College Experiences That Helped a VP Business Development at Propy Succeed

I don't know what I did in college because everything I did was after college, after I learned my lessons the hard way. But I definitely did some things that helped me.

I joined a sorority and met a lot of my really good friends through it. While it may not relate directly to business, it's always good to have those friends. At the end of the day, when work is overwhelming, you can go to them.

Another thing I always do is make an effort to build a personal relationship with professors, even in huge lectures. For example, Professor Christopher Neck, who teaches management at ASU, has a class of about 400 students. I made the effort to get to know him better and continued reaching out even after completing his class.

Now he's a mentor and role model I talk to almost once a month. This is simply because I made the effort to go beyond what was expected of me as a student to create that connection and relationship. I wish I had done that with more professors, not just Professor Neck.

Here are things I wish I had done but didn't. I would definitely join all kinds of organizations from day one and attend their first meetings. Then, I would choose five to seven to be involved in during my first and second year. If I could handle that, I would narrow it down to the top three.

Secondly, I would go to every career fair. Even if you aren't looking for a job, go because you will meet many people who will be helpful later on, as long as you develop those relationships.

Third, for my finance classes, I would pay a little more attention. My goal wouldn't just be to get an A, but to actually understand the information. I feel like I had great classes but didn't get the best out of them because I was only focused on getting an A-plus, not on the knowledge.

This might sound nerdy, but for electives, I chose classes like country music because they seemed easy. I did learn some great things in that class, but now I wish I had taken a class like psychology of humans, or level two of psychology of humans, which we actually had to take.

So, don't choose classes solely based on them being the easiest. I did that, and now I look at ASU classes and wish I had taken certain ones. I've even spent money to take them when I could have taken them for free.

When you're in college, make sure to be as involved as possible. If you're in Greek life, make sure to meet people outside of it. Don't stay in the Greek life bubble because there are great people outside of it. Attend everything possible and meet as many people as possible. That's my advice for anyone in college.