Moore Impact: The Darla Moore School of Business Podcast

Bringing Business into the School

Episode Summary

The Moore School’s Office of Career Management focuses on the critical metric of job placement and assists our constituents in several critical ways. In this episode, Jamie Peebles, Employer Relations Manager, talks about the way OCM identifies right-fit companies to partner with and encourages those firms to participate in a variety of activities.

Episode Notes

S2 E2 Bringing Businesses into the School

The Moore School’s Office of Career Management focuses on the critical metric of job placement and assists our constituents in several critical ways. In this episode, Jamie Peebles, Employer Relations Manager, talks about the way OCM identifies right-fit companies to partner with and encourages those firms to participate in a variety of activities.

Among the OCM activities:

Jamie is a lifelong Gamecock whose grandfather worked in the physics department, he’s an alum of Carolina who was glad to come back seven years ago and help students get connected with potential employers. If you’re a business who wants to get connected with the Moore School through OCM, email Jamie at recruit@moore.sc.edu.

To learn more about the Office of Career Management at the Moore School of Business click here.

To learn more about the Moore School click here.

Episode photo credit: Photo by Polina Zimmerman on Pexels.com

Episode Transcription

Kasie Whitener (00:02):

Good Tuesday morning to you, Point Family, and welcome into Moore Impact. My name is Dr. Kasie Whitener, and today's guest with us is our Director of Corporate Relations

Jamie Peebles (00:12):

Manager of

Kasie Whitener (00:13):

Employer, Manager of Employment. I'm gonna make it wrong. I'm gonna make it wrong. Jamie Peebles, welcome in. I'm glad to have you here. Office of Career Management. Give everybody your name, full name, full title, since I screwed that up.

Jamie Peebles (00:24):

No worries. Yeah. So Jamie Peebles and I am an Employer Relations Manager at the Darla Moore School of Business in the Office of Career Management.

Kasie Whitener (00:31):

There we go. Office of Career Management. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Mm-Hmm . How did you get here? What's your degree in? What's your focus? Yep.

Jamie Peebles (00:37):

So I'm a lifelong South Carolinian, proud of that, and a third generation Gamecock. So very exciting there. You know, my background professionally, I've worked in government, nonprofit, worked at Harvest Hope here in town, South Carolina. The, the Employment Security Commission, a couple different state agencies. And so I've been with the the Office of Career Management in the business school for almost seven years now. Flies by. And so, you know, it's it's a great job there. You know, and I kind of say the short version of what I do is recruit recruiters. So I get employers on campus to meet with students and hopefully set those students up for success with jobs.

Kasie Whitener (01:13):

It's an important metric for us, our job placement. And we could talk a little bit more about that and how that impacts our students. And I wanna also talk about the efforts that you all put in as far as building out these annual events. We have the spring and the fall Business Expo. We also have a lot of different employment panels where we have employers come and talk about what it looks like to work for them. You also do a ton of work prepping students. We had Kacie Ingram here to talk a little bit about what that looks like, helping the students get ready for these employment opportunities. All this tremendous work happening at the Office of Career Management. And you're right in the middle of it. When you came on seven years ago, was this like, Hey, I'm going back to my alma mater. I'm looking forward to, to serving the, the Gamecock community. Was it kind of, Hey, career coaching is where I belong, or working with tell us a little bit about what brought you back to campus.

Jamie Peebles (02:02):

Yeah, so definitely a lifelong Gamecock actually. My grandfather worked in the physics department, so I've been around the university in the campus all my life, even when I lived down in the Summerville area. You know, coming back it was definitely been a pretty much a lifelong ambition. You know, love the university, definitely a Gamecock. And what drew me to the role specifically, I think is just the, I mean, it sounds a little pretentious say, but the prestige of the business school, right? Mean, you know, it's, it's, it's the number one in the nation for a reason in so many fields. And you know, I've always my family's background is a teacher, and so I kinda look at this as an opportunity to kind of combine love of teaching. And then I've got a marketing background. So it's definitely the promotions and marketing to employers and to a certain extent, educating employers on just the quality of the students and all the amazing abilities that they bring.

Kasie Whitener (02:53):

I love that. I love that you want to give back to the school. I love that you wanna be part of our Moore School, where we do have this reputation for being best in the nation. On the international business side, we have some very elite scholars in our school. We have a tremendous faculty, tremendous programs inside the Darla Moore School of Business. And a lot of that helps OCM to recruit recruiters. But a lot of it also is because OCM is bringing these businesses to campus. I mean, I think there's this really cool symbiotic relationship between the business partners that we have and the way the students benefit from those business partners.

Jamie Peebles (03:27):

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the biggest things that I do. I mean, you know, I talk to employers about, you know, coming to campus, but it's not a transactional relationship. It's very much you know, Hey, what are the recruiting trends you're seeing? Where are you seeing weaknesses within you know, student seniors as a whole when they're coming on board, and where can we be better there? You know? And of course, we have the amazing academic centers on campus in the business school as well. And so, yeah, it's, it is definitely a two-way conversation. It's not just me beating the drum about how amazing our students are. I mean, they are, but it's definitely like listening to the employers and hearing what they're saying and understanding the business needs, and, you know, bringing that back to faculty.

Kasie Whitener (04:08):

This is a little bit of a change of focus, I think. I mean, from the time that we were in college, I'm not sure when you were a Gamecock, but it might've been around the same time that I was a Clemson tiger back in the nineties. Oh yeah. , we can't all be . We can't, can't all be Tigers, right? But yeah, so when, but back in the nineties, you know, we were in school and the idea there was, you know, you're gonna have some level of specialization, but really, I mean, I came out with an English degree, I was a generalist, and the college degree, just the bachelor's degree was supposed to sort of be enough, right? And then you go off to school, or you go off into the workforce and they teach you what you need to know. The employers are really gonna take on that training piece. But it seems like over the last 10 years or so, we've watched the business school position itself to make sure that we are helping our students to have those skills and sort of be ready made for these corporate roles once they walk out the door.

