In this episode of Business Edge, special guest Natazia Quiñones speaks about staying involved with Alpha Kappa Psi after graduation. She speaks to her experience of seeking internships while she was still a student, and how she ended up landing an excellent opportunity with Amazon! She also shares tips for students who are currently looking for internship opportunities.
Natazia Quiñones [00:00:00] Improve on your professional brand. Not just how you dress, but also how those resumes and cover letters look. Go to individuals that can help you with resume editing, things like that. Try to get all of those critical documents and critical things out of the way and make sure that they're polished and they exemplify everything you've done.
Finn Lambouris [00:00:19] You're listening to Business Edge, the podcast for professionals looking to excel in the workforce. In each episode, our guests take a deep dive into their personal and professional experiences to give you an edge in the marketplace. This podcast is brought to you by the Commonwealth Leadership® Alliance.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:33] Good morning. Welcome back to the Business Edge. We're live here in Miami at the 61st Alpha Kappa Psi Convention. This is Chrissy Vasquez with Nicole Klemp. How are you doing, Nicole?
Nicole Klemp [00:00:43] Chrissy, I'm doing very well. Enjoying Convention. How about you?
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:46] Yes, it's been fun, we had an exciting day yesterday with elections and Chapter Congress. And now today's a little bit more laid back, so looking forward to it.
Nicole Klemp [00:00:53] Yes.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:54] So today we have Natazia Quiñonez with us and we're excited to speak with her. So Nicole, why don't you tell us a little bit about her?
Nicole Klemp [00:01:01] Yeah, we're so excited to have Natazia with us. She is an alum of the Alpha Phi chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi at the University of Florida, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Management, Bachelor of Science in General Psychology and Master of International Business. After an internship with Amazon in the summer of 2020, Natazia became a full time area manager for the company. She combines her knowledge of management and psychology to ensure an efficient and engaging workplace environment and applies her international business studies expertise to gain a better understanding of today's global economy and to help Amazon thrive.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:34] Natazia's opinions are not on behalf of Amazon.
Nicole Klemp [00:01:37] Natazia, thanks so much for joining us today.
Natazia Quiñones [00:01:39] Thank you so much. Good morning.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:40] Good morning. We're excited to have you. So I want to start fraternity first and then we'll jump into internships and Amazon because I think it's amazing that you got hired on from your internship. So we have lots of questions about that. You were an Academy fellow. Tell us what prompted you to apply. What did you learn and how have you carried that forward to your career?
Natazia Quiñones [00:01:58] Yes, that was definitely an amazing experience. It was the summer of 2019 when I went to Morgantown, Indiana, and I was able to meet 19 other brothers from literally across the world. There were a couple that were outside of the U.S. What prompted me to apply was that I was pretty involved with my chapter at UF, and I really wanted to go beyond just at a chapter level. I wanted to apply to scholarships or apply to these experiences that were available on the AKPsi website. So I decided to go for it. I did the whole application. I honestly didn't expect to get selected, so I was a bit surprised when I did get selected and very happy and I decided to go there and it was a great learning experience because I got to network with those other brothers, but I also got to learn more about leadership development and how to develop myself, my leadership style, how to work with others, how to be more engaged when working with others, that kind of thing, which in hindsight helps me with my job now. So that was a very exciting experience for that. And as well as the travel aspect, I have never been to Indiana, so that was really great to see. We also got a quick tour of the Heritage Center. So that was a great add on to the trip. Overall, I would recommend this experience honestly to any AKPsi brother that's currently a student and we actually have some events here at Convention that are tailored to Academy fellows or to Academy fellow alumni that are taking place. You get to network and really make the most out of it, so.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:03:28] That's awesome. So Nicole and I are both from Indianapolis, so we know Morgantown, it's definitely back roads, Indiana.
