From Recruitment to Sales – How Alum Victoria Lit Up Her Career

Victoria Engblom graduated with a degree in Corporate Communications from Purdue University in 2015 and is a strong advocate for Purdue’s Certificate of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Victoria is currently a Sales Manager at GE, where she will be completing her 5-year work anniversary. Prior to this, she worked in human resources at Devon Energy. She also runs an  AirBnB and credits the entrepreneurship program for helping her in both her corporate and  entrepreneurial ventures. 

While a recruiter for Devon in the Oil & Gas industry, Victoria was specifically asked to look for candidates with credentials that validated candidates’ entrepreneurial abilities. She believes this was  pivotal to her getting into Devon’s Corporate HR program. Victoria also reports that the entrepreneurship classes prepared her to face tough questions from real industry experts and role models. At GE, she has used this skill in preparation of her sales pitches for two successful new product launches in three years. She also feels the classes gave her great exposure to real-world entrepreneurship by observing what entrepreneurs actually do when evaluating customer needs. She realized that what you initially think people want, may not be what they actually want. She applied this understanding when she conducted market research for a college internship program that Devon offered and found out what applicants really want. 

Victoria says the entrepreneurship program also helped her with teamwork abilities. As she executed assignments in her classes,  there were times when she did not necessarily agree with her teammates, but still had to follow through with their ideas for the sake of the team. This helped her build patience and confidence which allows her to build strong relationships with influential people in her industry. She reports that she flourished during the tough times related to supply chain shortages, by devising concrete solutions to problems her team faced. Finally, Victoria reports that her entrepreneurship instructors constantly encouraged students to have a strong LinkedIn profile, which led her to connect with many important professional contacts – something that may not have happened had she not been an entrepreneurship student.

Victoria encourages Purdue students to take advantage of the Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation program because it will help them grow by leaps and bounds, regardless of the profession that they choose.