One of the most interesting job oppurtunities I took on has to be working as a brand rep for Mountain Dew. I was in my Sophmore year at UF when I stumbled upon a website called RepNation. They are a company that is contracted out by major corporations like Dell, Microsoft, JetBlue, Jan Sport, Macy’s and many others to promote their brand in innovative ways around college campuses. Mountain Dew had joined up with them and was looking to have their brand promoted and marketed at 50 campuses nationwide. UF was one of these schools, so I decided to apply for the position.

I didn’t have much experience in marketing or setting up events, but that’s exactly why I wanted to get the job. I wasn’t afraid to try something new, and I knew a job like this could really improve my experience in marketing aspects. Knowing that in order to create a successful business someday, I’ll need to really have some knowledge and experience in marketing my product or brand to people. Maybe you have a really great idea or business model set up, but if no one knows about your product or can get interested in it, you will ultimately fail.

Applying & Interviewing

I applied to the position, citing as much as I could about how networked and involved I was around UF. I knew that they were looking for students that were very social, knew a lot of people around campus, were involved in organizations, and ultimately could promote their brand to the most students possible. The more people I could impact, the more Mountain Dew would benefit as a brand. So I listed that I was a member of a well known fraternity at UF, that I was very tech savvy with experience in web promotion, and that I had worked as a promoter for several night life entertainment companies in Gainesville.

Apparently I hit it right on the nose with my application, as I got a call not too long after applying for the position. I was given a phone interview to elaborate more on everything listed on my application. They really took to the fact that I was part of a fraternity, involved in night life, and generally knew quite a bit of people as an outgoing person. A few days later they offered me the position. I was ecstatic about getting the job as I know I beat out several actual marketing/business majors for the job (mind you, my major is Computer Engineering).

How the Campaign Worked

Each school had two students hired for the position, and I was paired with a great marketing student that happened to be pretty well connected on campus as well. She was a member of a sorority, on the cheerleading team, and knew what she was doing in terms of marketing and promoting brand awareness. We worked together to set up all of the events promoting Mountain Dew as well as setting up various business contacts at UF. Not to mention getting all of our friends behind what we were doing.

Here’s the flyers that we handed out throughout the semester:

The way the program worked, we had conference calls each week to elaborate on our program requirements and then additional one on one time over the phone with our managers in New York who directed the entire program. We were to implement 3 stages of the program along with associated events and would be compensated based on how well we carried out the events. We had a marketing budget to work with in order to buy supplies, and were shipped several promotion kits that included a lot of Dew branded items to give out and have people interact with. Oh, and cases upon cases of Mountain Dew samples to give out! I actually filled the better part of my room with all the cases. We reported to our managers any ideas we had about events we wanted to implement and followed those up with a detailed report of how the event went, number of people that attended, and anything useful to elaborate on our marketing efforts. Pictures were a must, and we submitted plenty of these to highlight each part of our events.

The main promotion involved Mountain Dew’s “Do It Yourself” campaign, which encouraged fans of the brand to create items branded in the Mountain Dew image and submit them online. Prizes would be awarded to the best branded items at the end of the semester. Here’s the website: www.dewdiy.com

The Events

We promoted three parts of the Do It Yourself campaign, which included: Art, Game/Tech, and Gear. We held events on campus at UF, after working with a few university contacts we made. At the events, we got students involved with the brand and gave out free samples to everyone who participated. We avoided giving out free samples to just people walking by, because college kids are notorious free loaders. We made sure that we got something valuable out of everyone who came by in order to help us out with our promotion and campaign, and in turn better communicated the Mountain Dew brand to them.

The last part of the promotional campaign included the Dew Gallery event. This event was to be a big event that showcased everything we could of the Mountain Dew brand, as well as showcased all the Dew DIY submission created by students from UF. I worked with a contact I made in the university that sets up and runs a Friday night event called “GatorNights”. It is the leading late night program in the Southeast that offers free events like movies, bands, comedians, improv shows and more to students every Friday night on campus. I was able to affliate our Dew Gallery event with GatorNights and secure a great spot in the Reitz Union (main building on campus) to hold our event. Then event turned out a LOT bigger than we had thought. I remember the GatorNight’s organizer coming up to me really excited the day of the event, asking me when we were starting because so many people had been asking about the event and wanted to come check it out.

The event went great, I had gotten like 6 of my friends to help out along with my partner and her friends. We had around 500+ people coming through our event to see what it was all about. I quickly found myself trying to manage the swarms of students that showed up. People were voting on their favorite Dew DIY submissions, checking out the rest of our event, and drinking some dew of course! Mountain Dew had supplied us with some special edition aluminum bottles which were a big hit. The bottles were part of a new Green Label Art campaign that was starting soon and had some great designs on them. I actually dropped off a case of the bottles at dinner at my fraternity house and everyone swarmed me to grab one. It was pretty hilarious to watch all the guys cheer their bottles together at the tables while other brothers walked in with a puzzled look on their face.

