Internship Leads to Job Offer for Chemical Engineering Student

For Sara Jones ’13, getting an internship at L’Oréal USA was all about making herself memorable. When the company came to the College for a case study with the School of Engineering during her sophomore year, she attended, but when they came back in her junior year, Jones decided to talk with one of the plant managers. When three representatives later participated in the Career Fair, she made a point of getting in line three times to make sure she spoke to each of them. 

Jones, who is a national representative of the Society of Women Engineers, also ran into a L’Oréal plant manager at a Women’s Day panel event, who remembered the tenacious soccer player. By the time she arrived at the Franklin, N.J., plant for her internship, she learned that she had been remembered by several people. 

She interned in the performance improvement department, where she focused on creating new education and training videos for the company. 

“I created a new safety video to make sure that everybody in the plant — we actually go up, above and beyond the actual requirements for safety — has to watch before entering,” she says. “I made a video on good manufacturing practices, which are ways to make sure all of our products are up to standard.” 

Jones actually made four videos, and the California native had never used a Mac or any of the software required to make a video. Not surprisingly, she taught herself how to use the programs and dove into the process of creating a film. 

It was a real eye-opener as to what the real world is like and not just ‘here’s all these equations that you have to memorize.’

While not strictly using her engineering background, Jones credits her studies with helping her to approach these new, learning-intense projects. 

“Mostly what chemical engineering is, is problem-solving,” she says. “So it wasn’t really using as much of my chemical engineering background, like the actual technical things, but more of what I’ve used throughout the years, which is problem-solving and persistence. Just sticking it out when things are hard.” 

Always knowing that she wanted to work in the makeup industry, Jones has nothing but enthusiasm for the internship and the company. 

“I think it was the best learning experience I had,” she says. “It was a real eye-opener as to what the real world is like and not just ‘here’s all these equations that you have to memorize.’ I have to really apply things that I had learned in the real world.”

Jones received a job offer from L’Oréal in September and will enter its management development program after graduation, where she’ll rotate through the company’s various plants and learn all about the different manufacturing processes.