Jamie Peebles (04:57):

Yeah, I mean, I think you know, when I graduated in let's 2003 with my bachelor's and then 2005 with my master's from the journalism school it was very much almost like the check box of here's the things you need to know for success and go from there. It was presented more static. Whereas I think what we prep students more now with is, okay, here's how to think, here's how to question, here's how to learn, and here's the basic skill sets you need, but here is the way to you know, position your mind and think about business so that when you go forward, because, you know, we all know business is very dynamic, right? Here's how to be able to adapt in the future and continue with success.

Kasie Whitener (05:34):

I love that our school is thinking about how our students can think better and then bring those creative thinking skills, those problem solving skills, that critical thinking capacity into their employment when they leave the business school. Let's talk a little bit about undergrad and the way you all specifically position the Office of Career Management. So, explain for anybody who's listening that doesn't know what OCM is. Yeah. Why does the business school have our own, and how is it positioned?

Jamie Peebles (06:01):

Yeah, so the OCM is really just the in-house career center for the business school. We focus exclusively on business students. So we've got about 6,000 undergrads students yeah, about 6,000. And so what we really are looking at there is how can we set them up for success? And it starts from day one. You know, the central career center at USC does great work. You know, this isn't any way you know, a knock on them. They're amazing. But you know, business is its own you know, field. You know, it's, it's a very different than, you know, setting students up for success in nursing or is an English major, right? And so, you know, we go in and we're coaching students. We actually have a class, which I'm sure Kacie Ingram talked about BADM 301, which you know, I a little bit flippantly probably say, is how to get a job 101 , but it really does polish up the students there.

Jamie Peebles (06:53):

And you know, and we're also encouraging students to you know, go interact with employers from day one, you know, as freshmen, as sophomores, so that when they get to be the juniors and seniors, we a lot of times see those same recruiters year over year. So they're set up for success. And so that's kinda one of the purposes of having the o the OCM, the office care management within the business school, is to be able to build those relationships long term both with the students and the employers, you know it's, it's nice that, you know, when I talked to you know, I met with Home Depot yesterday, for instance, you know, as a recruiter I've worked with for a little while. And you know, talking to them or, you know, their rival Lowe's has been very involved. And, you know, talking with Patrick's one of their point people, and it's just, you know, I, I like those longer term relationships. I'm not like a traditional sales person, you know, and just, you know, talk ear off and get you in the, in the car. You know, it's very much, Hey, you know, how's it going? How's the family? Hey, what's going on with your job? You know, that kind of thing. And that's where I think the biggest benefit of the Office Career Management is within the business school, is to build, build, build those relations excuse me, build those relationships specifically for our students. You

Kasie Whitener (08:01):

Know, that's good. And you're exactly right. I think that the relationship building is really critical, and those relationships not only benefit our students, but they also benefit our school as a whole. When we have relationships with corporate sponsors or with corporations, we learn what they need. But on top of that, we have opportunities for research within those corporations. They participate in the events that our centers hold. They, it, it really does solidify a bond between the business, school and the community that we serve. We're gonna run a break here in just a couple seconds. And here we go. There's the music. And on the other side, we're gonna talk a little bit more about that corporate relationship and how companies can get involved with the Darla Moore School of Business. This is Moore Impact, don't go away. We'll be right back. Welcome back to More Impact. It's Casey Whitener visiting with Jamie Peebles, our manager of Employer Relations at the Office of Career Management. I got it right that time. You did? I didn't, I don't have any physical notes in front of me, so. Right.

Jamie Peebles (09:05):

I don't know how you do that.

Kasie Whitener (09:06):

I'm like it's Jamie. I know Jamie, we talk to Jamie all the time, , but there are people listening who don't talk to Jamie all the time. Before we went to break, we were talking about these corporate relationships that you are building, cultivating for the Office of Career Management, but really for the Moore School as a whole. Can you walk us through that process? What does that look like? How do you know who these companies are? How do you first reach out to them? And is this sales process something that our students are learning by watching it happen in real time?

Jamie Peebles (09:32):

Yeah, so you know, the tar, the initial targeting, we actually do we have an employer model, so we use a little bit of math, you know, looking at some various key points of what maybe is makes a a an employer a good prospect, a little bit of science you know, at that point. But a little bit of art, you know, with our relationships in the background. But once we've kind of said, okay, this is a company we wanna reach out to. I mean, the first thing we go to is our alumni. 'cause You know, Moore School has an, an amazing alumni network, right? And so really working that and kind of getting that as our foot in the door, even if they're not in HR, to be the person to make the decision you know, they can make that connection.

Jamie Peebles (10:12):

And then, you know, once we get in there, it's, you know, educating them on how amazing our students are, what our process looks like, that we are super easy to work with. That's when I, when I talk to employers a lot of times, like, well, can I do this? Can I do that? I'm like, yeah, you can do whatever you want. I mean, we will make it work. And, and so getting employers in, in any way we can in front of the students, whether it be virtually, whether it be in person, you know, more formal, more casual. And so I think that's one thing that helps a lot of the students too, is seeing that you know, that's basically networking. That, that's not a transactional process. That that's, you know, you don't go up to someone at a, at a, an event and say, Hey, my name's Jamie.

