James Loy 

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the hosts and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Student 

I'm a senior.

Student 

I'm about to graduate, and I've done a lot of cool things in college.

Student 

I never thought that I was going to be an intramural curler. I never thought that I was going to be the student body president.

Student 

These four years have been the biggest amount of growth I've seen in my entire life.

Student 

It's not just about the academics, but like, what kind of person you turn into, which is super cool.

Maggie 

That's one of the things I feel like gets overlooked when we talk about beginning college in this new era of life, is that there are parts of it that can be really, really fun. Sometimes I feel like those are often the best things about it, but they get overlooked and overshadowed by all the scary stuff.

Brian Zetzer 

Definitely, I still have the little polaroid pictures that one of our friends took and he made, like, a little scrapbook, and we uploaded it so like, Oh, my freshman year friends, we still go back every once while I look at the polaroid pictures with like dates and the all of us signing around the edges.

Maggie 

Yes, oh my goodness, I love that. That's another big thing, all the memories you know, all the people you meet. I'm so excited to get into all of the unexpected things that college brings with you today. My name is Maggie Snee. This is Major Insight. And who are you?

Brian Zetzer 

My name's Brian Zetzer, and I'm a junior here at Miami University, studying supply chain operation management and information systems cybersecurity, and I'm really excited to be here today.

Maggie 

Lovely. You nailed that. So let's just go ahead and get right into it. What brought you to your major? What brought you to your field of study? And I guess, what kept you there? You know, was this always your plan from the start, or did it change along the way?

Brian Zetzer 

Yeah, so I always loved telling the funny story of my sophomore year of high school was COVID year. But one of the things I couldn't get away with all the time was supply chain, this supply chain, that supply chain shortage. And I'd always been the kid that loved math, science, history, like all like the nerdy things that people always look didn't look forward to on the standardized test like, that was the stuff that I really enjoyed.

Maggie 

It's my stuff. This is my time to shine.

Brian Zetzer 

Yeah. Like, I'd always enjoyed writing and, like, reading, but I never, like, was that good at it. So I was like, I'm gonna stick to all this, like, math science stuff. So then junior year of high school, I was able to take some business classes, and I realized all my favorite parts of math, science and history could be wrapped up in business. So I looked into it. I fell in love with it, so I came in supply chain. I originally decided to be a business analytics minor, and then eventually I took a class and realized that statistics wasn't my thing anymore.

Maggie 

Same here. I've dropped out of a statistics class on two separate occasions.

Brian Zetzer 

So after taking that, I was like, maybe not analytics, but I found out that I could still keep information systems analytics instead of the analytics side. I stuck with information systems side of it, and-

Maggie 

Yeah

Brian Zetzer 

It's led me to what I'm doing now, and I love all my classes. I'm taking capstones in them now. So it's really exciting.

Maggie 

So much of college, I feel, is figuring out what you want to do based on what you don't want to do.

Brian Zetzer 

Yeah

Maggie 

The power of understanding what you don't like is so, so important. When it comes to figuring out what you do like. There's no shame in admitting that you don't like something if it leads you to something that you really, really love and I love that.

Brian Zetzer 

And that's why I tell a lot of people, especially with business, like, a lot of what I've learned has come from orgs and stuff like that that I've been involved with. And they're always like, well, I don't want to join too many orgs. Like, you're a freshman, you're sophomore, join all the orgs you possibly could want to do, and then by your junior and senior year, like, you can be leadership in the ones you really enjoy, and you can get heavily involved in those. Like, it's okay to be a part of like, six or seven orgs your freshman year.

Maggie 

Absolutely.

Brian Zetzer 

And then drop one or two of them, and then maybe another one, because you don't have the time and you really want to get involved in those. And for business majors, that's a lot of what, how we find jobs and opportunities is through these student orgs.

Maggie 

Yeah, it's so important. It really is. Yeah, I think, you know, it is really overwhelming. Like you said, there is a certain amount of just complete and utter confusion that you feel when you're a freshman and you have your little like, welcome bag and you're standing at Mega fair and you're like, Okay-

Brian Zetzer 

There's 100 tables. Where do I go?

Maggie 

There's hundreds and hundreds of tables around me. It is all over academic quad and then down towards Armstrong. Where do I even begin? It can be such an overwhelming feeling. But I mean, like you said, there is absolutely no shame or no reason that you shouldn't join, you know, 6, 7, 8, orgs your freshman year, and then see what really sticks. You know?

Brian Zetzer 

Yeah.

