Women in Business Networking Event Inspires Future Professionals
By Sue McMurray
The club meets every other week and offers students a range of activities, guest lectures, and workshops with the goal of creating a community of business-minded women at WSU. Club leaders began offering the luncheon last year to help students develop practical networking skills.
Aspiring businesswomen practice 90-second pitches
Before the luncheon, students prepare brief talking points about themselves. During the networking session, each person has 90 seconds to pitch their career aspirations, unique attributes, and professional needs to business professionals at their tables. In between the timed sessions, moderators share tips for success, such as wearing a nametag on the opposite side of your dominant hand, so the tag can be better seen when shaking hands. Another suggestion is to be selective of what’s shared on social media. According to Novoresume, 70 percent of employers turn down job applications because of information they find on the candidate’s social network, especially provocative photos.
Forty-four students participated in this year’s event. Some, like Lana Burrill, have already started their own businesses or are planning to. Burrill has worked since she was 14 and in high school, she launched a small jewelry business on Etsy and Shopify. She’s looking for connections to internships relevant to her marketing major.
Jasmine Montoro, an accounting and finance major, is considering an international career and hopes to study abroad. She’s leaning toward a career in the tax realm and would like to do an internship within the next couple of years to develop her professional experience.
Riley Timmons is studying finance but undecided about her career path.
“I did Running Start and will graduate in 2027,” she says. “I need to build connections and get more work experience.”
Experienced business leaders share career journeys
“Don’t feel like you have to wait until you are older to do an internship,” she says. “If an opportunity comes up in your freshman year, take advantage of it.”
She also talked about how to make the most out of the experiences.
“Not everyone is able to do an internship at a big company, but everyone can find ways to make their work experiences more relevant with a little creativity and initiative,” she says.
Flynn shared several lessons from her own work experience. She reiterated the power of networking, noting she was hired at Microsoft shortly after meeting a Microsoft recruiter at a party and discussing her career aspirations.
Once in the workforce, Flynn learned to appreciate feedback after a tough supervisor told her she would never become a recruiter, which was her aspiration at the time.
“At first, I was upset. But I thought about it for a while and went back and asked her why she said that,” Flynn says. “She gave her reasons, and I set out to prove her wrong. Had I not embraced her feedback, I never would have pushed myself to improve, and it has paid off for me time and again over my career. It’s important to view feedback as a gift.”
Flynn encouraged students to consider finding a mentor and taking time to become knowledgeable about their employer, once hired.
The event also featured guest speaker Kerri Schroeder, Pacific Northwest regional chair and managing director/regional manager of commercial banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Schroeder says she always raised her hand to do tougher assignments, working toward the job she wanted.
“Embrace fear,” she says. “Always do the thing that scares you—that’s where the growth is.”
Schroeder talked about the need for women to be able to negotiate salary, develop confidence, and assume positive intent.
“As a woman in the workforce, if you go in looking for slights and disrespect, you’ll find it,” she says. “People will doubt you, and you have to prove them wrong. Focus on positive intent and advocate for yourself.”
Schroeder and Flynn both expressed the value of finding work/life balance, as it means something different to everyone.
“I had a high-level management role at age 29. To me, balance is a wave. My children identify what matters to them, and I’m there for those things,” Schroeder says. “You can do it all.”
The Women in Business networking luncheon is sponsored by the Department of Finance and Management Science in the Carson College of Business.