Jamie Peebles (10:48):

I'm a student at the Moore School. Can I have a job? Right? it's, it's very much, Hey, you know, I, this is my background. I've heard some interesting things about your company. Can you tell me a little bit more? Would this be, you know, something applicable when I'm taking my, you know, when I'm looking to register for classes next semester? Should I do this? It's it's the educational component, right? And so I think that's what we really try and impress upon students is that networking is not an ask. It's, it's, you know, build that relationship, ask those questions come to an understanding and really, you know, continue your education just outside of the classroom.

Kasie Whitener (11:21):

And this too goes to the critical thinking skills we were talking about in terms of like, wanting to make sure that our students leave the Moore School being able to make those connections, right? So they can see, here's how the company operates, here's what their local offices look like. Here's what their overall infrastructure looks like. Here's a place where I might fit, given my curriculum, given my experience, given my background. And that requires a little bit of analytics, right? It requires that as an individual, you can look and see what they have, and then you can match yourself with them, as opposed to waiting for somebody else to do that for you. So,

Jamie Peebles (11:51):

Yeah. And I mean, that's the first thing we say is when a student says, Hey, I'm interested in the job at, you know at Sonoco, well go look at their webpage, you know, look at their news, look at their events, you know, see what's happening with them, educate yourself about the company, and then talk to them. Right? You know, you should never, never go up to an employer and say, Hey, what do y'all do? That,

Jamie Peebles (12:10):

That just kills me. Fortunately, you know, the, the amazing coaches both on the undergraduate and graduate side, I mean, they get the students ready for that. But there is, you know, definitely the model for them. You know, showing them how it works is, is definitely a good thing. And, you know, when we have employer panels and things like that, that's where the networking and educating those students on that comes out really well. And employers are impressed. You know, they're, they're excited to see students who come up you know, with questions about their business specificity, you know, you know, they reference something that just happened or a new product coming out. And employers, employers love that, you know? 'cause It shows the student has taken an interest in their company and is doing that research, right.

Kasie Whitener (12:48):

And they're prepared before they get into the room. Yeah. Let's talk about these employer panels. What I was really impressed with, and the reason I asked you on Friday, we had this huge town hall, like our all hands meeting at the beginning of the semester. And you stood up and you said, we've got these panels, and these panels are in these cool vertical markets, where I was like, oh, man. Like, we're just gonna focus on this particular industry. And we do a little bit about that, a little bit like that in entrepreneurship as well. Mm-Hmm . And I thought immediately I was like, man, you and I have that same sort of vision there. Talk about these panels with this vertical market focus. What are they when and who's coming?

Jamie Peebles (13:22):

Yeah. So we typically will divide up the panels and they're a little bit by industry, but more by job function, I suppose. So, you know, we have a financial crimes panel coming up, a supply chain panel, a

Kasie Whitener (13:34):

Financial

Jamie Peebles (13:34):

What? Financial crimes. So that's

Kasie Whitener (13:36):

Been a cool one. Dig in what is a financial crimes panel?

Jamie Peebles (13:38):

So, you know, we'll get people like from the security side of banks, the IRS, maybe the FBI. And really, even when I'm talking to Home Depot yesterday, I was talking to their online marketing person. And of course, you know, security is a big thing for them. Yeah.

Kasie Whitener (13:51):

Fraud and Yeah. Just in their, not even just their customer fraud, but it's supply chain and things like that. Oh,

Jamie Peebles (13:57):

Yeah, absolutely. So this is you know, the panel is you know, it's about talking what's your day-to-day business like? So, you know, talking to people who are in charge of keeping our money and our data safe. And, and so it's you know, gives students a chance to see, okay, well business isn't just, you know, spreadsheets and, you know, and, and sales and, and stuff like that. I mean, it's, it's can be criminal law, it can be all kinds of things. And so it

Kasie Whitener (14:22):

Can be a mystery Yeah. As they're trying to figure things out. Yeah. And, and yeah. That's really cool.

Jamie Peebles (14:25):

Yeah, I mean, indirectly related. We actually had an alumni who worked on the the Boston Marathon bombing with the FBI, so, you know, data analytics and social media, an analysis and stuff like that. So yeah, the financial crimes panel's been a super popular one. It's super interesting. I missed it last time 'cause I was out of town, but definitely aiming for it this time. But we'll have five or six employers there and, you know, just talk about, Hey, here's what it looks like. Here's, here's what you can do with your business degree that you may have never even thought of. Right.

Kasie Whitener (14:52):

That's amazing. We have one about film in the entrepreneurship side, and we're doing one that's all about creative entrepreneurship coming up on Valentine's Day. And the idea for us is to say, like, you might have thought, because I'm an accountant, I'll never be in the film industry, but actually the film industry needs accountants, . Oh yeah. He might have thought you know, because I'm in, you know, software or finance or whatever, I was never gonna make movies. But in fact, they need that stuff in the movies. So Yeah. I, I love that idea. Okay, so we've got financial crimes. Yep. And then what's the second one?

Jamie Peebles (15:21):

We've got supply chain panel, and that's unfortunately that one's full up, but, you know and so, you know, of course, supply chain during Covid, that became such a topic, and, you know, it always is and always will be a very popular one. And, you know, to, to toot our own horn a little bit, the supply chain major has moved up to number three, I believe, in the nation. Yes. So they're, they're, they're,

Kasie Whitener (15:41):

And they won a huge award. Yes. The off the OCS. So the car, the supply chain center, yes. Won a big award last year. Yeah. So yeah, they're, they're definitely making a name for the themselves.

Jamie Peebles (15:52):

They're coming. Yes. but yeah, so you know, these panels. And then what else do we have come, oh, we will have a data analytics panel later in the semester. Haven't set the date for that. Ross Bagley, if you're listening, I'm coming for you to set that up. . But yeah, so these panels, you know, it will get employers from across different industries. It's not just, like I say, for the financial crimes, not just the FBI, the IRS, but you know, people who are working with banks and with retail and things like that because you know, those, those job functions are across industries. Right. And so we'll sit there and we'll have a moderate a q and a for a little while, but then to go back to what we were talking about earlier with the networking, we'll have at least, you know, half hour, 45 minutes where students can talk to those employers, ask those questions, make those connections. And so it's a educational from the panel standpoint and the q and a, but then students have a really good opportunity to make connections with employers.

