Bobby Atkins graduated from Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in May 2012. Today he came in to speak about the transition from college to professional life and the internship and career opportunities available at Northwestern Mutual. Bobby has been a financial planner at Northwestern mutual for a year and a half now, dealing mostly with clients who are recent graduates looking to start saving early for their retirement or their future child’s college tuition. He also deals with business owners, helping them to set up 401k’s for all of their employees.
He started off by speaking about his experience with internships and the opportunities for internships available at Northwestern Mutual. As a junior he interned with Axa as a financial adviser. He came into Syracuse wanting to be a financial adviser and capitalized on opportunities that would lead him in that direction. He was excited about the idea of people trusting him with their money and counting on him to put them in a better position for the future. Throughout his time at Syracuse he also completed internships with Merrill Lynch and Northwestern Mutual, which eventually lead to a job offer. He remembers going into the interview for Northwestern Mutual not sure if he wanted to stay in Syracuse or if he even wanted to be with that company. That is why he recommends Northwestern Mutual’s six month post graduate internship program. He said it is a great test drive of the company and the profession to see if they are both a match for you or not. Internships are the best way to learn whether you are headed in the right direction or not.
Bobby then moved on to talk about the transition from college to professional life and what he would recommend to students in our position. Although the transition is different for every individual person, it is not easy. Most of us will still be kids at heart and find ourselves wondering where time has gone. He explained that the best way to find a job, which is every college students main worry, is to take full advantage of everything Syracuse University has to offer. Go to the career center to look over your resume and find a starting point for your job search, use your time in college to build up your personalized resume and connect with alumni. Bobby became the president of his fraternity on campus and used that position to network with past alumni of the fraternity, especially past presidents. Although he did not know it yet, joining a fraternity was on of the best social and professional moves Bobby made at Syracuse.
He continued to explain that some of the most important lessons you will learn in college come outside of the classroom. College is where you grow as a person, you learn to live on your own, how to deal with all kinds of people and the harder you work the better the payoff in the end. Bobby stated that you never stop studying and learning after college, you are constantly trying to better yourself and improve upon you work. He is currently studying for his next securities license in order to further his career. He ended by telling us not to worry too much about the future, and to instead focus on what we are doing now and enjoy our time at Syracuse.