Here are some great pictures from our events:

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Conclusion…

The semester concluded in a great way as my partner and I managed to place 4th out of the 50 brand teams in terms of promoting the brand. We had done exceptionally well in each of our events and were rewarded for our efforts. This was an incentive based program, so the better you performed, the more you were paid.

A couple weeks later I had noticed that RepNation had put up some flash animation highlights of each of the campaigns. I was surprised to find my picture smack dab in middle of it. I got a real kick out of that. The two pictures at the bottom left are of me. Right click it and select “play” to see it animate.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as it was one of the coolest and most enjoyable job opportunities I’ve had.

Look for Part 2 of “My Job as a Mountain Dew Brand Rep”, where I will be discussing the second campaign I did with RepNation and Mountain Dew.

If you would like to become a brand ambassador for a major brand like Mountain Dew, head on over to www.repnation.com and apply! Who knows, you might get a call back from them. That’s how I got the job.

The interview was for one of three internship positions they are offering:
- Program Manger (PM)
- Software Development Engineer (SDE)
- Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

Being geared toward entrepreneurial activities, I decided that the Program Manger position was the best fit for me. On the Microsoft website they described the Program Manger:

Program Manager (PM)
As a Program Manager intern, you’ll get to help drive the technical vision, design and implementation of next-generation software solutions. You’ll transform the product vision into elegant designs that will ultimately turn into products used by Microsoft customers. The PM intern helps manage feature sets throughout the product lifecycle, and you’ll have the chance to see your design through to completion. You’ll also work directly with other key team members including Software Development Engineers and Software Development Engineers in Test. Program Managers are advocates for end-users, so your passion for anticipating customer needs and creating outside-the-box solutions for them will really help you shine in this role.

Basically the Program Manager deals more with interacting with people. Whether that be the customer to get feedback on what is expected, or the software development engineers to elaborate on what code needs to be written, or the marketing team to see if a particular feature is even worth implementing. I decided to go with this rather than the Software Developer Engineer role. I’m much more comfortable interacting with others and developing a overall design and seeing a product/service implemented. The SDE is undoubtedly more geared towards writing code for various specifications.

It helps that I have a sound understanding of writing code and developing applications that allows me to perform in a role  such as this. I have the technical know how to design the application while taking into consideration what the software developers would ultimately be coding.

So I sent  my response back in, along with an updated version of my resume. They replied  back a couple days later with a time and date for my interview.

The Interview:

They stated to dress casually, as that’s how most Microsoft employees dressed. So instead of suiting up in my jacket and tie, I went with a more casual button up and jeans. As I walked up to my interview location, I noticed a good amount of people were in suits (interviewing with other companies), but my recruiter greeted me sporting a casual attire as well, so all was good.

I sat down with the nice recruiter and we made small talk about how bad parking was, and then we began the interview.

She started off asking why I was going after the Program Manager position. I gave a response similar to what I talked about above in choosing to go for Program Manager. Citing my entrepreneurial nature and experience in designing applications.

She asked a couple more questions about projects I have worked on in the past, examples of how I had worked with a team. I’ve had a lot of technical experience designing software and presenting the finished product to people, so I was able to cite a lot of examples with that. I talked a bit about some of the business ventures I have done, such as designing websites for small businesses and individuals. Also  I talked about the latest SMS service business I have been working on, and how I am going about developing and implementing it.

After the more general questions were asked she tasked me with a few exercises. The first was to design a kiosk that allowed people to create custom wristwatches. I suppose she was testing my ability to design a product/service and how to go about implementing it. So on paper I began plotting out a kiosk centered around creating your own custom wristwatch. While doing this I was speaking aloud to let my interviewer in on my mindset.

The second task involved a recruiting question, wherein I was hypothetically tasked to contact a candidate for interview within the next 10 minutes, but his resume did not supply a phone number. I started listing out all the options of possibly contacting him, like emailing, looking online for any websites that listed a number, contacting his university, or previous employers for a number. I’m guessing this was aimed at seeing how well I could solve a problem, and which routes I would exhaust in trying to achieve my goal.

After this, she asked some questions as to which Microsoft products I was interested in working with. To which I answered about my interests in mobile and web products. She  also asked what was the most innovative software application I had been using lately. Here I talked about how Google Wave was a new and fresh application that I had been using recently, mainly for its collaborative nature. We spoke about how Microsoft would be responding with a competitor to Wave, and then presented me with the question of how I would I go about improving it. For this I spoke about how a collaborative environment could be supplemented by a video conferencing interface so  that you could talk to your peers while working together on a project.

The interview ended with a couple questions I had, such as what a typical day for a PM intern was like, and what projects interns had worked on in the previously. Her answers further confirmed my interest in this particular role as it involved seeing a specific feature through its design and development. She also stated that some interns were given a chance to pitch their ideas for features, which was of particular interest to me.

Final Thoughts:

There weren’t any actual coding problems given in this interview as I thought, instead it was more focused on a design and management point of view. Still, there were quite a bit of technical related questions posed, and I’m sure further interviews will incorporate programming specific questions.

