Stoan Stewart is originally from Goldsboro, North Carolina, and will never let anyone in the M.S. in Global Commerce (MSGC) program forget about how great of a state North Carolina is. He graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Business Administration- Supply Chain/Operations and a B.A. in International Studies- Global Sustainability & Development.
Want to know how the MSGC program gave me a leg up? Keep reading!
Just a little background information about me: I’m originally from Goldsboro, North Carolina. I graduated from North Carolina State University in 2014 (Go Wolfpack!). I previously studied abroad in Spain, and after graduating I worked for a little less than 2 years before I realized I wanted a change. So, I decided to join the MSGC program with the ultimate goal of getting a job in a rotational program with a multinational company. As of last week, I accepted a job at Volvo Group within the International Graduate Program in Internal Logistics.
The search for the right job was a long and grueling process, and I could not have done it without this great program. From the very beginning, the Commerce Career Services (CCS) office really put their resources forward and offered to help me in any way possible. You have no idea how many times I went to my CCS advisor, Denise Egan, for help. She helped me find incredible job opportunities, appropriate company contacts, reworked my resume, and helped negotiate my salary. All of her help was invaluable to me finding the right job.
The number of times I leveraged this program during a job interview is unbelievable. For every question I was asked by a recruiter, I had an immediate answer with an example from class, a group project, or my experiences in China/Spain. You never really grasp how much a program like this has impacted you until a hiring manager asks you to provide an example of how you handled conflict within a group, a mistake you made and what did you do to resolve it, or even the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten (thank you, China.)
These are all amazing advantages I’ve gotten from MSGC, but the biggest leg up this program offers is its diversity. I have spent a year surrounded by diverse classmates, locations, teaching styles, curriculum, living arrangements, languages, experiences, and more. This program gave me the opportunity to really explore who I am and how I fit into such a diverse world. The knowledge, confidence, and experience that I gained from the program are some things that I believe my interviewers saw as a serious advantage. I know this program has given me something invaluable and I am thankful every day for that one email I got from McIntire graduate admissions.
