Saidel Mayar ’10 – Written from Long Island City, NY. I am one of twelve Wabash students who was selected to travel to New York sponsored by the Wabash’s Career Services. The main purpose of this trip is to visit different firms based in New York. In addition to networking with alums, the trip is designed for students to understand the ups and downs of living in New York City. Wednesday, October 14 was our first day of the trip, departing from Wabash at 1:30PM. By the time we arrived in New York City and made it to our hotel, it was closer to 6:30 PM. Since we hadn’t eaten at the time, Scott and Betsy decided that we should go out for dinner. We had just enough time to drop off our luggage, and head back into the city. For dinner we went to a restaurant called "Max Brenner" in Manhattan. The place is famous for its amazing and creative chocolate desserts. For me personally, the food was the highlight of the dinner. The food was yummy!! I still can’t forget the taste. I had something called Smoked Turkey Crepe, which was amazing. For dessert, I had a huge bowl of ice cream and fruit, which I couldn’t eat all of it. After having dinner, we returned back to our hotel at around 11:45 PM. Everyone seemed extremely tired, and since we had to wake up early in the morning (we had to be in the lobby at 6:45AM?!!).  After only the first few hours of the trip, it has been an amazing experience, I would definitely recommend this program to all sophmores and freshmen, who want to work and live in New York. 

Trevor Counceller ’12 – Wednesday the 14th was a day I’ve had marked on my calendar for ages but always seemed far, far away.  Even a week before I couldn’t fathom myself strolling around mid-town NYC. However, the whirlwind week that is midterms occurred, and at noon Wednesday I found myself scrambling to get ready.  Among the thoughts in mind:

     “Are my shoes polished?” 
     “Do these stripes go with these spots?”
     “Where the heck did I put my resume?”
     “Is that mace I bought for my sister and forgot to give her still in my room?”

All of these questions—including the last one—turned out to be incredibly relevant, though not on Wednesday, my assigned blogging day.  This Wednesday began like all others: I woke up, went to C&T and then biology.  After my biology lecture, the day shifted: it became a mad race to pack before a midterm I’d arranged to take early due to conflicts with the trip. The pace was frantic from 11 am until the van left at 1:30, after which I breathed a sigh of relief. 
 
The rest of the day was tame by comparison: the flight was largely uneventful–excepting a certain tall artsy Wally who nearly missed the flight in his quest for a smoothie.  After landing at La Guardia (note to self: fly in to JFK next time!) we collected our bags and caught cabs. I rode with several peers in a cab whose driver was rather spirited with the gas pedal (despite the insistence of my peers, I was not holding on for dear life)!  Miraculously we arrived in one piece at the Howard Johnson Inn, lovingly referred to as the "Hojo.” After a thirty-minute respite we took the subway to mid-town where we ate dinner at the eclectically styled chocolate lover’s paradise Max Brenner’s (where, despite my lactose intolerance, I drank what was arguably the best milk shake of my life). Wednesday set the stage for the rest of the trip—and suffice to say it gave me a look into the world of finance and life in New York that I didn’t think was possible to acquire in a week.  I’m sincerely grateful to the alumni that made it possible. 

Betsy Knott – During Fall Break every year, the Career Services office supervises a 3-day trip to New York City to enlighten our students about big business in the big city.  This year, 12 students were selected to make the trip, and the following blogs will share their experiences and insights about how this trip has affected their future career decisions.  (View from the Banc of America conference room where Ted Zimmer ’09 and Jay Allen ’79 spoke with our students about working in the Big Apple)

Brady Young ’12 – About five vans full of Wabash men and myself headed to Chicago Sunday for networking meeting with about twenty different alums from the Chicago area.  It was a great experience and I encourage any Wabash student to get involved early on and go to as many networking events as possible. It was great to be able to talk to different alums in different lines of work and hear their story. All of them were very helpful with advice in classes, interns, and how to prepare and get ready for interviews. Many of them offered to help with any questions we had and provided their business card to many of us. It was nice to get into a big city setting and talk with people who worked in that type of environment. After a few hours of talking to all these alums we thought the day was over, but we were in for a surprise.

We walked a few blocks back to were the vans were parked only to realize that one of our vans windows had been busted and a few things had been taken out of it. The van next to us had the lock busted out and some bags taken from it. The cops were called but we had nothing to cover the window with for the ride home and did not really want to freeze. So Adam Miller, Jake Zielinski, and myself ventured out downtown to find the Walgreen’s to get a few supplies.  We found the Walgreen’s a few blocks down and a street over and went in to get a poster board and some duct tape.

We used our critical thinking skills to strategically placed the card board poster perfectly over the window and duct taped it to the van. After Adam did some amazing work with the duct tape, Jake added a few designs such as the famous WAF and a heart. Once Scott had talked to the police officer and had everything figured out it was finally time to head back to the good ol’ town of Crawfordsville. The trip was a great experience I had a lot of fun in the Big City.

Filip Lempa ’11 – Members of the Wabash College Case Study Club spent this year’s fall break in a very productive way. On October 16th, the second day of the break, we organized a networking trip to Chicago. We met with Wabash alumni who work in finance and management consulting.

We left the campus early Friday morning and got to Chicago a little bit before lunchtime. Our first meeting took place at the WP Global Partners office where Greg Jania ’93, a partner at WP Global, hosted us for a delightful lunch. We were also joined by Jared Hall ’99, the Vice President of Aldine Capital Partners. They answered our questions about their work and explained the basics of private equity. Mr. Jania and Mr. Hall gave a lot of advice about breaking into the financial industry after Wabash and succeeding in business school.

