Last Thursday I had the honor of attending the 150^Th birthday celebration for Dr. P. Phillips. His legacy is the Dr. P Phillips Foundation, an institution whose generosity has helped Central Florida flourish. Among the community assets the organization supports is the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts where the event took place, and the Dr. P Phillips School of Real Estate in UCF College of Business. It was an honor to attend the event, learn more about Dr. Phillips and to celebrate the successes of the organizations it supports.

Before the event, the team and I decided to stop into the Grand Bohemian Hotel and have a drink. The Grand Bohemian was busy. We were at a table near the entrance listening to a young guitar player entertaining the patrons when Rob Thomas came around the corner. Rob was headlining the Dr. Phillips birthday celebration. He grew up in Orlando and is the co-founder of the group Matchbox 20. It’s fair to say that he is a really big deal. Rob looked up at the performer, took out his wallet, put cash into the tip box, nodded and went on his way. The whole encounter lasted about 20 seconds.

My initial reaction was surprise that Rob carried cash, especially since he was clearly headed over to the venue for the evening’s performance. But I soon realized that he was remembering where he came from, how tough the journey was, and the value of offering encouragement to the young guitar player to, well, just play on. It was a very cool moment.

It’s easy for those of us who have spent a lifetime in higher education to remember what we were like when we were striving to be college graduates, let alone professors. It’s a long, hard and uncertain road to a successful future. Taking time to remember where we came from, the nature of the journey, and throwing something into “the tip jar” for a student trying to walk in our shoes is something we should all do more often. You don’t have to make a big deal about it, the act kind of speaks for itself.

For several years, we have asked students to talk about one of their biggest failures, how they overcame it and what other students could learn from their experience.  Today, starts the 16^th edition of our Failure Competition.

The competition is designed to destigmatize failure. Everyone fails. It is part of life. Rather than pretend it won’t happen, you should count on it and know what you will do to recover from it. Getting comfortable with failure is a key step in becoming a better risk-taker and successful leader. That is why we celebrate failure and persistence in the college. Entering our competition is simple:

• Write an account of a career-related failure you have experienced in the past. Your failure story has to focus on a time you stepped out of your comfort zone to experience something new: the farther you stepped out of your zone, the better. Tell us why this was such a stretch for you, the failure that resulted and what you learned from the experience that would be of interest to others. It needs to be genuine; people can spot a fish story a mile way.
• While the Failure Competition began with students in our Capstone class, it is now open to any UCF student on campus: undergraduate, graduate or EMBA, business, education, engineering or whatever. The only requirement is that you currently be enrolled at UCF.
• Need inspiration or guidance to tell your story? Search my blog. We have posted many stories about failure over the years.

Here are the ground rules, along with important deadlines:

To enter, you must post your essay in response to this blog. If you are a Capstone student this semester, include your section number and name of your instructor. If you are not in this class, tell me your class standing (e.g., freshman, senior, graduate student) and your field of study. You must complete this exercise by 5 p.m., on Monday, Nov. 4th. Don’t worry if you don’t see your submission posted right away, I have to accept it first.

A panel of college staff will choose no more than three finalists for me to consider. I will select three finalists by Monday, Nov.11 at 5 p.m.

The finalists will be asked to submit short videos based on their essays. Those videos must be sent to me by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21.

I will feature one video each day on my blog, starting Dec 2nd. Readers will get a chance to vote for their favorite story and determine the winner Friday, Dec. 6.

The winner will get a letter of recommendation from me along with a $500 prize. Second place will get $300, third place $200. These monies are awarded through our financial aid office.

Good Luck!

If you are graduating in December, there is a good chance you are interviewing for jobs right now. If you’re not, you have already landed a job, are going to graduate school or have a different priority.

For those of you seeking a job, you have a lot going for you. The unemployment rate is very low. Employers are coming to campus looking to hire, and we have given you many opportunities to build an impressive portfolio of experiences and skills that employers covet.

If you are getting interviews, but not landing the job you want, you need to reconsider how you are approaching your interview. To help you think this through, let me share the main reasons talented people don’t get hired by me…

1. The candidate thinks the interview is about them, but it’s really about me. I am looking to hire someone who can solve a problem we have. You need to be the solution to that problem. Talk about how your skills and experiences give you the ability to meet my needs.

2. You did not do your homework. You cannot adequately address my needs, if you don’t know who we are or what we are trying to accomplish. Also, if you didn’t prepare for something that is obviously important to your future– getting this job, why would I think you would change your behavior and exhibit greater care in carrying out your duties once you got the job?

