Nothing can hold Julie O’Connor back. Now, she aids an effort to help business students transform into professionals.
From her apartment, Julie Huffines O’Connor, ’97 accounting, ’00 MBA, can see Union Square and the World Trade Center. When she steps out her front door, she is buffeted on all sides by the frenetic energy of New York City.
The consultant for Knoxville’s EdSouth and Southeast Bank has come a long way from Cookeville and her native Gainesboro, but she has not forgotten her roots or her alma mater. Before she left Tennessee a year ago, she came back to give guest lectures about banking, attended College of Business Student to Career program etiquette dinners and donated some of her best suits to its clothes closet.
“I remember how big I thought the world was at the time of my graduation with my bachelor’s degree,” O’Connor said. “You feel like when you grow up in a small town that background needs to be overcome, that feeling of ‘I can’t leave my home, I’m scared.’
“I want Tennessee Tech College of Business students to really feel empowered that they can do anything they want to do,” she said. “To feel like you have the courage and the confidence to go somewhere you’ve never been and not close yourself off and think you can’t.”
Before she went to Manhattan, she was EdSouth’s chief accounting officer and responsible for ensuring the bank and holding company comply with federal and other regulations. When she moved, company management decided to keep her doing the same work as a consultant.
O’Connor knew she wanted to be an accountant long before she came to Tech. But she had help along the way from those more experienced than she.
“My parents and mentors throughout my career always encouraged me to work hard to achieve my goals,” she said. “I have had great mentors along the way and cannot say enough about the value of a mentor in the early years of a business career.”
That encouragement started when her father, Dan Huffines, ’69 education, would bring her old ledgers and cancelled checks from his grocery store for her to play with as a child.
Tech is a tradition for the Huffines family, and alumni include her mother, Jennie, ’69 education, and her uncle Drue, who is a member of the College of Business Board of Trustees and the voice of the Golden Eagle basketball teams. When she enrolled, O’Connor planned to transfer to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She never did, and some of her fondest memories of Tech are of late-night, pizza-fueled study sessions in the Johnson Hall computer lab with other MBA students.
Now, the computer lab is gone, and almost every Tech student owns a computer. But that isn’t the only thing that has changed in 15 years.
“It seems there has been a transformation since I was here to include a focus on the social aspect of business as well as the academics,” O’Connor said. “There is an emphasis now to teach the students how to act in a business setting, which can be as important as the technical skills they learn in business school.”
As higher education is giving more attention to professional development with academics, the Student to Career program organizes buses to Nashville’s annual career fair, an etiquette dinner on campus for students to meet professional guests and dozens of workshops every semester. Combined, these programs help students to find their professional selves.
“I can’t think of a way the Student to Career program hasn’t helped me, personally and professionally,” said Chris Hunter, ’14 human resources management, who works in Nashville’s Nordstrom. “I learned it’s important to approach people as a professional and not as a student. I think a lot of people view students as needing something. When you approach someone as a professional, you’re an equal.”
Part of being a professional-in-training is dress, and the clothes closet is one of Student to Career’s more popular offerings. Hundreds have donated clothes or funds since the closet was established in 2009. Before she moved to Manhattan, many of O’Connor’s suits joined the racks.
One of those suits went to Sierra Marchi, ’17 basic business, for the Nashville career fair. It was her first foray into the professional world and though the suit fit her perfectly, her shoes – borrowed from a friend – were a size too big.
“That was definitely a rookie freshman move but at least I was a freshman, not a senior looking for a job,” she said. “I used the clothes closet because I didn’t know anything about business professional wear. The suit looked fabulous.”
Many business alumni have joined the effort to help students become professionals. They donate suits, which are in constant use. More than 60 percent of the nearly 150 students who went to the Nashville career fair this spring went in borrowed clothes.
Business grads and other professionals attend the etiquette dinner. When it started in 2009, the dinner had one professional and 50 student guests. This spring, it had more than 60 professionals and 101 students.
Alumni and others give advice and answer questions during guest lectures and workshops during professional development week, where students can learn about careers and networking. Attendance has grown from 97 students in 2009 to more than 170.
“We want to offer enough professional development options for our students to succeed professionally,” said Amy Jo Carpenter, ’02 interdisciplinary studies, ’13 M.A. educational psychology, Student to Career program manager. “I want them to see what’s possible with the skills they walk through the door with. Then we hone them and blow them through the roof.”