Walk-In-Wednesdays: Partnering with Industry Professionals for Student Development

A&M-Commerce’s Office of Career Development launched its newest initiative called “Walk-In-Wednesday” this February, whereby professionals from different industries are invited to speak to university students each Wednesday.

Tami Bishop, assistant director of Career Development, started the initiative to provide another platform to students with excellent opportunities to meet with professionals that share both their experience and expertise with the students. Held at the Starbucks at the Velma K. Waters Library, “Walk-In-Wednesday” provides a casual setting whereby students from across all colleges can easily approach industry professionals to inquire more about their specialty.

In coordination with the College of Business, Jessica Elder, an early career recruiter with Koch, was invited to partake in “Walk-In-Wednesday”. Jessica was eager to speak to students about Koch's tax business, which has recently moved into a new space in downtown Dallas and was seeking interns to grow its office as part of its expansion.

“It was great to meet students with a variety of backgrounds and majors and be able to share more information about Koch with them,” Elder said. “There is so much to know about our company, and it's exciting to be able to connect business, technology, and even science majors with various opportunities on our website.”

As she spoke to students about various internship opportunities, Elder also discussed how 60-80% of their interns convert to full-time employees.

Speaking about the initiative, Bishop stated: “It has been overwhelming to see the support and the outreach from our industry partners in the community who want to come on campus to support the career development of our students.”

She continued: “The fact that in addition to students, alumni also attended the various sessions speaks volumes to this initiative's impact. It allows us to meet them with students and alumni where they are in their career journey, by providing an informal discovery opportunity for them to talk with industry professionals.”

“Walk-In-Wednesdays” was designed to ensure students have easy access to professionals from various industries here in Commerce, Texas. In turn, these professionals provide the students and alumni that attend with career readiness advice, whilst providing resume reviews, interview tips and answering industry questions.