Business Professors Lauren Donovan and Susan Stranix hosted the “Exploring Careers in Business” workshop on DCCC’s Marple campus April 7. Five students interested in majoring in business attended.
The presentation included tips on how to ensure employers were paying fair wages to their employees in a variety of occupations.
Other advice pertained to finding and using appropriate resources, such as focus2.com and local Chambers of Commerce. According to Stranix, who students know can be more important than what they know.
The workshop kicked off with Donovan asking the students what brought them there. Yahmere Williams, a liberal arts major, said he was looking to switch his major to marketing.
Donovan promised she would give him examples of marketing jobs later in the workshop. She then introduced the course Business 100 and encouraged students to take the course.
“There’s a million things you can do in
business,” Donovan explained. Next, Stranix presented a PowerPoint
on the five functioning areas in business: human resources, research and development, manufacturing and operations, accounting and finance, and sales and marketing.
Stranix provided details for each of the five areas, matching them with the students’ interests: human resources oversees the people within the company; research and development focuses on
product innovation; accounting and finance manages the money, is extremely procedural and offers many employment opportunities; manufacturing and operation’s priority is getting what the company needs and saving money while doing it; sales and marketing strives to know what the customers want; and advertising works to interest customers.
Afterwards Donovan showed students good career matches using the website www.focuscareer2.com. She searched students’ job interests and the availability for those particular jobs in the greater Philadelphia area.
The website also showed typical salary wages for the average worker in that position.
Donovan then discussed the importance of LinkedIn, and how often employers search for names of the people scheduled to get interviewed.
“I would stay clear of career builder,” Donovan advised. “They sell info to third parties. I recommend going to the [employer’s] website itself and apply there.”
Donovan explained that Glassdoor and Main Line Chambers of Commerce are great reputable websites, and encouraged students to network and send emails just to get their name out there.
Donovan and Stranix closed with four main points they wanted students to take away from the workshop: understand the functions, identify relevant career titles, know your strengths and use resources.
“My favorite part was learning about focus2 and getting involved with that to get a better idea about jobs along my journey,” said Katie Lickfield, 20, a graphic design major.
Contact Rolando Figueroa at communitarian@mail.dccc.edu