New Era Networking Event!

Just recently I attended a networking event at New Era Cap with AWMC (Association for Women and Men in Communication). Twelve of my peers went to New Era with us along with our advisor of the club Dr. Wanzer where we met 5 professionals who work at New Era Cap. We also were able to get a tour of the whole building which used to be an FDIC bank, so it was very cool and interesting to learn about their building which included safes and crawlspaces and bulletproof glass! Heading into New Era, I thought I knew a lot about it. I was very wrong! New Era Cap is an extremely large company, with stores internationally and thousands of employees. Just next year they will celebrate their 100th year of being a company. I learned they were started in Buffalo and their headquarters have always been in Buffalo. The company is still a family-owned business 100 years later which is hard to find these days. I am so glad I went to this networking event as I definitely opened up a new door for myself. If I didn’t go to this event, I don’t know if I would’ve applied to any job openings New Era had. This is because I thought they were “just a hat company”, which doesn’t really provoke my interests. Moving forward, I would LOVE to work at New Era Cap. The employees were so nice, the workspace is very innovative and encourages communication with your coworkers. We learned that the culture of the organization is mostly laid back and relaxed. Out of the 5 different professionals we met with, their careers differentiated. We met with the social media manager for New Era, the Senior Human Resources manager, the International Product Coordinator, the Business Development International Operations Coordinator, and the Talent Acquisition Manager. My career goal is to be a Human Resources recruiter, so meeting with two people from the HR team was definitely ideal for me. I spoke with them after the tour and their presentations and got advice about grad school, my resume, the application and interview process, etc. They said they constantly have interns and I really think I will apply for an internship in their HR department for Summer 2020.