From living in the small town of Farmville to moving back to a metropolitan area, Kyle explains his trials, tribulations and successes in the working world.
How did you get started in your field?
Konica Minolta is a multinational multibillion dollar organization with 41,000 employees worldwide and I got involved with my position through my experience in the real estate industry. When I first left Longwood, I had a license for Mortgages and practiced in the Richmond area for a time. I was brought on as an employee to cater to that industry and to document imaging and information management systems organization.
What was your transition like from Farmville to Northern Virginia?
It was extremely different, I actually relocated from Northern Virginia down to Farmville and back. I grew up here and it’s certainly a metropolitan area that never sleeps. New York is a city that never sleeps, I think that NOVA is the suburbia that never sleeps and its just always a hustle and bustle but it’s a fun and nice contrast.
So as a young alum, is Northern Virginia the place to be if someone wanted to get involved in your line of field?
I certainly think so, my office is based in Tyson’s Corner and I actually attended a speech with Pete who is the CEO of Fairfax County Development Board and he said that Tyson’s Corner and Northern Virginia is likely to be the largest growing center of commerce in the entire US over the next few decades. Pretty much any field anybody is looking to get into it’s a good spot to do some job searching.
If a Lancer wanted to follow in your footsteps, what is one or two pieces of advice you would give them?
Well first of all, it would be to take advantage of the internship requirement for graduation. Those organizations that you meet with or work for might give you a huge leap in terms of carrying out what you might want to do. It will give you a trial and error in what is to say what a career would be like as well as it gives you a foot hold in the door in saying that “I have some office experience and im able to market myself a little better based on what’s been done day to day” The transition from a classroom to a business setting is quite different and that internship gives you almost a half step rather than a full leap and that’s something you definitely don’t want to miss. Start out with something you are passionate in for sure.
How did your Sociology major and Homeland Security minor along with your experiences in the classroom help you with Konica Minolta?
Sociology is actually a science for the sciences, its intended in its formation to govern all of the other sciences. So essentially, its gives you a strong foundation on a broad range of things. I would say rather than being a valley and ocean, its like more like the Great Lakes so you have shallow knowledge of everything. It really helps in terms of being able to read other people, where they are coming from, what their goals might be and how you might be able to assist them. Both in and out of the business workplace, I do a lot of networking and that really assists in saying “okay maybe I don’t have a direct business need or relationship with this person but know this guy over here that needs those services or I can connect these two people,” that is a huge lesson to learn. People are always wanting to help out other people despite what media premonitions would say, there’s always a need for others to help others. So by building a strong network and connecting other people, depending on their needs, it will take you places without you even realizing it.
What is the thing you miss most about Longwood?
I miss being able to drive two minutes out of town and be in the middle of nowhere, go camping and really have a close knit community where community service and citizen leadership is at the heart of things. Being in a metropolitan area, it can become a little bit of a rat race per say and so there’s a small town family atmosphere that does become a missing piece every once and a while and that is something that I miss for sure.
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