WSU’s Business Week 2003 brought back to campus a host of business luminaries, including T. Michael Young ’67, president and CEO of Metal Supermarkets International, who delivered the keynote address, “Ethics, Accountability and Corporate Governance after Enron.”
Sponsored by the W. Frank Barton School of Business, Business Week 2003 offered students the opportunity to interact with many WSU alumni who were on hand to share tips on ensuring success in business.
Among the dozen-plus lectures and panels that made up Business Week were Networking, the Joie de Vivre of Business, with Susan Pompeo ’79, former senior vice president of Emprise Bank; The Nine Secrets of Successful Salesmanship, by David Dahl ’71/74, attorney and partner with Johnson, Kennedy, Dahl & Willis; and Success Stories of Young Business Alumni, moderated by Brad Beets ’87, executive director of the WSU Alumni Association, and featuring six stand-out young business school graduates, each of whom has proven to be highly suited for success.
“It was a pleasure being able to see the interaction between WSU students and six recent business graduates who’ve already made such positive contributions to their respective fields,” Beets says. “The students asked a lot of questions, and our alums provided candid, realistic career advice, relevant to today’s job market.”
The six young alumni who shared their strategies for staying competitive and thriving in the job market — even in a tough market — are Nick Berens ’96/00, a partner with Snelling Search, a headhunting firm based in Wichita; Bryan Frye ’87/88, marketing director for the ABC Wichita affiliate, KAKE-TV Channel 10; Brian Heinrichs ’96, vice president of investments for Kansas Farm Bureau in Manhattan, Kan.; Ronnie Leonard ’87, CFO and vice president of finance at Balco Metalines, Wichita; Kari Porter ’02, staff development trainer at KETCH, Wichita; and Nick Stone ’02, managing director of acquisitions for U.S. Capital Acquisitions Inc., Wichita.
“Even in a down economy, we’re constantly in search of talent,” Frye told the audience of more than 100 students.
“And we look for people with college degrees because, in general, the people who have them show more discipline.”
Berens added that clients of his company are interested in hiring people who “are passionate about what they’re doing.”
Also important to employers looking for new hires is finding individuals who have experience in leadership roles, whether that experience comes as an officer in a college group or as a volunteer in a charitable organization. Another selling point to employers is practical, real-world job experience. as Porter stressed, “We look for participation in internships and mentorships.”
Stone mentioned that today’s job market seems to be saturated with marketing majors and suggested that current marketing majors “pair it with something more technical or science based” to provide themselves an edge.
Leonard cautioned that too many people in job interviews take the process too casually, both in the way they dress and in the way they behave and speak. “First impressions,” she said, “are lasting ones.” Berens agreed: “It’s all about first impressions. Let them see who you are — in a professional way.”
Heinrichs emphasized the worth of both classroom education and practical work experience by relating that, at bottom, employers are looking for people with the right set of “knowledge and technical skills. My field is very technical, very math-oriented. You simply have to know your stuff.”
All six of the panelists stressed the importance of networking.
“There’s no downside to networking,” Heinrichs said. “That’s pretty much how finding a job works.” While building personal networks with professionals in a particular field is important, panelists said that students should not limit their networking. “College allows you all kinds of opportunities to interact with people, so be involved — attend classes, join clubs, check out cooperative education programs,” Berens advised.
Several panelists singled out alumni networking as especially helpful and encouraged students to take advantage of student-alumni events sponsored by the alumni association and the university’s Career Network Experience, a for-credit program sponsored by the alumni association and the Office of Cooperative Education and Work-Based Learning that links students with alumni professionals.
No matter what kind of job market new graduates find themselves navigating, Heinrichs emphasized: “There’s always a place for people who can add value to an organization.”
