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- 2. 2 Table of Contents Capstone Reflection pg. 3-5 Informational Interview I pg. 6-9 Informational Interview II pg. 10-13 Civic Engagement Reflection pg. 14-15 Midterm Self-Assessment Form pg. 16-17 Work Samples from Internship pg. 18-29 Student Email pg. 19-20 Employer Email pg. 21-22 Abandoned Email pg. 23 Blog Post pg. 24 Analytics PowerPoint pg. 25-29 Work Samples from Course pg. 30-39 Midterm Assessment pg. 31-36 Case Study pg. 37 Ecolab Supply Chain Logistics Model pg. 38-39 Academic Course Syllabus pg. 40-44
- 6. 6 Informational Interview Reflection I Interviewee – Stephanie Goetsch Stephanie@sparkcareerstrategy.com Company: Founder of Spark Career Strategy A little background on Ms. Goetsch and I’s relationship: I had the wonderful privilege of attending The 2016 National SHRM Conference this year in DC. Ms. Goetsch was a delightful speaker as she spoke to young professionals of SHRM on how to build your tribe. Ms. Goetsch is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the founder of Spark Career Strategy. She has worked for companies such as Chevy Chase Bank, Adecco Technical, and U.S. Pharmacopeia in many fields of HR. She was a very motivational speaker, which made me want to explore more about her and how she stumbled upon HR and career coaching. She is a young, successful woman who has gotten to where she is by working hard and demonstrating her knowledge in a way that portrays human resources as being both useful and important within a workplace. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ms. Goetsch and asking her questions about the HR field and her professional successes. Below is a compiled list of questions that we spoke about. 1. How has your experience in HR made you a better career coach? a. I don’t know how you would do this job without knowing how the hiring process works. I don’t know how a person would coach and offer direction to someone without having been there and actually done that. Credibility and experience is a main concern when it comes to people listening to you. 2. What is your favorite thing about working in human resources? a. My favorite thing about human resources is that it is people based. I’m not really a systems and processes person. Being good at relationships makes human resource work so much more fun and interesting to me. 3. Could you go through your HR career from the beginning until now again for me? a. Well, you can see my previous employers on LinkedIn, however I started with being on the staffing side, moved from external staffing to in house recruitment, then moved to smaller teams and recruitment, and moved onward to compensation, benefits, and training. The experience of all of those together, as a whole, makes me a better career coach. 4. If you could change one thing at any point in time during your career to better yourself or your career, what would it be? a. Well, as an entrepreneur, I would have taken more marketing classes. It involves a lot more marketing than I had originally expected. Whether these are in a professional learning environment or just a simple online course, I would have done more. I would have spent more time studying that particular field. 5. Are there any tips that you could give an upcoming HR professional on how to succeed in this field that you wish you would have known?
- 7. 7 a. Try a lot of things! HR is a large field, but dive deep into an area and wide. Avoid generalist roles. People ultimately want expertise. Be in a team that allows you to experience other areas. Understand compensation and employment law. Expand your horizons. Look for a team that allows you to do and touch other items within HR. Smaller teams offer greater opportunity. Do it early! Dive into everything very early in your career, because it will be worth it in the end! 6. As you have stated in previous talks and on your LinkedIn profile, I have noticed that you don’t have a master’s degree. Would you say that a master’s degree is required to be a part of top management in HR? a. Experience, leadership, and technical knowledge trump knowledge every time. The ability to walk into a room with top executives and have confidence and talk clearly served me very well. Know when to stop talking especially when around top management. Top executives love working with me which allowed me to have advocacy across the organizations that I have worked for. Getting my PHR certification was very helpful for my career as well. 7. What were some challenges/surprises that were involved when you first started in HR? a. What surprises me is that there are brilliant people in big companies, but HR is very undervalued. HR is there to serve them in a very secretariat way in their minds. HR does not do a good job at showing value for themselves most of the time. It made me insane because I worked really hard towards making HR a bigger part in these organizations that I worked for. Companies walk all over HR. As talked about a lot at the SHRM conference, HR is starting to come up more and more in these large organizations. As HR professionals, it is important that we push HR and show our importance. Companies bring me in to consult for them, and their HR department is very far behind. We have to be business people and start bringing up metrics. Metrics work for top management every time. They want to see numbers, so be sure to bring them that! Ms. Goetsch is very motivated in the field of HR, and I feel as if that is a common leadership style in any top management position. She has this passion for ongoing learning that I see in myself. That is a great motivational factor to see similarities with someone as successful as Ms. Goetsch. I think that acclimating to change is one of the best and most important things that someone in the human resource field can do. As Ms. Goetsch said, diving in deep and wide in HR is extremely important to building the foundation of a successful human resource career. As I did learn at the SHRM conference as well as in many classroom settings, HR does have a difficult time presenting itself as a relevant field in large organizations. This has been one of the main pressing issues presented to HR professionals across the world. However, I was surprised to hear it from Ms. Goetsch as an issue from a career coach’s perspective. Ms. Goetsch has a very interesting view because of her involvement in both
