Megan Riksen:

Hello and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I'm Megan Riksen. And today I am joined by my co-host Grace Pushman. Hi Grace.

Grace Pushman:

Hi Megan.

Megan Riksen:

And we are excited to have an in studio guest today. Our colleague Lori Staggs. Hi Lori. Thanks for joining us today.

Lori Staggs:

Thank you for having me.

Megan Riksen:

We are excited. We have a great topic. We're talking about careers in business, um, but before we jump in, Lori, can you just give us a really quick intro of yourself and what you do? What we you do here in the office?

New Speaker:

Absolutely. So I came to Grand Valley's career center in March of 2010. So I've been here 11 years already, time flies. Um, but in that time I have pretty much been the liaison to the college of business. So I work with students and faculty and employers, um, within that major. And then over the past couple of years, I have also been working with our sport management and our hospitality and tourism management majors. And it's so fun to talk with you about this today, because we serve those majors together. So, um, so yeah, that's basically what I have been doing here at grand valley and it's been great. So thanks for having me.

Grace Pushman:

And today we've chosen to break down the major into six different areas. So we have accounting, HR, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, and supply chain. We'll just be scratching the surface of these so that you can hopefully get a little taste of each one and it might help be a jumping off point for you when you decide to look into different careers in business. So Lori is going to kick us off and start with accounting.

New Speaker:

Great. So I could probably talk the whole 15 minutes about accounting as a career path. Um, but there are a few things that I want to touch on. First of all, um, when you become an accounting major, you hear a lot about getting your CPA certification and going into poet, we call public accounting. So CPA

Megan Riksen:

Stands for certified public accountant,

Lori Staggs:

Correct. But what that means is you will be pursuing beyond your 120, uh, academic credits. So you will actually go for 150 credits and that makes you eligible to sit for the CPA exam. So there are a few different areas you can go into within public accounting. Um, there's the tax side, the audit side. And then there's also something called risk assurance, which is very much an overlap with accounting and it with information systems. So, um, I'll probably mention this a lot, but I feel like there is a lot of cross-functionality when we start to talk about careers in business, same with accounting, right? Um, you can be accounting, but also learn that information system side, you can be accounting, but also there's overlap with finance. And I'll talk about that in just a little bit, but when we're talking about public accounting, we're talking about that pursuing 150 credits being eligible to sit for the CPA exam.

Lori Staggs:

And then what I want to mention with that is those accounting firms are very structured in their recruiting time frames. So probably this is one of, I mean the most structured, absolutely major to career paths. Out of all of business. Yes. For sure. For sure. So it used to be that the firms would be out very early in the fall semester. They still are. So we're talking week two of the fall semester at early. Welcome back. Here's an interview. But we work with around 40 firms and corporations that are interested in our students for, um, opportunities in tax audit. And like I said, risk assurance. So, um, for any student that is interested, they really have to jump in the game very quickly in the fall to get into that recruiting cycle. Um, but firms now are also coming back in the winter semester and they're coming back around February, March.

Lori Staggs:

And it used to be that they were really wanting to meet first and second year students at that time. And they still do, but it used to be that they were offering summer leadership programs. These are two to three day events that really are exposure to the world of public accounting. But now the firms are also recruiting for next year's winter tax season and summer internships. So that's a pretty big runway. It's a long way down the road. So if you are a first or second year student, you're thinking about accounting as a career path, get yourself out there, start talking to these firms early. They want to talk to you. You don't have to have all of the skillsets all of the classes yet. So could you, you might get first year students, even if it's something you're not sure that you want to do get yourself out there and start talking to those firms because that's when they really want to meet you and be part of their process, their recruiting timeline.

