Zach Hadley
Geography student Zach Hadley ’19 landed a summer internship in real estate and development with McDonald’s, thanks to some career coaching and resume help from Kacey Schaum.
Schaum provides individualized career coaching to College of Arts & Sciences students through the Career and Leadership Development Center.
“I came in to figure out how to get an internship because I didn’t understand how it worked,” says Hadley, who is majoring in Urban Planning and Sustainability. “Kacey Schaum was my career coach and she said that my interviewing skills were great, but that I needed to work on my resume and cover letter a bit before I submitted it to any internships.
“After meeting with her I was able to compose a cover letter, I was able to compose an updated resume that didn’t look like a high school resume, and then I was able to submit those to potential employers,” Hadley says. “I submitted those documents I worked on with Kacey and was able to get a phone interview, followed by an in-person interview in Columbus. About a week later I got the call that I would be working in the intern program that they were partnering with that summer.”
“I highly recommend the CLDC for sure, I am 100 percent confident I wouldn’t have had an internship without it. I was an absolute mess, I didn’t even know how to find internships before I came into the CLDC.
“I probably submitted applications and requests for internships to about 30 different employers, but the only place I heard back from was McDonald’s. You’re going to get rejected a lot, but just continue to pursue those internships and jobs, because you literally just need one. If you get 29 no’s and one yes, all that matters is the yes.”
Real Estate and Development Intern for McDonald’s
Hadley says he did “a little bit of everything” at his internship.
“I was the Real Estate and Development Intern for McDonald’s this past summer. While I was there, I worked a lot with GIS mapping programs. For example, one program uses store locators, which helps McDonald’s update their vision plan for each of their stores when it comes to deciding if they want to remodel a store or close a store. I did that for the Ohio and Pennsylvania regions.
“I was also involved in site planning where we would look at topography. When you do that, you’re looking at cracks in the pavement all the way up to structural issues with buildings.”
Hadley, from Dublin, OH, says his career goal would be the job of Head City Planner of Columbus. “And I have also thought about potentially running for the position of Mayor of Columbus one day. I think I’m more likely to pursue a career as a city planner, but I have thought about picking up a major or minor in Political Science if I were to pursue a career as mayor.”
On campus, Hadley’s involvement has included Geography Club, Alpha Lambda Delta, and pick-up soccer at Ping.
His favorite thing about being a Bobcat? “The people, hands down. That was why I chose Ohio University over Ohio State or Miami,” he says.
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