The trip to New York City served as taste of the potential opportunities that lie in wait for us following graduation. It was a perfectly timed trip in regards to the fact that it reinvigorated us following the overwhelmingly, often frustrating week of midterms. It was only poor timing in regards to the winter weather that followed us there.
Although we did our fair share of meeting, greeting, and handshaking – the trip was so much more than that. Vanderbilt alumni materialized at every office we stopped to visit. Their stories were the most valuable part of the trip.
So often in the process of career development, you are asked all the questions: tell me about yourself, about X, or how you overcame Y, and why you stopped working on Z. This trip was less stress and emphasis on us as individuals, and more of a collective learning experience centered on the group as a whole. It was a great opportunity to listen to those who had already tread the precarious path ahead of us. And to listen without fear of being put on the stop or have one’s recent accomplishments or personal merits interrogated.
, as we do through orthodox means of study. It is one thing to take a class, to discuss the hypothetical or predetermined cases that affect the everyday business world – it is all together different to take a peak and witness this world in action.
Thus, this trip truly was a learning experience every step of the way; from learning to navigate the depths of the New York subway system, to getting exposed to various office cultures and to hearing the latest trends and developments in media from those who are responsible for making and sustaining them.
From the conversations I had with my peers, the experience most definitely relit the competitive and driven nature that defines us as Vanderbilt students. And now, of course, we all aspire to work in a corner office with views like that from Citi!
-Colleen Flynn