Lori Staggs:

So again, we've seen freshmen and sophomores get hired by firms. Um, and then sometimes those students do multiple internships either with the same firm or maybe a different firm. That's how you figure it out. That's how you get yourself in there to really see where do I fit in this world of public accounting or maybe not public accounting. We have a lot of students who decide, maybe I don't want to go that 150 credit route. Maybe I don't want to go the CPA route. There are so many other options. There's corporate accounting, there's banking. Um, and that's where the overlap comes in with finance. So a lot of our business majors end up choosing a second major. They pull in a double major because it's not that hard to do. It's maybe a few more classes that they have to take. So that's something to consider as a business major or a pre-business major, oh, I can do two majors. How would that work? How would that play out? How can I still get out of here in a reasonable amount of time and still do that? Um, and so that, that's kind of that area of accounting, right? So you might see tax associate job, you might see an audit associate job. You might see that risk assurance. What does that risk assurance, right? What is assurance that's that whole information system side. So, so a lot of areas that you can, that you can really be a part of in that world. Absolutely.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah, yeah. Right. And we were talking about this before we recorded, but we could almost do some mini episodes on each of these areas, um, within careers in business. Um, and so just as you were talking, Lori, something that I was thinking about, um, and we talk about this a lot in the career center is do, do you need to have a specific major in order to go into that career? Um, accounting is probably one of those where it's very niche, especially if you're going that CPA track, that you're going to need that accounting degree because you need that specific curriculum behind you to even sit for the CPA exams. But I'll jump into the next area, which we're going to talk about HR. This is one that's totally opposite from that. I know people who work in HR who came from many, many different majors and backgrounds, psychology is one that comes to mind that, wow, what a great, you know, you have an understanding of the human brain and how people function.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah. That's what, you know, an HR position can, can really be doing for an organization. So just briefly wanted to break down HR, um, into a few different categories. So, um, kind of the, the first position would be on that recruitment side, which would also sometimes be called talent acquisition. That's something you'll see, um, in job titles for sure. But that's where you really are. That first face that someone would be seeing, um, those recruiters are the ones out at the career fairs. They are the ones coming to campus. They are the people who might be reaching out to you in handshake. They're the ones trying to find the talent that is going to be a good fit at their organization. HR people can also work kind of in that first stage, once you become an employee of an organization that they're the ones helping to do that onboarding, um, to bring you in to make sure you have the proper training to do your job well from their learning and development is another area within human resources, um, where you might be the person who is actually doing some of the training and development, not just at the beginning when an employee starts, but throughout the life cycle of their career, um, performance management.

Megan Riksen:

So, um, helping with, as people might want to progress within an organization to kind of help with that process, but also on the side where if an employee isn't maybe performing to the level that that is expected, um, maybe putting together some of those performance development plans, things like that, and always working. Um, I would say HR is definitely an area where you're going to be working with many, many other areas of the company when she say Lori. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and then, and then there's a lot more kind of on the less, um, maybe people facing roles, compensation and benefits where you're kind of behind the scenes, HR, I S, which is human resources, information systems. Um, and then the people who are yeah. Really looking into some of that HR data and analytics. So it's, yeah, it's a whole little ecosystem within itself, human resources.

Megan Riksen:

I would say. Um, the example that I pulled, um, as an HR generalist for hope network. And I want us to use this example because hope network is a non-profit organization. So that's also something that kind of, you know, I wouldn't say throws a wrench in this, but certainly you think I'm going to be in business. I'm going to work for a for-profit company, but there are lots of business functions that are needed within the nonprofit space as well. So this HR generalist position, I'm just going to read a quick little piece from their job description. This HR generalist is a key associate at hope network whose primary responsibilities include serving as a point of contact during the onboarding phase of the newly hired employee. This role is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the onboarding process to ensure a seamless experience for the employee. So yeah, you would be working in HR for a nonprofit. So, um, good to just kind of think about, I guess, the vastness of the opportunities that, that might open up as well.

Grace Pushman:

Yeah. I would say that HR is the area that I see the most as an advisor, even though I'm not a business advisor, just because it is, you know, I see a lot of psychology students, for example. Um, and even some of the other fields that I see, I think there's a wide range of areas that can go into HR. So, uh, that's a great one to talk about. And that brings us to our next field, which is entrepreneurship. Now, entrepreneurship would be something, if you want to start your own business, or if you want to do freelance work, kind of be your own boss. Um, and with that, there are definitely some pros and cons. So to share a little insight of what it's like to be an entrepreneur, we have two guests today. They are coming to us remotely. We have Rayanne and Lance Beaudry, who are co-owners at avalanche creative. So let's get started and hear what they have to say about being entrepreneurs. Can you tell us what is your business and why did you start it?

