Career Paths: An Offer Too Good to Pass Up
Hilbert stops practice so Heinemeyer can accept her dream job
Mike Brohard
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When you are as decorated a coach as Tom Hilbert is, there are plenty of firsts in your career.
Many of them get lost in the shuffle over time as the wins and championships start to add up, as spectacular young women enter and exit his volleyball program at Colorado State. Still, some of them are so unique, there is no way they will ever escape your memory.
Such as one of your players accepting a prestigious job offer on the court while at practice.
Remember, Hilbert’s practices are structured. They are scripted to the finest detail, and he doesn’t like interruptions, unless they are created by him out of what he sees as necessity. Then there’s Jenna Heinemeyer.
He had watched her grow from freshman walk-on defensive specialist to a person on the cusp of a dream job. By the end of her junior year, she had landed a highly-coveted internship with Goldman Sachs. She completed that internship despite the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, going virtual from home in Colorado instead of learning her craft in New York City.
But like everything about her, adjustments are not obstacles. So when she informed Hilbert and the coaching staff she was expecting a very important call from the financial giant, it was an interruption Hilbert would allow.
She walked into Moby Arena and handed her phone to a team manager: If a call comes in from New York, she needed to know immediately.
“I’m in the middle of a passing drill, and McKenna Reed, our manager screams at me -- It’s New York,” Heinemeyer said. “I run off the court, out of breath, and answer the phone. Tom starts recording me, of course, because he’s a proud dad. I’m imagining it. I’m in a mask, you’re so sweaty and I can barely breathe and I’m trying to accept this offer, and I accepted on the spot. I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to be.”
Point Rams.
Without question, practice immediately was paused to celebrate. Heinemeyer is trying to focus on the phone call and what is being said to her, all while watching Hilbert record her and her teammates staring at her. She had given them all a thumbs up, creating a silent stir of excitement, and when she hung up, the celebration began.
Hilbert said the video he took is awful, but that’s not the point. It was the moment, and it was a pretty big one on a court which as seen plenty of them over the years. There was no way the team wasn’t going to share Heinemeyer’s joy.
“It’s weird. You can’t really tell what’s going on in the video tape. You can tell she’s on the phone and she’s happy,” Hilbert said. “Everybody was happy for her. We had told everybody what’s going on and that it’s a big deal. When you’re an intern for Goldman-Sachs, it’s highly likely you’re getting the job. When it officially comes in, I likened it to a player at the football draft. They know they’re getting drafted, but when the call comes in, it makes it real.”
I had more of an appreciation, because I think a lot of the way I got this job and the internship, the opportunities and the person I am is because of volleyball.Jenna Heinemeyer, Volleyball Player
We all need moments like that in 2020, which has been as surreal a calendar turn as there has ever been.
For starters, Heinemeyer was glad the internship took place, because she had friends who had lost their summer opportunities because of the pandemic. So she settled in at home, sharing an office with her older sister Taylor, who works for Deloitte as an auditor.
Taylor had done an internship herself, and she knows how important they can be when trying to enter the job market. She was able to impress in person, so she marvels over what she witnessed her sister do this summer.
“It’s definitely harder to make that impression,” Taylor said. “She did it, and she made a good one. She proved herself by asking all of those questions and making the effort to join all the meetings with all the interns. She had to put herself out there, because she didn’t know anybody. It’s an awkward time to do an internship. You literally know nothing as an intern, and nobody expects you to.”
Jenna was logged by 6 a.m. every morning, before anybody else in her family was awake, matching the banking hours of New York. She was taking part in meetings and training with an analyst while her family was eating dinner.
The hours were long, but he loved them. But working from home presents challenges, such as dad popping his head in to see what’s up, or Taylor letting loose of an I-told-you-so laugh at Jenna’s expense. Older sisters hold those cards they’ve earned.
They also reserve the right to brag.
“She’s brilliant. She’s super smart and she’s very driven,” Taylor said. “I’m so proud to see her go through all these phases, all the interviews she’s done to work for and get the internship and now a fulltime job. It’s seeing it full circle.”
While grateful her internship took place, doing so virtually didn’t always make Jenna feel comfortable. She didn’t get to make in-person connections. There was no opportunity to walk down the hall and ask a question; instead she had to wait for a return email or an end-of-day meeting.
In other aspects, she believes it helped her and the other interns prove themselves in ways in-person training never could.
“I’m not someone who presents well over a screen. I don’t think any human does,” Jenna said. “I was so nervous to one, be with this team that’s across the country and prove I have the technical ability to do this job. It’s not easy, and you’re learning from people via a screen. It presented a lot of challenges. The goal remained the same for me, and I think it remained the same for them. They wanted to train someone and get to know someone for placement to work with them fulltime.
“I had to prove myself, and it was challenging. It made it more impressive from an intern perspective to adapt to technology failures, and ‘Oh no, Zoom’s not working.’ I think they got to see us be more adaptable than other intern classes. The end goal remained the same that I wanted a fulltime offer.”
What Jenna has done very well over the years is take a situation and make it her own. She initially intended to be in New York for college when she was accepted to Columbia, but financially, she couldn’t make that happen. She came to Colorado State with the intention of not allowing it to become a second choice.
She played volleyball, on her own dime until receiving a scholarship last year, and she attacked her studies as she always had. Then the opportunity to intern with Goldman Sachs came up, and the process just to be accepted into the program was arduous.
To Hilbert, it all played into Jenna’s wheelhouse.
“I told her, Jenna, this is one situation where you being a walk-on is going to play to your benefit,” Hilbert said. “You need to tell them you’re out there because you want to be out there, that you believe hard work and fitness and those things are important to your life, and it may impact my GPA.
“They change so much from age 17 to 21, 22. I’ve always said that’s the greatest part of coaching is watching people grow.”
So when something amazing is about to happen, he wants to share in the moment with his players. Interrupt practice for a job offer? No question. The drills can wait.
As unorthodox as it may sound, Jenna saw volleyball practice as the perfect setting for the phone conversation to take place. What happened after she celebrated with her team was just so natural.
She went back to practice. She took her line in the passing drill and worked on getting balls to the setter with perfect placement.
“It’s almost like I was more focused. I can just play volleyball right now and think about nothing else,” Jenna said of the moment. “It’s a weird thing to go from working a job and to be playing volleyball. It’s two different worlds, and then they collided together. I had more of an appreciation, because I think a lot of the way I got this job and the internship, the opportunities and the person I am is because of volleyball. So after I hung up that phone and I jumped back into the drill, it was more of like gratitude for what this sport has done for me and the opportunities it’s brought to me.”
Because of COVID-19 and the NCAA ruling moving most fall sports and their championships to the spring, Jenna’s volleyball career has likely ended a year early. As relaxing of a feeling as it is to have a job lined up after graduation, there is still a lot to cover.
She still has classes to take, but she admits the pressure has definitely lessened. Soon, she is going to jump straight into being an adult, and do it in New York City. It’s amazing to think her office is across from the World Trade Center and the lunchroom overlooks the Statue of Liberty. She’s not quite sure what the first “New York thing” will come first for her.
“That I chose this school and made it my own and made it my community,” Jenna said. “I worked really hard and said that one day, maybe, I’ll end up back up there. I didn’t plan it. It just came this way. Then Goldman appeared in the picture and New York came back into the picture. I look at the whole story laid out and I couldn’t have written it any better.”
Especially the part about accepting the job offer. You don’t dream up those settings.
No doubt about it -- practice definitely made it perfect.
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