- 10. 10 Informational Interview Reflection II Interviewee – Dr. Kristie Abston kabston@uwf.edu Career: University Professor A little background on Dr. Abston and I’s relationship: Dr. Abston has been one of the most influential leaders that I have met thus far in the human resource world. I met her through the University of West Florida where she teaches human resource classes. She actually started her career with a bachelor’s degree in Biology. Luckily, she came to Washington this summer for the annual SHRM conference. I was so pleased with my informational interview with Dr. Abston, simply because she has so much to teach young professionals that want to enter this field. Below is a compiled list of questions that we spoke about. 1. What made you change your mind about Biology and turn to HR? a. I never really considered HR until my manager at my first real job (lab technician doing research and development at a chemical company) asked me to consider what jobs the company had that I thought would be a good fit for me in the long term. He was only four years older and had a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton. I am still astounded that he was thinking ahead for me because I wasn't doing it myself. I had taken a couple of courses toward a Masters in Education so that I could eventually teach, but my heart wasn't really in it. When my manager began that career planning dialogue, I seriously considered the different jobs that were available. I chose HR because they seemed to be involved in all areas of the company and were just so helpful to everyone. In that stage of my life, I got bored easily, so the task variety was very appealing to me. 2. What made you decide to get your PhD and become a professor? a. I was downsized at my last full-time HR job, and the economy was bad. I was unsuccessful in finding another job. A vendor I had used for training offered me a sales job at her company, but I declined because selling training didn't seem like a good fit. She was considering going to graduate school herself, and she suggested that I look into it because I had time on my hands. She was the first person to tell me about graduate assistantships and tuition waivers. So, I applied just in case I didn't find something better to do. Oddly enough, that vendor did not get accepted into the program. I was lucky to get an assistantship at the very last minute. I believe that God gets the credit for me ever going to graduate school. If I had found a job after that downsizing, I would probably not have gone back to school. I was pregnant with my daughter when I finished my master's degree, and the director of my assistantship wanted me to stay on another year because I was helping him with the coordination of an academic conference. He said I could work from home, and there were several doctoral courses that were online or met on a few weekends. So, I thought continuing my academic work for one more year would buy me a year at home with my baby, and then I would decide what to do. I was being paid $1,000 per month for my stipend in addition to a tuition waiver. Seemed like a decent part-time gig considering I didn't have
- 11. 11 any other prospects. By the time the second year rolled around, I was enjoying the courses, and I got assigned to my major professor for my assistantship. She was a tremendous person. I learned a great deal in the 3-4 months that we worked together. The political climate in the department was so horrible that she ended up quitting in December of that year, so I had to go back to working for the original director (and the source of the political climate!). By the end of the second year, I thought I had too much invested to turn back (escalation of commitment!). I spent another three years working on my dissertation and had another baby along the way. In total, I was a graduate student for 7 years. All that to say that I never planned to become a professor. I just wanted to have a decent job in HR somewhere. I think God had different plans for me, and I had to learn them the hard way. I always enjoyed training, so teaching at the college level was not a huge stretch. It just wasn't anything I considered until I started my PhD program. 3. What do you find unique about HR? a. This career field offers more flexibility than many others, which is a strong positive. It is also a field that has greater ethical, moral, and professional responsibility than most. Professors are given the future leaders of the world as captive audiences on a daily/weekly basis, and making the most of that opportunity is a tremendous responsibility. Some of us take it more seriously than others! 4. Do you feel as if a master's degree is extremely important for top management to have? a. I believe that a master's degree will become essential for top managers in your generation. A bachelor's degree is common nowadays. I believe the MBA will be equally common by the time you are in your 40s. Having strong academic credentials as a foundation for progressive professional experiences makes a person irrefutably qualified for upper management. Having one without the other leaves room for unproductive speculation and doubt, whether founded or not. 5. What sacrifices have you had to make to succeed in this field, and do you feel the sacrifices were worth it? a. In academia, the main sacrifice is personal time. Work-life balance has been the biggest challenge for me in this career. The job is 24/7 for me, but that's not the case for everyone in this career. I am undecided if it's worth it at the moment! In HR, I had to develop a "thick skin" because employees, like students, will say hurtful things when they are upset. In that career, one has to be friendly but not be friends with the employees (and other managers for that matter). In small communities, these relational things can be very challenging as you will run into employees as the grocery store, at the movies, etc. So, I would say a HR professional has to be willing to sacrifice, at times, personal feelings, opportunities for friendships, and anonymity. I felt it was worth it when I was doing the job full-time, but I am not sure I would feel the same way now. Part of the "worth it" question would depend upon the total rewards package!
