Mentoring

George Thompson

The Young Professionals Career Engagement program was an extremely valuable resource throughout my career exploration process. The program helped me build a professional resume and provided networking opportunities with seasoned professionals in my field. The number of meetings and informational interviews conducted as a member of the program sharpened my interview skills and helped me land an excellent position a month after graduation. I can’t recommend the program enough for any young professional exploring potential careers.

Molly Stavang

The career coaching that I received over the last several months has been extremely beneficial for the development of my interviewing and networking skills. I participated in several meetings with career coaches, as well as multiple informational interviews with top executives at companies like Charles Schwab, T. Rowe Price, and Millenium Financial Group. Through the use of these skills, I have successfully secured a job at a large firm that will start after I graduate this May. I would recommend this program to anyone looking to further their career and get a jumpstart on job hunting and networking prior to graduation. It is truly a helpful and great experience!

Chad Glover 

The Young Professionals Career Engagement Program was a much-needed bridge from the classroom to the professional world. For me, the most beneficial part of the program was in doing informational interviews. Like many college students, I had some ideas about potential careers that I was interested in, but I wasn’t exactly sure. The informational interviews, which were set up by my coach allowed me to sit down with successful professionals across all industries and interview them about their careers. This gave me great insight into the career and whether or not it would be a personal fit for me. Your coach also helps you with everything from interviewing, resumes, and other areas unique to you. All in all, the program helps you become a confident young professional.

Morgan McNeil

After I graduated from college, I felt excited about what the future would hold for me. I moved back home and started applying for jobs every day. I dealt with so much rejection for months. I ran into scams and rude people trying to get spec work out of me. I felt so frustrated and defeated. A man in my church told me about this program and this has helped me so much. I was able to learn how to network and find the field of work I want to pursue. The saying “People do business with People” works with finding a career. I am still pursuing my career in the film industry working with the art department. This program allowed me to meet professionals working in the industry and even got me on two sets. I am grateful for these opportunities and I am excited to continue on. I feel a lot better about the career path I am taking and about myself. I still don’t know what the future holds but I am on the right path. This program has helped me start my journey.

Yvette Weaver

The most valuable aspect of this program was the opportunity to speak with professionals in a variety of fields. When I began the search to start my career, I was not sure what industry I wanted to be a part of. I met with my coach to express my values and expectations for a career. Based on our conversation, he arranged informational interviews that gave me the opportunity to speak with a plethora of professionals to help narrow down what fields I would like to work in. It was amazing to listen to these professionals talk about their work so passionately. They were also very willing to help answer other questions and concerns about creating a valuable and rewarding lifelong career.

Kyle Thompson

The Young Professionals Program was the perfect addition to finishing my higher education and introducing me to the professional world. I was able to learn from experienced mentors who offered advice and guidance as I started my journey. The YP Program helped me to practice my interview skills by allowing me to participate in a mock interview process. This included research of the company and interviewers as well as interview exercises. After each interview I was able to sit down and work through questions I struggled on with my mentors. It taught me how to present myself in a way that shows the benefits I’ll offer to an employer and my potential for growth within a company. These interviews allowed me to hone my skills and, as a result, I feel confident walking into any interview. I would highly recommend the YP program to anybody that wants to get a jump start on their career.

Austin Bradley 

I graduated college with a degree in art, and this program helped me turn that pipe dream into a reality. It taught me practical skills in searching for a job and helped me gain confidence in my ability to talk to a potential employer by letting me practice both through mock interviews and meetings with other professionals in my field. My interview skills increased immensely with the help of this program and helped me overcome bad habits and make positive first impressions. I am incredibly lucky to have been able to benefit from this program.

Emma Pirzadeh

The Young Professionals Career Engagement Program really put me on the right track for my future. Before signing up for the program, I was not sure what I wanted to do (let alone how to do it). After my meetings and lessons, I was able to go forward in confidence with a better resume, strong interview skills, and a good idea of the direction I needed to go. I’m thankful for this program!

Julia Pack 

When I contacted the Young Professionals Career Engagement Program, I was about a week away from my first job interview. Immediately, I was teamed up with someone who ensured I was well-prepared and confident. Their team reviewed my resume, answered all my questions, and brought to the attention things I hadn’t thought to prepare for. I’m grateful for the mentorship I received–especially with such short notice. During my interview, I was able to nail every question, and I left with a guaranteed position and an offer higher than anticipated. I was able to land my dream job fresh out of college. This program gave me an incredible advantage, and I know it will continue to benefit me as I continue in my early career development.

Joseph Barfoot

I graduated with a Mechanical Engineering bachelor’s degree in April 2019. To save on money, my wife, a 1-year-old boy, and I decided to move in with my parents while I looked for a career. I started working on my resume but I had no idea what I was doing. I started to send in a few more applications in the following months, and I started to get some answers. Then a few things happened all around the same time. The first one is something everyone knows: restrictions due to COVID-19. Suddenly nobody was answering my applications, and positions were few and far between. The biggest event that happened, however, was that my wife was pregnant.

About mid-February 2020, about four months along, there were complications with the baby and she had a lot of health concerns. She stayed in the NICU till the end of August, over 100 days, for which we visited her every day. This consumed my world. When I resumed my search, I wasn’t getting many answers, so I felt discouraged. Many people were suggesting jobs at restaurants, retail, postal work, or warehouses. I was getting to the point where I was almost accepting that maybe this was going to be my future. One Sunday, in my congregation, someone came up to me and asked me how my search was going. He told me of a person that he knew who could help me. I was discouraged, but I decided to reach out anyway. That is how I was introduced to Scott Pann. He told me to come to meet with him to discuss my situation. Scott told me to pursue a career in my field and not give up.

I worked on getting my personal documents to look better. I got used to writing cover letters, which I had not focused on before. I was introduced to the idea of informational interviews: meeting with professionals in an informal meeting and learning from them. These were some of the best experiences that I had. They helped me to be better prepared, expand my knowledge, and make new acquaintances. One of the places I applied to ended up offering me a position. They told me how my cover letter was one of the big things that made me stand out. I am very grateful to all who have helped me through, but I am most grateful to God.

Anna Schneider

When I graduated from college I had this great degree and passion for a subject, but I had no idea how to enter this field that I had spent four years learning about. I started to stress myself out and panic that the degree I got was for nothing. When I was introduced to this program it immediately grounded me. Instead of worrying that I would never be able to succeed in a career, I was passionate about, I was able to start with the basics. My mentor helped me build my resume properly, taught me how to write a cover letter, and even went through mock interviews with me. The greatest part of this program however is the next step. My mentor was someone who had so much more life experience and connections than I had. They knew people who were established and successful in this field that I wanted to be a part of. When I say successful, I mean CEOs and heads of Research and Development for major corporations. Because of the connections this program allowed for me to make, I was able to talk to these incredible people and learn about how they went from floundering college graduates to heads of companies. An added benefit to this is that I started to see these “intimidating” people as just people. My confidence in communication increased exponentially.

Through these discussions and connections, I was able to see a path that would lead me to a fruitful career. I am now pursuing a master’s degree in Biomedical Science at Colorado State University due to conversations and advice from those who know how to get to where I want to go. This program gave me confidence in my ability to find a career that I am passionate about, and the resources to learn how to get there.