Rayanne Beaudry:

Our business is Avalanche Creative. We are the husband, wife, co-owners rayon and Lance boogery. We're both grand valley alumni and avalanche creative was started by Lance in 2014.

Lance Beaudry:

Yeah, so we are a grand rapids based agency. Um, we help generate more sales by creating meaningful content through, uh, an evidence-based search engine optimization approach. Um, I started it because I just love the internet and search engines. Um, it's an exciting mystery when you can put out a website and it allows your customers to find you and not the other way around.

Rayanne Beaudry:

Yeah. And after Lance, um, did some solo preneur work with avalanche credit for a few years, I decided to step in and join the business to help scale and grow our team and our reach so that we could help more customers.

Grace Pushman:

Wow. Congrats. Now, through this journey, what has been your favorite part about being entrepreneurs?

Rayanne Beaudry:

That's a good question. Um, we love that we can create high growth opportunities with no limits.

Lance Beaudry:

That's exactly what we're trying to build with Avalanche Creative is a lifestyle business that we can share with our employees, um, where we get up every day, hungry, healthy, happy, ready to go, ready to explore and, um, contribute valuable things to our customers and our employees.

Rayanne Beaudry:

All right. We, we like that. We don't have anyone holding us back. Yes. We, we like to be able to just,

Lance Beaudry:

Um,

Rayanne Beaudry:

Right. Have autonomy over our own time and how we use it and to just be able to just keep growing

Lance Beaudry:

And to be able to constantly compete with ourselves. I love beating Lance from six months ago, one year ago, two

Rayanne Beaudry:

Years ago. Yeah. We are our own biggest competition.

Grace Pushman:

I'm very competitive. So I can see the appeal to that. Now, can you share with us what part of being an entrepreneur? Isn't your favorite?

Rayanne Beaudry:

Well, you know, it's a rollercoaster. It is a rollercoaster of emotions every day. There are high highs and low lows and it's so when it's your business, it's so personal. It's not when you work for someone else. Of course there are ups and downs, but to some extent you can sort of leave that at work and go home and separate it from your life. But when it's your own business, everything, you feel everything so deeply. And it's

Lance Beaudry:

Never really off your mind, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Rayanne Beaudry:

Right. And growing a team, it's just, it's hard on so many levels to entrust your baby with someone else. Um, and to find the right people, to be a part of this thing that you've built. Yeah. So it's just, it's a lot of ups and downs and it can get, you can get a little exhausting.

Grace Pushman:

Yeah. That does sound like it would be pretty tough. So with that in mind, what advice do you have for people who are considering this pathway,

Lance Beaudry:

Get ready to fail, um, and be comfortable failing, but there's two ways to fail successfully. And unsuccessfully successfully is looking back at what you learned and improving a product and create a model, um, where at first you simplify and focus what your business is, who you are, your identity, um, what value you bring it to your customer, be customer focused and continually as you work to develop your business, keep that model in mind of build, measure, learn, repeat, create something, figure out what matters, what metric matters to know that your business is improving learn as you go, because the metrics won't always be great. And then repeat, continue to build, continue to improve upon that.

Rayanne Beaudry:

And I would say, just be ready to sacrifice a lot and work your butt off. I think a lot of people think that entrepreneurship is the grass is greener if I'm my own boss, but it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of sacrifice up front to get to a place where the grass really is greener.

Grace Pushman:

Well, thank you both so much for sharing your story with us. Um, and those of you who are interested in entrepreneurship, you can always go and visit the center for entrepreneurship and innovation. Here. There is an entrepreneur in residence who you can speak with about your plans.

Lori Staggs:

Now I'm going to talk about, um, the finance area of corporations and our finance program really teaches the four different areas of finance. So I had already mentioned corporate and banking, and that's where there is some really strong overlap with accounting. Uh, but also they teach about investments and financial planning. So there's a lot going on even within that finance manager a lot. Um, and I want to talk about skills a little bit here too. We haven't really kind of delved into that, but, um, a lot of areas of business, one of those strong skillsets, and this really applies to finance and accounting is Excel. How well do you know Excel? And I think our finance program has even done a good job of integrating Excel into some of their classes into the course curriculum. Um, but that's something that's something to consider is also skills.

