Inside This Issue:
Campus Branding Initiatives: Make an Impact
1
Masters Department Updates
1
Mays Graduate Association
2
GBCS CareerLink Fall 2011
Campus Branding Initiatives: Make an Impact
Students Take: Summer Internships
36
Technology Innovation: Introducing Cisco TelePresence
6
Connecting with students through career fairs and information sessions can be a great way to get your name and brand in front of students in a targeted and concentrated way…but why stop there? GBCS facilitates a variety of opportunities to connect one-on-one with students at Mays Business School
MRE Scholarship Recipient
Case Competition nd
First place in the 2 annual Strategic Use of Information Technology (SUIT) Case Competition goes to Texas A&M University students Subhankar Banerjee, Martin Knaack, and Efesa Origbo.
383 Wehner Building 4216 TAMU College Station, TX 77843 Phone: 979-845-1998 Fax: 979-845-3184
We want to enhance your on-campus branding and work together to reach your target
audience by highlighting your corporate culture and motivating students to learn more about you. By working together, your goal of attracting talent can be reached. For additional information, please contact GBCS at 979-845-1998.
Masters Department Updates
The Real Estate Center named the first recipients of its scholarships to the Masters of Real Estate (MRE) program. MRE students John Gabriel Garcia of Bryan and Brock Robertson of Dallas have been selected to receive the $5,000 scholarships.
GRADUATE BUSINESS CAREER SERVICES
Mock Interviews Executive Coaching Employer Panels and Workshops Webinars and Blog Talk Radio And More!!!
Prior to the competition, participants were given a business case covering an information technology issue and asked to analyze appropriate solutions. On competition day, the teams planned to present pre-drawn plans. However, when the
students arrived, an unforeseen “twist” in competition requirements forced students to revamp their presentations.
The Wilder Awards design competition exists to promote the importance of graphic identity in museums’ overall image.
Congrats to this triumphant trio for thinking on their feet!
—Kelli Levey, writer and editor of Mays Business Online. (Full article can be found at http:// bit.ly/pQFd57.)
MS Marketing Student Wins Museum Design Contest Savannah Smith ’09, a Mays MS Marketing student, won first place in the Mitchell A. Wilder Publication Design Award Competition at the Annual Meeting of the Texas Association of Museums. Smith designed a “sticket” – a combination of the admission ticket and a promotional sticker – for the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum’s The Heart Truth exhibit.
Fall 2011
Page 2
Mays Graduate Association Our Spirit: Serving Others Philanthropy has been the heartbeat of Mays Graduate Association this semester. After the success of the date auction, MGA officers were fired up to continue the
semester with a strong community presence. In late March, MGA partnered with Masters Marketing Association to serve alongside
MGA Date Auction: A New Tradition “Three-hundred and ten dollars! Sold to the pretty lady on the right!” declares the live auctioneer as the highest bidder lands a date with Dr. Annie McGowan. The giggles of the crowd and fierce bidding competition transform Fitzwillie’s Bar and Grill into a true auction as Texas A&M professors and students are
over 15,600 Aggies in the Big Event. Our two large work groups offered yard services and bright smiles to grateful families in Bryan/College Station. The same spirit of volunteerism continued into April as MGA supported Relay for Life.
track. Funds are raised through entry fees, donations and themed sales booths. Using a booth with a Harry Potter theme, Social Chair Katie Koop inspired activists to donate over $4,000 to this worthy cause.
At the all-night celebration benefiting the American Cancer Society, members of participating organizations continually walk a designated
Marching along into May, hundreds of Brazos Valley participants joined together at Wolf Pen Amphitheater for the annual March of Dimes, a fundraising 5K celebrating the lives of premature children who overcame humble beginnings. MGA volunteers proudly set up activity booths, directed traffic and served pizza to hungry marchers. Families were invited to stay for a fun-filled day of child-friendly activities and spotlight performances.
sold to a tickled crowd. Smiles are contagious and laughter continues late into the evening. The night seems to end too quickly but will mark history as a huge success. From the date auction, MGA proudly raised approximately $2,500 to support the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, Habitat for Humanity, and its own career education.
Social Media Add MGA on Facebook to view organization pictures and current events. Further inquiries? Contact: Cassie Pankonien Newsletter Chair cpankonien@tamu.edu
GA
M
Mays Graduate Association Connecting Talent with Business through Leadership
Page 3
GBCS CareerLink
Students Take: Summer Internships MS, MRE, and MBA students from Mays Business School had exciting experiences during their summer internships. We wanted to include some of their experiences in their own words.
