The career journey of TQL’s first intern
Can an internship impact your postgraduate career? We asked Adam M., TQL’s first intern.
Flash back to the year 2004. Mark Zuckerberg had just launched “TheFacebook,” the show Friends had finished its final season and TQL had just hit over $50 million in sales. The seven-year-old startup company was still in its fledgling stages and had just a few sales reps on one floor of an office building.
Although TQL had not yet established itself as the second-largest freight brokerage in North America and one of the largest global third-party logistics firms it is today, its sights were set on explosive growth. TQL sales reps attended career fairs at area universities. They even brought along a basketball hoop to showcase the company’s work hard, play hard mentality.
Adam was working toward his sales degree at Ohio University when he attended a career fair on campus in hopes of landing a summer sales internship. After conversations with many large, well-established sales companies, only one employer caught his eye: TQL.
TQL didn’t just spark Adam’s interest. He was all in. He turned down multiple other offers and moved from his home in Cleveland to Cincinnati to begin a summer internship.
Adam’s goal was to gain real life experience in and earn a full-time job by the summer’s end. He described TQL at the time as “a small company that felt like a family,” and he wanted to show this TQL family what he could do.
He recognized the uncapped earning potential at TQL after helping close eight customers in one week. He walked out of the office that Friday with a full wallet and an unmatched feeling of accomplishment, but he wasn’t fully satisfied. Adam knew he wouldn’t be until he received a post-internship job offer.
He wasn’t immediately extended a full-time offer after completing his summer internship, but he was so confident about a potential job offer that he signed a one-year apartment lease in Cincinnati.
When the offer still hadn’t come a few weeks later, Adam showed his determination. He called TQL’s CEO and told him that he would not regret taking a chance on him if he was extended a full-time job offer.
The rest is history.
Adam didn’t just turn his internship into a full-time job. He turned it into and 18-year (and counting) career. He has been a broker, a sales manager and Executive Sales Director. Now, as Executive Sales Director of Learning & Development, he plays a role in developing the Annual Sales Leadership Meeting and other large-scale training initiatives.
Adam is still committed to the continued growth of the TQL internship program due to its impact on him and the benefits it continues to provide.
Interested in joining TQL’s sales team as an intern? Apply today for our part-time Spring 2024 Sales Internship Program.