Natazia Quiñones [00:03:33] Yes.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:03:34] I've been to Waycross several times and so it's a great facility. And actually a little fact, you were the last Academy class to see the old headquarters because in 2020 there was COVID, and then we moved to the new building. So yeah, you guys were the last group to go through the Heritage Center.
Natazia Quiñones [00:03:49] Wonderful! Well hey, the more you know.
Nicole Klemp [00:03:52] Yeah. So staying on the AKPsi topic. So you were a delegate at the Chapter Congress yesterday. Tell us a little bit about the experience.
Natazia Quiñones [00:03:58] I think it's a great experience. I do recommend whenever you have the opportunity to serve as delegate, whether as a student for your chapter or as an alumni for an alumni chapter, it's a great experience to help give back and vote in future officers. At the end of the day, I want to be an alumni that's active, whether it's through donating or through going to these alumni events or serving as delegate at Chapter Congress, more so, I give the advice of go for it. If you have the opportunity to become one or to apply to become one to represent your chapter. I specifically had the experience where Corey Reddy, who is our newly elected Fraternity President. He is an alumni from the UF chapter. So it was more exciting for me in the sense of like I had a direct candidate to be able to help support and cheer on and who ultimately ended up winning the position. So I just recommend going for it is my main tip of advice. Yeah.
Nicole Klemp [00:04:58] Yeah. That was very exciting for you. I'm sure it's.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:05:01] What was your impression Nicole, of your first Chapter congress?
Nicole Klemp [00:05:04] You know, it's funny, you know, it was the first real kind of more official type of chapter meeting that I've been to really since I was a student, you know, going through, you know, all of the traditions.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:05:18] Did it all flood right back?
Nicole Klemp [00:05:19] It all flooded back. You know, I had forgotten so many things. You know, we were talking last night about, you know, okay, yeah, they have to leave the room when we're doing the, you know, the deliberations and the voting. And then they come back. And it reminded me of my student days, and it was really fun.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:05:35] Nice. So let's go to your career now. Thanks for talking AKPsi. So talk to us a little bit about your internship with Amazon and how did you come about that opportunity?
Natazia Quiñones [00:05:45] That is a great story and a great question. So actually this opportunity kind of landed in my lap to apply to. I was reached out by a LinkedIn recruiter. Well, rather an Amazon Recruiter through LinkedIn and they were specifically recruiting for fulfillment center positions or internships that would pipeline you into a full time role for fulfillment centers. And it was kind of out of scope of what I was looking at. I had already actually applied to other internships and they were also kind of different themselves in retail or in H.R. As a general management major, I just generally didn't know what i wanted exactly at the time, and operations at a fulfillment center wasn't on my radar, but.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:24] I was going to say, is that pretty much working in the warehouse?
Natazia Quiñones [00:06:27] Yes.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:27] Fulfilling orders? Okay.
Natazia Quiñones [00:06:29] Yes. I'm not the one directly fulfilling orders, but I'm managing the whole process of all that getting done. So that kind of landed in my lap. It's an opportunity where I'm like, you know what? I'm going to go for it and apply. And I did. And I ended up getting an internship. So that internship ended up being during the summer of 2020, it was supposed to be in-person. All of us were going to be sent to different centers I was going to go to Memphis, Tennessee. And unfortunately, because of COVID, we weren't able to have that in-person experience. But Amazon did a quick turnaround, a great job providing a virtual experience, which they never had before. So they created a virtual area manager and also other positions as well, because there was other interns of different roles they created it online. So it was a lot of webinars. Yeah, yeah, it was great. Applause to them. There was a lot of webinars. We read two leadership books. We had a cohort group that would meet at least three times a week with and discuss everything that we've been learning. So it wasn't the same experience in terms of learning about area manager and shadowing someone, but I think it was a good substitute and eventually at the end of that internship I was given a full time offer to start about ten months later as a full time area manager.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:41] That's fantastic.
Nicole Klemp [00:07:42] Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, kudos to them for keeping that program going even without you being there to physically be doing work. That's fantastic.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:50] Yeah.
