The Mission Society is hosting a Virtual Career Fair this October to highlight the variety of opportunities available to students after high school and college graduation - connecting young people with professionals and ensuring they enter the workforce with confidence. In this piece, we’ve rounded-up words of wisdom from professionals across various fields to help inspire career exploration for our students.
Throughout October, all of us at the Mission Society have been thrilled to curate professional development resources as part of our month-long Virtual Career Fair. We’ve had the opportunity to share interview tips and tricks, highlight activities and interests that can be transformed into future success, and even reflect on our year-round career readiness programs and why they are invaluable for students. We love watching this illuminating series come to life and reach our community of young people who are considering next steps beyond our classrooms.
One of our favorite things to do during the Virtual Career Fair is speak to various professionals about their fields. Their words of wisdom are instrumental for our students–not only demonstrating that they are capable of accessing a variety of exciting work possibilities, but also giving them practical know-how to get started down their desired paths. Below, we’ve rounded up a few of these surveys in order to share even more possibilities with our scholars. We hope it inspires fun, engaging career exploration!
What is your current job title?
Membership Manager
What inspired you to pursue your current career?
My love for storytelling, marketing, and journalism.
What type of training and/or education is required for your role?
A bachelor’s degree in communications or related field is required for this role.
What is one skill that you use every day for this job?
Project management. Aside from overseeing assets of the membership program, I also need to be available for our customers!
What is your favorite thing about going to work every day?
Every day is different! Some days I’m tabling and planning events, and other days I’m assisting customers and collaborating with business partners.
What advice would you share with students interested in pursuing this role?
Always remember kindness and patience goes a long way—especially when you’re at the forefront interacting with customers. Make sure to apply for internships and service industry jobs which will help you decide whether or not this is something you want to do.
What is your current job title?
Business Central Warehouse Management System Process & Warehouse Operations Manager
What inspired you to pursue your current career?
While I was working at a company named S’well, I grew to love system and process design.
What type of training and/or education is required for your role?
I don't have a formal education in my role, I learned from doing different jobs and advocating for better system processes. People in my role generally come from a warehousing or retail background.
What is one skill that you use every day for this job?
I need to be able to write professional and clear emails.
What is your favorite thing about going to work every day?
I have opportunities to really make an impact. When you help companies make processes more efficient, you also make it possible to build new fun and sustainable practices.
What advice would you share with students interested in pursuing this role?
Treat every person you work with well. The best ideas for improving operations come from people doing the work every day. If you treat the people working with the system your building as your customer and key stakeholder, you will have successful projects.
What is your current job title?
Talent, Learning, and Growth Partner at Siemens
What inspired you to pursue your current career?
I love personal development and helping others learn and grow, so getting to work on employee training initiatives was a natural choice!
What type of training and/or education is required for your role?
Most of my colleagues have a master’s degree in organizational psychology or education, but there are no rules! I’ve met people with all kinds of educational backgrounds who’ve ended up in this field.
What is one skill that you use every day for this job?
Strong listening skills - I work with business leaders every day and have to “read between the lines” to understand what the root problems are and what we can do as an organization to develop their teams and improve them.
What is your favorite thing about going to work every day?
I work with incredibly smart, motivated people on topics that impact a 200,000 person company!
What advice would you share with students interested in pursuing this role?
Learn as much about the industry as you can! There are great books and professional organizations around HR and employee development, and many have great real-life examples that you could take to the working world. Internships are also a great way to try out the job and gain experience.
What is your current job title?
Recruiter
What inspired you to pursue your current career?
Wanting to help people inspired me to want to be a recruiter.
What type of training and/or education is required for your role?
Higher education or project management experience is helpful but not required in this role.
What is one skill that you use every day for this job?
The skill I use the most is customer service.
What is your favorite thing about going to work every day?
My favorite thing is helping people improve their lives.
What advice would you share with students interested in pursuing this role?
Don’t give up! It can take time to become really good at recruiting, especially when you’re starting out.