How I Landed My Post-Grad Roles at DICK’s Sporting Goods & American Eagle Outfitters by Madison Myers
Editor’s note: Welcome to Behind The Offer, a series aimed at connecting early-career professionals with personal essays from their peers about how they landed their dream role—and how they can too!
Expect real application and interview advice from real people, as well as insider info on how to land your next internship, campus ambassador role, rotational program, and everything in between.
Today’s essay is from Madison Myers, a 2022 graduate from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Digital Content Coordinator at American Eagle Outfitters.
Guest Bio:
Hey bestie, I’m Madison, but you can call me Maddie! Think of me as your big sister for all things early career. I’m a 26-year-old marketer from Pittsburgh, PA, with over three years of experience in the retail clothing industry & I’ve got LOTS of advice to share.
In May 2022, I graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management & Marketing. At this point, nobody really used LinkedIn in the informal & fun way that it’s being used today. There were no such things as LinkedIn influencers, and almost none of my friends even had an account. So, I was navigating pretty unknown territory, but decided to go all in. Comparison is the thief of joy, so I made sure to go into this new chapter with a positive, confident mindset. This tactic right here is what I attribute to my success in landing both of my professional marketing roles.
Applying to DICK’S Sporting Goods
LinkedIn has always been one of my favorite job boards, so this is exactly where I discovered the open Marketing Project Manager role at DICK’S Sporting Goods. I decided to apply directly on their careers page and then scour LinkedIn for the hiring manager, a recruiter & even members of the team. I started by introducing myself, my background & what I can contribute to the role and team. As I mentioned, this was my very first marketing role, with no prior professional marketing experience, so this was my approach to standing out as an applicant.
So, instead of dwelling on my lack of experience, I decided to leverage my education, internship, and parts of my personality that would help me to succeed in this role.
Your mindset is your greatest asset. It can also be the very thing that makes or breaks you, so use it to your advantage. Go into interviews, cool, calm, and collected
“…And most importantly, confidence is the name of the game now.”
And this is exactly what I did going into my interview with DICK’S Sporting Goods.
Interviewing with DSG
To ease their concerns about my lack of experience, I started by sharing why I’d be the perfect candidate for the role.
Contrary to what you may have been told, you’re allowed to have a personality during an interview, so use it!
One of my favorite personal assets that I love to discuss in my interviews is my Type A personality. It takes a very special person to be a Marketing Project Manager. An extremely organized and detailed person at that. Therefore, I provided scenarios and examples of my personality traits in action that not only conveyed my skills but also my ability to excel in this role.
Did I also mention that they were originally looking for someone with 5+ years of experience to fill this role?
After I was selected and given the job offer, I was told it came down to me and one other candidate. This candidate had several years of relevant experience; however, they decided to go with me based solely on how I presented and advocated for myself in this interview.
You know the phrase “faking it till you make it”?
It actually does work. Stepping into situations with unbreakable confidence can ultimately lead you to your goals, and in this case, your dream job.
Journey from DSG to AEO
After almost two years at DSG, I decided to start looking for a new role. This is one of my favorite stories to share with students and upcoming grads because the journey leading up to me landing my role at American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) is a fun and unexpected one.
Based on my LinkedIn and resume, most people assume that the process of landing my marketing roles was as easy as applying, interviewing and landing the job. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Going after your dream roles definitely takes work, patience and determination.
Prior to landing my role at DSG, I probably applied to 15 different marketing roles at AEO with no luck. Not even a response or rejection email.
So, after determining that filling out an application wouldn’t be enough, I began to strategize.
I started making intentional connections with relevant employees at the company (for example, recruiters, members of HR, and marketing).
I also started reaching out to these employees regarding my interest, experience and passion for marketing and the retail clothing industry specifically.
As I continued to reach out, I started reworking my messages and finally came up with a formula that seemed to elicit a response. Trial and error is key to job searching, and changing your strategy from time to time can help tremendously.
I ended up reaching out to 40 different employees at AEO before finally receiving a response from one single person.
I know that reaching out can be daunting or some may consider this tactic to be “too pushy” but for me, this has been a crucial step in my process to land my dream roles. And all it takes is one right person to make that happen.
So, let me set the scene:
When I started increasing my connections, I began to see different job openings being shared and reposted by these employees. This is another trick I like to mention, because we all know that you start seeing the same 10 jobs over and over again after searching “marketing jobs” for the 45th time.
So, someone on the Customer Insights team posted about an opening on her team. This was the perfect segue and opportunity to share my interest with yet another employee. Using my LinkedIn message formula, I expressed my interest in the role and industry, as well as my passion and experience.
Personalizing your messages is key.
This tactic not only showcases a little more of your personality but also makes the other person feel like they’re speaking with a real person, and not a robot.
After receiving my message, the woman on the Customer Insights team quickly responded back and wanted to set up a 30 minute call to get to know me a little better. Not an interview, just a quick, informal chat that she so kindly fit into her busy schedule.
After chatting, she let me know there was actually another role at the company that I may be a better fit for. Keep in mind, this other open role that she was referring to wasn’t even posted on LinkedIn, nor the AEO careers page yet. She decided to internally refer me to the hiring manager and I had an interview scheduled the following day. Then, after two rounds of interviews, I landed the job!
All it took was my determination and the kindness of one other person to go out of her way to help me.
The worst they could do is say no, so send that message.
Rejection is redirection so if that person doesn’t answer, move onto the next. These are key pieces of advice that no one ever talks about. There's no handbook on how to land a job and I learned all of these tips and tricks along the way.
This is why I’m so passionate about helping students, upcoming grads, and anyone who's open to work progress in their job search. What took me almost three years to learn on my own, I want to share with the world so that no one has to struggle through it or figure it out on their own. For me, finding and leaning on my community was the first step in reworking my job search strategy.
Resources, groups & job boards like The Ninth Semester, Girlboss Jobs, Sky Society, TOGETHXR and more provided insights, skills and information that I didn’t have prior.
Utilizing resources like these to supplement your strategy could be the very thing that finally lands you that dream job, so use them!
These experiences over the past couple of years have completely changed my mindset regarding job searching. What once was a very basic process of filling out an application and waiting for a call back no longer exists. Starting with what you can control, like your attitude and mindset, is the perfect way to build your new game plan. Especially in a super unpredictable job market. Competing against thousands of other applicants isn’t easy; however, leading with what makes you special and sets you apart is the ultimate key to success.