Nicole Klemp [00:07:52] You've been listening to Business Edge, brought to you by Alpha Kappa Psi professional business fraternity and sponsored by Synergos Association Management Company. Now, let's get back to the conversation.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:05] I have a quick question. So there's definitely some companies and industries that have some controversy, right? There's definitely some people that are like, "I love Amazon." There's definitely people that are like "small shop business." Was there anything when you got to Amazon working that surprised you about the culture or about how they approach business? That maybe might be a misconception from people on the outside?
Natazia Quiñones [00:08:27] That is a great question. I would say that a good amount of employees think that small businesses also matter. And myself included. And the great thing is that Amazon has fulfillment by Amazon as a route for these small business owners to use the shipping and packaging services.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:45] Great point.
Natazia Quiñones [00:08:46] So I would say we can have both. We can have big businesses and also small businesses, and I think that FBA program is really great to help launch or give more exposure and inventory holding, etc. for these smaller businesses.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:09:01] Great advantage.
Nicole Klemp [00:09:02] Yeah, absolutely. How about, you know, for current students who are looking for good internships? Any tips for them on how to find those? I know this one kind of fell in your lap because they came to you, but I'm sure you, you know, you were out there kind of looking for others. Any tips for kind of getting your foot in the door somewhere for this kind of opportunity?
Natazia Quiñones [00:09:20] Absolutely. And I'll start with Alpha Kappa Psi. If you're a student member, get involved in any networking mixers that you have with your chapter or at your school. Look at any kind of networking or career fairs that are popping up. In addition, on your own, if you want to treat it kind of like a part time job around your junior year or so. Be actively searching, editing your resume, having multiple copies of your resume to be tailored to specific positions or companies and cover letters as well and just be on the lookout. Apply as soon as possible. Apply to many if you have to. I think I applied to between 10 to 15. And I ended up getting four offers, which actually is a pretty high.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:04] Absolutely!
Nicole Klemp [00:10:05] That's fantastic.
Natazia Quiñones [00:10:06] Yeah. Thank you. That's actually, I would say, a pretty high percentage of accepted--or, you know, given an offer. So even then like you might apply to 20 and only get one or two. It really depends on the person. It depends on what networking advantages you have. I actually knew a recruiter from a different company. I got to the third round and didn't make it and she was rooting for me and it was a great company too. But you know what? Things happen. So but I still have that open door with her. And if I want to apply to a full time job in the future, I can apply again and not saying I'll get it, but I already have that connection at that company, so.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:41] That's such a great point. I was just saying this the other day. I went through a similar process, was a finalist, and the recruiter called me afterwards and she's like, "They made the wrong decision. Should have been you." So it sounds like very similar to that. And she will send me jobs all the time because you build relationships, so that really matters. So you had a great success with getting a number of offers. What tips do you have for people to stand out when applying?
Natazia Quiñones [00:11:06] That's a great question.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:07] Either on your LinkedIn or on your resume or in your cover letter.
Natazia Quiñones [00:11:10] I would say improve on your professional brand. Not just how you dress, but also how those resumes and cover letters look. Go to either career services individuals that can help you with resume editing, things like that. Try to get all of those critical documents and critical things out of the way and make sure that they're polished and they exemplify everything you've done and really make you stand out in a quantifiable way with verbiage, all of that. In addition, I encourage you to be yourself when you do present yourself to recruiters. But of course, like, you know, in a professional and polished way. Be engaging, you know, ask questions, not just seem like you're interested in the company, but genuinely try to be. At the end of the day, if you're applying to be in a company, I hope you at least have some genuine interest in it. So try to show that interest and I think that will take you a long way and just try to show that you are the best fit for the job or for the internship because you are checking off these things are in the job description and other kind of requirements that they might need in a person to fulfill that role, so.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:12:18] Yeah, you mentioned quantifiable. I think that's so important in resumes, you know, and I think AKPsi, you can have a lot of things coming out of college, which is what sets you apart from your peers. "I was president. I managed a chapter." "Okay, that's great." "No, I managed a chapter of 150 brothers with a budget of $250,000." You know, you're showing that quantifiable, putting it in perspective for somebody.
