It’s 9 a.m. on a Friday morning, and Connor Richman, a 2022 Farmer School of Business alum and business process specialist at Cintas, is hard at work.

Just not at Cintas.

Richman is one of three alumni at the FSB Career Commons, meeting with students and having conversations about their jobs, their time in college, and whatever else students want to know.

“I had a really fun time here in Miami, and when Careers reached out, I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to give back,” he said.

Networking Fridays, during which alumni from each of the Farmer School’s degree programs meet with students for coffee and conversation, is one of the FSB Career Development Office’s efforts to help students be prepared for internships and careers by taking advantage of the school’s growing pool of alumni.

“I want students to learn what the actual jobs are and see if they are appealing to them and if they fit what they want, because what you're going to get in a job description is often much different than what the real world of that job is,” Michael Webb, Schweinfurth Director of Career Development, explained. “Getting that firsthand experience, that firsthand knowledge from somebody working in the industry that is really impactful.”

The Friday conversations are part of the restructuring of Business 206: Career Exploration. Webb said the class has moved from being entirely about career exploration to splitting its time between exploration and applying skills.

“So not only are they doing the exploration, figuring out what they want through various assessments, but then they're also building a career plan for themselves,” he said. “They're doing the networking. They're meeting with individuals. They're actually applying to internships as part of the class. So, they really are taking a deeper dive and applying all those skills.”

Another growing part of the careers office is the Alumni Linkup page, a searchable database of more than 600 FSB alumni to whom students can reach out to ask questions or seek advice. Webb said that list has grown by more than 200% just in the last year.

“When students see that alumni link up list, they love it because it's a warm connection already. It's not having to go out and almost cold call alumni, which is really difficult for a lot of students. They don't have that confidence yet, especially first-year students,” he said. “It’s so key to build that network early on, so we're looking at ways to continually expand that.”

Webb said that his office’s research noted that last year, around 65% of graduating FSB students found their first job via a connection with someone in their personal network.

“The alumni that we talk to, that we reach out to, almost always say, ‘We want to give back. We're willing to give back time. We're willing to get involved,’” he said.

And alumni like Richman say the experience is great for them as well.

“I was speaking with a student earlier here who said, ‘My family's a little concerned, and they're thinking if I'm majoring in marketing and I don't get a marketing job, then I'm wasting my time and effort here.’  I said, ‘Take it from me, I majored in marketing. I don't have a marketing job, and I would still describe myself as successful,’” he said. “That was a wonderful opportunity for me, and I didn't think I would get to have a conversation like that today. That just makes a day like this so fun for me, and that's why I'm here today. That's why I'll continue to do it in the future.”