Job Purpose
The Corporate Relations & Placements is a high-impact, target-driven individual contributor responsible for sourcing internship and project opportunities from tech companies, startups, SMBs, and international firms for NxtWave's college-going students.
This is a hunter role. Your primary activity is cold calling decision-makers — Founders, CTOs, CEOs, Tech Leads, and HR Managers — to discover hiring needs and create internship opportunities where none have been posted. You own the company relationship end-to-end: prospecting, qualification, closure, and repeat engagement. Internal teams handle student profiling and interview coordination so you can focus on companies.
Key Responsibilities
1. Corporate Discovery & Direct Outreach
- Run high-volume cold calling as the primary daily activity — target 20–30 conversations with decision-makers per day (100–150+ weekly).
- Build pipeline independently using job portals, LinkedIn, AngelList, startup databases, company career pages, funding announcements, and hiring signals; lead-gen team support is supplementary.
- Use a consultative discovery approach: ask deep questions about team structure, product roadmap, hiring timelines, skill gaps, and growth challenges before pitching.
- Identify latent talent needs and pitch internships as high-ROI solutions to specific business problems — don't wait for posted openings.
- Document every outreach attempt in the CRM to enable intelligent follow-up cadences.
2. Opportunity Qualification & Closure
- Capture full opportunity details from companies: project scope (micro-project, multi-week project, or multi-month internship), technical requirements, team structure, duration, time commitment, reporting, compensation, and expectations.
- Drive the company-side placement process end-to-end — align with the internal student team on availability, schedule interviews, brief the company, collect feedback, and close offers.
- Stay engaged post-placement to ensure the engagement runs smoothly and to surface follow-on opportunities.
3. Stakeholder Relationship Building & Account Development
- Become the company's trusted hiring partner — the first call when a new requirement comes up.
- Convert single placements into repeat engagements, multi-role opportunities, and long-term partnerships.
- Collect success stories, case studies, and testimonials from companies and students to strengthen credibility.
- Represent NxtWave at startup events, tech meetups, founder networks, and industry forums to expand the partnership base.
- Contribute to social proof through LinkedIn posts, company spotlights, and placement journeys.
4. Pipeline Management & Performance Tracking
- Maintain disciplined CRM hygiene: company status, opportunity stage, and next-action date updated after every interaction; zero stale deals beyond 30 days.
- Participate in daily stand-ups and weekly reviews to align priorities and surface blockers.
- Share regular performance reports and insights on pipeline health, conversion trends, and channel effectiveness.
Job Specification
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in any discipline; MBA preferred but not mandatory.
- 1–5 years of full-time B2B sales, recruitment, staffing, or placement experience.
- Must have independently sourced and closed deals without warm leads or pre-assigned accounts (campus placements do not qualify).
- Demonstrated ability to manage 15+ active companies simultaneously with CRM discipline.
Technical Skills
- Proficiency in CRM tools (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or equivalent).
- Comfortable with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo.io, RocketReach, or similar prospecting platforms.
- Able to use AI tools for prospect research, outreach personalization, and pitch preparation.
- Quick at learning and communicating about diverse tech stacks, development roles, and business functions.
Behavioural Competencies
- Hunter mindset: aggressively sources own pipeline and takes ownership of outcomes.
- Resilience: maintains consistent high-volume outreach through objections, voicemails, and dry periods.
- Consultative discovery: asks deep questions about company challenges before pitching solutions.
- Opportunity creation: identifies latent needs and positions internships as solutions to real business problems.
- Relationship-builder: invests in long-term institutional partnerships, not one-time transactional deals.
- Process-disciplined: follows structured follow-up cadences and documentation standards consistently.
- Target-driven: speaks in numbers and owns outcomes (placements closed, repeat companies), not just activities.
- Adaptable and coachable: adjusts approach quickly based on feedback and market signals.
What Strong Candidates Have Done
- Run a complete cold-to-close sales cycle independently: prospecting, qualification, discovery, pitching, negotiation, and closure — without warm leads.
- Sustained 120+ cold conversations per week for months without losing momentum.
- Identified a company need the company hadn't recognized, and sold a solution against it.
- Recovered a stalled relationship with documented re-engagement tactics and a positive outcome.
- Managed 20+ active deals at different pipeline stages without dropped follow-ups.
- Built a personal network of decision-makers who respond within hours and proactively refer opportunities.
- Used CRM religiously — knows conversion rates, open deal counts, and follow-up schedules from memory.
This Role is NOT for You If
- Your only B2B sales experience came through a campus placement drive or structured MBA recruitment process.
- You have never independently sourced and closed deals without warm leads, referrals, or pre-assigned accounts.
- You see this role as a short-term stepping stone to strategy, product, or leadership without execution commitment.
- You are uncomfortable with sustained high-volume cold calling (20–30+ conversations daily) as a persistent discipline.
- Your sales background was primarily event-based, roadshow-driven, or heavily dependent on your company's brand to open doors.
- You cannot recall a recent client, deal, and specific outcome without pausing or checking notes.
- You view rejection as personal failure rather than a natural part of the sales funnel.
Why This Role
- Direct impact: every placement is a visible outcome tied directly to your effort and execution.
- Variable compensation: performance-based pay that scales with placements closed and companies retained.
- Entrepreneurial ownership: you own pipeline, company relationships, and outcomes end-to-end.
- Market access: work with fast-growing startups, unicorns, established tech companies, and international firms.
- Skill-building: B2B sales, tech hiring, consultative selling, negotiation, and stakeholder management at speed.
- Structured support: internal teams handle student profiling and interview logistics so you focus on relationships and closure.
- Real-world exposure: direct conversations with Founders, CTOs, CEOs, and HR Managers — no corporate hierarchy layers.
- Growth trajectory: high performers progress into account leadership, regional expansion, or corporate partnership strategy.
- Meaningful work: you directly enable students to gain real work experience and launch successful careers.
Success Metrics in First 90 Days
- Month 1: Establish consistent daily outreach discipline; build initial qualified pipeline; discover first set of opportunities and close initial placements.
- Month 2: Scale to 100–150+ weekly call touchpoints; build active pipeline of 30+ companies; demonstrate predictable monthly placement velocity.
Month 3: Sustain pipeline with regular opportunity discovery; achieve healthy repeat company rate; establish yourself as a reliable placement partner with disciplined CRM hygiene.
Skills Required
Apollo.io, LinkedIn Navigator, RocketReach
