“Speed-Sell Interviewing” Event Tests Honors Cohort And Delta Sig Members
Student leaders of the Business Honors Cohort Program (HCP) and the Delta Sigma Pi (DSP) Professional Business Fraternity recently hosted “Speed Sell Interviewing,” an event where students can experience doing an “elevator pitch” style speed sell of themselves to judges that include industry executives, current students and alumni of USF School of Business and Professional Studies’ MBA for Executives program, and successfully employed recent HCP alums as well.
Students do a two minute pitch, followed by a one minute Q & A with the interviewer, and complete 5-8 interviews in a row — moving down the line every three minutes when the bell rings ( sort of like “speed dating” for a job).
The event was moderated by Professor Dayle Smith, and VP of Professional Programming for DSP, and HCP member Darius Chen.
Professor Smith observed: “I feel that this event is particularly special because of the outreach: we’ve been able to include alumni of our HCP program, members of the MBA for Executives program, grads and current students, and industry executive contacts. I think that’s because of the nature of USF’s School of Business: we’re small, intimate, and we emphasize small classes and close relationships between faculty and students.”
Following the speed interviewing, three members of the USF MBA program, Sara Birnbaum, Major Account Manager, Verizon Wireless, Ryan Dougherty, Budget Manager and Assistant to the Dean, USF School of Nursing, and Gary Weatherford, Former COO Altus Traffic Management LLC, COO Bare Essentials, and EVP Operations for Cost Plus World Market joined two HCP alums, Jared Fliesler, Executive Producer, Slide Inc. and Bryan Chauvel, Senior Marketing Planner, Williams Sonoma, to conduct a panel discussion. They shared feedback and their personal advice about “what impresses an interviewer.” The goal was to establish best practices for making a strong positive impression as students network and interview throughout their professional lives, and particularly as they launch their careers after graduation. Panelists were positive in their review of student performances.
“Visiting executives, when they talk about our students,” Professor Smith mentioned, “always say that they offer something special — because they come from a community that is highly interactive, highly cohesive, and they’re not afraid to be who they are … It’s never hard to recruit our alums or our current grad students to participate, and that tells me we’re doing something right here.”
