Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

  • Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc.
  • Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
  • Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
  • Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
  • Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

Career

Thomas E Foster

Foster.1202@osu.edu | (937) 352-5215| 1900 Cannon Dr Morril Tower| Columbus, OH 43210

EDUCATION

The Ohio State University, Max M. Fisher College of Business                                     Columbus, OH

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Spanish                                                       May 2023

  • Specialization: Finance
  • Minor: Philosophy
  • GPA: 3.93
  • Recipient of Fisher Scholars Faculty Scholarship
  • Summa Cum Laude in Waynesville Class of 2019

WORK EXPERIENCE

B&B Carryout                                                                                                                  Waynesville, OH

Maintenance/Cook                                                                                                 May 2017 – August 2019

  • Trained new employees
  • Served customers

Marshall’s TJX                                                                                                                  Centerville, OH

Sales Associate                                                                                                  November 2018 – May 2019

  • Organized storage space
  • Sorted freight

 McDonald’s                                                                                                                      Waynesville, OH

Crew                                                                                                                        March 2015 – May 2017

  • Prepared food
  • Served customers

ACTIVITIES & INVOLVEMENT

MMC Scholars FLO Team                                                                                                Columbus, OH

Leader                                                                                                                  October 2019 – May 2020

  • Planned and organized events.
  • Brainstormed ideas with team of peers.

College Mentors for Kids                                                                                                   Columbus, OH

Mentor                                                                                                              September 2019 – May 2020

  • Instilled a desire for higher education in elementary students.
  • Led by example for elementary students.

SKILLS SUMMARY

  • Microsoft Office
  • Python coding
  • Cultural competence
  • Event organization
  • Leadership

Artifacts

Thomas Foster

MMC Scholars Seminar

6 November 2019

Informational Interview

I chose to interview Noelle Marra because I wanted to explore what a job looks like in the marketing field. Although I am a finance major currently, I’ve been trying to explore other career fields throughout the semester. This informational interview provided the perfect opportunity to explore a job in the field of marketing. Noelle Marra attended Ohio State University and was in Fisher College of Business but graduated from a university in Manhattan. She had an internship in college with Victoria’s Secret that helped her secure her current job. She currently works for a consulting agency in New York. Although the interview was over the phone, you can see in her address she works on the 63rd floor of her building. She does consulting for small businesses in New York to help them figure out who to market to and how to market to them. This requires her to work with other teams in her agency. Other teams in her agency collect data that she can analyze to build the best marketing strategies depending on what services the business offers.

Noelle greatly stressed the importance of networking as a skill. She emphasized it multiple times throughout the interview. She also emphasized that it is a skill that can be developed and improved. She graduated in 2010, during the recession. She said if it hadn’t been for her good networking, she would not have gotten the job she has now. But where did she start? She started her networking when she got an internship with Victoria’s Secret. She held onto the contact information of the people she worked for and contacted them after graduating, asking for work. She even offered to work for free, just to get her foot in the door. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any positions open. However, they did put her in contact with the marketing agency she works for now. She stressed how thankful she was she held onto the contact information. She also said it is important not to burn bridges when you quit working for a company because they may be able to help you in the future. Of course, networking is not the only skill you need.

The field of marketing has a lot of skills required. One very important skill is a general knowledge of technology. Being able to navigate and operate Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint is important for almost every entry-level business-related career. Noelle mentioned that at the start of this job she worked a lot with Microsoft Excel but at this point in her career she uses Microsoft PowerPoint more. Along with PowerPoint skills, it is important to be able to have good presentation skills. Being able to efficiently and effectively communicate information is extremely important to her role in the company now. She strongly recommended taking the Computer Science and Engineering class offered at OSU. She was pleased to learn that it is a prerequisite for many business core classes. She also said any another type of technological knowledge, like coding, will make you more desirable for a company. Another important aspect of her job is analytics. She must be able to research and analyze data in order to give the best marketing advice to her clients. She recommended I take my Business Analytics classes very seriously for they are important to al business careers. Other classes she said made her more prepared for her job were psychology classes, especially consumer psychology. However, any psychology class that helps you understand how people think will be beneficial.

Noelle also touched on how the field of marketing is changing. In 2010, there was not as much stress on technological savviness. Now, it is basically a prerequisite for many jobs. Aside from how the importance of technology has increased, there is a big change in marketing strategies. Instead of just focusing on customer touchpoints, marketing teams are focusing more on the overall customer experience. This shift indicates companies are more concerned with wholly satisfying their customers rather than just attracting many. She discussed that marketing teams are starting to work with customer service teams to create better strategies geared towards improving the customers experience.

Noelle briefly discussed her previous positions and how she moved up in her company. When she began, she was on the research and analytics team. Her role was to help gather information, analyze the data, and report to her supervisor. Now, she has many more responsibilities. She is responsible for her own team of researchers and she uses the information from the team to consult clients. She talked about how she often has multiple projects going on with multiple clients to keep her days busy and engaging. However, that is her own personal preference. Other people in the same position as her often focus on one or two projects at a time. She did not mention how much further up in this firm she can get, but I’m sure there are still people in positions above her.

I believe the most important information I learned from the interview was how to prepare for a job interview. She discussed great strategies and gave example questions that I can ponder and prepare for. One example she gave of a good interview she had was with a prospective employee. The applicant brought a list of the classes she took in college that made her qualified for the job she was applying for. Noelle was extremely impressed and said it was one of the best job interviews she has ever had. She also said an interview question to think about is “What was your toughest class and how did you get through it?”. This is a question I will continuously think about throughout my college career as I take more difficult classes. It also got me to think about how I can prepare for those challenging classes when they come.

The interview was close to what I expected. It was very informational and I learned a lot about what a job as a marketing and advertising consultant. I also learned about other positions that are important to marketing consultants. Now that I’ve learned this information, I’m not completely positive I want to go into marketing. However, I am more confident that I would rather choose a marketing major over a finance major. I can see myself working with teams to create marketing strategies for businesses. Noelle mentioned that she travels for work at least once a month which is very appealing to me. A job that allows travel is high on my priority list when I consider career paths.

My next steps to prepare for my career are to keep exploring. I believe doing more informational interviews on my own time will help me decide what I want to do and what I want to major in. Exploring jobs in other business-related fields will help me rule out possible majors that OSU offers. I hope to take advantage of more career-related assignments throughout the rest of my semester in MMC.

 

About Me

Thomas Foster is a first-year finance major at the Ohio State University. He also plans to double major in Spanish with a minor in philosophy. He is also a member of the Media, Marketing, and Communications (MMC) scholars group, the College Mentors for Kids organization, and the Freshman Leadership Officer team in MMC.