By Erin Keating:
As soon to be college graduates, seniors across the nation are preparing to enter the workforce. While some are in the midst of reviewing their resumes for interviews, others, more specifically, those who were involved in activities on campus are preparing to start their very first jobs.
Senior Jackie Hart has been involved in the Student Government Association at Assumption since her sophomore year. Her roles as a senator and junior year class president required Hart to work with her fellow SGA members to plan late night activities for students, execute fundraisers and organize class activities. Hart says SGA was “a great place to learn how to better work with others by learning to listen and implement ideas by all members of the team.”
Thanks to her involvement in SGA, Hart was able to land two major merchandising internships, with TJX and the DXL Group, along with most recently accepting a full-time position with Wayfair. Hart says she was able rely on her experience being involved in extracurricular activities when writing her resume and participating in interviews. “Holding a leadership position during your undergrad years allows you to not only improve your leadership ability, but also gain skills that employers are looking for that are only attained through experience.”
As these seniors are interviewing and accepting positions at a wide range of jobs, companies such as Wayfair and Amazon are looking for “bright-faced twenty somethings, fresh with degrees.” In an article published by the Boston Globe, Wayfair added about 2,000 employees during the first half of the 2018 year.
Back in 2016, Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah told boston.com about what he looks for during the hiring process, “People have to be intelligent, hardworking, team-oriented…I value those traits far more than job experience.” As she prepares to join the Wayfair team, Hart believes that her time with SGA has certainly granted her access to these traits and is one of the main reasons she earned the job.
With more than 60 student run clubs and activities and 24 sports teams on campus, student involvement is accessible to all students across campus. There is a wide range of variety within the clubs, but the theme of teamwork is present within all of them.
2018 Assumption graduate Katherine Leonard is a marketing associate at Cranney Companies in Danvers, Massachusetts. During her time at Assumption, Leonard was a Relay for Life committee member, planning the relay for three consecutive years. Leonard says she was surprised at the amount of skills she was able rely on when it came to beginning her first job. “I’m better at juggling multiple projects at once while thinking outside of the box creatively. Student involvement taught me how to be a group thinker and now I can work with multiple departments towards a common goal.”
Kaitlin Bevins is the Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development and faculty advisor to the Campus Activities Board at Assumption. She is a prime example of post-grad success due to student involvement. Bevins was involved in residential life and orientation during her time as an undergraduate at Assumption, and eventually went on to earn her Masters Bevins in Student Personnel Administration at Springfield College.
Now that Bevins is back at Assumption, she encourages all students to get involved, even if they are not sure what part of the workforce they would want to be a part of, “you are able to figure out what you are looking for in a future career.”
While Hart battles nerves about joining the full-time work force for the first time, she believes that she will be able to tackle her new projects thanks to her involvement on campus, “you become more aware of yourself and what your strengths and weaknesses are…learning what these are early on is extremely beneficial because it allows you the opportunity to figure out what skills you have and also work on your weaknesses prior to starting your first job.”
THE AC301 