Center for Sales Excellence Hosts the 6th Annual Showcase Boot Camp
Networking, career coaching, and plenty of interview prep were on the agenda for the 2022 Center for Sales Excellence Showcase Boot Camp.
More than 170 students from the Georgia Southern University’s Parker College of Business were in attendance to make the most of the opportunity to meet with sales professionals and recruiters from eleven partner firms, including Tom James, Mutual of Omaha, Tanium, and C.H. Robinson. The Showcase Boot Camp is designed to prepare students for a successful college-to-career transition, taking them from the classroom to the boardroom.
Having first begun in 2016, the Boot Camp has been a great success allowing firms the opportunity to get close, face-to-face interaction, with the best and brightest that Georgia Southern has to offer. This event is designed to be part educational and part networking opportunity, all of which are important aspects as you transition from student to professional.
“Sales is a dynamic and growing profession that offers great opportunities to those with the right skills and motivation,” explains Allen Amason, Dean, Parker College of Business. “Through our Center for Sales Excellence, we have developed a strong pipeline and helped hundreds of students launch productive careers in professional selling. We believe that drawing together bright and motivated students, providing them the right instruction, and then exposing them to leading sales professionals and exciting opportunities will create an engine that drives success.”
The Boot Camp is designed to provide small group interaction between students and industry leaders. Every 15-minutes the corporate coaches rotate to a new table of students to discuss the next interview topic. The interview topics discussed are provided by the coaches, as some of the most frequent questions a student might encounter in a job interview for their first sales position. The coaches provide guidance on how to best approach the question, and then amongst the table, each student discusses from their unique perspective. Once the time is up, the coach rotates to the next table, meeting a whole new group of students and discussing a whole new interview question.
Throughout the Boot Camp, networking time is built into the schedule so that the corporate coaches and students can get to know each other on a personal level, discussing their firm’s respective culture, corporate initiatives, and upcoming hiring opportunities. “Students enjoy this holistic approach to sales education,” said Linda Mullen, Co-Director of the Center for Sales Excellence. “The interactions and relationships formed at the Boot Camp provide our students with a unique viewpoint and perspective on the profession. Active sales practitioners are able to provide advice and guidance on what it takes, not only to get a job in sales, but to thrive as a professional salesperson.”
The Boot Camp would not be possible without the support of the Center for Sales Excellence corporate partners. Rounding out the eleven corporate partners included Darktrace, Federated Insurance, Herc Rentals, JEAR Logistics, TechQuidation, OTR Capital, and our newest partner, Gartner.
“I enjoyed being able to meet with and learn from professionals representing so many different companies and spanning so many different industries,” explained Lisandra Vidal Velez, a Junior Marketing Major from the Parker College of Business. “The opportunities provided to us outside the classroom to learn and grow as students, is what I think makes this program at Georgia Southern stand above the rest. I’m excited to take what I learned here today, at the Boot Camp, and apply these skills for when I have my next big job interview!”
Center for Sales Excellence, Georgia Southern University
Located within Georgia Southern University’s Parker College of Business, the Center for Sales Excellence is recognized by the University Sales Alliance as one of the nation’s top sales programs. Established in 2007, it is the mission of the Center to have a positive impact on the sales profession through education, research, and service. The Marketing B.B.A. program offers the students of Georgia Southern University an emphasis in Sales and Sales Management.
Through the Center, students gain experience with sales role-play in our dedicated labs, with many going on to compete in some of the nation’s most prestigious sales competitions. The Center also works to bring students together with companies in the industry looking to hire the best and brightest minds. It is the goal of the Center to be the preeminent sales program in the nation.
Posted in News