The MM Network

[*insertusernamehere*]

So with what seems like the biggest graduating class for MM in the last 2 years (in my times at least) and a club that's growing even bigger we've been having lots of talks this year about jobs, major choices, career choices, graduation and generally everyone trying to figure out what to do with themselves.

With a club and forum as vast as ours in regards to careers I figure we should have a little place where we can share what we do, what we want to do and what opportunities are available that we know about worth sharing.

For alumni: share what you do, what your majors were and maybe where you'd like the future to take you. Share whatever you're comfortable with.

Students, recent grads, soon to be grads: can ask for advice, major choices, work opportunities, learn a thing or two, ask all the questions.

Essentially a place where we can all help each other grow our careers in a positive direction.

Myself: I was a geology major, useless​degree, currently​ an assistant GM at advance, going for GM and then grad school for something a little more applicable to my life and then see where the world takes me after that.

[Ken]

This is a good idea, thanks for starting.

Currently work for a computing systems manufacturer and integrator in NYC (http://www.amulethotkey.com/) as an insides sales representative. We're focused on remote workstation solutions, primarily in mission critical environments.

Ideally, I'd like to move into more of a technical solutions rep or solutions architect role. Also given some thought to creating/leading a channel focused reseller program here. Really okay with either since i have some background working in/with VARs.

I know there is not much of a MM network up here, but if anyone has any interest, feel free to reach out.

EDIT: Forgot to add, for whatever it's worth, i graduated in 2011 from ISAT with concentration in telecommunications.

[SlimKlim]

Taylor started a group for us on LinkedIn. I didn't get a notification about his invite for some reason, I had to manually find it and join. That's a great tool if a bunch of us join it, because we can connect the youngins to the recruiters that hound us on linked in about contract positions. ;-)

I've bounced around a good portion of the business-oriented roles in the web industry thanks to my time at AOL. Project management, content management, partner management, etc. Then for a few years at TWC I worked as a content producer managing the day to day content on a news site, and I just started at Sprint a couple weeks ago, still figuring out exactly what my role there is, but I manage the online content for our three prepaid brands. I've also done some on-and-off freelance writing for Turo.com's blog.

My degree was "Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communications with a concentration in Online Publications" Ridiculous name.

As far as the future, we'll see, but I'm pretty happy with the path I'm on. I'm interested to see where my new role takes me, looks like it might be a good chance take on some more responsibility and focus more on overall strategy than just spending my days sitting in a CMS shelling out content like I was at TWC.

I'm more than happy to help out any recent grads looking to move into the web industry. All I can really do is pass along some contacts to recruiters who are usually trying to fill temp-to-hire contracts, but you gotta start somewhere.

[JPolen01]

Lemme get an invite to the LinkedIn group.

Anway, graduated in 2014 with a Poli-Sci degree. I did an internship with a non-profit government contractor in DC for a summer and that was enough to make me realize I had very little interest in that type of environment. Started looking for sales/recruiting role because money is the ultimate motivator for me and I knew I needed a role where I could control my own paycheck.

Landed an inside sales role with a Williams Scotsman in the modular office world. Supply construction trailers and temporary job site complexes for mainly the construction industry. Was there for about 2 years and decided I needed a change due to corporate visions I did not agree with among many changes to our comp plan which I also did not agree with.

From there I went into the payroll world with Paychex for about 9 months. Do not ever take a job with Paychex/ADP or anyone in the payroll world. It is entirely too cut throat and customers are solely buying on price which is an extremely difficult environment to sell in.

I'm now back in the modular world working for Acton Mobile with the same guy that originally hired me at WillScott. I'm a corporate sales rep (inside) selling in all 34 branches across the country. This team is actively growing and will consider the right person no matter their experience level. The office is in Towson, MD right outside the city limits of Baltimore if anyone is interested.

As others have said I am always happy to help or answer questions about any work or job applying related things. My only qualifier is that you have to wear a suit to every interview :thumbup:

[Senor_Taylor]

Thank you so much Joey for mentioning the LinkedIn group. I really want as many MMers to join it as possible. I'll resend some invited and grab a link when I'm in front of a PC.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[V1GiLaNtE]

Oh this is fun.

2012 JMU CIS. Started my life at KPMG as an IT Auditor within Federal. Left that job after about 2 years and took at job with Deloitte Consulting. I'm aligned to their Federal Technology practice, specifically Systems Integration. I've worked the last 2.5 years in software delivery focusing on project management, requirements analysis, and overall product manager for a major DoD Order to Payment System. I have my Certified Scrum Master certification, ITIL Foundations, and currently working on my PMP. I've led several work-streams through the full SDLC and as far as the future idk how much longer I'll stay Federal. I know the grass isn't always greener, but the pace at which the guberment can work through the SDLC process is painful.

