Hard work always pays off

With finals creeping around the corner and a daunting amount of work looming ahead, do you ever wonder if your hard work will truly pay off?

For Tyrone Jacobs, a fourth-year student majoring in electrical engineering, not only has he been able to secure internships with three Fortune 500 companies, but he has also created a lasting relationship with LinkedIn, a business social network.

He has undergone three internships that have allowed him to grow and have taught him the core skills and fundamentals he said he will need in his future career.

Jacobs says his first internship was in the summer of 2014 at Matrix Technologies Inc., an engineering firm based out of Maumee, Ohio.

“I learned a lot in my field in terms of design analytics and learning those basic core fundamental engineering concepts, and that was a perfect segue to my next internship that took place summer 2015 at Eaton Corporation, also based in Maumee, Ohio,” Jacobs said.

With two internships under his belt, Jacobs attended the National Society of Black Engineers conference and received his third and most prominent internship at Boeing Company, an aerospace manufacturing corporation.

“I went to a NSBE conference this year in March that took place in Boston, Massachusetts. I interviewed with the Boeing Company and from there I got the offer, and that took place in St. Louis, Missouri,” Jacobs said. “I would say this internship is probably the most important, not because the name but because I’ve gone through a couple internships, but this one was really me finding my engineering niche.”

With all of the experience Jacobs has gained, he says that his persistency, networking and ambition are at the root of it all.

“A lot of times you may go for an internship and you may not hear anything back, and that’s because you didn’t follow up,” Jacobs said. “With every interview that I’ve ever done I’ve always sent a thank you email or a follow-up email.”

Securing those follow-ups allows for a better relationship in the future with potential colleagues, as well as for your own experience and betterment.

“My network and leverage with using LinkedIn, business cards and actually calling and emailing people and creating those personal relationships with people, not just meeting someone online and leaving it at that,” he said. “It’s really caring about the person on the other end, and that helps a lot as well.”

All of these skills may be able to stand alone, but in Jacob’s case ambition is at the forefront of it all.

“My ambition, my determination to just go and get it in the first place,” Jacobs said. “It’s not just you; it’s you vs 10,000 other candidates, but having that confidence, in itself and believing that you can get it over everyone else, not on an arrogant stance, but being so confident in yourself, in your resume and what you have to present and that you will be a very valuable asset to any company.”

Soon after receiving the position at Boeing, Jacobs posted about his new position on LinkedIn.

“I talked about my story, my background, how I came from gang violence, drugs, stuff you watch on TV,” said Jacobs. I actually lived through that stuff and saw it with my own two eyes. I got the offer just being real and authentic. After three days, it took off and went crazy. From there, Jennifer Williams from LinkedIn contacted me.”

Jacobs flew to the LinkedIn headquarters in Mountain View, California, where he met CEO Jeff Weiner and was featured in a LinkedIn commercial on YouTube.

“This is an indescribably feeling,” Jacobs said. “What you put into life is what your going to get back.”