Upon starting my journey in Fuqua’s MQM program, I was certain that I wanted to be heavily involved in the school community. I was starting the program fresh out of undergrad, and I wanted to continue being a part of the university clubs and the social life—specifically anything that had to do with marketing. Running for the Marketing Club president seemed to be a natural decision for me.

Since becoming president, I have been learning many different personal skills and have seen the return on my input into the club, which is very rewarding. This opportunity represented not only a chance to enhance my own skills and broaden my network, but also the ability to be the marketing career resource for my friends in the program.

Having been in the program for eight months now, I can confirm that we all are ambitious individuals who manage their time well and constantly focus on the job search throughout the year. Knowing that career resources are of high interest to my peers, I’ve worked with the Career Management Center (CMC) to put on several marketing-related events, such as alumni visits, Q&A sessions, and networking opportunities.

Being the point of contact for the student body, alumni, and the CMC was a huge responsibility that gave me new perspective on the career search process. Because I was able to see things from CMC advisors and hiring managers’ points of view, I am now able to more fully understand the people I am interacting with through the career search. I also learned technical tips for the process, such as common mistakes made while networking. This has enabled me to both help my peers and implement these observations in my own networking. Although I believed I had well-rounded interpersonal skills, I definitely had many areas that I needed to work on.

However, the value that I’m able to give back to my Fuqua community has really been the highlight of my experience as Marketing Club president. For instance, the club hosted several events where various alumni visited to describe the companies they worked for, give important insights on the industry’s various career paths, and provide their contact information for future opportunities and for people seeking referrals. We have hosted alumni from Jet.com, HireStrategy, and IRi Worldwide who were willing to spend time sharing their experiences and helping us to understand the industry landscape. After I organized these sessions, I received a lot of positive feedback from my classmates, which became the best part of being in this role.

Through this experience, I have come to realize that grades are only a small part of the whole package once you start your master’s degree. Recruiters and the professionals I have met always emphasize the importance of having experiences beyond the classroom that will showcase your interpersonal skills and time management capabilities. Although juggling both my responsibilities and schoolwork has often been stressful, I am so glad that I took the opportunity to become the Marketing Club president and gained these valuable experiences that I can recall and value. Hopefully, I will be leveraging this role even more in the coming months to provide additional opportunities to my classmates and add many more valuable memories to this journey.