Happy to answer any questions you have about Deloitte, Federal Technology Consulting, Agile/Scrum practices, functional roles, PMP, life in general.

[RhyminSimon27]

Class of 2016, double major in marketing and management with a concentration in technology, innovation, and entrepreurship. Right after graduation I went the entrepreneurial route, starting a hop farm with a friend of mine. Had a decently successful first year, sold to a few local breweries. Then I realized that getting my preferred level of profit would take much more time, effort, and capital than I can contribute right now, so I backed out a little bit (though I'm still involved and will probably continue to be over the years). Been doing some real estate marketing work for ReMax since then, and I just accepted an offer for a "financial professional" position at AXA Advisors in Morristown, NJ.

So right now I'm going through the grueling process of studying for and passing exams (life insurance, health insurance, Series 7, etc.) and hopefully I'll be starting at AXA withinin a month or so. My plan is to see how things go there over the course of 3-5 years, and if I'm not seeing the numbers I want and/or moving up the ladder internally, I'll probably start looking for something similar but better, maybe even knock on some doors at Wall Street.

I'm happy to answer any questions I can.

[Jake]

Class of 2011.

SMAD major (School of Media Arts & Design) with a concentration in Journalism and minor in Writing & Rhetoric from the WRTC school.

I got into the Journalism concentration and immediately knew I didn't want to do it full time, because to be frank, the money isn't there to support a car habit. Thankfully with SMAD, you end up pretty well-rounded and can take electives within the major, so I took as many web-focused classes as I could and got a grip on web design between the school and my one roommate at the time.

Got an internship with AOL between junior/senior years, working for AOL Jobs, helping with all-things editorial. They liked me and kept me on part-time my senior year. I worked from Carrier Library making DC intern money, sipping lattes. They offered me a full-time gig when I was about to graduate, so I took it.

Immediately after moving up to Fairfax, my boss was like "yo, I'm out" and I ended up running the team for ~6 months. I had a team of 4 full-time writers and a handful of freelancers reporting to me, pitching stories and taking assignments based on our roadmap and weekly/monthly/quarterly needs. My experience was not nearly enough to get me promoted full-time into my old boss's role (Editor) but I learned a lot. Got to plan and run a few social media giveaways (we gave away at least two iPads) and was running our social media platforms on my own (posts, scheduling, reporting, etc).

After about 1.5 years in the Associate Editor role, we got a new department lead (for all of editorial) and I was asked to move to AOL Travel, which also encompassed Mapquest and a travel blog called Gadling. I dropped the "Associate" from my title, made a little more money, and did similar shit as before. I was the go-to for all media use on our editorial properties, from an acquisition and legal standpoint. I was also doing a lot of HTML and CSS work to get posts formatted the way they needed to be, because our “content management system” was pretty bad.

A woman I worked with on AOL Travel left for another position and I took over her job, working with digital marketing agencies to promote travel deals on a CPC (cost per click) basis. It was fun but the products I was working with were not super enticing and clickthrough was kinda low. I discovered I liked “product” a lot more than editorial though, so I started looking around, which took me to CEB.

So now I’m a digital product manager for CEB. We sell research to other companies and do it through about ~70 websites. My team manages the content management system that runs all of those websites as well as some one-offs. I’m now managing a few people and our team handles all things “social” – discussions forums, polling, personalized content, and a mobile app for iOS and Android. I’ve been here almost 3.5 years now.

It’s a fun gig, but I’m getting the itch to move out of the area. So, I’m looking to do similar stuff but… elsewhere. I like improving user experiences, because a lot of them really suck.

[V1GiLaNtE]

It’s a fun gig, but I’m getting the itch to move out of the area. So, I’m looking to do similar stuff but… elsewhere.

Oh..? Seems there's small band of us working on our exit strategies. :thumbup:

[Jake]

It’s a fun gig, but I’m getting the itch to move out of the area. So, I’m looking to do similar stuff but… elsewhere.

Oh..? Seems there's small band of us working on our exit strategies. :thumbup:

Yeah, nothing against the area really. I just grew up close by and don't want to be here forever.

