1. Discovery Project
Week 1: Research an industry that interests you
Week 2: Research a career profession that interests you
Week 3: Research the function of an entry level, mid-career, and later career job
Week 4 (M-day): Develop an elevator pitch for the entry level job in specific industry
Week 5: Find 8 internship openings that lead to your dream entry level job in specific
industry. Find at least 2 relevant contacts for each position (recruiters, managers, etc.)
Week 6 (Retreat): Research the company, write cover e-mail, and tailor resume and
LinkedIn profile to the internship opportunity.
Week 7: Apply and contact recruiters
Week 8 and beyond: Follow-up/interview prep
This project is designed to teach you the process of finding and successfully obtaining job
and internship offers. Brothers before you have used it to prodigious success. This process
works with applying for internships, part-time job opportunities, and full-time job
opportunities. If you already have an internship offer for the summer, your goal will be to
try and gain a better one.
We expect you to complete each assignment competently and to the best of your ability.
However, given the wide diversity of peoples’ career and professional interests, you will
ultimately be the one who determines the adequacy of your work.
At the time of second round interviews near the end of the pledging process, you will
submit a bounded copy of all assignments for evaluation. The best projects will be stored in
the fraternity archives as exemplary works for future generations.

2. Discovery Project
Week 1: Research an industry that interests you
Research an industry that you can see yourself working for in the future. Do not confuse
industries with roles. A competent assignment will include all the necessary information
including, but not limited to:
 Market Cap
 Major Companies
 Industry Sectors
 Growth Forecast
 Concentration of Major Companies
Include and explain 3 of the main reasons why the industry is a good fit for you.
Examples of Industries Include:
 Technology
 Automobile
 Hospitality
 Government
 Financial
 Construction

3. Discovery Project
Week 2: Research a career role that interests you
Discovering what job function naturally suits your personally will play a major part in
whether you dread or can’t wait to go into work. It will also give you direction as to what
internships you should pursue in order to land your dream entry-level job. Research a role
within the specific industry that you have interest in, and make sure to tailor your research
to the exact industry and sector you wish to enter.
Important information to find is:
 What the outlook for that role in the industry is like in the next 10-25 years
 Whether or not the position usually entails graduate school
 What kind of personality traits give someone an advantage in this role
 What technical skills (if any) needed
 What is the popularity/competition outlook for college students like yourself
Include and explain 3 of the main reasons why the role is a good fit for you.
Examples of Roles Include:
 Finance
 Sales
 Engineering
 Product
 Marketing
 Recruiting/HR
 UI/UX

4. Discovery Project
Week 3: Research the function of an entry level, mid-career, and later career
position
A significant part of professional success starts with the realization that your career is a
marathon and not a sprint. Your first job should strategically place you in a position to
maximize learning and networking, instead of maximizing for salary or equity. Remember
that landing a position is nowhere near as important as optimizing launch trajectory.
Some items to keep in mind:
 What technical skills do I require for the entry level role, and what additional skills
will I need for the mid-career and later career position?
 How do my major or my academic studies prepare me for these roles?
 What is the upper limit for the role of my starting job?
 Do I need to hold different roles before ascending a level/title?
 What are the leadership expectations and requirements for each position?
Also keep in mind that you should not let your major discourage you from pursuing the
profession of your aspirations. Include at the end of your report the statistics on median
increase between start to middle to later career salary.

5. Discovery Project
Week 4: Write an elevator pitch for your dream entry level position
Scenario: You go to one of UCSB’s career fairs, and there you meet a recruiter who
works for your dream entry-level company. And guess what? They’re recruiting for the
exact position that you’ve researched these past 3 weeks! The only drawback is you
have to stand out from a crowd consisting of the other two thousand potential
applicants. What do you say? More importantly, what do you ask?
Write an elevator pitch that lasts no more than two minutes. It should ideally be one
minute, thirty seconds.
Some tips for writing:
 Write out bullet points and then fill in the rest
 Tell a story; don’t give a verbal resume
 Make your goals clear
Some tips for actually giving your elevator pitch when meeting someone:
 Transition into your elevator pitch smoothly (don’t make it obvious you’re trying
to sell yourself)
 End your elevator pitch by somehow transitioning to the other person. Try to
lead this transition with insightful, genuine questions about the other person or
role.
 Remember that you are most impressive with the level of questions you can ask.