Viraj Mehta, Management Information Systems I interned this summer in San Antonio in a functional role in the Commercial Application Support team in the Information Services (IS) department. My manager assigned a mentor to me who shared his experience and explained what the company does and the role Information Services does to support the business. To accomplish my tasks, I first interacted with the business to gather requirements related to change requests placed by the business. I worked on the Sales and Distribution (SD) and Materials Management (MM) modules of the SAP software
to resolve these requests. My work involved documenting the requirements, debugging to rectify issues, small code changes, and testing. I had the opportunity to attend change meetings where I explained the reasons why I had implemented the change to the different managers and one or more Vice Presidents. As a part of my internship, I had to present to the CIO, the Vice Presidents and Directors, and the managers of other interns about the work I had done over the summer. The team that I worked with was very warm and helpful.
Apart from work, the interns were treated to a lot of fun events like Six Flags Amusement Park. I had the opportunity to volunteer at the local Food Bank and for Habitat for Humanity. All in all, it was a summer well spent, full of learning and fun.
Lauren Britt, MBA This summer I was assigned to a Business Process Modeling and Consulting group, whose main function is to assist business units with process improvement initiatives based on the principles of the LEAN and Six Sigma methodologies. This assignment was a perfect fit for me, combining the Industrial Engineering knowledge from my bachelor’s degree with my prior work experience managing process improvement initiatives and systems implementations. My specific task was to design a Value Stream Mapping tool (something commonly used in LEAN initiatives) that would become part of a larger virtual toolkit to facilitate global process improvement efforts.
Given that this tool was part of a much larger project, extensive teamwork was an integral part of my daily work. I was fortunate to work with a wonderful team of very experienced professionals, and I benefited greatly from our time together. They helped me master the necessary subject matter content and were instrumental in teaching me about the wonderful culture of the organization. The company also provided many opportunities for the IT interns to learn about the energy industry. We toured the Baytown refinery complex, visited the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum in Galveston, TX, and even donned our hard hats for
a visit to the South Houston Marketing Terminal. These experiences highlighted the exciting company operations that are powered by IT, and we all gained a deeper appreciation for the impact our internship projects will provide to the organization. Overall, my internship was an amazing experience, and I look forward to using all that I learned as I begin my final semester in the Mays MBA program.
Fall 2011
Page 4
Eric Nordt, Marketing I participated in the Entrepreneurship Empowerment in South Africa (EESA) program. We were brought to South Africa to think creatively in order to aid disadvantaged entrepreneurs in shifting their ventures from struggling to sustainable. Our team worked with two small businesses: HR Electrical Services and Jump Start Entertainment. The former was a husband and wife team who owned and operated a service company while the latter was a music company with 3 revenue drivers—namely, a deejay academy, artist management, and sound hire.
We drafted letters of engagement, completed Supporting Emerging Enterprise Models, conducted research, and developed and implemented deliverables, and drafted our final reports. Our deliverables addressed the main needs and problems of the respective companies in such a manner that would allow for their continued use after our departure. Among our deliverables were a website and databases, marketing packages and signage we painted in the middle of the township, organizational and financial recording systems, standardized artist contracts, tender templates, sales training
manuals, and the extension of our client’s network. Illustrating the power of inherently simple solutions, the latter of these deliverables led to HR Electrical going from not having work for 3 months to taking in monthly revenue of R40,000 ($5,000).
Kalyn Van Slyke, Human Resource Management I couldn’t have been more excited about starting my summer internship, but moving to another state for a couple months brought anxious feelings about housing, meeting new people, and getting involved at the company and in the community. Fortunately, they made my transition enjoyable and stress free. There was subsidized housing, which was located about 7 miles from my office that included brand new furniture, cleaning supplies, towels, cookware, etc. One of the best benefits was that I didn’t have to pay for a deposit or any bills, and I was assigned a personal relocation assistant for the summer who checked in with me about once a month. In addition, intern activities kicked off almost immediately and there were plenty of opportunities to meet other interns from different universities and fields. Because of the intern activities and events that were offered and
encouraged, I was able to quickly get connected to the Oklahoma City community and to the oil and gas industry. Our trip to a drilling rig and fracking site allowed me to better understand the operations of the business as well as the roles of those employees. The majority of my time was spent on two major succession planning initiatives targeted at developing high performing leaders. The projects were not only valuable to the company, but also for my development as an HR professional. Through these projects, I applied my education from the MS-HRM program, especially from the HR Metrics, Teams in Organizations, and Organizational Behavior classes. In addition, I was able to enhance my verbal and written communication skills as well as my confidence in presenting
myself as an HR professional with the company’s top leaders. At the conclusion of my summer projects, I also gained a better understanding of the complementing strategic yet analytical perspectives on leadership development initiatives. In order to successfully complete my summer tasks, a supervisor, mentor, and team were assigned to me. The amount of time and energy invested in my personal development made me feel valued and motivated me go above and beyond what was asked. My entire internship exceeded my expectations, and I am so very proud to return to Oklahoma City and start their Emerging Professional Human Resources rotation program upon graduation.
