Thursday, April 7, 2011

NIU grad is walking testimony for 'networking'

Kevin Cunningham, who graduates in May of 2011 with our Interactive Marketing Certificate and an undergraduate marketing degree reports:

"I came in contact with an alumnus of the fraternity that I am a part of as I knew that he was in the marketing field. As I became more and more familiar with what he did, I became more and more intrigued with the position available at Covalent Marketing.

Since that Covalent Marketing is such a small company, my first interview was with one of the two partners who is also the CTO. After that, I moved onto interviews with the CSO and the CEO. I was soon offered a position as a Solutions Consultant; things move so quickly and dynamically in a smaller company! The primary clients of Covalent Marketing are Fortune 500 companies and higher.

Covalent Marketing consults in the areas of the interactive marketing department taught here at Northern Illinois University: SEO, SEM, social media, web analytics, and email marketing are all "hot topics" that I will have the chance to learn more about and ultimately impact clients with immediately in the business world. Covalent Marketing also uses many business intelligence (BI) programs and marketing resource management (MRM) tools to help solve client needs.

Established in 2007, Covalent Marketing began when its founders started talking about the state of database marketing in today's CRM (Customer Relationship Management) world. Very quickly, they agreed there was a major void in how many organizations conduct their long-term marketing strategies. In today's marketplace, where the ‘marketing awareness' of the individual has progressed, so have the ways in which organizations can communicate with customers. The founders deeply believe that the next evolution of database marketing resides in building better, stronger relationships with your customers. Needless to say, I am extremely excited."

Congratulations on your new position Kevin!!

4 comments:

Boomer O'Doyle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Raccoons said...

Kudos to Mr. Cunningham. It really goes to show that networking can get you places. It's great to know that students from NIU are going to be working for companies that work with Fortune 500 companies. By being exposed to those companies, it's just more ground for networking. I wish Mr. Cunningham the best in his endeavors and hope that he enjoys what he'll be doing.

Hopefully, in years to come, Mr. Cunningham will come back to NIU to network as well as help future students of the Interactive Marketing Program help find jobs or give advice. He seems like a very motivated individual who won't just settle for mediocrity.

Congratulations Kevin!

Anonymous said...

I think that this really shows the importance of networking in the business world. Its a process that can help people get to now more people in different places, and for college students like ourselves find better jobs that suit are tastes. I really think that networking is a key skill that every student takes away from learning here in the college of business.

Julie and the Interactive Marketers said...

This makes us realize how important networking is. Networking was highly emphasized at the Okner Symposium and at every event the College of Business and its great to see that it actually pays off. It's a skill to network and one that we should all try to be a little better at!

We'd like to congratulate Kevin and ALL the NIU graduates this semester. All this hardwork is paying off!