Lori Staggs:

When we talk about majors and skills or going into business, maybe you're a math major, but you're a Wiz at Excel. That's what you're going to want to highlight and really show when you're talking to a prospective employer that you can work with Excel really well. I even had a partner at an accounting firm say that once I can teach them everything they want to know, I just don't want to teach them Excel. They should know Excel. Right. So, um, so thinking about that skills along with your major, what skills are you developing? Same thing with finance. Um, when you think about the corporate area of finance, a lot of times that has, uh, you know, financial modeling, budgeting, forecasting, um, you're looking at reports, you're looking at again, you have to be good with Excel, extracting numerical data and being able to make sense of it and make decisions about it.

Lori Staggs:

Um, so those again are kind of, again, I could go into so much detail about each area, but those are really, um, some of the areas we see our students getting into. Um, and in banking, you know, it's not just the retail side of banking, it's the business side of banking that a lot of our finance majors want to go into. So the lending side, some of our banks actually hired credit analysts. You're on the lending side, you're looking at loan applications, you're assessing risk, really cool. It's a really cool start to a career in finance. And so again, just scratching the surface. We do have, uh, uh, we did interview one of our former students actually, uh, proud GV alum, Jimmy Sibomana. He is a finance associate at Kellogg's. Um, and Grace, are you going to kind of talk about his responses on some of the questions that you asked?

Grace Pushman:

Yes. So the first thing we asked was just for, you know, his job title and company. So Jimmy is a finance associate for the global business service GBS plant finance team at Kellogg's. And then we wanted to ask what a typical day looked like for Jimmy. So he said a typical day for him is supporting the frozen food manufacturing plant in Rossville, Tennessee, where they produce Kellogg's Eggo waffles. I know, I love I go hungry. Um, he also gets to work internationally with the R T E C, ready to eat cereal Canadian cereal plant in Bellville, Ontario. His role is to assist and work with the plants on ad hoc analysis, such as creating and editing products and recipes and the SAP financial system. He also works along with the Canadian innovation team, working on financial proforma on existing and future developments. And I will say some of that kind of went right over my head, but it's, it's fun to hear what he's doing.

Lori Staggs:

Well, I do want to point out that you heard another skill in there. You heard the technical skill SAP and our college of business does have, um, an enterprise resource planning, ERP, uh, program where we, uh, they teach SAP and you can even do a two week certification program at the end of summer. It's usually the last couple of weeks of August, right before the fall semester begins and become SAS SAP certified. And what a skill set to have, um, coming into a large organization like Kellogg's international right down the road from us and they work with SAP. And so we see that a lot, but all business majors get exposed to SAP through a management 2 68 course. And so that's something I'm always talking with students about, put that on your resume. You don't have to say you're a pro, but just to say that you have had exposure to SAP is an important skill to identify, right? And that's another one of those areas. Cause I like to keep

Megan Riksen:

Putting them out that that's a skillset you can gain, even if you don't choose one of the majors within the college of business. Absolutely. You can take a few of those courses maybe for that certification academy and boom,

Lori Staggs:

You're ready to go. And that we talk about strategic electives that even as a business major, you might, it might be an easier story to say I'm a supply chain management major. And so yes, I have the, I have the knowledge the foundation, but again, do you know Excel, that's not always assumed, do you know SAP at a level that you can be an SAP analyst or whatever it might be. So, so really thinking about how to be strategic, not just with your major, but pulling in some of those other things as well, whether you're a business major or not. Um, okay. So,

Grace Pushman:

Oh good points. And I, I'm not a business advisor, but I know SAP and I've heard about it a lot. So I realized that that's an important skill to have if you're in this field. And then our final question to Jimmy was what do you like best about your work? And he said that he loves being able to see various steps and business processes that go into making the food and how it goes from being an idea to having it be on the shelves and in the store. Um, I know that I love cereal. That's one of my favorite foods. So I think that would be neat as well. Um, he also said that the people and the culture is fantastic. He loves being able to travel to numerous plants and see how the food is produced and packed and the snacks and cereal and the office are a bonus. And I know we've visited Kellogg before as well. And we got to also have some yummy snacks. So that was really fun.

