Five Questions With… Andy Drish
Posted on October 8, 2007 in Five Questions by DM
Five Questions With… is a series on DMweblife highlighting Des Moines area bloggers and their blogs! This edition features Andy Drish, a Drake University student who seems to have the whole “networking leads to visibility and success in business” thing down pat! Andy’s blog is called Connecting In College, and he’s one of the most driven young adults I’ve met in the last ten years!
1. What’s the focus of your blog?
My blog focuses on teaching students how to connect with professionals during their college career. By doing this, students will have recruiters, business owners, etc, giving them job offers before they even apply, as opposed to going through the typical (not-so-fun) job search.
I probably never would have even considered starting this if it weren’t for Mike Sansone. He talked me into blogging and, after a while, I realized that the concept of “networking during college” isn’t taught very well at most schools. It’s something that I’ve always enjoyed doing so it just seemed fitting for it to be the focus of my blog.
2. What aspect of blogging do you enjoy the most?
There really are two aspects I love about blogging. One is the wealth of knowledge that is out there. I love to learn, but being in an academic setting and studying nothing but theory can get frustrating. So it’s refreshing to hear the real world stories of what succeeds and what fails. The other aspect, obviously, is the people. Online or offline, it’s always fun connecting with someone new.
3. What’s an activity besides blogging that you can’t live without?
For now, it has to be bartending. I work at a dive bar here in Des Moines. (Some of you might recognize Peggy’s for our big Drake Relays party.) It’s a blast because I’m always meeting new people and it’s a college bar, which means I’m basically getting paid to hang out with my friends. I couldn’t dream of a better job… at least for right now.
4. What’s the best advice - personal or professional - you’ve ever received?
Write down everything. Because if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen. There’s nothing worse than having that great idea or great quote, but forgetting it when you have the perfect opportunity to use it.
5. What’s something you’ve accomplished in the past five years that you are particularly proud of?
After my freshman year, a friend and I realized how important the skill of presenting is. Over the last two years we have created a 10 week program that teaches students how to give effective presentations in a business setting. It’s not your typical “public speaking” course. We meet in a conference room. Students are dressed in business appropriate attire. And everything we do is focused on developing each other’s speaking ability. It’s a phenomenal program because students learn from their experiences instead of theory. And, not to mention, we have a blast doing it.
And the Secret Sixth question I asked Andy after reading his initial answers to the five questions:
6. Tell me more about your “presenting class…” what does it cover, how well has it been received, do you think most students entering the business world really “get” how important these skills are?
The class we run is called Spotlight! Presentations. It has been very well received at Drake. This year, we are testing to see if it can be run without our help what-so-ever. This would mean that we could easily expand to other colleges. While two students will be running it at Drake, my friend and I are going to concentrate on trying to establish a program at AIB. Giving presentations is such an effective skill to have and the majority of colleges really don’t teach it as well as they should. In Spotlight!, students work on informal presentations as well as formal ones. There are four formal presentations given throughout the 10 weeks. These range from “Explain a defining moment in your life” to the last one, where students play the role of college recruiters and they research a company and explain to the audience why they would want to work at that particular business. What’s really unique is that we actually have students looking forward to learning… which isn’t the trend among the majority of college campuses.
Des Moines-area bloggers: to be considered for this feature, just drop me an email with your name, location, and blog address, and answers to the first five questions I’ve asked here. I’ll reply with your “Secret Sixth Question”!
subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
2 comments to “Five Questions With… Andy Drish”
Leave a Comment
-
Get Updates!
-- OR --
-
Janet - Thank you so much for the interview! It was fun. And just and FYI, one other thing I can’t live without: Nintendo Wii Boxing. It has got to be the most fun I’ve ever had playing a video game… Not to mention it doubles as a daily workout.
Have a great week!
Andy, you’re very welcome! And I agree with you on the Wii… tennis is also a good one that breaks a sweat! ~ Janet