4A - Forming an Opportunity Belief

1.     My Beginning 

a.     Specific to the Heavener Business School, as companies come in for Heavener Career Week, they are simply provided slotted times, and some students miss out on opportunities to hear from or speak with those recruiters if they do not show up in time for that particular session on that particular day.

2.     My Belief

a.     This need is not met in any official Heavener policy. 

b.     The need is more so aligned with the student than the recruiter of a company. Where a student has to talk to multiple companies in order to have the statistical chance of making it through to that dream internship/job, a recruiter really just needs one good hire to fill that position—and it may not even be found at UF!

c.     From my experience at Heavener for the past year and a half, that need has always been existent, but I am unsure of the prevalence before coming to campus. 

d.     The only way this need is fulfilled is if a student is able to have the secondhand interaction of information with someone who was able to make it to the company’s live session. At this point, I would speculate that I am ~ 70% confident an opportunity related to this need exists. 

3.     Prototypical Consumer 

a.     Person 1

             i.     The first person that I interviewed is my roommate, who transferred into Heavener from being a computer science major last year. In her opinion, there is a more personable and tangible connection that comes from listening and working with recruiters in person. Even if she was to miss the session for the semester, that lack of information acts as a motivator to reach out and make those face-to-face connections that can be somewhat lacking in the workplace as the world revolves more and more around technology. Making the effort to get that one-on-one time with a company is more important than just absorbing whatever they came in to say. 

1.     From my roommate’s new perspective of entering into Heavener, I can see how the value of the in-person interactions sound beneficial, especially with the pressure to gain those internships.  

b.     Person 2

             i.     Secondly, I asked one of the freshman students I mentor about the possible adjustment to Heavener Career Week. To her, the need for internships and working to network with companies is secondary to getting involved within the college. First, there must be experiences to build up the resume before one can turn it over for a company’s application process. In her eyes, she is not even sure what companies would align with her interests and goals in life, indicating the need for more research before going to listen to these companies, let alone listen to them. 

1.     I think the student population that would best be targeted/served by this opportunity is the upperclassmen who are ready and looking for a position with a company. Adjusting to whom this platform best serves allows to properly evaluate this opportunity.

c.     Person 3

             i.     The final person that I asked was a heavily involved friend of mine who was looking for an internship this past fall/spring Career Week. She saw it as a great opportunity to take advantage of, especially as she has certain elective classes that are mandatory attendance, so she was unable to attend key events that she was hoping to learn more about with the specific companies. While missing some events, she was able to go out of her way to meet them at larger events she could attend in order to maximize her time with more companies. She also agreed that the viewership was important on the student half of the equation; however, flipping the coin to consider how this may also benefit the recruiters who come to interact with more students, there could be an electric sign-in portal in order for them to know of those still looking for more information due to certain circumstances like not attending a live session. This, in turn, provides them with more data, something HR and recruiters are always looking to utilize with universities. 

1.     Expanding beyond the problem to look at who else may potentially be affected by the issuance of this platform was interesting to consider. The idea of maximizing one’s time with having all companies within a set area rather than over a period of hours/days sounds appealing to those looking to stay efficient with their company search. 

4.     Summary

a.     Overall, I had an interesting perspective shift each time I spoke with someone new. When it comes to the opportunity belief, I am still passionate that this idea could be helpful; however, it must be marketing and designed in the right way in order to work for all sorts of different students’ situations across Heavener. I still believe that I could use my original opportunity, but it would have to morph in order to fit and properly serve the needs of the students. After gaining some feedback, this new design of the opportunity would be received much better than before, demonstrating that entrepreneurs must be receptive to understanding their target audience better and not discounting their opinion since it is their issue as well.