As far as things I missed, I didn’t get a chance to talk about experiences from my Mountain Dew Brand Rep role. I would have liked to highlight my ability in working with people, setting up events, and designing a strategy around what people were likely to respond best to.

Overall I thought the interview went well, I had the opportunity to elaborate on my skills and experience, as well as respond thoroughly to the questions and tasks given to me.

Now all that is left is to wait and see if I stood out enough to get a follow-up interview.

A few links of interests concerning this article:

An inside scoop of what its like to work at Microsoft, interview prepping, and more:
- Microsoft JobsBlog

Information about Microsoft Careers:
-  Microsoft University Careers

Internships offered @ Microsoft:
- Microsoft Internships

Here is a great video highlighting interns at Microsoft:

I attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. I am going into my 4th year.

I major in Computer Engineering – Software Emphasis. I am also pursuing a minor in Sales Engineering. First, a brief history on my selections, and then a overview of each program, its associated class listing, and a more elaborated reason for selecting these to pursue as an undergrad.

I have been working with computers since a very young age (5-6 years old). I am very adept at computer systems, software, programming and electronics in general. Although I  have taken on many roles pursuing a career in software engineering and IT related positions, it is not my most sought after ambition. Instead, I wish to combine my skills and knowledge in computers and electronics with business. More specifically, I aim to start-up a tech business that deals in either computer systems, software development, electronic devices or web-based services. I believe that as an undergraduate, building a sound foundation of understanding in a particular technical field will be more useful  than just a business degree.

Computer Engineering (Software) – From the UF Engineering Website:

The objectives of the program leading to the Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering is to provide students with a strong theorectical and practical background in computer hardware and software, along with the engineering analysis, design, and implementation skills necessary to work between the two. A computer engineer is someone with the ability to design a complete computer system from its circuits to the algorithms that run on it. Although one can consider hardware and software separately, a computer engineer must take a more holistic approach. If an electronic device is to be called a computer it must produce mathematically meaningful results. Similarly, any useful theory of computing must be physically realizable. The synthesis of the theory and algorithm which must take place before any useful computing can be achieved is the job of the computer engineer, and to produce such engineers is the mission of the program.

A computer engineer will:

• Be adept at the fundamental theory and practice of computer science and electrical engineering, as it applies to computer hardware and software
• Understand all the elements required to design a complete computer system (hardware and software)
• Understand the interaction between hardware and software
• Have the analysis, design, and implementation skills necessary to solve problems using computer engineering principles and techniques
• Understand the ethical, legal, and social issues in the computing discipline, and in the engineering discipline in general.

This program is accredited by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology)

- Computer Engineering (Software) Class Listing

The Sales Engineering minor is meant to supplement my engineering knowledge in computers with a set of skills in business, sales and entrepreneurship. Providing fundamentals for business operation and setup. I’m using it as a foundation into future formal business education. It is very similar to other minors such as the Business minor and Entrepreneurship minor.

Sales Engineering – From the UF Engineering Website:

Graduates with the Sales Engineering minor are regarded highly by recruiters for industries seeking sales engineering staff. The minor provides the academic background for careers in sales, managerial and entrepreneurial pursuits. Graduates are more effective communicators. They are trained to promote and market new technologies and related products.

- Sales Engineering Class Listing

Let me elaborate more on my mindset in studying these topics.

Of course, my main interest is to start up a tech business. So why choose a somewhat grueling and technical major such as Computer Engineering? Why not a standard business degree? Well, business majors do learn sound fundamentals of running a business, including current practices and theories. They seem poised to start up a business in a particular market with familiarity and ease. I have a problem with this assumption, because usually this important question should be considered: are you knowledgeable enough about a particular field to create a business around it? You need insight and knowledge in a product’s technical aspects to develop and design successfully. You also need insight into what skills and human resources will be essential to your business. If you don’t possess the technical background needed to develop your particular idea from a technical standpoint, you might be dead in your tracks for a while. Even worse, you could end up investing all your time and money into a business with the wrong ideas and organizational structure; you could leave customers unsatisfied or uninterested.

My mind never stops thinking of new ideas to pursue in the future. Business ideas, products and innovations circle my thoughts on a constant basis. My ambition since before I could even remember is to bring together  the right people with the right resources to create a successful enterprise. Aiming to inspire others with  ideas and pursue their development. Each step I take in life propels me toward that goal.

Specializing in computer hardware and software system, I have designed websites, built computer systems, and coded various software applications for research projects. Aside from technical knowledge in my field, I am a highly motivated entrepreneur. I have done freelance work, served as a brand rep for a major corporation, dealt with several start-ups, and pursued various venture opportunities. I look forward to ultimately starting and running my own business in the tech/software market utilizing my technical knowledge and entrepreneurial mindset.

About Carson Critique:
This site serves as a resource and discussion of business, computers/technology, college life, and insight into the mindset of an entrepreneur. It also serves to critique the decisions and path taken along the way. I have also provided a look into my current projects, educational endeavors, and job opportunities.

For Prospective Employers/Interested Persons:

• View my Resume (Updated for Spring 2009)
• View my Portfolio (Updated for Spring 2009)