Career coach offers advice for young professionals

By Stephanie Skordas, Sr. Associate Director, Communications

“Align to the right organizations,” noted career coach Jena Burgess, PHR, explained to a group of Master of Arts in Management and Master of Science in Business Analytics students in Broyhill Auditorium on January 26.

Known as “Coach Jena B,” Burgess owns her own consulting firm to prepare early career professionals for the workplace. In the video below, she offers her top three takeaways for students.

Burgess stressed the “4 P’s” for students engaged in their career search: prepared, productive, professional, and positive. She suggested that resiliency is not only an attribute that organizations will look for in a new employee, but it’s a trait that can help young professionals through the grind of their job search.

She offered these tips:

• Take stress and turn it into productivity
• Demonstrate competence during stressful times
• Recover quickly from dramatic situations
• Grow from failures and challenges

“I really enjoyed Jena B’s talk,” said Kristen Merlo (’16, MA ’17) who attended the session. “While it may take hard work now, knowing it will pay off later was motivating. I especially liked her comments about using the real-world experience gained as a student when talking with employers. I’ve found that they are interested in my activities, such as student co-chair of the School’s Retail Health Innovation Challenge.”

Burgess spent a day with students, offering additional sessions on positivity and storytelling to aid in their career searches.