The Power of Performance

By now many of you have probably seen my posts about the conference I attended a couple of weeks ago in Philadelphia. The experience was really unlike any other conference I've been to. World-renowned speakers and some of the world's largest companies were there to educate and recruit world-class talent (and the occasional undergraduate student).

I attended the conference as part of the University of San Francisco's Office of Undergraduate Studies & Programming within the School of Management. Our goal was to see if this type of conference that USF would want to continue publishing to the student body and perhaps sponsor students to attend in the future. Initially I thought to myself, "Ok, I get to travel all-expenses paid and access to great networking events. And, overall, I figured I could also help educate my school on what this conference really is all about. What I didn't think I would get out of it was an offer to interview for a major automobile company, valuable connections to huge companies, a course on how to build my personal brand on LinkedIn (this article is one step in the process by the way), and an inspiring talk from a childhood star I grew up watching.

This trip to Philly started off with two flights, one from SFO to LAX and then finally to PHL. Long story short... we landed in Philadelphia around 5 a.m. We were exhausted, hungry and in serious need of some sleep. So much so that we missed the opening session just to be able to catch up on our sleep. Needless to say, the rest of the day was even more tiring and left us just wanting to go back to our beds. And the fact that most of the sessions were targeted towards MBA students made us feel that we were wasting our time with a conference that provided little to no information for undergrads. Our only saving grace, at that point, was that we would get to see a celebrity the next day.

Tia Mowry-Hardrict was a speaker for one of the sessions the following day. She spoke about her struggles with being a childhood actress and transitioning into an adult actress, her different ventures and how to pivot at important points in your life. She spoke of how even as a successful actress she still had to adapt to changing landscapes and put herself out there as an actress all over again. One topic that she always returned to in conversation was your foundations and who you choose to surround yourself with. She was lucky to have parents that supported her ventures but always kept her grounded, even when she was making large amounts of money (and I'm glad that I have loving and supportive parents as well). Additionally, throughout her life she has chosen friends and companions based on what kind of energy they bring into her life. She believes that if you surround yourself with people that do not support you or bring negativity into your life, you will absolutely be affected by that as well.

The session was very inspiring and came at a perfect time to uplift us from the exhausting and what could be considered an unfruitful first day. But, now it was time to figure out how to strengthen our LinkedIn straight from their own company diversity leaders. The truth is that LinkedIn has created a revolution in the way that business and industry leaders communicate with peers from the whole world. Never before has there really been such a huge access to the whole world's business leaders and forward-thinkers and we still are not accessing all of the resources possible. I don't want to go into the details of all of their lessons (that's for a later article) but the least I could say is that their teachings were amazing and everybody who hasn't brushed up on their LinkedIn skills or is looking for a way to grow professionally should definitely explore that as soon as possible!

The day got even better, believe it or not. We saw that the Career Expo had finally opened up to all attendants at the conference. This was the event that really turned the conference around for me. I had just finished attending a session and little did I know that just a couple of steps away were some of the world's largest companies and their recruiters looking for potential employees and interns. The second we walked in we saw Google, Amazon, T-Mobile, Comcast NBCUniversal, BlackRock and their huge booths, lighting fixtures, photo booths and much more. It was overwhelming to see so many companies in one space; it was sensory and information overload to be quite honest. But, I could not let the opportunity of meeting with recruiters and learning more about the companies pass up. Luckily, my colleague and I had printed resumes and business cards in the anticipation that we might get the chance to meet with some recruiters. The preparation came in handy, since we circled the convention center at least 3 times just trying to make sure we didn't miss any potential future employers.

Luckily because of this opportunity, I was able to meet with amazing recruiters from a large automobile company and was offered an on-site interview the following day. The whole conference thereafter really felt surreal. My expectations were exceeded ten times over by this conference and the prospect of an internship makes it that much better. Not only that, but all of it was organized by the National Black MBA Association and Prospanica, organizations that serve to empower African-American and Hispanic professionals. Seeing real-life professionals that are minorities and companies that are looking for candidates with those types of backgrounds really gives me hope for the future of the business world and all industries.

Most of all, I want to give a big thank you to the University of San Francisco for allowing me to represent them at this conference and to learn from it. I hope that the School of Management will look into sponsoring student attendance at future conferences like these ones. Not only for the sake of students and their professional careers but also increasing awareness of USF as a leading educational institution.

If you want to attend conferences like these ones make sure to sign up as a member of these organizations, since they provide discounted student memberships and members normally get a discount on conference tickets as well. Refer to the following links:

Become a Prospanica member here

Become a NBMBAA member here