Alumni share career tips

With nearly 30,000 Olin alumni working around the world, chances are you will find one at a company you are interested in. The Weston Career Center hosts alumni panels throughout the year where alumni share advice on job interviews and what it’s like to work at major corporations as well as startups. In February, alumni from Amazon, Dell, eBay, and MasterCard, in addition to a guest from Square, were here.

I would have loved an opportunity like this when I was in college, and I decided to stop by the WCC’s latest alumni event. Here are some of what I thought were the most valuable, unique, and candid tips for soon-to-be grads:

Olin alumni career panel

WCC’s Sally Pinckard introduces Gloria Kimbwala of Square, and alumni Swapnil Verma, Shreeraj Pawar, and Matt Holton.

Build a network now.

The importance of networking was a common theme among panelists. The panel advised students to start building a network now, because you’ll never know when you’ll need to rely on it. If you’re further in the job application process, use your network to reach out to someone within the organization you’ve applied to. This connection may end up to be a crucial advocate for you.

Dream big—“there are no limits to what is possible.”

This is especially true at WashU, said Gloria Kimbwala of Square, because the campus is “elite on the outside but innovative on the inside.” WashU students have myriad advantages when it comes to innovation. Our campus is the epicenter of one of the nation’s burgeoning tech cities and startup hubs, and students have the networking power of thousands of successful alumni, entrepreneurs, peers, and experienced professors.

 “Never think ‘I’ve arrived. I never have to do anything else.’”

“When you do that, you get stale,” said Matt Holton, EMBA’09, a senior vice president at MasterCard Worldwide. Persistence, passion, and drive were common qualities alumni said successful students possess. “Show and demonstrate you’ve done your homework on the person, the job, and the company…I love it when [interviewees have] done their homework. Sometimes I’m caught off guard by the amount of research [an interviewee has done]. I remember that person. The person who comes in grinning at me? Not so much.”

“Show and demonstrate you’ve done your homework on the person, the job, and the company.”

Among other advice, the alumni stressed the importance of:

  • Honing your Microsoft Excel, communication, and presentation skills.
  • Being eager, not simply willing.
  • Taking courses that challenge you to think outside of the box. (The panel gave examples of courses in project management, business strategy, strategic thinking, and finance.)
  • Understanding the difference between school and the real world. In school, assignments and cases “give you info and data on a silver platter to solve,” said Shreeraj Pawar, MBA ’15, who now works at Dell. “In the real world, you don’t have data on the plate. You have to connect the dots.”

Swapnil Verma, MBA ’14, was also on the panel. She currently works at eBay.

Don’t miss the next panel and your chance to have candid conversations about your career trajectory. Keep an eye on WCC events for your next opportunity.

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