3. You didn’t seem eager about the opportunity. I like to hire people with fire in their bellies… people who are motivated by the challenge I have for them. This fire is very easy to see. People who have it are fully engaged in conversation about the challenges and potential solutions that come with the position. They eat and sleep this stuff and believe in what we are trying to accomplish. If you don’t show this to me in the interview, I have no reason to believe it will show up later.

4. You had no questions for me. This leads me to think you need a job, any job. Jobs are what people have when they are looking for money to fuel their real interests– it is just a means to another, more important, end. I’m looking for people who want fulfilling careers, embrace our values, and see the opportunity we have as a way for them to progress in their careers. Such people usually have questions for me about the nature of the work.

5. I didn’t learn anything new about you in the interview. Chances are, you aren’t the only person I interviewed for this position. In my world, I usually interview three finalists. I am most likely to remember the person who surprised me by giving me an insight I didn’t expect. All else equal, that’s the person I’m going to hire.

Are all hiring officials like me? Frankly, yes. I run a big organization. When people interview with me, they have already passed through several rounds of interviews and have been judged to be technically prepared for the task at hand. That allows me to focus a little more on mindsets, motivation and cultural fit. But all hiring managers want people who do their homework and bring their managers solutions rather than problems. They want people who are “all in” and genuinely enjoy what they are doing. Bringing something new to the organization, only adds to the candidate’s appeal. If you want to get the job, be that candidate.

You have all heard the expression: “It is not just what you know, but who you know that matters.” Well, your friends don’t know much. OK, that is a little harsh. More precisely, your friends tend to know the same things and have the same experiences that you do. From an information acquisition perspective, they are redundant.

This tends to be the natural state of affairs because most people befriend people who are just like them. This makes life comfortable, but dull. If you want to have an exciting, challenging, highly successful life, you need to get out of your comfort zone and actively search out people who are different from you. You want to meet people who can expand your knowledge base, introduce you to new experiences and broaden your perspective. Be purposeful about this.

I have friends who study the structure of human interactions in the workplace and other settings. It is called social network analysis. They look at who knows who, who people go to when they need information or help and how the patterns of people’s interactions differ. It turns out that people with different types of social networks perform differently at work. In other words, who you know and who and what they know really do matter.

For example, managers with more dispersed networks—people who know more people from different parts of the organization, as well as many people outside the organization, get promoted more quickly and earn more money than managers who tend to only associate with people in their work group. And building a broad network with many casual friends whom you only interact with once in a while tends to be more valuable than focusing on building a network with more frequent interactions involving a close set of friends.

Why? Most innovation is stealing. New ideas are scarce, but many old ideas can be applied in new settings. Lots of innovation comes from taking something that was tried successfully in one setting and adapting it to another or from combining existing things in new ways. The more people you know in different settings, the more likely you are to discover something you can apply in your work. And the broader your social network, the more people who will see your genius in action and spread the word to others that you are a rising star. The result: promotion and higher pay.

So, stop hanging out just with people from your high school or people who have the same major you do or who like the same music you do, and find some people who are as different from you as possible and get to know them. I would especially recommend that you get to know some international students—they have very different experiences and perspectives, many come from emerging markets and given globalization are people you are likely to be doing business with some day. Developing those contacts now will pay off big later.

This is the one time in your life when employers are going to come in large numbers looking for you. We bring them straight to campus. More than eighty of them will be here to meet you this Friday, Sept. 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. when we host The Invitational: An Event for Internships, Externships & Jobs at Addition Financial Arena. We call it “The Invitational” because both students and employers have to be invited to attend. Employers must have openings for interns or jobs, students must have shown they have done their homework and have prepared for the event.

If you are a student preparing for the event you might want to get advice from people who have been there. Luckily, we have done that for you too.  Check out our podcast on The Invitational by clicking here: https://business.ucf.edu/is-the-invitational-your-thing/

Remember what I told you at Welcome to the Majors: Many students pass up great opportunities like The Invitational because they have other priorities. “Getting to the one” requires that you get out of your comfort zone, prepare a game plan, and show up. If you do this, there is a great likelihood that you land an internship or the job that you seek. So, prepare now.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Life is full of choices. You can’t do them all and when you forgo an option to pursue another you lose the benefit of that second choice. This is known as your opportunity cost. Hopefully you learned this in an economics course by now.

You should think carefully about these costs when you make choices like going to college, just ask ChatGPT:

The biggest cost of going to college can vary depending on individual circumstances, but for many people, lost earnings and tuition and fees tend to be the most significant.

1. Lost Earnings:

• Overview: While attending college, you’re typically not working full-time, so you miss out on the potential income you could have earned by entering the workforce immediately after high school. Over four years, this lost income can be substantial.
• Impact: This is particularly significant for those who could have entered a well-paying job directly after high school. The lost wages, compounded over time, can represent a significant financial sacrifice.

