Kansas State University

K-State Business majors have the opportunity to work with a successful Executive Mentor who is a business professional with at least seven years of professional experience. Mentors are alumni and friends of K-State and are willing to donate their time to make a difference in the educational experience of current business students.

Starting in their sophomore year, business students fill out the Executive Mentor application. Their application goes into a database that the Executive Mentors have access to and these individuals are able to select the students they would like to work with. Business students have the opportunity to work with their Executive Mentor for three-plus years and form a lifetime bond with a business professional that will be able to help them throughout their career.

Once a student is matched with their mentor, they are required to maintain monthly contact. Conversations and activities with Executive Mentors ranges from resume reviews, mock interviews, job shadows, conversing about the business profession, building a network of professional contacts, business professionalism, and more.

87% of Executive Mentors are K-State Alumni and business mentors live in Manhattan, Kansas City, Wichita, and across the country and globe. In case a student’s mentor is not local, we invite Executive Mentors to campus for large gatherings each semester. During the fall we host a tailgate before a football game and in the spring we host the Executive Mentor Appreciation Luncheon.

For more information on the K-State Business Executive Mentor Program, please visit the program’s website. If you or someone you know would like more information on how to become a mentor, please learn more about becoming an Executive Mentor or contact Program Director, Emily Brueseke by emailing ementor@ksu.edu.

Dr. Dawn Deeter-Schmelz leads the K-State College of Business Administration’s National Strategic Selling Institute (NSSI). The purpose of NSSI is to help advance the relationship selling profession through leadership in interdisciplinary academic education, highly impactful research, and valued outreach activity. Below are a couple of the great events and activities sponsored by NSSI.

Students interested in sales are invited to compete in the annual Edward Jones Sales Competition during K-State’s fall semester, where they take on the role of a financial advisor and try to convince a mock investor to use Edward Jones to meet their financial needs. Four winners and two alternates are selected for the K-State National Sales team and all six have the opportunity to travel and compete in the National Collegiate Sales Competition at Kennesaw State University in the spring.

Pi Sigma Epsilon is the only national, co-ed fraternity in sales, marketing and management. K-State students have the opportunity to join Pi Sigma Epsilon and participate in programs and competitions that focus on the core fundamentals of sales, marketing, and management. Some of the benefits of joining are the opportunity to travel to national competitions, exposure to companies looking to hire sales professionals, and a chance to attend the National Convention in April.

The following was just a small taste of what students interested in sales can participate in at K-State. Keep up with the latest news and information in the sales world by following Sold On Sales, the NSSI blog.

The K-State Business Professional Advantage program prepares business students for the real world. The program is designed to introduce business students to corporate recruiters, provide students with a competitive edge and help guide them down a successful path.

Entering its second year as a program, Professional Advantage offers more  than 50 events each semester!

Events during the Fall 2013 Semester includes: Building your Competitive Advantage for the 21st Century with speaker Al Duncan, BBQ and Networking with Phillips 66, Resume Reviews and Mock Interviews with Cerner, Conversation Days with International Students, and Evaluating Job Offers and Negotiating Salary with Powercat Financial Counseling.

Business students earn points for every Professional Advantage event they attend. Each event is worth .5 to 2 points and students need 8 points each academic year to complete the Professional Advantage program. Students completing the program can put Professional Advantage on their resume and receive a special notation on their K-State transcript saying they completed the program requirements.

Click here for more information on Professional Advantage and to see a calendar listing of all upcoming events.