Kasie Whitener (16:46):

What is your student turnout like for these panels? Do you see number one in demographics, are they juniors, sophomores? And then number two, do you get a big crowd there? Because we found that if we feed them, we have a bigger crowd. So I, I don't know if you guys have any tricks there to get folks out there. I mean, I would wanna show up to financial crimes just 'cause I would be interested Yeah. In like, what the stories are coming outta this panel. But I mean, do are, do students seem to come to these? Are they receptive to these programs?

Jamie Peebles (17:13):

Yeah, I mean, honestly, the biggest challenge is not, it's reaching them once they hear about it. You know, they're interested, but, you know, market fragmentation and all that. But yeah, no food always a big draw, but yeah, it's, it's really you know, our students, honestly. And it amazes me looking back on my undergraduate career, how completely unprepared I was. But our students are just so interested in these things, right? So we get a good, solid crowd. I mean, we'll have easily 50, 60 students at these. And it's a mix that probably tends more towards the juniors and seniors. They're obviously more focused on their job search. Right. and the grad students you know, for our data analytics panel, last time it was a little heavier on our business analytics masters for obvious reasons. Right. but yeah, it's, it's a mix. And we'll even, you know, we are, we're open to everyone. So we'll have students from other colleges come in occasionally, but yeah, probably more junior seniors, which, you know, makes sense. Yeah.

Kasie Whitener (18:07):

So I'm always concerned that our students aren't getting engaged and they aren't taking advantage of the opportunities they're being offered to them. And you were about five years after them, after me, so you were We were not in school at the same time, but when I was in school, there was nothing. There was absolutely nothing like my a university. And I think part of that was just their model at the time. Like they, they were not being measured on job placement. That was not a key indicator. I mean, we know that a key performance indicator for universities now is job placement. Oh, absolutely. And so to do that, to be able to meet that KPI, we see these universities building offices, like the Office of Career Management, the central career center on campus at the university, trying to help students get placement after they leave college. It's a huge metric. Yeah. So, okay. But so to like, kind of let Clemson off the hook from the nineties. Right. But I was an English major. There was no conversation about what was I gonna do when I graduated. Like other than graduate school, I had a few different people approach me about graduate school. But otherwise it was like, this is, you know, nobody cares when you, when you're, when you leave here, we're done with you.

Jamie Peebles (19:10):

I mean, USC is on that same hook for journalism majors, you know, from my time. But yeah, I mean, I remember when it was when a job board was a literal board with paper and tax. You know, I, I worked as a student assistant in the physics department and that was part of my job was, you know, changing out the literal job board. Yeah. but yeah, no, I think students certainly within the business school they're, the, the administration has done a great job of setting the expectation that you will be starting your job search sophomore year, second semester. But definitely by your junior year you will be engaged in looking and you know, engaging with employers, looking around. You know, and like I say, the hardest thing is, is just, you know, our students, our curriculum is robust. Yeah. So sometimes it's a little hard to get students, hey, outta the books, you know, into the, into the events which is, you know, double-edged. But yeah, no, the biggest thing I think for, for students is really just talk to an employer. They're not mean, you know, especially when they're alumni, they want to help you. And so, you know, it's, it's, once students make that initial foray into talking to employers, they're like, oh, well this wasn't so bad, you know, we can do it again and again. So you know, it, it's certainly changed from our day. 

Kasie Whitener (20:22):

Yeah. The more they do it, the better they get at it. Yep. And and I know when Kacie was here, she was talking about some of the interview prep and the resume help and everything from what to where to your first interview to like, what kind of posture you should have in your interview. I mean, it's just a complete curriculum of how to set these students up for success to obtain that first career, that first job.

Jamie Peebles (20:41):

Yeah. It's absolutely incredible. Like, I, I mean, I sit in the next to the, the undergraduate team, and I'm always kind of, if it's a little quiet on my end, I'm listening over and I'm like, man, I wish I'd have had that when I was younger. Right.

Kasie Whitener (20:53):

,

Jamie Peebles (20:53):

It's like the, the students you know, I've gotta sit down. 'cause That's, I enjoy doing data analytics. I need to sit down sometime and just say, okay, if you have a, an appointment with your career coach, how much does your percentage of placement go up? 'cause It's gotta be exponential.

Kasie Whitener (21:07):

Yeah. I can't even imagine.

Jamie Peebles (21:08):

Yeah, because those they, they just do a great job of getting the students ready.

Kasie Whitener (21:12):

They really do. We're gonna run a break on the other side. We're gonna talk specifically about Business Expo and how these employers come and speak to our students. It's Kasie, it's Moore Impact. We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (21:23):

Kasie Whitener (21:41):

Welcome back to Moore Impact. It's Kasie Whitener here with Jamie Peebles, our Office of Career Management, manager of Corporate Relations. Yeah,

Jamie Peebles (21:50):

That's good.

Kasie Whitener (21:50):

That's good. , employee

Jamie Peebles (21:52):

Relations, corporate

Kasie Whitener (21:52):

Relations. I keep giving, youre, I'm just gonna keep promoting you every time. I That's alright. I'll

Jamie Peebles (21:57):

Take it. You know, and I wear a lot of hats anyway, so .