Megan Riksen:

All right. So we have two more areas of business that we're going to squeeze in here and keep overwhelming you. Um, there's going to be a lot to unpack. So, you know, if you're feeling overwhelmed at this point, it's also okay to hit pause, go do a little research on these and then come back and listen to the last two. So I want to talk about marketing for a moment, which again, another huge area. Um, I'm going to break it down into three smaller areas. So advertising sales and market research. Um, so when we're thinking about marketing, sometimes the first thing that comes to mind, at least when I'm working with students, a lot of the time what a marketing student is imagining themselves doing is working more on the creative side with the advertising promotion. So the people who are actually out there spreading the word, the good news about whatever their company's service or product is.

Megan Riksen:

Um, so, you know, those sorts of marketers are using tools like email campaigns. They're the social media gurus. Um, the marketing department might employ some graphic designers to help with that visual branding. Um, and just a note about that as you know, these roles are going to feel very different depending on the type of organization you're at. So if you were at a super small startup, you might be the only person doing marketing. So, yup. You're running every social media account. You're sending all the emails you're in charge of the website. You're, you're doing it all, but at a larger organization, you probably have the opportunity to be more specialized. So that's something to think about too, as you're considering careers in business, um, that your, your role could be more general or more specialized depending on, um, the type of organization you land at sales is another humongous area that falls within that umbrella of marketing.

Megan Riksen:

Um, so lots of different ways to get into sales. I'm not even going to go into all the different types, but you know, you, you might be selling directly to a consumer that would be the B to C. You might be selling the product or service to another business. So those roles are going to be very different. But what I want to focus on for a second is I often Laurie, you can probably back me up on this to have students saying, I want to be in business, but I don't want to do sales. Have you ever heard that?

New Speaker:

Yes, I'm a marketing major, but I don't want to do sales.

Megan Riksen:

I don't want to do sales. Right. And I get where that is coming from because sometimes we have an icky image in our mind of like maybe door to door sales or something that we know we don't want to do. I mean, some people are great at that, but, um, there are so many different ways to be involved in sales at a company. So, um, one that I polled, this is one of our employer partners, Hex Armor. They employ a lot of inside sales representatives. Um, and those are the people who are providing over the phone support for their customers who are giving them information on inventory and pricing, um, who are kind of the experts on their product. Um, they are qualifying some of those leads to then give on to the rest of the sales team so that they can follow up with those individuals or companies. Um, this job description also says they're managing the live chat interactions on the website. Um, they're facilitating sales interactions for their consumers, um, in large and small markets. So, you know, that, that feels very different where you might already have some of the leads than necessarily a cold calling sales.

Lori Staggs:

Absolutely. And it's more about building relationships, it's relationship building, and it's educating your client. It's educating the customer on what you have to offer. I mean, I think about our roles when we go out and talk with employers about why to recruit at Grand Valley, that's kind of sales.

Megan Riksen:

We're selling our students, right? We're talking up you all.

New Speaker:

I don't feel like salespeople, you know, we are, we are student centered, right? So it's really thinking about sales in a different way. And I think that, um, you know, even with, we haven't even talked about some of our student organizations, which are incredible and so professional development focused, but the professional sales association, the PSA group can really talk about some of those legitimate, um, sales opportunities that are out there and really helping students connect to those employers with those types of opportunities. So, absolutely to jump

Megan Riksen:

And sales is another area that most companies don't care what your major was as well. Just do you have that drive? Do you have that skillset? Have you worked in customer service before? Can you prove to me that you are able to do this work based on your skills and your past experiences? So that's another great area, plus I don't know the percentage on it, but many, many, many students will find that their first job is within the sales side of an organization, just because that's where the entry-level opportunities are. You learn the business so well when you start on a sales team. Yep.

Lori Staggs:

Even when I think about sport management or hospitality, a lot of that, those entry-level positions are in the sales area, ticket sales, or event sales or event man, you know, those types of things, right.

