Smith Freshmen Get Career Advice

This month, freshmen in the Class of 2019 will attend a series of events to kick-off their experience at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Smith student Philip Peker ’18 writes about “The War for Talent” event on Sept. 1, 2015.

Another summer has come and gone, and a new school year is upon us. For the freshmen Smith Class of 2019, it perhaps means a little more than it does to all of us. A new environment, a new school, new friends, new teachers, new everything. A fresh start, and to help the freshman business students get acclimated, is the SmithStart program, designed to introduce students to the resources and experiential learning tools the Smith School of Business has to offer to ensure students are ready to become business professionals after they graduate. The month of September is full of SmithStart events, not to overwhelm, but to saturate the young minds of these freshmen with what they need to do to become successful and effective business leaders.

One of these events occurred on Tuesday, September 1, and it was boldly, yet aptly named “The War for Talent.” Five panelists were invited to speak to the Smith’s Class of 2019 about all sorts of topics, from personal branding, to interviewing, to resumes, to how to balance college life. The panelists were from a variety of backgrounds, boasting impressive resumes and tight ties to the Smith School. Jennifer Flickinger from Baker Tilly, John Garry from Bloomberg, Kiati Plooksawasdi from Constellation, Beverly League from CareFirst, and Brett Loubert from Deloitte all imparted wisdom and their experiences of how to successfully grow from being a business student to being a professional leader.

Ashlee Kerkhoff, director of undergraduate student programming in Smith’s Office of Career Services, curated the evening, posing questions for the panelists to answer. Questions ranged a broad palette of topics, and the panelists’ answers were enlightening and sometimes even scathingly blunt. “Watch your social media,” they said, because even if you are a perfect candidate, if you have questionable activity and presence online, it says badly about you as an individual. According to the panelists, a huge derailer of success is when confidence turns to arrogance. More and more, they see students who are not only overly confident in interviews, but more importantly, fail to back up their exaggerated accolades with real examples and specific things they did.  The best way to avoid coming off as arrogant is to watch one’s body language, and to show interest. Branching off from that, one panelist noted, “don’t just have cool experiences like studying abroad, but be able to apply them and show how it makes you a more diverse individual. Its what you learned, not what you did.” A huge buzzword for the night was “passion,” and staying true to what you are passionate about. John Garry of Bloomberg stated, “Find something you naturally are passionate about, not what’s currently ‘hot’ and go for that, so you can be known in the company as the go-to for that one thing.” Build your forte, develop your niche, and expand your expertise. Later in the evening the students were given the opportunity to pose their own questions for the panelists and pick their brains for those golden nuggets of information that can really set them on the right path towards success.

As the evening was wrapping up, Kiati Plooksawasdi had all the students stand up. He then told them to stretch their arms up. After a slight pause, he asked them to reach a little bit further, an extra inch, and as if a thin string was pulling up each person, you could see hundreds of arms move upwards, slowly but surely. Finally, he asked everyone who had that extra inch in them to sit down, and everyone single student sat down. “All of you had that extra inch in you. So always reach for that extra inch.” Applause echoed through the room in adamant agreement, as confused smirks turned to understanding smiles.

“Recruitment is happening earlier and earlier. You can no longer wait until your junior year to teach students the softs skills necessary to land them that job that they want,” said Ashlee Kerhoff. The landscape of college recruitment is indeed changing, and at a rapid pace. Before, students explored the various disciplines through classes, majors, and tracks. While that is still a possibility, more and more students are encouraged to explore possible career choices through internships, externships, and jobs. This gives them a more reasonable and realistic picture of what they would be doing with the skills and knowledge they are acquiring in the classroom. Ashlee admits that landing an internship is a more competitive ballgame these days, and one really has to stand out. Yet, at a school like Smith, the quality of resources, experiences, classes and faculty allow students to succeed.

“SmithStart is designed to provide students with transformational experiences to achieve their professional goals,” concluded Ashlee. SmithStart is not a program to scare freshman, but neither is it one that sugarcoats anything. It presents reality how it is, no gimmicks, but in turn gives the students the arsenal of support that will propel them to become the future shakers and movers of the business world.

For more information about the undergraduate program at Smith, visit www.rhsmith.umd.edu/undergrad.