The second meeting that day was scheduled to take place at the Chicago Deloitte office. We met with Brian Flanigan’ 96, a Principal at the consulting practice of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Mr. Flanigan explained how to develop qualities desirable in the management consulting industry during our education at Wabash College. In addition, Mr. Flanigan provided students with many insights regarding Deloitte Consulting recruiting, particularly the case study interview. He also answered many questions about the nature of entry-level work at Deloitte Consulting and the industry lifestyle.

We are very thankful to both Wabash College and its alumni for making this opportunity possible. It was extremely helpful with future career aspirations providing us with concrete knowledge about both finance and management consulting industries. Especially considering the fact that this trip was entirely student-initiated, it’s truly amazing how much Wabash alumni are willing to help current students.
  

Emanuel Harper ’10 – Last Saturday I had the opportunity to travel with Career Services to the University of Indianapolis for the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE). As its website states, this global, non-profit organization is “dedicated to the creation, development and distribution of televised programming in all forms across all mature and emerging media platforms.” Visiting campuses all across the nation, the program hosts local and national media executives and television personalities. The panel on Saturday spoke about a wide variety of subjects including media sales, videography, media engineering, sports anchoring, and community affairs (though this is not exhaustive). Each panelist offered insightful clues on what exactly media broadcasting entails and how to land a job in this tough economy. While there, I had the opportunity to meet with a senior producer at WTHR, the general manager of a local broadcasting station in Indianapolis, and the president and general manager of WFYI. We Wallys that attended the event stood out, as we put into practice the techniques that Career Services taught us. Not only was the event a great tool for networking (I already have job internships available from the individuals I spoke with) it was a great way to discover diverse aspects of media broadcasting. No matter what your major or professional interest, I suggest everyone attend career service events. You never know who you might meet and you are almost assured a contact to advance your professional career.

Adam Miller ’12 – Tonight my fellow classmates and I enjoyed an informative talk by Anthony Cawdron, Event Coordinator and House Manager for Westwood at Purdue University, about proper etiquette rules while dining with the women from Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority (also from Purdue), and of course a superb dinner. While (properly) chowing down on the wonderful three-course meal, we learned basic dinner manners that can someday be used to make a good impression with potential employers or alumni. Some of the concepts that Mr. Cawdron spoke on were completely new to me. As I was cutting my noodles into a more feasible size I was made aware that I was using the wrong technique. Mr. Cawdron informed us that you are to never cut your noodles up, instead you are to twirl them with your spoon and eat them that way. This example is just one of many etiquette rules that I learned. After the dinner we were given a list of the Top 10 Etiquette Rules that will come in very handy. I am fortunate that I go to a school that embraces opportunities to teach it’s students important dinner rules, which will aid in the success of our different career paths. I look forward to more events like this in the future and I encourage all students to take advantage of these beneficial events!

Click here to view pictures from the event.

Blaine Cooper-Surma ’09 – Although I’m only a few months removed from the Wabash College campus, I’ve already gotten a good taste of the real world. At Wabash I was an Economics major, English and Religion double minor, and I also completed the Business Sequence area of concentration. In college I was a member of the Swimming and Diving Team, Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, and Peer Advisor at Career Services. My experiences outside the walls of Wabash College are unique, and I’m glad to be able to share them with you.

In November of last year, I was unsure of what I wanted to do after graduation. I think it’s safe to say that many, if not most, students find themselves in a similar situation. At that particular time I knew that I had several promising leads, all with great companies, but for me there was one career path that stuck out from the rest. After attending an info session for the Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship, I immediately became interested in the organization. The two alums presenting spoke of graduates being able to work alongside executive-level management, thriving in an entrepreneurial environment while being able to take on significant projects in their companies, and having a network of over 80 fellows to reach out to, no matter their obstacle or situation. This sounded like something that I wanted to do – I felt the need to make an immediate impact in a company, and I knew that this was the right investment for my career.

To make a long story short, I interviewed with the Orr Fellowship and became increasingly interested in one particular host company. ExactTarget, an Indianapolis-based host company of nearly 500 employees, has been involved with the Orr Fellowship since its beginning. What caught my attention was the Catapult program, which is a rotational program that allows you to rotate through three different areas of the company over a six-month time span. Spending two months in each department allows you to learn your personal strengths and weaknesses, while teaching you a great deal about the people and operations of each department. For me, this type of program was exactly what I needed. What also got me excited about ExactTarget is the fact that the company has been growing at tremendous rates of growth. I saw this as a great opportunity to join a company that I knew would allow me the prospect of moving up in the ranks and developing myself as a professional.

Since I have begun work at ExactTarget, my first rotation has been in Human Resources. I have primarily been recruiting and working with candidates, but I’ve also been given a couple of meaty projects that will undoubtedly have a positive effect on the company. Over the past month I have been working with managers and executives to get a finalized version of our employee handbook. The handbooks have been ordered and each employee will be receiving one of these handbooks in the next couple of weeks. I have also been researching and working on a whitepaper which will assist clients in cleaning out their subscriber lists so that they comply with a new marketing law that takes effect in mid-September. Not many companies out there can provide recent graduates with the opportunity to take on significant roles in which they can make immediate improvements in the operations of their company.  As my first two months at ExactTarget are coming to an end, I am preparing to rotate into my second department. My last two rotations are Client Relationship Management and Sales Operations.  As of January 1, 2010, I will be placed in my full-time position at ExactTarget.

Scott Crawford, Director – The Schroeder Center for Career Development (Career Services) welcomes you to our blog – Little Giants, Big Results.  We’ll keep you up to date on what’s happening in and through our office, from the point of view of our Peer Advisors, students, recent graduates, alumni, and staff.  Stop by regularly and check out our scene.