By Rebekah Chiasson | Observer Contributor
“Are you continuing your education after graduating from the Mount?” is a very common question asked to students attending MWCC. If you are a student ‘on the fence’ when considering continuing to get your Bachelors, you might want to listen to some advice from Olivia French, a former hiring manager of a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Olivia French, a graduate from Keene State College with a Bachelor’s in Business Management and Computer Dcience, is a former marketing manager for a major food distributor, C&S Wholesale. She was in charge of a national program with included divisions from New England all the way to Hawaii and was responsible for such tasks including managing a team of 10, managing 250 independent retail stores, creating ad menus, which results in the flyers you see at the grocery store, and she was responsible for data and PNL- profits and losses budget- for an $11.2 billion business.
French was able to hire 4 of her 10 person team. After sitting through countless interviews she had to decide who would best fit her team.
“Melding with the team was more important than skill-set… obviously to a point, ” she explained. “Because the team was so broadly based with weekly deadlines, we needed to work well together. If one domino fell, the rest of the dominoes fell.” French explained how important it was for her potential hires to have this skill set that is said to be diminishing with the newer generations: “making sure the team functioned as a unit was of upmost importance.”
However, before one could even be considered for the team, she looked at the potential hire’s backgrounds. Some key points included, “have you done this work before?” “Do you have experience in the same line of work?” “Are you a student with a bachelors?” French told me that to even be considered for work at C&S Wholesale, potential hires had to have at least a Bachelor’s degree. “Unfortunately in this day and age, to have a job, especially one to move up, each company is different, but mine was definitely a proponent on having at least a Bachelor’s.”
French says to those debating on whether to continue on to a four-year college, “definitely get at least a Bachelor’s.” For those who feel finances are a big proponent in hindering education, French suggests joining a company that will offer to pay.
“There are definitely businesses that support education for hard workers and are willing to pay for some if not all of your continuing education,” French said, so this could be a perfect avenue for someone who cannot afford the rising cost of a college education. Finding companies who support this is just a Google search away.
French also advised, if you’re in a cooperation and get your bachelors while working, “CHANGE JOBS!” From her own experience she claims that “your current company will not pay you as much of the difference in salaries than if you were to switch to another company.” She also adds, “Hiring agents now are looking for more work experience as well, so switching companies after moving up the ranks will get you better pay for roughly the same work.”
French explained that she had always planned to get a four-year degree and was never interested in stopping with an associates. “My uncle was a big proponent to that. He only has an associates, and although he is an expert on the equipment he uses, he claims he cannot get interviews because of lack of education,” French says, “Even having been in his job for 25+ years and he still feels that way.” This is not uncommon for those who stop education at an associates. It is difficult to get interviews, promotions, raises, or even switch companies if there are others doing the same job but have more experience, or in this case, education.
French claims that college gives students the “foundation to have intelligent conversations with your peers and bosses.” She advises, “Find a school to help push you, or check your major to see if it is something that drives you.” She is currently looking to switch career paths from management because, “It doesn’t make me ‘get up and go,” she said. She advises, “Make sure you are not doing it for the money. Do some self reflection and see if the classes you are taking and everything is what you want to do in a career.”
French admits that she didn’t hold this same importance about education when she was in college. She did not enjoy school and did not feel she was being “pushed to learn” but admits that it might have been because she had “nothing to relate it to.”
“Being a management student, it was all concepts until I had a place to put the concepts in to practice it was all just theories,” she said. After some reflection she added, “However, I didn’t see that the stuff I was learning would directly apply to the real world,” and she never regrets going to school, saying it is “definitely a worthwhile spend.”
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