[ScottyB]

past MM secretary and alumni, graduated in 2005. BS Fine Art, concentration Industrial Design. currently in Augusta GA.

i'm a freelance graphic designer/illustrator who's been running my own show (Bradford Ink) for about 10 years now, and worked in the design world professionally since '05. i do everything except complex website builds. i'm a lead artist contracted with a couple other small businesses as well, although those are mostly short term affairs. i work with another 2 alumni as well, Garrett Hughes and Pete Denbigh, as a co-owner of SportStickers which you can find in local outdoor shops and on Amazon. my position there is also Lead Artist/Art Director.

most importantly, i got to design some MM shirts and marketing goodies which is the career highlight so far. :thumbup:

basically, i have my hands in a bunch of stuff all the time and like doing things myself or with a small team. love the entrepreneurial world and typically find myself as part of a startup every couple years. i work from home and spend about 1/3 of my time taking care of my son so i'd consider that a job responsibility too :lol:

i'll never turn off the graphic design side but i'm hoping to expand into some other business ventures soon that deal with more fine art, comic illustration, and building. if anyone here ever has questions about going into a design career, feel free to flag me down but be warned you might be dead of old age before i shut up, because i've learned a LOT as a result of basically learning how to do everything on the fly and screwing up all the time.

[G.Irish]

Class of 2003

Graduated with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in ISAT

Don't wanna bore you with 14 years of experience, so the quick and dirty is I started out doing ASP (then ASP.NET) and SQL Server Development, then moved into Sharepoint development with a little bit of Reporting Services. Have been doing .NET and Sharepoint for about 10 years now. Have been a contractor at State Department at various different bureaus for 2 different companies for the last 8. Current a Senior Software Engineer/Team Lead.

Wifey has a degree in Economics and Psych and a MBA and works as an IT project manager (contractor) at State Department as well.

I've got a number of buddies working in different IT shops in the area so if that is a field you're going into I can probably connect you or at least give you some advice.

[.RJ]

It’s a fun gig, but I’m getting the itch to move out of the area. So, I’m looking to do similar stuff but… elsewhere.

Oh..? Seems there's small band of us working on our exit strategies. :thumbup:

Yeah, nothing against the area really. I just grew up close by and don't want to be here forever.

I'm with you. Chasing job leads right now in Charlottesville (#1 choice, but job market is a little thin) or possibly Richmond, Charlotte NC & Austin TX.

Graduated 2004 (fuck, I'm old). Worked in private company software teams doing BA/product management work for 10+ years, then ran a line of business at an IT training company for 3, and now working as an Agile team coach/consultant for the past 18 months. Will probably sick with the current line of work until the money runs out on that gravy train, then :dunno: I have been doing some contracted work on the side building leadership training programs for a different IT training company this year, and that's been fun too.

[Sully]

Graduated in 2014 with a Management TIE degree. Drove the HDPT bus (and drunk bus) while in school

Had no idea what I wanted to do and after a year of searching (and occasionally going back to HBurg to drive the bus for a week at a time) took a job with Specialty Beverage as a delivery driver because the pay was decent and it felt like a foot in the door somewhere. Specialty is a state wide alcoholic beverage dist that does mostly craft stuff and some bigger names like Dogfish Head and New Belgium in certain parts of the state. Richmond was a grueling route and lucky it paid by the hour because I was doing 12 hour days easy. After about 6 months, the Harrisonburg driver got fired and they gave me his route because I knew the area. The route eased up slightly but over the last year, they found ways to make it larger and more difficult. With the minimum 4 hours drive time each day, I was doing 12-14 hours a day which was kind of fine cause it was pay by the hour. (and good benefits)

But I tried and was denied moving up in the company on 3 different occasions (one I had no real chance getting but figured I'd try anyway). I had started trying to get an Brewery Rep sales job, mainly with Bold Rock, waiting for one to open while I held out for something else at Specialty to open up. Got our performance evals for 2016 the first week of February and I scored higher then any other driver by a decent margin. Got a 5% raise which is not that common. Fast forward a week later, I was driving up to Harrisonburg on 64W at 5:30am. Part my fault, can't remember for sure but I may have been tired, and part his fault (even though cops put me 100% at fault) for driving on a flat doing 25mph in a 70. Anyways, come around a blind turn (as blind as can be on a major 2 lane hwy at night) and I don't really remember anything except the impact. Totaled the truck and spent the day at UVA.

Well they fired me for that even though my managers all offered to write me letters of recommendation and do anything they could. Even had accounts like the GM of Jack browns/Billy Jack's reach out to my company saying how Great I was but it didn't sway them. So I've been job hunting for the last two months. Was trying to be picky at first and find something I truly wanted (Brewery Sales Rep or something that sounded interesting) but that has only led me to 4 applications. Heard back from my top choice after a month and I emailed them and they are in the final stages with 2 other candidates. So now I guess I'm looking for anything I can. Sounds like I'll be applying to some inside insurance job here soon. An acquaintance of the fiancés mom mentioned it and said shed fast track the hiring process but its basically inside customer service rep for auto claims.

