IBIT Mentoring Program
It was great being able to talk to someone in the field, especially seeing as how I do not currently have many connections when it comes to this industry. Craig has been in the technology and business field for such a long time, and he had some really interesting stories to tell and had some great advice when it came to which direction to look in for jobs in the future, as he manages a huge amount of personnel in a variety of different areas within his company. He was one of the original people who was involved in the early days of digital banking, so he has really been involved in the business technology field for an immense time. Talking to someone like him, who is very official and straightforward (he is the CTO of an enormous company) , was also very useful and reminded me almost of an interview, even though we were casually talking about random things.
When it came to him as a mentor, I had no complaints about Craig, and I really liked him as a person. We had some great conversations, and I definitely learned some important information from him about the industry that I will use in the future. However, I definitely struggled to get information out of him when it came to what exactly he did in his field, which was my main goal when applying to this program. I wanted to hear about what my mentor did and get a feel for whether or not it was something that I would be interested in going forward when looking at what industry within MIS I wanted to go into. Additionally, I think I want to look more into the technology side of things when it comes to my MIS career, and he was very business oriented, and I mostly gained tips about overall business information then technological tips and advice for what the future is looking like when it comes to tech and coding. Additionally, he’s an extremely busy man, and for all of our meetings I had to book an appointment with his assistant in 30-minute increments, as he would have some sort of meeting or call immediately after all of our meetings. I really appreciated him taking his time to talk to me, however this made it hard at times to get conversations fully flowing, as I knew there was a pretty tight time limit on how long I would be able to talk to him. Overall, I think that I just wasn’t the best match for him, however I think someone who is looking more on the business side of things when it comes to MIS, such as someone pursing a double major in management or finance, would get a lot more out of a mentorship with him than I did.