2. Tuition and Fees:

• Overview: The direct cost of education, including tuition, fees, textbooks, and other related expenses, can be very high, especially at private institutions or out-of-state public universities.
• Impact: Many students take on substantial debt to cover these costs, and the burden of student loans can impact financial well-being for years or even decades after graduation.

Which is Bigger?

• For many students, tuition and fees represent the largest immediate financial burden, especially if they rely on student loans. However, lost earnings can also be a significant cost, particularly when considering the long-term financial implications.

The total cost of attending college, including both direct expenses and lost earnings, needs to be weighed against the potential long-term benefits, such as higher future earnings and career opportunities.

Whether opportunity costs exceed the cost of tuition and fees for a student is a complex calculation, but the choices you make can also impact this calculus. One is the instituion you attend: UCF has one of the lowest tuition and fees in the country. These costs for our students are small compared to most schools. But you can also reduce your opportunity costs, by graduating as quickly as you can. The shorter your time to graduation, the quicker you start reaping the benefits of your degree: a higher salary, better job conditions, and less student debt.

The bottom line is: Graduating in four years is smart. Do it if you can.

It’s true. As a student, you are cute and cuddly. Everybody wants to help a deserving student looking to make a name for their self in the world. Think about it: People donate money for scholarships so that worthy students can realize their dreams. They volunteer to come speak to classes as a way of “giving back” to their community. And who doesn’t find it flattering to be asked by some humble (not pushy) youngster to give them advice on how they can grow up to be just like you someday?

You need to take advantage of your cute and cuddliness now because it will not last long. You stop being cute and cuddly the day you graduate. On that day, you become the competition. The number of people willing to provide you with their time and insight will drop dramatically. So, now is the time to start to develop your networking skills and execute a plan to meet the kinds of people who can provide you with good advice about how to jump-start your career. The earlier you develop this plan and the faster you can execute it, and the bigger the gains you will realize from it.

Fortunately, the College provides you with a variety of ways to connect with experienced people who can give you advice on what it is like to work in their profession, what choices they made that helped them along the way, how they learned from their mistakes and what you need to do now to be successful later. So, in developing and implementing your plan, some things to do include:

Get to know some of your professors outside the classroom by attending office hours and asking their advice. I know they seem like strange creatures, but they are high achievers who know a great deal about what they research. They love talking about what they do, have seen lots of students over the years and have strong opinions about what makes people successful. Many also have professional connections in the community and can help you meet people you want to meet.

Join one of the student organizations in the College. Do this as a freshman and remain active all four years. Almost every major has a student organization. These organizations tend to focus on career development and frequently have guest speakers from the community who talk about the profession and what it takes to succeed. Go to these meetings, ask the guest speaker questions, and mingle before and after the event. Leaving a good impression with a guest speaker might even bring an internship or a job.

The Exchange was created to make meeting people who can help you jump-start your career. The alums, community leaders and business professionals who speak in The Exchange can tell you all about what they do, how their company competes, or their organization collaborates, what they are looking for in new recruits and what you need to do now so you will be of interest to them when you are ready to graduate.

In your junior year, apply to be a part of the College’s mentoring program. Just last Thursday, we had 75 volunteer mentors come to campus to meet with students eager to find someone who could give them the right kind of advice. If you missed this event, don’t worry we hold it every semester.

Finally, when doing these things, ask the people you meet to identify other people you may want to get to know to help you navigate your career. This will likely open even more doors. If this sounds like a fair bit of work, it is—but the payoff will be large. So, get busy. Remember your parents want you to graduate soon, so being cute and cuddly won’t last very long.

Like about 25% of my students, I was the first person in my family to go to college. One of my grandfathers worked in an iron mine, the other in a foundry. My father painted houses. My mother kept the books for an oil delivery company. For people who suffered through the Great Depression and World War II, they were happy to have honest work. They did their jobs with enormous pride and a sense of accomplishment. Labor Day was a big day in my house. Management, my family joked, got the other 364. (As Dean, I live by this.)

Sometimes my industry goes out of its way to disparage honest work. We don’t do it directly. We are far too civilized for that. Instead, we portray a college education as the gateway to a “better future,” earning the degree holder higher wages and fewer bouts of unemployment than people without the degree. Although it’s never really said, the inference is that honest work is inferior work. Life without college is by definition a lesser future.

