SMU Ambassadors

At the end of last semester I had the incredible opportunity to attend the annual Net Impact Conference in Minneapolis with students and business professionals from all across the country. SMU sent 5 students to the conference to explore fields such as corporate social impact, entrepreneurship, clean energy, international development, impact investing, and many more. After realizing my personal interest in pursuing a career that incorporates business and sustainability, this conference was the perfect way for me to explore opportunities with businesses nationwide as well as network with potential employers and fellow peers with similar interests.

Going to the conference opened my eyes to how many sustainability issues our global population is facing, but at the same time I was motivated to further educate myself about these issues and learn what I can do to help. We all come to college looking for ways that we can make an impact on the world through our careers, but one of my favorite things about SMU is the amount of opportunities there are provided for students to explore whatever they’re passionate about! This conference was just one opportunity SMU has given me to think outside the box and expose myself to tons of unique careers and prospects in order to determine what I’m most interested in. The SMU network is incredibly far-reaching and even all the way up in Minneapolis, I ran into the Executive Director of Philanthropy for AT&T who recognized me from an event she had spoken at on campus – a true testament to the positive reputation SMU has nationwide!

By Nikki Carenza

It was a busy fall semester full of football games, boulevards, tests, quizzes, RC banquets and deadlines for summer internships. I spent just about every Saturday in September applying for summer internships online and through the Cox Career Center Luckily by the end of the semester I had a bit of good news.

I was invited to interview with four of my top choice firms for a summer internship in New York, NY, Chicago, IL or San Francisco, CA. I immediately had to schedule some interview prep in the Cox Career Center. I met with my career counselor about 7-8 times before I flew out for my first round on interviews in New York, NY.

New York was amazing and the prep I had done in the career center more than prepared me for the Wall Street Style interviews. I was able to network with students across the country, visit the city, and dine with associates and managing directors from various departments within the firm. I interviews in January and thought it was incredibly cold, until I flew out to Chicago and realized just how windy, the Windy City really is.

Walking around in -15 degrees Fahrenheit (with wind chill) was something this Louisiana boy had never done before. I stayed in Chicago for three days and really utilized my mock case preparation I received from the career center. The cases we reviewed at Cox was very similar to what I encountered in Chicago, however, the weather was not.

All in all, it was a very interesting journey. Earlier this semester, I planned on going abroad for the summer to Bali, but now it looks like I will be working stateside, which I couldn’t be any happier about. The Cox Career Center went above and beyond in training and preparing me and i couldn’t be anymore grateful.

By Kaleb Lee

As a Junior Finance major at SMU, I have recently been in the throws of formal summer internship recruitment. Daily, sometimes twice daily, Banks held information sessions and formal recruitment fairs. “Thank-you-notes” became routine, phone interviews were second nature, and the employees at the local dry-cleaners even knew me by name.

I don’t mean to overwhelm anyone reading this. College, especially at Southern Methodist University, will be four – hopefully only four – of the most fun years of your life. There will come a time, however, when you have to put on your Sunday best, pack a fancy folder full of resumes, and awkwardly introduce yourself to well-versed professionals who don’t have the slightest idea who you are. This can be a daunting process when you sit back and take it in for the first time. I know when I came to SMU as a freshman from Greenville, South Carolina, thoughts of future internships and permanent job offers never crossed my mind. All I could focus on was how to make my dorm room better than everyone else on my floor! Times have changed and as first semester Junior year rolled around, I was deep in the throws of formal preparation.

As embarrassing as this is to write, I honestly did not know how to tie my own tie coming in to SMU. I didn’t own my own suit. I didn’t even have a formal, presentable resume to hand to potential employers. I knew I had to make a full-fledged effort to get my act together, so naturally I visited out university Career Center. We prepped for interviews – phone, in person, and via Skype. We monotonously scanned every letter of every line in my resume until I began to refer to it as a piece of art. I bought two suits and began to frequent the local barbershop. Replacing the flowing, red locks with a short, professional dew was slightly devastating at first, but I’ve grown to appreciate the business look.

It would take multiple pages to summarize all the Career Center has done to hold my hand throughout the process. Now, as a second semester Junior, I am proud to say I have signed as a Summer Investment Banking Analyst with Citi Group in Houston, TX. Never in a million years would I have envisioned so much success. That is, until I immersed myself in the driven, passionate culture found in SMU’s students, faculty, and alumni who all played such an integral part in my personal and career development. It’s truly amazing what can happen when you find yourself in the right environment around like-minded, success-oriented individuals. SMU has given me the tools to succeed going forward, and I can’t wait to see where they take me.

By Whit Rasmussen