- 12. 12 6. What entry level jobs offer the best opportunities for the greatest amount of diverse learning in HR? a. A larger company with generalist positions is naturally going to offer more opportunities for a wider range of learning (breadth of tasks and exposure to best practices across a number of areas of HR). However, smaller companies where fewer people do each job can also offer wonderful learning opportunities because of the depth of learning (significant development of skills on a few functional areas of HR). 7. What is the most important thing that someone planning to enter into this career should know? a. I cannot choose just one most important thing! One big thing is that HR is constantly evolving with new laws, best practices, etc. In order to be successful, a good HR professional is in a constant state of learning and then proactively sharing that learning with his/her organization (which is not easy). This career is not ideal for those who have a strong preference for equilibrium or maintaining the status quo. Another big thing is having the courage to confront other managers, even executives, when they are not managing properly. Being an advocate for the employee while also keeping the company's best interests as the focus can be a tough balance to strike. I think that a common leadership style in HR is the transfer of learning and succession planning. As Dr. Abston is a professor, I think she does both of these although one may be unknowingly. As I have taken multiple classes with Dr. Abston, I can personally say that in order to pass her courses, you have to genuinely learn the material. Memorization does not work in her courses. The transfer of learning of course occurs when she is teaching. She is bringing her knowledge and expertise to the classroom, and the students have the privilege of taking in that material. Succession planning is important in the field of HR simply because it is important that top companies have the next line of top managers properly prepared to take on their roles. I say that Dr. Abston has prepared myself and her other students exceptionally well on my future career in HR. Dedication and time management are extremely important in order to acclimate to these leadership styles. You have to be willing to work the extra hours and volunteer for those extra projects to get to where these other leaders are, and promote leadership within the company to your other coworkers. I think that Dr. Abston is a wonderful portrait of a leader, and I have certainly learned so much from her. Dr. Abston has a very odd career path into HR. As stated by Dr. Abston in this interview, she got her bachelor’s degree in Biology. I found it surprising that her reason for getting into HR was for the task variety. I can list multiple reasons as to why I chose HR as my career field, but task variety wasn’t on my list until this interview. I do feel like that is an extremely important factor in choosing a job, especially with Millennials. I also found it surprising that Dr. Abston wasn’t sure if getting her PhD and becoming a professor was worth it. I’ve never thought to ask her this question (although we’ve talked about a thousand different things in the past). This topic just never came up. I’m currently debating where I want to take my career path, and teaching was on that list. Dr. Abston has not necessarily made me rethink that, but she has made me
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- 24. 24 WORK SAMPLE 4 For my fourth work sample, I chose a blog post that I wrote for our website. 4 steps to Impress Recruiters When They Call Want to know how to make a great first impression when recruiters call? We have four simple steps that you must start doing today! Our job is to help you stand out from the crowd and help you find the perfect skilled trades position for you. So, how can you nail that call and land an in-person interview? • Step 1. Keep your contact information up to date. • Step 2. Set-Up your voicemail – Make the greeting simple but professional. Don't just let it be your phone number. If you don't know how to set up your voicemail, google how to do it! • Step 3. Be Responsive – If a recruiter calls and leaves a voicemail, call back right away. • Step 4. Be Polite – Just pick up the phone and say “Hi, this is << Test First Name >>, how can I help?” Don’t be nervous when picking up the phone. REMEMBER, you know yourself better than anyone else, be confident!! Need more help? Listen to Tracy Goodwin's advice on phone etiquette below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYSrIRqavoM
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- 37. 37 WORK SAMPLE 2 My second work sample is a case study that I completed and had to turn in. Intel: A Case Study of Foreign Direct Investment in Central America 1) What was the problem in the case study? a. I wouldn’t necessarily say that there was a problem in this case study. We were merely evaluating if companies moving into different countries was a positive or a negative thing. In this case study in particular, we studied Intel and if their move into Costa Rica was a good or a bad thing for both the company and the country. 2) Who were the major actors, i.e. countries, companies, individuals, non-government organizations, in the case? a. Intel, Costa Rica, The Presidency, the Ministry of Foreign Tiade, CINDE, the Ministry of Education, the Costa Rican Technology Institute, ICE, Rodríguez- Clare, European Union, Program for Higher Technology Multinational Enterprises, PROCOMER 3) What were the competing interests in the case study? a. Intel and competing companies that aren’t named. Costa Rica and other countries around the world. This isn’t really a typical case study where there are two competing interests. Mainly, we are talking about how Intel’s integration into Costa Rica has helped the economy. 