As one of the world’s most recognizable brands, Walmart is able to offer atypical MBA careers worldwide, says Kaye Cullum, Director of Global Campus and Diversity Recruiting at Walmart.
Cullum has been with Walmart for four years and is excited to tell MBAs about the company’s dive into eCommerce and sustainability.
What is the Walmart Graduate Internship Program and who can apply?
We get hundreds, if not thousands of resumes for this program every year, so we try to focus our recruiting efforts on a specific set of schools. We think this approach helps manage a candidate’s experiences and expectations and builds Walmart as an employer of choice at these schools.
Do you target any specific business schools to hire MBAs?
We do – because of the varied skillsets and experience we need in these roles there are specific schools that we go to for our hiring needs.
What's a typical career path for an MBA within Walmart?
The breadth and scale of Walmart is extremely appealing to top MBA candidates, which is why I think we tend to be so successful in recruiting. There’s not a lot about Walmart that is typical, including career paths. Walmart’s size and scale gives us a unique ability to provide career opportunities that you really can’t find anywhere else.
MBAs can work in such varied fields as operations, merchandising, real estate, logistics, eCommerce and sourcing, just to name a few.
Because we are a global company with operations in 27 countries around the world, the opportunities extend beyond the U.S. An MBA can come to Walmart and tailor his/her career path to the varied opportunities across our major businesses (Walmart US, Sam’s Club, International & Global eCommerce). It’s difficult to find a better opportunity as a graduate from b-school.
Fortune Magazine voted Walmart as the #1 Most Admired Company in its industry in 2011, what makes you proud to work at the retail giant?
There’re several reasons why I’m proud to work at Walmart and I think our CEO, Mike Duke, says it really well: Walmart doesn’t measure its success by the size of our company, but by the lives we touch. When I started with Walmart four years ago I would go to schools and students would want me to encourage Walmart to put a store in their community to provide jobs and opportunities. Today, students want me to talk to Walmart about going into their countries for this same reason.
Walmart has been scrutinised for its environmental record in the past, what has the company done to become 'greener' in recent years?
Walmart has truly been a leader in this space. Because of our size we know the positive impact we can have on the environment such as our efforts in using renewable energy, reducing landfill waste and implementing the Sustainability Index. We also know that by working with our 100,000 global suppliers, 2.2 million associates and millions of weekly customers to help them be more sustainable we can have
an impact beyond our “four walls.”
eCommerce accounts for less than 2 percent of Walmart's total revenue - could this be a high-growth part of the business for MBAs to join?
At Walmart, eCommerce is an important part of our global business. We are able to leverage our online business with our physical stores to serve customers that few others can match. In addition, we are building technologies such as our global platform, pricing tools, mobile and search engine capabilities. With these tools, Walmart is transforming from a user of eCommerce technologies to a leader in eCommerce.
Is there anything you can't buy at Walmart?!
We laughingly say if you can’t get it at Walmart then you probably don’t really need it.
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