Sweetening life one step at a time, Mitchell Augustine turns internship into full-time job
Sweetening life one step at a time, Mitchell Augustine turns internship into full-time job
Mitchell Augustine has a good thing going in his final year at UNI. A summer internship with Wells Enterprises, the company behind Blue Bunny ice cream, in Le Mars, Iowa, led to a full-time job offer as a financial analyst — six months before he's set to graduate.
Augustine's story isn't unique at the Wilson College of Business. Many students secure jobs months before graduation, a testament to the college's focus on career success and its more than 98% placement rate.
For Augustine, the decision to attend UNI was an easy one because of the Wilson College of Business' strong reputation. He had enjoyed business classes in high school and was also drawn to UNI's affordability and relatively intimate class size. This led him to triple-major in finance, real estate and business economics.
The choice paid dividends in both his education and his networking opportunities.
The initial connection to Wells Enterprises came from a fellow UNI student who had just completed an internship at the company. The student spoke highly of the experience and had received a full-time offer, which was the push Augustine needed to apply.
"I remembered that conversation, and I was looking for more career-specific internships for my senior year," Augustine said. He applied online and, with his local connection to Wells and Le Mars, landed the job as a financial analyst intern. Additionally, he credits UNI's Career Services office with helping him build a quality resume and ace mock interviews.
During his internship, Augustine worked on the corporate finance side of the company. His favorite project was creating a new "scorecard" for the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team, a tool to help them better forecast future results.
Most of the professors want you to learn and want to push you forward. That mindset has definitely helped me the most, whether it's presentations in class where you explain your reasoning and how you came to a conclusion, or being familiar with Excel and how business finances work. Those skills were extremely helpful in me landing a full-time job.
For Augustine, having a full-time job lined up months before graduation is a major relief. It's also a testament to the Wilson College of Business' career readiness.
"It relieves a lot of stress with kind of the big questions before graduation. Now I just have to focus on graduating," Augustine said. He is now looking forward to returning to Wells Enterprises as a full-time financial analyst, confident in the foundation UNI helped him build.
