Kelley Careers

Finals are over! Although, I am still waiting to see what I recieved on my A311 final; I am pretty happy with the rest. To me, after finals week my brain feels like a bowl of oatmeal. I really don't think it's the test itself that makes it feel that way, but rather the anticipation of it and the week and a half of doing nothing but studying before it. Overall, I'm glad its over and I will not have another final until December. Hooray!

Now, I am one of the lucky ones to have the summer off. Anyone else? What are your plans? For me, I'm working at Brown County State Park for the summer, doing some much needed landscaping, and attending two summer leadership programs that I got accepted to through Kelley Careers.

The first is this week with BKD. I'm very excited to meet many people from the organization, learn and visit the company, and do a service project at Gleaners food bank the next day. The second one I am attending is through Ernst & Young in June. Truthfully, I am just honored to be accepted to their program no matter what happens. Sometimes, these programs lead to spring internships, which I really am hoping for. However, even if they don't it's still a great experience and an oppurtunity to network. If anyone is interested  in these programs be sure to apply through Kelley Careers in the spring semester. They usually take students in their freshman and sophomore year, but basically your graduation date needs to be two to three years out from their program. It's a great way to get a jump start!

One last thing, I encourage everyone to try something new this summer. I am going to horseback ride. I went once or twice when I was younger, and one weekend when I was 17, but I am hoping to do it a lot more this summer. I went for a little while on Sunday, it was fun, but I need a lot of practice. Luckily, I live so close to a state park that has a lot of horse trails that I'll have plenty of oppurtunities. Whatever you choose to do, make it fun!

 

One of the best parts about being a Kelley professor happens when your students reach out to tell you about the cool, new things they are doing. In the last few weeks, I have been lucky enough to re-connect with several of our grads.

But today, I want to share the story of Peter Brasovan and Jared Byczko, two friends who graduated from Kelley with their undergraduate business degrees a couple of years ago. Peter was a student in two of my undergraduate marketing classes. After graduation, he traveled the US doing event marketing for Sony Playstation. A couple of years of daily and weekly travel later, he settled in Chicago and worked in marketing for the Chicago WhiteSox. What a great way to put his marketing degree to good use. But, what's a young professional to do in a big city when he isn't incredibly busy with his marketing job? Peter's answer - take up Crossfit.

Now for those of you not familiar with Crossfit, it's the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide. CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program. It's designed  to elicit as broad an individual adaptational response as possible. CrossFit is not a specialized fitness program but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each person over ten recognized fitness domains:

• Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance
• Stamina
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Power
• Speed
• Coordination
• Agility
• Balance
• Accuracy

Bottomline, Crossfit is a hard-charging, get your body in peak shape kind of workout. I don't know about you, but I am sure my body could stand some improvement. Of course, the key to being successful to these kinds of hard workouts is having a coach who teaches you proper technique and helps keep you from doing too much, too fast. As experienced Crossfitters and certified coaches, Peter and Jared are prepared to do just that.

For my part, it's great to see our grads taking charge of their destinies and committing themselves to something they feel passionate about. So, check out Crossfit Naptown and say "hi" to a couple of our Kelley grads. http://www.crossfitnaptown.com/

Oh yeah, here's Peter showing off what Crossfit has done for him!

Watch Peter with fellow Kelley alumnus and business partner Jared Byczko discuss running their own business.

Students looking for undergraduate business internships, one of the best bits of advice or recruiter memes is "If you want to be interesting, be interested." 

Meaning that if you're really passionate about something you'll likely be learning more about it or be actively involved in it. This is HUGE for recruiters, passion really dazzles in an interview. The new trend in recruiting is hire for attitude, train for skills. Companies can hire endless amounts of average workers, they're really searching for interesting and talented people that are good at a lot of little things. So do your homework on the company you're contacting or interviewing with, odds are they have something about the culture of their company on their website. If you make an effort to be interested in them, they might reciprocate. 

If that whole reciprocation thing doesn't happen make sure to not end the relationship on bad note, because that recruiter might be keeping you in consideration for a future position or might suggest you to another recruiter. Odds are that they'll say something about your background starting with experiental education, something that the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis excels at. A little tip that recruiters find thoughtful is to send a handwritten letter after the interview to thank them for the opportunity.

Kelley Indianapolis students have a unique opportunity to network with recruiters because all of the professors have strong ties in business the community, they know all the right people to connect with. Tip #2 is to chat with your professors and dare I say engage in class.  

So remember "If you want to be interesting, be interested." Do your company culture/identity homework. Network your face off. Be confident in yourself and your abilities. Showoff your passions. Never stop learning. If you can manage to do all those things some sparks should fly in your internship search. 

If any inspiration came from these little thoughts of mine...tell me via twitter @jckilgore. 

I plan events for the Kelley School of Business Career Planning Office.  Recently I have noticed a trend of Kelley students not taking every opportunity they are given to network with employers, and I am baffled by this.  Employers are continuously calling me and asking me how they can reach out to our students.  I have put together some opportunities for employers to connect with students.  I have been embarrassed by students not attending these events.  Some of these events include:  Employer information sessions, employer mock interviews, employer field trips, Industry Connection alumni events.  For some of these events, students did actually sign up but did not show up to the event. I understand that everyone is busy, but these employers/alumni want to see Kelley-Indianapolis students and they are coming to you.  You don't have to go out to find them.  If I were a Kelley student, I would make sure I attended these events and would try to make connections.  Even if you made only one connection at each event, you would be on your way to creating a network.  Finding a job and a career is all about networking and making connections in the marketplace and community.  Maybe the employer who is attending the event is not the right employer for you. However, maybe they have connections to the right employer for you.  You will never know if you do not attend these events.  As you go throughout your career, please, please take every opportunity that you can to network with professionals.  Even if you have a job right now and are totally happy, you never know when things might change and you have to start searching for a new opportunity.  If you have attended some events and made connections, you will have a place to start when you start seeking new opportunities.  Employers love to meet Kelley-Indianapolis students/alumni-so Kelley students-please take advantage of these connections when you are given these opportunities.