Maggie 

I mentioned this on this podcast all the time. I feel like it's my mantra for this at least, but I am very much of the belief that everything happens for a reason, and that the things you do and the people you meet happen to you for a reason. So, you know, join the org for something that you just have a vague interest in. Maybe it'll develop into something even greater. Feel like you can then really start to pick out, you know, where the spaghetti is stuck to the wall. And then those are the orgs that you know. You regularly attend the meetings, and you go to the events, and you're on leadership team. You're on executive.

Brian Zetzer 

Yeah.

Maggie 

And then you have your orgs that are more just, I'm a general member. I go to meetings every now and then, and I think it just helps you figure out, you know, where you're gonna go college has no right or wrong path. You have to forge it for yourself.

Maggie 

Complete and total segue from what we were talking about, you got to complete a pretty cool study abroad trip-

Brian Zetzer 

Yes.

Maggie 

In London. Do you want to tell us about that?

Brian Zetzer 

Yeah. So, funnily enough, that was not the trip I applied for.

Maggie 

Drama!

Brian Zetzer 

So my freshman year roommate and I both decided end of freshman year that we want to go to Italy, like we both talked about it. We both were really interested in going. There was two tracks going on. It was a human capital management and supply chain management. So my roommate applied for the Human Capital One, and being a supply chain major, I applied for the supply chain track. Not enough people were interested in taking supply chain classes. That track got canceled after we paid our down payment, and so I had the same thing happened to me. I got the email that was canceled. I was in my room with my roommate. I look at him and go, our trip got canceled. He goes, What do you mean? I just got the first invite for the group meeting.

Maggie 

Oh, no.

Brian Zetzer 

And then I got the email from the study abroad department. And he's like, listen, you were like, one of five people applied for this track. There's space left on this sophomore and junior only trip that you're welcome to join. I was like, Okay, what is it? And he's like, Well, we're going to London this first time. We're doing it this way. You're gonna have an internship and take a class. I was like, oh, freshman internship. Like, those are really hard to come by.

Maggie 

Yeah.

Brian Zetzer 

Sign me up. Let's go. The people that ran the trip in London were actually able to place me in an internship related to supply chain, even though it was a marketing class track.

Maggie 

Everything works out.

Brian Zetzer 

So it worked out for the best. I was able to take a marketing class, get that out of the way. It was a class that every farmer major has to take. And then I was also able to work as an inventory management intern. It was the coolest thing ever. So got real internship. I was able to work in their local coffee shops. I was able to travel the city. Amazing opportunity. I was able to, we took a class trip to Belgium and go to Bruges and Brussels. I was able to go to the British Open golf tournament. I was able to go to Scotland. So I got internship experience. So it's funny, my resume, it says, like Oxford, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, London, England, Oxford, Ohio. So it's the coolest thing ever, and it's so much fun to talk about.

Maggie 

I agree, study abroads, they're such a privilege, and they're so much fun to be able to participate in. And I could talk about mine all day long, and knowing that I won't even begin to get into it. So outside of a study abroad trip getting canceled, you know, what are some of the things you've had to overcome in college, maybe times where you've struggled with something, or you've had this really big challenge that you've had to overcome, you know, how did you face it? How did you come out on the other side of it?

Brian Zetzer 

There's two stories that come in mind. One of them involves leadership. I've always enjoyed being group leaders, just leading by example, that kind of thing, and I originally wanted to go for a leadership position in my social attorney, ran for it tied with the other person running. Ran for again. We tied again, and then we ran again, and then we both lost.

Maggie 

O, no!

Brian Zetzer 

So that was really heartbreaking. But then all sudden, within my professional business attorney, I was able to have an opportunity to step into a role. Someone had to step out of the role for other reasons, and I was present with this opportunity to be the in charge of our new member development program, so teaching a bunch of sophomores and freshmen how to go about learning to do marketing and sales as a consultant.

Maggie 

Yeah.

Brian Zetzer 

So that was an amazing opportunity, and it just didn't fall in my lap like I had to make those connections, I had to make those friends to give me the opportunity to do it.

Maggie 

Yeah.

Brian Zetzer 

 But I had the door shut my face three times in a row.

Maggie 

Yeah.

Brian Zetzer 

And I was able to step in that role.

Maggie 

Oh yeah, we gotta, you gotta go somewhere. I often, whenever something happens to me, where maybe I didn't do as well as I wanted to on something, or maybe I didn't get something I was going after, I often find myself and then, like, okay, I need to pursue something. You know? And maybe a little bit of that is like, you know, not awesome for me, because it's like, I need to be validated somewhere. I need to do good somewhere. But I do often feel like there is a certain amount of value in pushing yourself to do better after something doesn't go the way you wanted it to, you know? I think it's really important to recognize like, one failure, one rejection, one loss, does not define me. I can keep on going and I can do even bigger and better things. That is so important in college to be cognizant of.