Megan Riksen:

So don't shy away from that. You won't necessarily have to be in that role for your entire career. That's okay. Learn the business, learn it really well and figure out where would be a better fit then as your next step.

Lori Staggs:

Absolutely. Or if you ever want to own your own business,

Megan Riksen:

That is a jump into that side,

Lori Staggs:

Incredible foundation for that. So,

Megan Riksen:

Absolutely. And then just briefly, the last little area would be market research, which is really the people who are gathering information about their consumers. What do their consumers want? What do they care about? And they're really using data. That's a very data-driven role, um, to figure out what their consumers want so that they can make better decisions. Um, and that can be done through focus groups, surveys, observation, but ultimately, how are we, how are they kind of tracking and seeing what their consumers are doing their behavior and, and what they, what they really want from that organization. So good. All right. I'll stop there, Lori, and throw it over to you for the last area or

Lori Staggs:

Yes. And the last area is supply chain management. And when I think about supply chain management, it really is a big umbrella. So I went to a conference a couple of years ago and they talked about how supply chain is sort of an offshoot of engineering, right? When you think about production, it's really about materials in product made product out to the customer, right? So it's that umbrella. So that can mean, uh, being a supply chain analyst. Again, you hear that analyst word and we don't even, we're not even talking about economics, right. But that's, that's that skill set that you get from that degree is that analytical skillset. So a lot of supply chain, if you want to be a supply chain analyst, it's data, it's data governance, it's data, warehousing making decisions based on data. And then also involving the executives at the company in terms of making decisions and doing business better and more efficiently.

Lori Staggs:

Um, and so when you think about the last year with COVID and supply chain and logistics, I mean, it was wild. I mean, some of the things that I've heard about, so, so it really is an umbrella, but there are some kind of things within that, like logistics, that's getting the product from the company to the consumer, to the store, to the client. Um, and so logistics is a whole area within that. And even within our marketing major, there is an emphasis in logistics. Um, and then the other area within supply chain is, uh, being a buyer or, or doing purchasing procurement. So, uh, you're, you're again, that's the materials, the cost of materials, getting materials in, so you can get the product out. Well, what does that sound like? A little bit like finance, right. Um, so there's overlap and I really feel like, you know, the other thing we haven't really talked about our certifications, um, it's continuous learning in, in the corporate world.

Lori Staggs:

Um, when you talk to alumni, sometimes they're like, I'm doing nothing related to my major now. Um, but a lot of times it's that continuous learning. When I think about accounting, it's CPA. When I think about finance, it's CFA, certified financial analyst, or CFP in HR after a couple of years, you're going to go for a PHR certification, right? So all of these areas, supply chain, apex certification, there's certifications that go within every, almost every area of, uh, of, of a business. So, so it's really thinking about continuous learning, which is what, you know, we are, we are definitely talking about more here at grand valley state university. So, so, um, lots of ways you can go lots of ways to get to one place. Absolutely. But, but the more, you know, the more you research, the more you put yourself out there and have those conversations, the more you're going to know where you fit in the, in the world of business,

Megan Riksen:

That's such a good point. And we talk about this a lot on the work like our podcast is you often learn the most just by talking to people who have done for sure those roles. So get online and do all the research into the, you know, all the job titles we've dropped and all of that, but ultimately, you know, figure out who you can, who you can talk to. And we have resources for doing that in the career center. Of course, um, we have career guides, you can check out on our website, exploring student organizations, as Lori had mentioned, those are a great way to learn about a particular area of business. We also have our Business and Entrepreneurship career community, which I absolutely would recommend if you are considering business in any way, shape or form, because we will be sending communication around that. And just a great way to get connected as well. Handshake is another resource, um, to really start maybe looking at some sample job descriptions to see if that's a good fit. So, you know, we we've covered a lot today and we've overwhelmed all of you as our listeners. Um, but comment come in and chat with us. We are always happy to help you kind of dig into this further. So thank you for joining us, Lori.

Lori Staggs:

So great. Thank you for having me.

Megan Riksen:

And we thank everyone for listening today, and we hope you tune into a future episode soon.