On September 24th, I attended the Johnson & Johnson Student CoOp Panel to learn about opportunities at Johnson & Johnson. Four J&J employees/Villanova graduates sat on the panel and shared their CoOp experiences. Villanova is a target school for J&J, and the CoOp program enables you to get corporate experience early in your college education. However, not many students know about the CoOp or its incredible value. This blog post will provide details about the program and share the perspectives of the panelists. Hopefully, this post will encourage you to pursue the CoOp or other opportunities at J&J.
First off, I will share some logistics about the CoOp program. The CoOp takes place spring semester of your sophomore year and can either be in marketing or finance. J&J conducts interviews for the program at Villanova during the fall semester. If you perform well during the CoOp, you will receive a job offer by senior year. However, if you are a freshman and cannot wait until next year, J&J also offers an externship in spring exclusively for freshman.
Now, on to the important information: the panelist’s experiences. All the panelists strongly recommended the CoOp and had career defining experiences. Before the program, most of the panelists had been apprehensive about a career with J&J. However, after the CoOp, the panelists knew it was the right company for them. Throughout their talks, they all stressed the same two things that defined the experience for them: the work and the company culture.
The panelists shared the work was real work, not just busy work. One of the ladies in marketing had worked with the Motrin team. The other had worked on launching a new Tylenol campaign. She, personally, had to communicate with retailers and advertisers to coordinate the launch. When a problem arose, she was responsible for handling it and contacting all the parties involved. One of the panelists in finance was placed with the accounting team. However, most of J&J’s accounting is moving overseas to the Philippines. As a result, his job was to train Filipino accountants.
The panelists loved J&J culture and could not wait to share their personal experiences. They all expressed a mutual love and respect for the Credo, a statement of J&J’s values. At J&J, relationships are everything, and everyone is one big family. The panelists felt respected, included, and loved by their co-workers and felt like they had real relationships with them. One of the panelists said his defining experience at J&J was when his boss moved the end of the year party so he could attend. The party was at his house, and the panelist got to meet his family. Later that year, the boss’s son texted him about Villanova when he was starting the college search process.
The J&J CoOp offers the unique opportunity to experience both the corporate work world and J&J culture. For more information on the CoOp program, please visit the J&J Website.
Nathaniel's Business School Experience 