments of multiple industries. “The average person only does one internship,” Smith says. “But it widens our perspective to walk inside a bunch of different companies, meet the employees, and hear what their day-to-day life is.”