I beg to differ. Honest work done with your hands and heart, isn’t inferior work, its different work. For some people, it’s the right work. Even today, the U.S. has about 30 million jobs that pay an average of $55,000 or more per year and don’t require a Bachelor’s degree. People in certain vocational fields are also slightly more likely to be employed than college degree holders. There is a lot of variance around all of these mean outcomes mind you, but honest work isn’t dead and the people who hold these jobs aren’t lesser folks — they are my parents. They worked hard to put me where I am today. Labor Day weekend isn’t for picnics, or endless College football games, it’s for celebrating them.

Don’t misunderstand me: I am a big believer in the transformative power of higher education. I’ve seen it change many lives for the better and it’s what made me what I am today. But while we take a break from classes this Labor Day, let’s not deceive ourselves into believing we hold the only key to people’s chance at a better future. With the advent of large language models, AI is threatening a lot of professional work, but as far as I know AI isn’t going to fix my plumbing or air conditioning, paint my house or provide me a memorable dinning experience. The tide might very well be shifting, but what is certain is that we can’t survive without all those folks who do honest work and relish in it. Thank you to America’s workers.

I always know when I meet a Professional Sales Program (PSP) student. They are well dressed, confident and assertive and I know I will get a request to connect with them on LinkedIn. The PSP students have one of the best student experiences in the college and they tend to get between three and five job offers each before they leave school.

Because these students are volunteering to go the extra mile, I always make it a point to welcome them to the college during their induction just before classes start. This always brings handwritten thank you notes from the students. With the exception of Merrell Bailey, I rarely get handwritten thank you notes anymore. In fact there is an ongoing debate about whether this charming practice is out of date. It is not.

The power of these notes lies in the fact that they are rare. They happen so infrequently that you tend to remember the person who sent them. This is especially true when they strike you as genuine and unique. In the batch I got this week, Manuela Fonseca’s stood out. She not only thanked me, she asked for my advice. Let’s just say she is ahead of the curve in becoming a good sales professional. Alexander Cooper and Allyson Williams’ notes also stood out, they just came in later than Manuela’s. Yes, it pays to be first.

Now be that as it may, if Manuela reads this email and sends me a note that she would like to have lunch, I will take her up on that offer. In fact, I may make this an annual event for the PSP thank you note that I think is most deserving of a follow up lunch…

I once had a business school colleague who wore Birkenstock sandals with black socks and shorts every day to class. I had another who chain smoked, rarely made eye contact, and carefully scripted his lectures because he didn’t feel completely comfortable in front of groups.

If faculty seem like unusual creatures, maybe it is because we have such unusual expectations of them. Here’s the deal: You have six years to prove that you have many new interesting observations backed up by data that students want to hear, editors want to publish, and colleagues want to read so that they can learn from you. There are only two outcomes after six years: unemployment or promotion with a job for life. If you make the first cut, we are going to ask you to be even more interesting and secure a national reputation. If you achieve this distinction, we promote you again. By the way, the average project takes more than two years to complete. Eighty-five to 90 percent of papers professors submit for publication are rejected. Students expect you to be on the top of your game every class. If you need help, call. Otherwise get busy. Time is ticking.

That is your professor’s world and understanding it can help you get the most out of your time at UCF. Faculty aren’t so much professional teachers as they are professional learners. It is what motivates them, and it is what they value most in others. This distinction is not meant to excuse poor classroom performance, but if you want to impress a professor, demonstrate that you are eager to learn — a process where you are an active partner in discovery rather than expecting them to “teach.” It is a subtle distinction but an important one. Faculty hate it when they believe they are “spoon-feeding” students — pouring information into passive, empty heads. Questions like “Is this going to be on the test?” drive them insane. Ask it and they will dismiss you as a lazy student not worthy of their time.

Time is a faculty member’s most valuable asset. A professor has just six years to make a name in a world that is hard to impress. That includes the time they are in class with you. Students are a professor’s legacy. The more successful students a professor has the better their reputation. But class time is short, and by necessity, focuses on the things that matter most to student success. Not everything a faculty member says is golden, but the answer to the question, “Did I miss anything important when I skipped class?” — will always be yes.

So now you’re thinking maybe the best strategy is to hide in the back and try not to say the wrong thing. A popular, but bad, idea. You came here to learn, and the best education happens in those moments you get to sit on a log with a professor and talk one-on-one. So go to office hours, especially when it is not right before a test or assignment is due. Getting to know a professor is a bit like being on a blind date — prepare, ask good questions and listen. The best professors I had gave me new perspectives that changed the way I viewed the world. They devoted their lives to the study of a subject they believed was important and wanted to share their insights with anyone who would strike up a conversation. In sharing their ideas, they hoped to change the world. It should not surprise us that unique perspectives come from unique individuals. You don’t have to wear Birkenstocks, or chain-smoke. Just engage, appreciate the insight and put it to good use.