Kasie Whitener (22:00):

Alright. Was we, were going to break. We were talking about the relationships that you're forming with the businesses in the community. I wanna ask first, actually, I didn't prep you for this, so sorry if it's gonna be off the cuff, but I'm curious about the reach of these relationships. Are we looking at just state, just the city? Are we looking at regional? Like what are some of the corporations that you guys are working with and what's the, the overall reach of those companies? Yeah.

Jamie Peebles (22:22):

It's kind of mirrors our student base. Honestly. It's, it's focused in the southeast and kind of Atlantic seaboard up through New York primarily. But then we do have a good hub out in the kind of Chicago Midwest area. I know we've got at least one alumni, if he's not a VP of HR at Kraft Heinz, he's close. And then in the kind of Dallas, Houston you know, that, well I say area, but you know, Texas. So yeah, we really reach certainly nationally and then to a certain extent internationally. You know, we are international business, so, right. Yeah, we do have that. But our focus I was the majority of our students place in Charlotte or Atlanta. Okay. You know, logically the two biggest cities that are close. Right. and so our corporate relations is kind of focused regionally, but you know, we, we expand out and really nationwide

Kasie Whitener (23:14):

Leveraging that alumni network. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Which is really critical. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so let's talk about this upcoming event with the manufacturing sector. Mm-Hmm . As, so when I kind of teed up our conversation last segment, I was talking about how you guys go into some vertical markets and take a look at things. Yep. So the financial crimes panel, the, and, and I was curious if you're looking at anything like a healthcare panel or agriculture panel mm-hmm . And you said you've got a manufacturing one coming up. Yeah. So let's talk about manufacturing. Yeah.

Jamie Peebles (23:40):

So on February 21st, we are actually partnering with the South Carolina Manufacturer's Alliance to have South Carolina Manufacturing Day at the Moore School. And so that'll be kind of a, a hybrid event, I guess. So we'll have the panels kinda like what we talked about, where there's the q and a and the networking and all that. Just some raw networking time for students, but then like a mini fair where students can actually talk to employers who have job offerings. And, you know I gotta say it's really nice to be partnering with the South South Carolina Manufacturer Alliance because they're taking the lead, which is super nice. 'cause A lot of times we're kind of in charge of organizing everything from A to Z. So having a great partner like that is amazing. But yeah, this is an opportunity for, you know, students to realize you know, one of the biggest industry sectors in our state and get connected with them. And we have done healthcare panels kind of going back to that, the business of healthcare. 'cause As we know there's a lot of money in healthcare. But yeah. The South Carolina Manufacturing Day, I'm excited about. It'll be an opportunity for students to hear about some employers. I mean, some of the big names you would expect, but then some of the the companies that are suppliers for them that you don't necessarily hear every day.

Kasie Whitener (24:46):

Yeah. So we do have a huge network of manufacturers in the state. I was surprised to hear how many smaller manufacturers we have. And you mentioned suppliers. Of course, BMW up in Spartanburg has this tremendous supply chain. Michelin in the Greenville area, this tremendous supply chain where we have a, a lot of smaller companies for whom that is their primary customer. And they primarily are building small components and, and little pieces that, that go into those, those vehicles and that kind of thing. It's amazing. It's thousands and thousands of companies that are working in manufacturing specifically in different industries and contributing.

Jamie Peebles (25:23):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean the, the, we've talked about network networking, but the network of businesses that have to support a large employer like BMW, Michelin, Volvo, you know, anything like that. You know, it's, it's a great way for students to kind of get beyond those the headliner companies, you know mm-hmm . And see some of the companies that are really just as important because the larger companies couldn't function without 'em and who are so important to the South Carolina economy, so. Right. yeah. Getting some of those employers in is, is, is really exciting.

Kasie Whitener (25:52):

It'll be fun too, to bring in our relationship with the Department of Commerce mm-hmm . And the way that they can kind of come and see how the Moore School is introducing our students to all these different companies and say, okay, well of course we're showcasing, people can see these are all the opportunities here in the state. One of the big challenges for the university is losing students to out of state employers. Yeah. So you mentioned Charlotte and Atlanta, of course, bigger cities near us, but that means they're going to contribute to the North Carolina and the Georgia economies, . Yeah. So trying to bring more, more employers in the state into the room so that our students can have access to the opportunities that are in South Carolina, I think would be a huge priority.

Jamie Peebles (26:27):

Yeah. I mean, it certainly is. I mean, you know, as Darla Moore charged us when she gave her a gift I guess 25 years ago now you know, is building the South Carolina economy, building the South Carolina business economy. And so yeah, that's always a focus for us is, you know, is highlighting the employers. One of my industry verticals is the government actually. And so, you know, talking about all the, the amazing work that, you know, various government agencies do, but then also, you know, we have you know, so many employers within the state who do just, just fascinating work. And, you know, students, I think in-state students know that. So, but our out of state students is sometimes educating them as, Hey, you know, you, maybe you're from, you know, Virginia, New York, whatever, but South Carolina has, has some amazing employment opportunities and so don't, don't look past them.

Kasie Whitener (27:13):

Yeah. And employment opportunities, cost of living. I mean, there's just a lot to like about staying in South Carolina after they graduate. And some of my students will say that, I mean, that they have found a home here that they feel comfortable here and that they're looking for employment here in the state. Let's talk about business expo. Yeah. So this happens twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. I always give my students off the day of Business Expo as soon as you guys.

Jamie Peebles (27:36):

We appreciate that

Kasie Whitener (27:37):

. Yeah. As soon as you guys let me know what day, it's usually a Wednesday whenever you let me know what day it is. And I always have class Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So like, okay, fine. That Wednesday is the Wednesday that we don't have class at all. Just go get yourselves a job instead. Tell us about what it takes to pull off something like Business Expo.

