Melina Melissinos Shares Experience in Securing a Career with IBM

Melina Melissinos, a Marketing Management graduate with a minor in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), shares her experience securing a career as a Global Demand and Experience Professional within the Marketing and Communications Department at IBM.

Melina, can you tell us about your academic history when you were a student at Virginia Tech?

I majored in Marketing Management with a concentration in Professional Sales and minored in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE). When I began my academic journey, I had a lot of different career paths in mind. The decision to add PPE as a minor during my sophomore year was recommended by my Business Law Professor, Professor Price, to broaden my views in academics.

Can you provide information about the application process for your current position, and what kind of work will you focus on?

I applied last year for a marketing internship role for summer 2023 through Handshake. I had two rounds of interviews and landed my internship where I worked in IBM’s New York City office. Upon the end of my internship, I received a full-time offer to continue my career at IBM after graduation. 

Returning to NYC, I have been welcomed by all the connections I made last summer. I am on the Client Insights team where I collaborate with the analytics team to deploy full-funnel marketing practices and provide recommendations to departments across marketing and sales to better their success and enhance client experience.

How did PPE help set you up for success?

The role I am in is very strategic and if I did not have a background in PPE, then I do not think I would have found as much success. My coursework in PPE has allowed me to embrace different methodologies, different points of view, and strategically think about big-picture issues and find resolutions to them. This way of thinking was very different than my course work within marketing and combining both has paved my way to where I am today.

Do you have any insight or guidance for future graduates planning to enter the job market?

Everyone always talks about networking, but it really is a valuable thing. During my internship last summer, I would set up at least five coffee chats a week with people all over the company from product development, to consulting, to sales. Learning about their experiences while creating solid relationships has made me comfortable coming back full-time, now having a network of people I can rely on and who want to help me with my career. With that, my advice is to build your personal brand and network, and the rest will all fall into place.