When I started my MBA internship search, I knew exactly where I wanted to be (San Francisco), what I wanted to do (Product Marketing), and which company I wanted to work for (salesforce.com).  It was “just” a matter of making this happen. Of course by this I mean that it was a stressful and high-stakes process during which I couldn’t afford to fail.

To give you some background about me -- I am an MBA student at the University of Texas, McCombs School of Business. I am a Bay Area native and after graduating from UCLA I lived in Los Angeles for four years, working in the music industry. This is not the typical profile of somebody applying for a tech product marketing internship, but it made the application process that more interesting.

When I began my internship quest there was one major drawback -- tech companies didn't start interviewing until much later than finance and consulting firms. It was a torturous few months where I was watching my classmates get internship offers, and all I could do was devise my plan to getting an internship. So here is how it went:

Step 1 -- Getting referred
I had heard early on that salesforce.com hires over 50% of theirs employees through referrals, and as my brother-in-law has been at salesforce.com for over 7 years he was happy to do his part. Immediately after sending in my resume and cover letter my brother-in-law was on Chatter connecting with the hiring managers and singing my praises.  While this practice did not necessarily get me the job or even the interview, it made sure that my resume was in the right pile and was evaluated thoroughly.  If you don’t have somebody to refer you, utilizing your personal network or reaching out to people on LinkedIn will definitely help your chances at getting a foot in the door.

Step 2 -- Picking the right cloud
I initially did not have a strong preference as to which cloud I wanted to intern with (finally some leeway!) —I applied to a few different product marketing internships across all available clouds. During the interviews, the Service Cloud stood out in one big way.  Many of my marketing courses had focused on how the relationship between customers and companies was changing because of social media platforms.  Nowadays anybody can go to Twitter or Facebook and blast a company for a poor customer experience and the brand often would have no idea how to handle this. The Service Cloud had quickly adapted to this new reality with its social media integration and empowered companies to help customers on any forum. I was impressed and sold -- who wouldn’t want to be part of a product that’s setting the latest trends in customer service.

Step 3 -- Using the interview as an opportunity to shine
The interview process was much like the culture at salesforce.com—laid back, but intellectually stimulating and efficient.  After a 30-minute initial phone interview with a Product Marketing Manager I was ushered on to a Skype interview with the VP of Product Marketing for the Service Cloud.  I used this opportunity to explain why I was interested in salesforce.com, cloud computing and service. Aside from the interviews, I was evaluated on a deck for a consulting project that I had done in school.  

One day later I was offered the position, and I accepted on the spot.  I was the first of the salesforce.com MBA interns hired for the summer. In the end, out of the 12 MBA interns, two of us came from McCombs—the other being the legendary Julian Armington, The Email-Free Intern.

The Service Cloud Internship Experience
The 12 weeks I spent with the Service Cloud marketing team were busy and exciting. I worked on compiling customer success stories, conceptualizing and building a live call center for Dreamforce, and helped come up with ways to increase our product pipeline. The pace of innovation here has been incredible -- in my short stint, we released numerous upgrades and new features within the product.  I am happy to say that I was part of the efforts to promote these latest releases.  

Aside from working hard, I always knew that salesforce.com promoted a great office culture. Beyond happy hours and baseball games, salesforce.com also gives interns opportunities to learn from top executives.  Most striking was a Lunch and Learn meeting with COO George Hu.  He talked about his experience starting as an MBA intern and moving up the chain at a shocking pace. His key advice was to choose a company based on cultural fit and find a champion there.

As I am finishing my internship this week, Malcolm Gladwell ‘s book “The Tipping Point” came to mind.  There he talks about social epidemics and the different personality types that drive them.  In his parlance, I am a “connector,” a person who makes introductions that often lead to surprising interrelationships.  While this was a unique advantage I have held all my life, coming to salesforce.com I have found that I am not alone. This company is built on relationships which drive innovation and have established an incredible company culture. After this summer, I realized that thanks to those ingredients salesforce.com is well on its way to reaching the tipping point of the enterprise revolution and I don’t want to watch this on the side!