Brian Zetzer 

Definitely. And then the other story that comes to mind with that is, this past year, I know a lot. People can relate to this is internship recruitment, and if you have friends that are business students, then that's probably all you hear about during the fall. I had interned at a company before, and I was hoping to go back. And there's opportunities to go back in different ways, but it just didn't pan out the right way.

Maggie 

Yeah.

Brian Zetzer 

So I was interviewing. People made fun of me for the first two months of the fall semester last year because I was constantly in a suit walking around between recruitment for my business attorney and internship. I was just in a suit, all day.

Maggie 

I don't even question it anymore when I see people walking on campus in like, full suit and tie or pant suit or like, very formal professional wear. I'm like, that's just a business student on their way to class.

Brian Zetzer 

Yep. For two months straight, I was just in the suit, interviewing, and had an opportunity to go Chicago, which is something I really wanted to do, but then I was just like, this isn't gonna work out. And just everything. I was sitting on three offers, and all sudden, I was just like, don't have these offers anymore.

Maggie 

Oh

Brian Zetzer 

And I was like, last minute, I was like, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? And I got a call at, like, random Wednesday afternoon. By the end of the call, they're like, We don't wanna set up a second round with you. Like, we'll get back to in a few hours. Hour later, they called and, like, how much will it take to get you to come work with for us next summer? I was like, this is amazing. Like,

Maggie 

Yeah!

Brian Zetzer 

So this just fell out in a perfect way. It's something I really wanna do, something I'm interested in. It just it in. It just it worked out for the best after everything had gone wrong for two months just being in that suit.

Maggie 

Yeah, no. Again. Everything happens for a reason. Everything works itself out.

Maggie 

I think it's so so important to take advantage of opportunities as they come to you. And I definitely feel like for me, that was one of the kind of things that made me stop getting paralyzed over decision making. I remember, like my freshman, sophomore year, you know, when I was applying to jobs that were a little bit more focused, like summer jobs that were a little bit more focused on what I wanted to do long term, I would always overthink them. And I think that you know realizing that your time in college is finite and that it's not gonna last forever, but this is some existentialism for any of our listeners, as someone about to graduate, realizing that time in college does not go on forever, and eventually you're not gonna be here. It really, really forced me to just say yes to more things. Instead of taking 2, 3, 4, days to mull over a simple decision and then lose the opportunity. Just say yes. If I had to give advice, if something, if you have an opportunity in college, say yes, and if something changes, then inform the people that are relevant and then move on. But just say yes to opportunities. It is so, so important. If you could go back in time and you could give some advice to your first year self, what would you tell first year Brian.

Brian Zetzer 

Definitely relating to everything you just said, right there is, like, just saying yes, is something I remind myself quite often, and something I'm reminding the people that are taking over the new leadership roles that I was in last year is, yeah, we're all just a bunch of college students having fun, learning, growing, experiencing all the amazing things that there is to offer. Like, these are, like, real situations you can have-

Maggie 

Yeah

Brian Zetzer 

But it's just us having fun and being in a very safe, welcoming environment that we can fail over and over again and get things right once in a while. And-

Maggie 

Yeah

Brian Zetzer 

Like, it seems so serious in the moment when you're like, well, this person's waiting on me to complete this assignment, like, I need to get this to them, and especially at my student works where, like, we're making real money, like, it's a it's like, real fun things to do. It's like, guess what? The people working with you know that you're a college student.

Maggie 

Yes.

Brian Zetzer 

It's okay.

Maggie 

Yeah.

Brian Zetzer 

When in my leadership role, I was like, half the people in this room are my age, or some are even older than me. Like-

Maggie 

Yep.

Brian Zetzer 

It's okay to not know you're doing and just ask for help when you need it. And it's just not the whole weight of the world is on your shoulders in this situation. Enjoy it. Learn if you mess up, cool. There's tomorrow.

Maggie 

I love that. Brian, thank you so much for coming in and talking with me. I've loved this conversation. We had so much fun and interesting stuff. So thank you so much for coming along.

Brian Zetzer 

Thank you so much for having me.

Maggie 

Yay! I love ending a conversation on an inspiring note.

Maggie 

Brian Zetzer is majoring in supply chain operation management and information systems cybersecurity at Miami University. Thank you for listening to this episode of Major Insight. Many more episodes are always available wherever podcasts are found