Jamie Peebles (27:52):

Yeah. so yes, twice a year and it all, it is always on a Wednesday, so you know, sorry to knock your class out, but yeah, this year it's coming up on March 5th and the Business Expo it's at the Columbia Convention Center and we'll have about a hundred, 110 employers there this spring. Typically more of 120 to 30 in the fall. And it's employers, you know, from all around. And it's, it's certainly an opportunity for employers to meet students, students to meet employers. As far as what it takes to pull it off, I mean, I definitely have to give a shout out to Dawn Marche, my colleague, who is the point person on that to do, I mean, all the preparation for it, you know, making sure we're feeding the employer as well, that they have booths, they have electricity that everything is just gonna flow smoothly.

Jamie Peebles (28:40):

And it's you know, I do a little bit of the marketing for it, but I gotta say Dawn, Dawn does an amazing job, but a lot of it is really you know, making sure the students are prepped, you, the employers know what they want as far as the students go. But you know, getting the students in there and getting the employer some of the information on who's, who's coming. One of the great things that we've done that's been interesting is a platform called Career Fairs Plus. And so we can see what students have checked into individual employer booths, tell the employers, Hey, this, these students are looking ahead of time and researching you. And so you maybe heres some focus for you when you're going forward in your recruiting methods. But the day of it's it's, it's awesome. You walk in there, there's a thousand students in the room, you know, 300 or so recruiters and you know, just the hum and the energy is great. Yeah.

Kasie Whitener (29:29):

It's, it's a, it's chaos. Oh yeah. It feels like chaos .

Jamie Peebles (29:32):

Well, I tell my students in U University 101, our freshman level course, I'm like, go to Career expo your sophomore year. Yeah. You're gonna be overwhelmed a little bit, but then when you go back, you know, you're, you're for spring sophomore year or fall, junior year, you've kind of been in there, you know what to expect.

Kasie Whitener (29:49):

Right. I would, I would recommend they go with no expectations. Yeah. Just to look around that first time and like, okay, what's this all about? And try to get their bearings. And then the next time, okay, now I'm dressed and I'm prepped and I've got all my, I've got my resume and I've got the companies that I'm interested in talking to. The one I went to, I was asking around with the recruiters, they didn't wanna spend much time to me with me, obviously. Yeah. Because I'm faculty and I'm, you know, but I was curious about whether or not they were going to hire entrepreneurship students mm-hmm . And so I was asking, you know, like, Hey, if you had a student that came to you and they had entrepreneurship on their on their transcript, what would you think? Right? Mm-hmm . Would this be a good fit?

Kasie Whitener (30:24):

And quite a few of them talked about the creativity behind entrepreneurship mm-hmm . And the initiative the idea that there, some of these companies were kind of smaller companies, midsize firms that were looking for people who were going to just like, pick up the ropes and run rather than expecting like long training processes and that. Yeah. We do have some major corporations that are pretty bureaucratic corporations that have a lot of onboarding already in place. And I had one lady tell me that she wouldn't hire entrepreneurship students, and it was because they'd be very frustrated by the slow pace of their company. Yeah. And she said it was, she said, they've been around for a really long time and they had their bureaucratic ways and they were gonna do things their way. And entrepreneurship students tend to have way more energy and get you know, feel, feel frustrated by that. And so that was like really interesting insights as a faculty member to get in there and be like, okay, which of my students should be, what should they be looking for based on what they've been studying? And I know you guys do a little bit of that matching as well.

Jamie Peebles (31:17):

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. When we are, you know, going back to that relationship building, it's very much talking to employers. Okay. You know, we wanna make sure that the students fit the employers, but then the employers fit the students. So you know, we, we've, we've talked to employers before and kind of similar to you. They've like, yeah, we've, you know, tried this major or that major before that this concentration hasn't worked. And like, okay, you know, good information so we can feed that back to them. Or, you know, I was talking to one of the graduate career coaches and they had interviewed with a larger company and they were like, man, they just had so much energy. It was very hard charging. And I don't know if that was a great fit for those students. And I was like, yeah, I had visited, visited their headquarters and it's a lot of energy and , which is great if you're ready for that and that's what you like. But if you're more of the quiet, you know, sit in your office and you know, just do it kind of person, it may not be a great fit. So. Right. Yeah. I mean certainly, and that's where it goes to researching the students working that alumni network, you know, students researching the employers so that they can make sure that yes, they, they are finding the right company to set both of 'em up for success.

Kasie Whitener (32:24):

Yeah. I mean, job placement is one thing, but job retention Yeah. Is a whole different thing. And sometimes people put on their best front, right? Yeah. Like, this is my best front. It's not necessarily who I am, but it's my best front. And we're trying to get our students to feel confident in saying, this is not the right job for me. Yeah. I don't need a job, any job. I need the right job so that I can be successful when I get there.

Jamie Peebles (32:43):

Definitely. And you know, that's where you know, when we were saying students, Hey, you know, get out there, meet employers so that you can hopefully have multiple offers and then really dig in and say, okay, I'm not taking this job because I have to, I'm taking this job because I want to mm-hmm . And you know, and finding that fit, like you say, the retention. 'cause That adds value to both the student and the employer.

Kasie Whitener (33:03):

I've also had students that were in my classes that have reached out to me and said, Hey, I am on the recruiting team for my new company. Is it cool if I come back and talk to your classes about the company that I'm like, absolutely. Yeah. So they come in and they show all these other Gamecock alum that are working in the same company as them, and that some of the students get kind of lit up about it. They're like, wow, if I go and work there, I'm gonna get to work with a lot of other alum. I, I really wanna be part of this. I wanna be part of this company. So,

Jamie Peebles (33:26):

Yeah. And, and you know the alumni network is, is amazing. Our alumni team does a great job. But yeah, I mean that's, that's our kind of bread and butter when we're making an approach, especially if it's a cold approach is working with our alumni 'cause they're just fantastic.