Page 5
GBCS CareerLink
Kaushal Wadwani, Management Information Systems I interned at one of the largest security companies in the world as a Business Process Architect Intern and was exposed to the IT Strategic Services division. My work revolved around the alignment of IT Services to the ITIL best practice framework. I served as a business analyst and became a liaison between the business and technical teams. As part of my job responsibilities, I made sure that all the services were correctly documented and were operating at their optimum level. I also completed a gap analysis chart which showed the difference between current and expected service levels. On an intellectual level, my learning as an intern at a Fortune 500 Company was immense. One of the best things about the company is that although it is a big company with some great
projects going on, the managers are always helpful and they always want you to learn and grow. Above all, interns are free to experience different divisions across the company if they possess the knowledge and interest to excel in it.
the best presentations and the CIO particularly commended me as being “sharp”. Presenting to the CIO of a multinational company is an experience like no other. It helped me become more confident and more articulate and business minded.
Other than strategic services, I worked in the Business Intelligence team and was also exposed to the Sales & Marketing team, taking part in the sales pitches done by the most seasoned professionals for various high class products. It is a world-class learning experience at a world-class company.
Last but not least, the culture at the company was second to none. I was assigned a mentor who helped me get acquainted to the work-culture at the organization. The company organizes a lot of events outside of the office where we spent time with managers in an informal setting and discuss not only about our career but about our passions and life as well.
As part of my internship, I presented to the CIO of the company about the highlights of my experience. In a quick presentation of 12 minutes, I had to quantify the value that I added to the company with the projects that I completed. I was later informed that I did one of
Brock Robertson, Real Estate This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity to intern for a real estate investment-banking arm in Dallas, TX. The internship allowed me to experience firsthand the cyclical nature of the commercial real estate industry. At the start of the summer, the market was recovering, and new deals to underwrite landed on my desk daily. As the summer progressed, the European debt crisis, US debt ceiling talks, and subsequent US downgrade halted the recovery in the market. The internship provided me with invaluable insight into the daily activities,
stresses, and joys that accompany a career in commercial real state finance. Two events stick out as my favorite from the past summer. First, the company took all of the interns to a Texas Rangers baseball game. The best part: the tickets were in the “all you can eat” section in the right field home run porch. I have never eaten that many nachos! Second, our intern class organized a car wash to raise money for CASA (Court Appointment Special Advocates). Along with washing over 60 cars that day, we packed over 300 backpacks
with new school supplies for foster children to sue this school year. It was an incredibly fun and rewarding day as we were able to give back to a very special and worthy cause. My internship experience provided a perfect balance of professional work experience and social interaction with my fellow intern class. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to intern.
Page 6
GBCS CareerLink
Alfredo Volio, MBA This summer, I was an Operations MBA Intern at the company’s Fulfillment Center located in Fernley, NV, known as RNO1. RNO1 was acquired in 1999, making it one of the oldest fulfillment centers in the network. RNO1 has an area of roughly 750,000 sq. ft. and runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Fernley is located approximately 35 miles east of Reno, NV. During the 11 week internship, I had the opportunity to execute all the duties floor associates perform, visit five other fulfillment centers and customer service centers in several other US states, and visit corporate headquarters in Seattle, WA. The main objective of my internship was to work on a specific operations project, specifically understanding the issues surrounding it,
developing a solution, implementing the solution, verifying the results, and presenting my solution and results to the Vice President of North American Operations. My project was focused on optimizing the outbound dock by creating three models.
Operations Manager) were all tremendously helpful and gave me all the assistance I required. On a personal note, my wife and I also had the opportunity to visit Lake Tahoe, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Napa Valley.
The keys to success during the summer were: applying the interdisciplinary knowledge obtained during the 1st year of my MBA to create the models that would crack the problem, leading the implementation of my solution and obtaining buy-in from managers and associates, and demonstrating effective communication skills when presenting my results to the VP of NA Operations and all his direct reports. My manager (General Manager, RNO1), my project manager (Transportation Department at HQ), and my mentor (Senior
Technological Innovation—Introducing Cisco TelePresence GBCS wants to help meet the challenges of traveling to campus and being out of the office by offering the ability to interview candidates over the web through videoconferencing technology like Skype and Cisco TelePresence.
GRADUATE BUSINESS CAREER SERVICES 383 Wehner Building 4216 TAMU College Station, TX 77843 Phone: 979-845-1998 Fax: 979-845-3184
A virtual experience allows employers to eliminate the need to coordinate in-person interviews and travel schedules and removes time barriers associated with recruitment
while facilitating personal relationships early in the interview process through virtual face-to-face contact. We would be glad to give you more details about how you can reach a world-class candidate pool at Mays Business School through these services.
http://www.linkedin.com/gbcs2 Follow us: @cindybillington @jessicanewcomb Career Management Blog: http://realcareermanagement.wordpress.com/