For most of the time, Emily Jones was a business student, she worked as a teller at a local bank. Her education helped her get two promotions, the first to head teller as a result of her internship as a senior. Then shortly after she graduated, she took a position at another bank as sales and service supervisor.
Her biggest career achievement so far is “getting to where I am. Being a manager is my proudest accomplishment,” said Emily of Lyndonville, now branch manager at TD Bank in St. Johnsbury. Her duties range from opening personal and business accounts for customers to coaching her employees.
Faculty Helped Her to Continue Working While Enrolled
Some of the most valuable parts of her college experience were “the real-life experience I got and the connections I was able to make,” she said. She also benefited from the flexibility and support of her professors, who “set me up to be able to work while going to school.”
By working nearly full-time while she was in college, Emily could apply what she learned in the classroom in her job and discuss work challenges with her business professors. “I could connect work and school hand in hand,” said Emily, who pursued business concentrations in management, accounting, and marketing.
She Built Career and Life Skills in Her Business Classes
In her classes, Emily gained broad business knowledge and learned practical skills, including sales and marketing strategies and how to write professional emails, create a resume, interview for a job, use Excel, and develop a household budget.
She also had to make a presentation to other business students for each class. “Getting the opportunity to speak in front of 20 or 30 students is a huge benefit going into a job,” Emily said. That experience strengthened her communication skills and prepared her for the presentations she makes and conference calls she leads in her work now.
Connections She Made Have Been Valuable
The relationships Emily developed with Business and Economics Department chair Jim Black and other faculty helped her succeed — and have been beneficial since she graduated.
At Professor Black’s invitation, Emily recently joined an advisory board of business faculty, alumni, and local employers that discusses workplace trends and appropriate courses to offer. The board “helps make sure that what’s being taught in classes is up to date … and what students are learning is relevant to what’s needed in real life,” Emily said. “Because I went to that small, tight-knit school, I have all these connections on the board now.”