Kasie Whitener (33:40):

When we come back on the other side of the break, we're gonna talk a little bit more about how companies can get engaged with the Office of Career Management and what the advantages are for them. We'll be right back.

Kasie Whitener (34:12):

Welcome back to More Impact. It's the final segment of the show, Kasie Whitener talking to Jamie Peoples through the Office of Career Management. The relationships that you all are building with our corporate partners, both in Columbia, in South Carolina and also nationally, internationally, really contributes to the overall valuable experience that our business students have and helps to prepare them for the jobs and for their workforce. And of course, helps in our placement rates, gets them into those jobs in the first place. We were talking about business Expo, we talked about some of these career panels where people will come in and have this kind of vertical market focus. Tell us just a little bit about how our employers can become those people, how they can get in front of our students.

Jamie Peebles (34:52):

Yeah, absolutely. So the I guess the first step is if you wanna reach out to us, the easiest way is certainly to email us at an email address. I monitor it's recruit@moore.sc.edu and that's more with two o's after Darla Moore herself recruit

Kasie Whitener (35:08):

At t more

Jamie Peebles (35:09):

Mm-Hmm. Recruit the at symbol M-O-O-R-E, do sc.edu.

Kasie Whitener (35:12):

Oh, got you. Recruit at. Oh yeah. So the email itself is just recruit. Yep.

Jamie Peebles (35:17):

Excellent. yeah, try and keep it simple. 'cause If you're like me, you got a million things going and you know but yeah, so that's, that's the easiest way to make the initial contact. And then as far as, you know, getting engaged with students, I mean, there's a, we'll, we'll do you know, anything that makes sense. You know, anything from a classroom visit, you can do that in person. All of our classrooms are wired for, for video and audio interactions. So you can do essentially a live interactive Zoom meeting. You can come and we have a table display in our lobby where most of our students come in. If you just want to kind of build your brand if you're not, you know, a company students might think of initially. So there's really just lots of different ways. You know, and if you want host a game night, we actually had a company, a couple companies have come in and done that and they've done you know, like trivia or other games. Again, just building your brand with the students. But we're, we're adaptable, you know, we'll, we'll do whatever it takes to connect you with the students.

Kasie Whitener (36:08):

It's exciting to think about our students and engaging with employers and engaging the corporations before they go around and ask for a job, which I love. You said that, and I think it was the first or second segment that a relationship is that networking relationship is more about building rapport, understanding one another, getting to know each other over time. And it's not an ask, it's not walk in here with my resume and say, hire me.

Jamie Peebles (36:29):

Yeah. Yeah. And that's one thing we really emphasize the students. Kinda like you were talking about we mentioned last segment about coming to Expo multiple times is a lot of our recruiters are there year over year. So maybe a student comes in as a second semester sophomore in the spring, and they're not quite there yet, you know, they're young, you know, and so, but then they come back the next year's, the junior, they got some more classes under their belt and the employer's like, oh yeah, I remember talking to you last year. You know, these are some great classes. Let's talk about, you know, a summer internship. And so it definitely is those relationship building. And that's what we really try to emphasize to employers as well, is that, you know, our students are, they're interested in that. They, you know, like to hear about you. They wanna learn about the company, they wanna learn about the roles. It's not, you know, it's not just, you know, Hey, hire me, it's, Hey, tell me about yourself, you know? Right. It's, it's almost dating.

Kasie Whitener (37:17):

Well, they wanna see too, if you're a good fit for them. Yeah. Because it, it's expensive to hire somebody who doesn't stay on.

Jamie Peebles (37:22):

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And well, you know, and there's an investment from the student side as well, right. So yeah, everyone involved wants to make sure that's a good match. And that's what we really try and facilitate. And that's why we have some of those kind of non-traditional opportunities to engage.

Kasie Whitener (37:36):

Let's talk about the internship piece. Mm-Hmm . So I'm curious if you, so you are somebody who comes in, one of our students is their second semester, sophomore year. Maybe they don't end up getting an internship, now they're going into their junior year and they have an opportunity maybe for an internship. There's, I got two pieces here. Number one, when is it too late? to engage in this way? And then number two let's talk about can they afford to do an internship versus going out and working over the summer? And, and you can kind of unpack what that means. Yeah.

Jamie Peebles (38:05):

Yeah. So I will say as our sophomores, they're starting business classes from day one, so they are actually pretty, pretty good to go. I don't want to undersell 'em, but yeah. So let's say an employer has a student they're interested in and they want to do the internship. Typically you know, I say internship, but a lot of times it really is just essentially a part-time job with that company. So it's paid, you know and students, you know get both, you know, some extra money, the the experience. So it's, it's a good good combination.

Kasie Whitener (38:38):

A lot of my students go and work for the companies that they intern for. Yeah. And a lot of them don't. I mean, there's , it's about 50 50.

Jamie Peebles (38:46):

Yeah. And I mean, we see some of that. You know, students will take a couple of different internships over the, over their time and just kinda see because they, you know, again, going back to what we're saying, they wanna make sure that fits there. Sometimes

Kasie Whitener (38:56):

Learning what you don't wanna do is just as valuable as learning what you do.

Jamie Peebles (39:00):

one of my student assistants, he swore he wanted to go into banking and he got an internship with a bank and came back and was like, I hated that . And I was like, well, great. That's, that's fantastic. You figured that out before you took a full-time job. Yeah. you know, uprooted your life for 'em. Yeah. but yeah, as far as when employers can engage, I mean, really anytime you know, students aren't super engaged over the summer, so that's, that's a little tougher sell sometimes for the undergrads. The graduate students are almost year round. But you know, I would say, you know, anytime, once students are on campus, we can get with them, we can connect you with them. They do, it does, it gets a little more challenging after spring break. Right. But there, the students who are looking are looking, so, you know, we can get you with them. We can work are amazing professors and faculty you know, are career coaches. We have various marketing platforms we can use. So we can connect you with a student anytime.

