By: Nick Dudukovich, Recruiter
It may seem early, but the fall marks a very important time for UPMC: the start to campus recruiting.
As an organization of more than 85,000 employees, we receive thousands of resumes each year looking for the right candidates who have an ideal combination of experience and education to fill full-time and part-time positions. For our recruiting team, one thing that always helps elevate a resume is internship experience. Even better is having hands-on experience through the UPMC Summer Associate program.
“We’ve put a tremendous amount of work into developing our Summer Associate program because students need hands on experience to truly gain an understanding of the health care landscape,” said Amy Cook, UPMC Enterprises chief talent leader. “The program is incredibly competitive because our hope is that this group of ambitious students can eventually transition into UPMC employees either after graduation or later on in their careers.”
To help interested candidates stand out, we sat down with UPMC Enterprises recruiter Nick Dudukovich to learn what UPMC looks for in summer associate candidates and what you can do to stand out from the crowd.
What does UPMC Enterprises look for in a summer associate?
UPMC Enterprises looks for candidates who are passionate about technology and health care, and motivated to work hard and learn. Our program is unique in that associates gets to tackle real-world problems, so a passion for solving intricate problems helps. At Enterprises, we are working on some complicated problems and we just want to see students who are willing to come and learn from our employees. We like to see prior internship experience, volunteer work, or side projects, but wouldn’t say that’s necessarily a requirement.
What can a candidate do to stand out from the crowd when applying?
Relevant work experience is probably the most important thing to help you stand out. For instance, highlighting coding language knowledge for software engineers or strategy experience for product managers. These items should be included on your resume, but we also pay a lot of attention to specific examples outlined in your cover letter. Explain the challenges you faced and how you overcame them and help us understand your passion for health care, technology, and the actual position you’re applying for.
Are there any do’s or don’ts that should be considered when applying?
Probably the most important thing a candidate should do is to keep their resume to one page and tailor it specifically to the position. We review hundreds of resumes for the program and the ones that have been updated to reflect the requirements of the position always stand out. Beyond that, we recommend using resources like LinkedIn to connect with existing employees and trying your best to attend networking events where you can talk in-person with our recruiting team.
What should a candidate do to prepare for the interview?
These shouldn’t come as a surprise, but be prepared to discuss your experience in depth and do your homework on UPMC, UPMC Enterprises, and the health care market in general. Our interview process includes a lot of situational questions to see how you approach and solve problems. Be prepared to think outside the box to show us that you’re able to creatively approach different situations.
Where can students learn more about internship opportunities at UPMC?
We keep a complete listing of our open positions on our Careers Page.
