Collegiate Women in Business (CWIB) proudly hosted its annual Power Panel last Tuesday, March 27th. It was a grand event hosted at the German Club Manor, featuring four Virginia Tech alums as panelists – Brittany Jacks, Jay Veeramachaneni, Danielle Fazio, and Kerry Wekelo, from Microsoft, Deloitte, EY, and Actualize Consulting, respectively.
CWIB members were able to have a private networking session with the panelists before the main event, in which they got the chance to chat with everybody, answer their questions, and share some advice from their personal experiences. This was a perfect opportunity to ask specific questions to each panelist based on their company. When asked how to stand out from a crowd of people when it comes to applying to jobs, Jay said, “Going to events like this is a good first step. It shows that you’re passionate and willing to make connections, and if any of us see you again, we’ll remember you!”
After the networking session, complete with snacks, desserts, and coffee, everyone moved into the conference room where the main event began. It started with an introduction from Ashlin Webster and Maddie Blevins, our current CEOs, followed by a short speech from Neha Shah, the VP of Power Panel. Afterwards, Gigi Jones, our incoming Co-CEO, began the panel by asking the panelists questions, such as what they did in college, the difficulties they faced in their daily lives, how the transition was from college to the workforce, etc. The most interesting thing I found from the four was that all of them switched majors/career paths multiple times. Danielle recalls how she originally was majoring in biochemistry before she switched to accounting, and Kerry wanted to be a psychology major but ended up studying finance and marketing because her mom “wouldn’t let her” pursue what she originally wanted. Jay, on the other hand, came in as an accounting major, didn’t like her classes, and switched to Business Information Technology (BIT) because she “loves to work with technology”. As a current Cyber Risk consultant, she’s doing exactly what she’s wanted to do.
Another interesting point the four of them brought up was flexibility. Brittany discussed how she used to be 100% fixed on working for Goldman Sachs, to a point where she didn’t even consider other companies. Though she constantly received rejections from them, she worked on bringing her GPA up and stopped “wasting time going to TOTS”, as she put it, and eventually did get an interview with them. Once she stopped being inflexible and expanded her mind, she ended up at Microsoft, where she believes is a perfect fit for her. A word of advice she gave was to “turn every no into a yes”.
After the panel, audience members had the opportunity to step up to the microphone and ask questions one by one. The question I asked was, “Is there anything you regret doing or not doing?” Danielle’s reply was that she wished she’d “grown her network more and used her connections”. She talked about how connections come in handy whenever you need them the most later on in life, and to make sure you use them wisely in school.
For more information on the panelists and their backgrounds, take a look at the CWIB website at http://www.vtcwib.com/power-panel-2018.
Thank you to everyone for coming, and see you next year!