Kasie Whitener (39:56):

That's fantastic. We use the Handshake Yes. Software at Carolina, and that's one of the best ways to get started is to go and register as a employer in Handshake, and then to just kind of ping the OCM and let them know, Hey, by the way, I'm registered and I'd like to get some help on, you know, what I should be involved with and how I should get engaged. But certainly the first thing they're gonna have you do is get registered.

Jamie Peebles (40:18):

Yeah. So the Handshake platform, just to give a little more background on it, is basically where you can post jobs events where we do registrations for our career fairs. So yeah, it's kind of an all-inclusive platform and certainly it's sc dot join handshake.com to get registered. And then once you kind of do it, you can email me at Recruit at more again. And we can, we can, you know, kind of facilitate that process. If you're interested in master's level students, though, we actually have added the 1220 platform, which is really hyper-focused on getting our master's students those master's level jobs. 'cause Handshake is fantastic because it has everything, but then it's a little tough sometimes because it has everything. Everything. Yeah. So yeah, giving a little more focus. If you are interested in the master's level students, we have a separate platform for that. 

Kasie Whitener (41:03):

And if they email recruit@moore.sc.edu Yes. Then you'll respond to that and can help walk them through the process. Oh, yeah, yeah. Figure out the right fit for them and all that.

Jamie Peebles (41:12):

Yeah. Yeah. The process is super easy and we can make that work. And, you know, and we have my count, my counterparts who work in various industries sectors can also speak with some speci specificity to your areas. So yes. But recruit at more is the, is the starting point

Kasie Whitener (41:26):

And getting engaged with the Moore School for you employers out there does not necessarily mean you're ready to hire anybody right now, a lot of times getting engaged with the Moore School is simply visibility to your brand. Mm-Hmm . Visibility to your company, and a lot that could open up opportunities for collaborations with researchers. It could open up opportunities for collaborations as sponsors for events. You can meet other companies. I've met through some of our entrepreneurial events that we've done where we've brought in multiple business owners. They have actually launched joint ventures together mm-hmm . And created, you know, dual marketing programs and things like that simply because they didn't even know the other person existed. And then they got to spend time together at one of our Moore School events and realize they had a lot of opportunity to, to collaborate.

Jamie Peebles (42:08):

Yeah. Yeah. And that's one of the things that we try to be very conscious about, is having that holistic approach to where we're not just saying, you know, only jobs, only jobs only jobs, but supporting, you know, the research, the academic centers and all of that, and really making those connections across the business school. That's one of the initiatives that that we, we've been excited to see being really driven by Dean Verma is is that kind of the whole more connection and, and getting that done. So yeah, we are, we're always happy to, you know, whatever makes sense. You know, building the brand with students is always important, especially, you know, if you're not, you know, a Microsoft or an Apple or something like that, you know really helping students learn, oh, well, this is an amazing place to work. You know, low key, you know, this is where, this is where I want to go.

Kasie Whitener (42:53):

Yeah. I mentioned this before when we were off the air, and I don't mean to put you on the spot, but a small business expo where we think about some of our smaller businesses here that have, you know, fewer than 50 employees that maybe would want to get together and create a little fair I say a little fair. I don't mean to in any way minimize it. No. but a smaller scale event, like in our Sonoco Pavilion to just be able to get in front of students, is there a chance we'll get a small business expo in the next two years?

Jamie Peebles (43:17):

Yeah, I mean, I think we can certainly look at that. And really one of the things actually we have upcoming is some table displays, which are a little, they're not job focused per se, but we, we do want employers to have positions open, but in our first floor lobby where like 80% of the students come in, so you'll see a thousand thousands of students coming in setting up almost like a mini fair. And we actually have some some of that, some openings for that next week actually. So if an employer is interested, and we, and hopefully that'll take off and we'll do that monthly almost. And that would be a great opportunity for smaller businesses in the area to kind of get in, meet students and, and build those relationships.

Kasie Whitener (43:56):

That's perfect. I love to hear that. I love the, the tabling opportunity. Mm-Hmm . So if you've been out there, if you're employers and you've been out there and you've been to marketing events, you've been, you know, you have your, your table skirt and you have your tchotchkes and you have your, you know, displays that talk about what you do, that's all you need. And you would just come and set up in the Moore School, 6,000 students are gonna walk by you that day, and you get an opportunity to catch their eye and have a conversation with them, and at least get some brand recognition and possibly find yourself an intern or a potential employee.

Jamie Peebles (44:25):

Yeah. And the best part of that is the table displays are free. So

Kasie Whitener (44:27):

There you go. There you go. All right. Recruit@More.Sc.Edu. Jamie's your Guy, J-A-M-I-E Yes. Is going to help you out with this, and he'll respond to that email directly. The Office of Career Management is offering coaching for our students and helping them get where they need to go. Let's talk about the skills. So we've got just about a minute left. What are the skills that the employers are telling you your students have got to have?

Jamie Peebles (44:51):

I mean, really there's I'd say the analytic mindset and being adaptable. I think one of the things we hear from employers that they love, that students do have is they aren't afraid to ask questions, but they also know what questions to ask so that you know, adaptable thought process. And then, you know, I mean, technology changes so quick. It's kind of hard to say on any one of those. But certainly having, you know, being able to understand here's the you know, the numbers, here's how to kind of think around corners. Yeah. And so a lot of it is, is really just learning to learn.

Kasie Whitener (45:28):

Excellent. This has been more impact. When you learn more, you know more, and when you know more, you do more. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.