6. Discovery Project
Week 5: Find 8 internship openings and their relevant contacts
Use the resources at your disposal to find internship or job openings that will not just build
your résumé, but also give you the basic industry knowledge you should have when you
enter the job market.
Use tools like:
 LinkedIn
 Glassdoor
 SimplyHired
 Resumator
 Ventureloop (for VC backed startups)
 Individual Company Websites
Because many of you do not have relevant work experience, the first internship will be the
hardest to acquire. For this reason, it may require out of the box thinking to successfully
obtain. That is why you must find at least 2 contacts and their e-mail addresses or their
LinkedIn profiles that are relevant for getting hired. When you start applying during week
7, you will reach out to each of these relevant contacts.
In terms of submitting this assignment, write:
 Company name, location
 Position title
 Brief description of role
 Link to the internship posting
One more note from personal experience: finding internship openings online is merely ONE
way you can do to find an internship, and it’s far from the most effective. The most effective
ways are always to use your network, and put yourself out there. However, looking online
will provide you with insight as to where opportunities are. From there, you can tailor your
application approach.

7. Discovery Project
Week 6: Research the company, write cover e-mail, and tailor résumé and
LinkedIn profile to the internship opportunity.
Prepare to contact the relevant people and apply for the internship opportunity. This will
entail bringing your resume and LinkedIn profile up to par. Spend a good amount of time
making both of them perfect – as the cliché goes: you do not get a second chance at a firm
impression.
Research both the company AND the people you will be contacting. Some of the basic
knowledge and information you should know fluently about the company are, but not
limited to:
 Who the founders are
 Origin story (if available)
 Product lines and business units
 Who the current management team is, relevant to your role
 Some competitors
 The mission/vision of the company, and the problem they are trying to solve
Some of the basic knowledge you should have about the person to whom you are reaching
out includes but is not limited to:
 Name, title, gender
 What their job function is
 What schools they have gone to
 Past career experience
 Anything that you make a personal connection to
Most likely, you will need to use LinkedIn’s InMail system to reach your contact. You need
to write a short message to every single person. Each does not have to be fully unique, but
at least personalize and tailor each message.
You will hand your resumes to VP of Membership. Everything else you will turn in to the
Internal Standards Committee. We will individually inspect your LinkedIn profiles online,
so no need to make copies of it.

8. Discovery Project
Week 7: Apply and contact recruiters
Ever hear a friend or someone complaining on the internet or the media about sending out
hundreds of résumés and never getting a response? Put yourself in the recruiters' shoes.
Who are you more likely to e-mail back?
 Option 1: Candidate with qualifications
 Option 2: Candidate with qualifications who also took the time to research you and
e-mail you
 Option 3: Candidate with qualifications who also took the time to research you AND
muster up the courage to cold-call you
Even if you don't exactly feel comfortable with cold-calling someone and giving them your
elevator pitch, your success rates with recruiters are sure to increase by giving them a
personal correspondence, addressed specifically to them.
However, if you are willing to take that extra step, find their number in the company
directory and make the phone call, not only will it almost guarantee a response (if they are
there to pick up), the act alone will impress them.
If you're concerned about practicing a phone call or feel that you lack phone skills in
general, ask a fellow pledge brother or active brother to help you.
This marks the end of Discovery Project assignments as a part of your pledge program.
You've come this far, and we are all rooting for your success. Don't forget to followup with
your contacts in a week if you don't hear back. Polite aggression and pleasant persistence
are the names of the game.
Best of luck!