Friday, February 21, 2014

Watershed Moments - Graduation

The transition from college to career is one of the watershed moments in our lives. It is a pivotal moment of decision, investment and commitment.  Work is the biggest tool we have to generate income and make an impact on the world around us.

As we discussed earlier, the first year of college was very difficult for me academically. Largely because I hadn't been very well prepared in the small rural school I attended. It wasn't quite a one room school house, but it wasn't college prep either. So I had some ground to make up and I did very well the last three years.

It was now time to graduate and get the big first job after college. Iowa State University has an awesome placement office. Even though we were in a recession I had lots of  interviews and job trips.

One of the things I did during the interview process was to very specifically ask for the kind of jobs I was interested in. This was very well received by the interviewers. Some companies weren't even interviewing for the type of job I was interested in but several went back to their companies and called me back for an interview. Seems it was a little unusual for a student to have insight and interest in a job not on the interview roster. That was an interesting approach to say the least, but it worked.

I had 6 job offers in the end and chose to come to Rochester, MN.  Home of the Mayo Clinic.

Rochester has been home base for over 30 years. Truly a watershed moment.

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