I'd be happy to give any advice but the only thing I really have is to do the exact opposite of everything I did! :thumbup:


Here's the truck. I mean I can kinda see why they were pissed off....

[*insertusernamehere*]

Damn Sullivan I had no idea you were in such a bad accident, I hope it turns better for the future. Did you have any bad injuries?

[navin]

Not an JMU alum, hell I'm not sure how I found MM.. (actually I do, thank Mike and RJ...suckers).

GMU grad, Information Technology

Scored a job at the now defunct BearingPoint doing "IT security", which basically meant using some automated tool and running some scans on servers, etc. Bunch of people quit so I got moved into a role of actually doing "hands on testing". Work for a small/midsize company now that bought out the BearingPoint contract named Blue Canopy breaking web applications for the federal gov't.

Actually left Blue Canopy and went to CGI to break Obamacare, that was fun till it wasn't. Back at Blue Canopy for the time being.

Jump around, make dat $$.

edit - We have lots of openings if anyone has an IT degree. Pretty good way to get your foot in the door at a company that isn't a Big 4, and then use it as a stepping stone to other opportunities.

[BLINGMW]

ISAT Energy degree in 2001, moved back to Roanoke after a few years in ATL. Good civil engineering friend of mine is still there doing traffic engineering if you want to go there for some reason.
Worked for Bimmerworld for a bit if you want a recommendation there for shop, office, and/or travel/crew work. Fun times!
Did energy management for approx 10 years with GridPoint and Advance Auto, I can recommend neither unless you're desperate. But I do know quite a bit about the field, still am a CEM, and would like to get back into it some day.
Bought a Budget Blinds franchise and am making more $ now than I ever have and work approx 35 hrs/week. If you want to move to Roanoke I can probably employ you. Or if you want to own your own franchise somewhere else, we can split the $35K referral fee. :wink:

[HAULN-SS]

2006 Grad, Math and Computer Science double major. Ive hopped around in the government contracting world for the last decade. Everything from gigantic billion dollar software systems with hundreds of developers, to scientific programming in a super computing lab, to "boutique" software development that lets me build out my own ideas. I typically stay away from the codemonkey jobs, so that being said I don't know of much work for "java programmers" or whatever, but if you're a creative developer, and have kept your nose clean, I might be able to give you some recommendations on finding some pretty interesting work.

At this point, I am kind of biding my time to find the right opportunity to start my own company. I was close 2 years ago, and got all the paperwork and such in place, a team of 3 guys, but didn't have quite the right contacts to make it happen then.sooon...hopefully.

[Senor_Taylor]

Well I'm in a weird spot as I graduate in 2 weeks, so I have no experience, but I also have no questions.

B.B.A. in Computer Information Systems - 2017

I just signed on with CVENT in Tyson's Corner in a Software Support Engineer role. I'll basically be handling support tickets that get escalated all of the way to the top, finding errors in the code or infrastructure and making fixes for them. Other than that, I'm not entirely sure what else I'll be doing. Most CIS majors get sucked into the black hole of government consulting, but I knew that wasn't for me and I enjoy the technical side as well as the business side of IT so I'm trying to avoid purely functional roles as well as purely development roles.

NOVA was basically my last choice of locations and I hope to move to Richmond some day, but the job market was a little slim considering I was searching for a role that was a little outside the CIS wheelhouse. The position seems really interesting and the offer was fantastic, so it seems like I'm in NOVA for now.


I never realized how many CS/CIS majors we had in the club. For any younger people reading this post that don't know what major to choose, be sure to look into CIS. It's a very broad path that will expose you to so many different areas that it's hard NOT to find a job. It's also the highest paying major at JMU, so it's very rewarding if you can crack it.

Edit: Here is the LinkedIn group. I encourage everyone to join it: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8593843">https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8593843</a><!-- m -->

Also, any current students looking for a job, I can get you on with Cracker Barrel making almost $10 or more. The job is honestly pretty hard, but the hours can be made pretty flexible. Just hit me up and I'll make the call.

[Levey]

2011 BBA in International Business

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do when I graduated. I took some advice to look into the Management Trainee program in Marketing for Norfolk Southern (don't walk down the tracks on campus, kids) and started at the Norfolk headquarters in 2012.

I've worked in market analysis/outside sales type of roles with the company, but there are tons of different jobs since it's a railroad with over 20,000 miles of track.

I just started a new position on the team managing business levels of export metallurgical coal.

Anybody interested in a career with the railroad is free to give me a shout. I'd love to help some more JMU alums come to NS.