4) How were these interests addressed? a. In this particular case study, they addressed the impact of FDI on Costa Rica. They addressed direct effects, macroeconomic effects, fiscal effects, and the impact of productivity. They looked at the overall growth, which has grown since Intel has put themselves in Costa Rica. They also looked at imports and exports; which Intel has increased profits within Costa Rica from a deficit to a surplus. They did surveys asking other companies if they think that Intel has helped or hurt in different ways. They asked about the wages and if other companies had to increase their wages due to Intel coming into the country. They also asked if other companies thought that Intel had increased productivity together. These companies, for the most part, had very positive things to say about Intel. 5) Consider possible outcomes. What strategies would you have recommended in this case to create a favorable outcome for all of the actors in the case study? a. I think that this case was handled very well. Intel made a decision as to enter into Costa Rica based on multiple important factors. These factors included “political stability, highly educated labor force, relatively corruption-free environment, and the credibility of the legal institutions”. I think that Intel based their decision on relevant factors, and there wasn’t another way to handle it.
- 38. 38 WORK SAMPLE 3 My next work sample is a project that we were assigned in class. I had to create a logistics supply chain for Ecolab on a product of my choice. I chose oil. One of Ecolab’s largest products is oil. In order to create oil that abides by legal standards, oil must go through multiple different stages of the supply chain. The supply chain is important because it allows us to see how oil is produced and distributes within Ecolab around the world. The supply chain begins with determining the product that you want to create. In this case, we want oil. We have to explore the best ways of doing this and where. We find that drilling oil offshore is the most efficient way. Ecolab already has offshore drilling rigs, therefore we don’t need to design and construct oil rigs. We then start the drilling. We drill the oil from our offshore rigs and store it in large containers to be shipped to our refineries. Chevron for example is one of our refineries. Once the oil has reached the refineries, it can be made into many different things: gasoline, medical supplies, plastic, organic chemicals, refined gases, and lubricants. The oil that we pulled out of the ground is distilled, and separated into chemicals that we use to create each of these items that I named previously. These chemicals are then treated to remove impurities. Once this is completed, the proper chemicals are passed along to the proper chemical plants to create all of these items. Once at the chemical plants, the materials are made. The items are transported either to a storage facility, a power plant, or directly to manufacturing companies. This can be done by pipeline, airline, boat, truck, or train. The oil that is to be blended with ethanol and additives is sent to a terminal until it is ready to be blended or shipped to another country. Trucks, boats, and pipelines provide this blending or distribution. They are then either blended and distributed to their point of sale or shipped abroad and blended abroad. The distribution could be to a hospital, gas station, or other companies/stores that sell our products.
- 40. Academic Course Syllabus The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars 1 ST16-4843 International Business: Case Studies in Strategic Trade Management Instructor: Dr. Eugene Laney, Jr. Email: e.clifflaney@gmail.com Phone: 202-251-7476 Meeting Time: Monday, 6:30-9:30pm Course Description The course examines multinational corporations’ strategic and managerial challenges in the area of international trade by focusing on a series of case studies that will help students better understand international business and trade interface. For each case, topics include customs and security regulations, climate change policies, import safety, export control, financial services, intellectual property rights, e-commerce, market access and technology transfer. Corporate Social Responsibility is considered from an international business-government relations perspective. Course Goals This course is designed to provide an understanding of the relationship between multinational corporations’ activities and government policies from a global perspective. It would be helpful for students to have previous familiarity with international trade policy and business. Student Learning Outcomes Objectives By the end of the course, students will demonstrate competency in the following areas: Knowledge Knowledge of the role of multinational corporations in the international trading system. Knowledge of the regulatory regimes that govern international trade. Familiarity with corporate compliance policy and strategies. Skills Improving business writing and presentation skills. Applying problem-solving skills to policy-related problems. Interpreting multinational corporations’ strategic and managerial challenges in the area of international trade.
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