Jobs For Entrepreneurship Majors

If you've had a chance to keep up with the news, one of the recent headlines is Pepsi's decision to strategically re-focus its advertising dollars that have typically been budgeted for the NFL Super Bowl.  Like Budweiser, Coca Cola, and GoDaddy.com, Pepsi has been known to spend millions of dollars in advertisements during this spectacle that reaches millions of viewers every single year.  So where will these dollars be spent this year?  As you might have guessed, this year Pepsi is going with Social Media!

According to the Wall Street Journal, Pepsi plans to focus its advertising strategy on a "marketing platform" rather than blitzing viewers with commercials during this single event.  So, by using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to reach consumers, Pepsi will be tapping into a virtual world of endless advertising possibilities.  On Facebook, for example, Pepsi can issue invitations to its followers to participate in a poll.  When someone votes, a message will get posted on their personal Facebook page that says they participated in the poll.  This my friends, is what we are referring to when we talk about viral advertising.
According to one report, Facebook is a virtual treasure trove for advertisers wishing to target 18 to 49-year olds.  Twitter's numbers are a little lower, but impressive, nonetheless.  Social Media Today, however, noted that 19 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have used Twitter or something like it, 20 percent between ages 25 and 34, and 10 percent between ages 35 and 44.  These numbers are the reason that Pepsi has reconsidered their advertising strategy. 

So how does this relate to the Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship?  Well, it just so happens that the majority of our host companies in this entrepreneurial fellowship are start-up technology companies.  Thus, Orr Fellows are taking entry level technology jobs in some of the fastest growing Indianapolis companies.  So what types of things are some of these host companies doing in the social media world?  Well, a 2010 host company, Formspring, has recently reached new heights with their social media application called Formspring.me.  This application is a free, simple service that allows you to create anonymous question boxes for all of your social networks.

Pepsi's migration away from televised Super Bowl ads is a trend we can expect other big companies to follow.  There is far more bang for the buck in advertising online rather than producing and paying for 30 seconds of airtime during one of the most expensive televised events of the year.

For those that don't know much about the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship, it is an Indiana-based non-profit organization that provides jobs for recent graduates in fast growing Indianapolis companies.  Whether you're looking to start a marketing career, an entrepreneurship career, or maybe just a career in business, this is one unique fellowship program like no other.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, and Christmas around the block, it's difficult to believe that I've been working in the real world for just over four months now.  I can remember like it was yesterday what it was like to look for a job while still in college.  I remember how confused I was as an Economics major who knew I wanted to be in business someday, but you and I both know how vague of a career path business really is.  So what did I look for and how did I get to be where I am today?

Luckily for me, as a senior in college I knew that the economy was beginning to look grim and that the market was probably going to get rough.  To prepare myself for the tough situation, I did my due-diligence and began looking for a quality job opportunity to kick off my new career.  I realized that I lacked specific skills that most large companies would be looking for, and also that I would be looking for an entry level job just like the rest of my graduating class.  However, I knew that I wanted to live and work in Indianapolis as it has emerged a growing hub for small, technology start-ups.  One of my other interests throughout college was entrepreneurship, so I then began looking for entrepreneurial fellowships in the Indianapolis area.  What I soon stumbled upon was the Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship.  To learn more about this graduate fellowship, I connected with current Orr fellows to learn more about what the program has to offer. 


So why did I choose to pursue the Orr Fellowship?  There were several reasons, but here are a few:

• the presence of a network of young professionals like myself to share ideas, concerns, successes, etc.
• the pipeline of Indiana business leaders that fellows are given the opportunity to interact and build relationships with
• the position and ability to join a small, start-up company and, through hard work, be able to make an impact within the organization
• knowing that I'm making a good investment in my career by being in an environment that forces me to learn as much as possible about running a small business

So has my first few months in the working world provided me with the opportunities and experiences that were promised to me by the Orr Fellowship?  The answer to this question is a confident "YES!"