Natazia Quiñones [00:12:40] Any awards, things like that.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:12:41] Yes. And then being authentic to yourself in a professional manner is so important too, because it's a two way fit, you know. And Nicole and I have been talking so much this weekend about work life balance and mental health and being happy where you are and not being somewhere toxic. And if you present something that you're not, it's just going to be if you do get hired, it's going to be that uncomfortable fit and probably won't be a good fit.
Nicole Klemp [00:13:04] Yeah, absolutely. So on the Business Edge podcast, we have a signature question that we ask all of our guests. So Natazia, tell us about a time when your personal values were challenged, what happened and how did you handle it?
Natazia Quiñones [00:13:19] So I'll provide a little bit of the back story before I fully answer the question. So during college, I was actually in a housing scholarship program, and that's where I lived about three and a half years as well as in undergrad. So the Scholarship Foundation provides reduced rent for students, and there were specifically scholarship houses in the Gainesville area, which is where UF is. So I was able to pay maybe about $200 a month. And that included groceries, too. So it's a great opportunity for students that might need, you know, some financial aid and or it's also merit based. So if you have that financial need paired with great grades coming out of high school in your early years in college, then I recommend looking into it in your area. But that's something that I was able to look into and I got accepted into. So with that said, I lived in a house close to probably 25 of us women.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:14:14] In the house?
Natazia Quiñones [00:14:15] Yes. It was a two story house. It was about two people per room. And like you had, it was pretty big rooms with a lot of separate sections and that kind of stuff. So kind of like dorming. So living with so many people, especially from all over the state--they were mainly in-state--all over the state, different backgrounds, different religion, different, like, political views, etc., etc. That experience actually really opened up the possibility of having these tough conversations that you normally don't want to discuss on the dinner table or anything like that. And it made me realize like, hey, some of my values actually that I grew up with, you know, I'll take a second look at them, see if I, like, you know, want to research something better and see what I want to change, what I truly believe. Because I think in a parent household, if you have parents with strong opinions it kind of gets comes down to you. And then you might hold those opinions or they might change as you get older. That's what happened with me. They changed a bit. So basically it was a story of my values were challenged.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:15:17] Your whole value set was challenged.
Natazia Quiñones [00:15:19] Yeah, basically. And I did change some of my opinions. Like, to this day, they're different from when I was younger. But what helped me get over that obstacle or learn more was really wanting to listen and really wanting to hear people's experiences, how they grew up, what they believe in. And first of all respect that, and I think everyone deserves that respect. But furthermore, actually understanding it and then researching it and then questioning my own opinion, like, you know, so I encourage people to do that as well if they ever find themselves in that situation. Mm hmm.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:15:51] I love that story, because how many students at a college age take that experience and really take a step back and have that self-awareness to reevaluate their system?
Natazia Quiñones [00:16:00] Definitely. Thank you.
Nicole Klemp [00:16:01] Yeah, absolutely.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:16:03] Well, it has been a pleasure talking to you. Thank you for being engaged with the fraternity. We really we talked a lot yesterday about how students drop off once they graduate. And why is that? Because it really is an organization for life. And you're a great example of how to be involved and be engaged post-graduation. So thank you.
Natazia Quiñones [00:16:21] Thank you. I appreciate it.
Nicole Klemp [00:16:22] Yes, thank you so much, Natazia. Enjoy the rest of Convention.
Natazia Quiñones [00:16:24] Thank you so much. I definitely will.
Finn Lambouris [00:16:28] Thanks for listening to Business Edge. If you have questions, comments or topic suggestions for us, email businessedge@akpsi.org.