- March 5, 2015
- 4:02 pm
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The Power of Networking
Tuesday – 3/3
Whole Foods
Dimensional Fund Advisors
Dell
Capital Factory
Threadgill’s
Blog post by Kamila Kroczak (Quinlan ’15) Troy Davis (Quinlan ’17)
Today started out with a visit to Austin’s Whole Foods grocery store… one of the biggest and coolest grocery stores most of us have ever seen! Everything was neatly organized, abundantly supplied, and fresh! Digital price tags are also making an appearance. This was a great time for all of us to get some healthy light snacks, since Quinlan has been spoiling us with non-stop delicious foods and desserts!
We then all hop back into our vans, and after a couple of music jam sessions in the car together, we arrived at Dimensional Fund Advisors, LLC. It is funny because this office tour was not even on the agenda… but it is a prime example of the power of networking. Last night, we met a Quinlan MBA alum at our planned alumni dinner, and he was kind enough to tell us all about his work. When he found out we had a gap in our schedule, he offered for us to come check out his company! All it takes is a sincere conversation with someone and the doors begin to open up on their own.
Dimensional generously surprised us with a free lunch from their very own cafeteria, and we were able to sit and eat with two Quinlan alumni and their colleagues. We were all able to learn about their career paths as consultants, as well as the exciting internship positions available to us students! Our new friends at Dimensional also took us to see their Trading Floor…which was super exciting for us!
Our third event of the day was visiting Dell. We were taken through their Social Media Listening Command Center and learned their methods for providing exceptional customer service.
After Dell, our group had the opportunity to tour Capital Factory in downtown Austin. Headquartered on the top floor of the Austin Centre Executive Suites, Capital Factory offers state-of-the-art office space for technology start-up companies. The tour included open-office space built for collaborative and creative work, private rooms for making important calls with partners and investors, and even exclusive office space for companies who are beyond the creative phase with more structured needs. All of this is built around an expansive view of Austin from the heart of downtown and a fresh, modern feeling space. Capital Factory was an awesome example of what a young entrepreneur looks for in a workspace: open, friendly, casual, and exciting.
Following our tour, the group sat down with Loyola Graduate School alumni Brian Kurth. Brian shared his story of stumbling into the graduate program at a hard time in his life, after being laid off. After graduation and spending some time in corporate work, Brian made the decision to travel the country to look for inspiration for his next “adventure”. Kurth recognized a trend of tons of employees in various industries saying that their “dream job” was far from what they settled on doing for work. This trend then inspired Vocation Vacation, the first “test out your dream job” travel site, and Brian’s first company. While the recession would lead Brian to leave Vocation Vacation, Brian is excited to launch his next project soon, with Loyola’s Business and Career Center as the Beta Testers. Kurth’s journey of “zigging and zagging” showed our group how true innovation is equal parts chance and determination.
A big thank you to Desmond for the awesome tour, and to Brian Kurth for recommending we visit the Capital Factory and sharing his entrepreneurial story with the group. Both Capital Factory and Kurth represent modern entrepreneurship, and gave us a good sample for how innovation works in the modern market.
After quite an exhausting day, we all got to sit back and relax at our group dinner, trying a variety of new foods like hushpuppies, fried tomatoes, fried pickles, and fried jalapeno peppers at Threadgill’s! Of course both steak and chicken made an appearance
on our entrée plates, followed by delicious pie and banana pudding. Let’s just say we all had to roll ourselves back into the car. After this trip, we will all be set to win a food-eating contest.
During our Quinlan Ramble, we also get small chunks of free time to use as we please. Tonight, we all coordinated and decided to check out Whip In, which is a cool bar/grill that plays live music every night. We all loved the vibes and some of us even bought the band’s CD and got it signed!