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Wal-Mart recruits UD students for internships, careers
4:50 p.m., Oct. 20, 2006--Approximately 140 students learned about career opportunities at a Wal-Mart information session in 115 Purnell Hall Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 18. Recruiter Levey Williams and senior internal auditor Lashondra Jones spoke with students about undergraduate internships and available positions within the Wal-Mart corporation. The information session was one of two offered to students. Williams and Jones also visited classrooms and met with faculty and staff over a four-day period this week. Williams said this is the first time Wal-Mart has made presentations at UD. “We want to promote job opportunities within Wal-Mart, not only in the stores, but the actual corporate office of Wal-Mart and try to recruit the best talent that the University of Delaware has to offer,” Williams said. Williams said he is interviewing selected University students for positions at the corporation's home offices in Bentonville, Ark. Williams said Wal-Mart employs 1.8 million people worldwide. “Graduating college students should be looking for a career, not a job,” he said. “If you want a job, you can get a job anywhere. If you want a career, Wal-Mart definitely provides that.” During the session, Williams spoke about the paid 10-week internship for undergraduate students and store management and corporate positions available for University graduates. “The 10-week summer internship program provides you, the student, the opportunity to come to the home office of Wal-Mart and actually work on real-life projects, team-oriented projects, where you will help make an impact not only for the company but for the customer base,” he said. Williams said interns are paid $14 an hour and work 40 hours a week. Housing is not included. Internships are becoming increasingly important when applying for a job, Williams said, and Wal-Mart's program is competitive. Last summer, more than 3,000 students applied for 160 positions. Williams said interns are evaluated at the end of the summer. Williams said he also is looking for college graduates to fill positions such as entry-level programmer, management training and staff internal audit. Using a slide presentation, Jones explained her responsibilities as an auditor for Wal-Mart, which includes reconciling inventory and managing the shrink, or loss, of the company. Wal-Mart offers positions in this field in 13 states, and new employees receive on-the-job training for 14-16 weeks. Employees are offered benefits and the opportunity to travel around the country and overseas, she said. Jones said she had no desire to become an auditor when she was at the University of Alabama. “Before Wal-Mart came to my campus and talked about it, I had never thought of internal audit as a possible career,” she said. “It's an interesting one.” Joyce Henderson, assistant director of UD's Bank of America Career Services Center, said she helped bring Wal-Mart to campus because of the quality of the available positions. “Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the world, and when I spoke with Levey Williams, he talked about some of the awesome opportunities for positions for undergraduate students, which included the auditing position that they alluded to in the program,” Henderson said. “When he shared with me what the benefit package was, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for our students to investigate.” Sophomore Elizabeth Reichert said she has been going to information sessions to find an internship and decided this one would fit her interests. “I'm a management information systems (MIS) major, and it looked interesting,” Reichert said. “I'm trying to find an internship for the summer.” Henderson said she believes the internship is another reason University students will be interested in Wal-Mart. “The interns that will be working in their program are not just going to be 'go-fers,'” she said. “They're going to be a part of decision-making. And that's what we want our students to have, some substantial experience.” Reichert said she thought the information session was beneficial. “It was very good, well-presented,” she said. “I'm interested in the internship.” The information session was sponsored by MIS Honors Society, the Accounting Student Association, the Business Student Association and the Association of Computerized Machinery. For more information on Wal-Mart, job opportunities and internships, visit [www.walmartstores.com]. Article by Julia Parmley, AS '07 |
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