| Dear Career Center, It's been
about a year and a half since I took the giant step out of my college
life into a real world career. The only constant has been change and
the longest road I've traveled was the one that took me from the
sunny beaches of Malibu to the frigid yet beautiful city of
Minneapolis. I'm telling an abridged version of my story now because
coming up in November will be the two year anniversary of an
interview that changed my life and career completely and hopefully
the following will be helpful as you make your own career and
interview choices.
Coming out of college I wrestled with what I wanted to do and like
many other college seniors I really didn't have one concrete thing in
mind. A degree in business allows for an assortment of career options
and I couldn't decide between any of them. I surfed the internet,
posted my resume on job websites and attended career fairs, but I
only found a handful of companies that had positions I was interested
in. It was mid November of my senior year at Pepperdine and I was
polishing up my resume and looking through job listings in the career
center, when a staff member mentioned the upcoming On Campus
Interviews.
She explained that representatives from certain companies come on
campus for a day and do interviews for positions they are currently
hiring for. I began reading the listings and found that a major
automotive company and Wells Fargo were coming in November as the
first wave of on campus interviews. I read about their respective
positions and decided that I would interview with both companies as
there were still times available. Most interviewers only come on
campus for a day and I felt fortunate to still be able to get an
interview time with them. I signed up and went to the interviews as
scheduled. About five minutes into the automotive company interview I
knew I wasn't interested in the position, but the Wells Fargo
interview was a different story altogether.
The recruiter from Wells Fargo Services Company was interviewing
for what they called the "Leadership Development Program". From the
description it sounded like an amazing program that rotated a small
number (10-12) candidates throughout the organization giving them
exposure to senior management, developing their leadership skills and
exposing them to technology, finance, operations and human resources
throughout the diverse operating areas of the organization. Wells
Fargo Services Company has 20,000 team members and handles all the
technology and operations needs for all of the Wells Fargo Business
Lines such as Mortgage, Retail Banking, Commercial Banking etc.)
I felt the interview went well, but I had felt the same way about
some tests throughout my academic career and not all of them turned
out quite as well as I would have liked. To make a long story short I
was invited to second round interviews and flown to Phoenix Arizona
to interview with twenty five other candidates for four external hire
positions. The company took the program incredibly seriously and as
part of the interviewing process they flew in most of their executive
management team to conduct the one on one interviews with candidates.
I had to present on a topic to a panel of three senior managers and I
had one of only four interviews with the CEO. Another one of my
interviews involved role playing and debate over managerial issues in
the workplace. It was incredibly challenging and a bit stressful to
say the least. The letters announcing hiring decisions came around
Christmas time about three weeks after my interview and I was blessed
to receive an offer from the company.
I accepted their offer and started work in September of 2002. I
recently graduated from the program I have to say it was far more
then I ever expected and a truly amazing opportunity that I am
incredibly thankful for. I accepted a position working with the
Electronic Payment Systems group. We run the systems that allow Wells
Fargo customers to use their ATM & Check cards at merchants across
the U.S. If you ever use E-Bay, PayPal or Yahoo to buy anything
across the internet our system processes your payment and makes the
transaction possible. Hopefully I will be managing my own team in the
next year to year and a half and continue pursuing my career
opportunities throughout the organization.
I would strongly encourage you to visit the career center to see
all the companies that are coming on campus for the On Campus
Interviewing process. I never thought I would be working for a bank
upon graduation but I would challenge you to interview with companies
that interest you and use the resources that are available to launch
your career as you make the transition to the working world.
As I conclude I have to put in a plug for Wells Fargo Services
Company as they will be on campus conducting interviews on Wednesday
November 5th. They did not recruit at Pepperdine last year and I
encouraged them to do so this year and they are returning. It would
be great to have more Pepperdine representation within the company
and I would encourage you to seriously consider signing up for this
great opportunity and many others that the career center has to offer
for this year for on campus interviews. You can read more about it
and sign up via this link http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/studentaffairs/careercenter/students/interviews.htm
.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding
the Wells Fargo Services Company's Leadership Development Program and
I look forward to seeing the great success that you will have both
working and serving your communities wherever they may be.
All the best,
Christopher C. Bowman
Class of 2002
Electronic Payment Systems - I.D.E.A. Team
Infrastructure, Design, Environment, Architecture
MAC - N9310-030
Phone: (612) 667-0214 Fax: (612) 667-4801
E-Mail:
Christopher.Bowman9@wellsfargo.com
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