Graduate Fellowship

It's All Dollars and Sense

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

If you've found this blog post, it probably means one of two things - that you're interested in potentially joining the Governor Bob Orr Fellowship and have found yourself wondering how much it pays, or that you've stumbled upon this page because you're looking for a great blog to read. Hopefully I'll be able to satisfy both types of readers today.

The Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship has never had a reputation of attracting students that are driven by financial instant gratification. In fact, the type of student that typically becomes interested in this Indiana Fellowship is one that sees the value in grassroots experience within a small, entrepreneurial company. These students tend to see the value in making a two-year investment that will undoubtedly give them the experiences they need to grow professionally in the years to come after the Fellowship program. There certainly is something to be said about beginning your career at a high-growth start-up. Not only are you forced to learn everything about the operations of a small company, but you're provided with opportunities that many professionals don't get for many years after they've graduated from college. There is no way to put a dollar amount on these valuable opportunities.

Okay, okay - so I still haven't answered your question about how much I make as an Orr Fellow. Well, here I come to take the wind out of your sails... Unfortunately, I'm not going to tell you what that number is today. But here's what I will tell you. As a single adult just out of college, I have enough money to do just about anything I want. I live comfortably, go out and splurge almost every weekend, buy luxuries for myself when I feel the need, and live in a nice house in the heart of Broad Ripple. Honestly, what else could a recent graduate really need?!

In a nutshell, the Orr Fellowship salary is not something that should have anything to do with your decision-making process. The Fellowship program has never tried to coerce its prospects into thinking that they'll be paid more than everyone else because, honestly, that's not the case. What we offer, however, is something much, much more than that. If you care about your career and your professional development, and desire opportunities that will immediately allow you to make enormous impacts on your company/organization, then the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship might be for you!

Interested in a Career in Business? Then Get to Work!

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Natalie Ciambrone

A struggle for many college undergraduates is deciding between going to work and getting more education after graduation. No matter your personal opinions, this article from CareerRealism.com gives some pretty convincing statistics about why you should invest in your career early – and helped me reaffirm my decision to take the leap and accept my entry level marketing job with WebLink International.

And as though that article wasn’t enough, last night at our Business Leader Meeting, Lorraine Ball of RoundPeg reiterated the point of investing in your career before going to graduate school. The main reason: If you go directly into an MBA program, you have little real-world business experiences from which to draw. Lorraine shared how much more value she got out of graduate school because she worked for a few years between her degrees. Especially in times of 10%+ unemployment rates it’s easy to play it safe, go back to school, and hope things are better when you are ready to enter the workforce; but, as J.D. O’Donnell says in his article, “I wish [students] could talk with all the unemployed MBAs out there right now who are knee-deep in loan debt.”

Joining the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship is a great way to invest in your career early. The jobs with the Fellowship’s host companies provide Fellows valuable career experience in fast paced jobs – experiences that will allow you to bring more to graduate school discussions and classes (if you decide to go back).

Plus, getting experience in fast growing Indianapolis companies can help make the decision about going back to school easier. Some realize they don’t need an MBA to get where they want to go. Others learn that getting more education is the path they need to take. But no matter what, there is no doubt that during your two years in the Fellowship you will benefit from its unrivaled work experiences and networking opportunities in Indianapolis.

The Orr Fellowship: A Networking Opportunity in Indianapolis

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

As a young professional in the real world, there are two things that every mentor says will inevitably determine how successful you will be in the long run - "what you know" and "who you know." The Governor Bob Orr Fellowship thrives off of this mentality.

By taking entry-level jobs in entrepreneurial companies, Orr Fellows learn early-on the importance of hard work and quickly come to appreciate grassroots beginnings. Although these recent graduates oftentimes begin their careers doing not-so-glamorous work, one thing that allows them to quickly grow their careers is the exposure they get to some of Indiana's finest business leaders. Orr Fellows, because of the range of responsibilities that they acquire during the beginning of their careers, quickly learn everything there is to know about running small, entrepreneurial companies. This experience speaks to the first aspect that I spoke about - "what you know."

During the first two years of being in the Orr Fellowship, Orr Fellows spend a good of time in environments that force them to become comfortable interacting with a range of business and political leaders throughout Indiana. Because of these experiences, Orr Fellows typically develop meaningful relationships with many of these well-known professionals. Each month, Orr Fellows come together for a Business Leader Meeting where one or two of these leaders speaks to the group about their professional experiences that have helped them to get where they are today. These meetings are discussion-based, meaning that fellows are able to ask questions at any time during the meeting. Orr Fellows enjoy partaking in these events because what's more valuable that receiving advice from those that have succeeded in their profession? Typically, after the speaker is finished, there is plenty of time for networking. For this reason, the Orr Fellowship is the best networking opportunity in Indianapolis.

Today the Orr Fellowship will be meeting with Lorraine Ball, founder of Roundpeg. Roundpeg is a small marketing firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana that helps small business become big businesses with the help of effective marketing. To learn more about Lorraine, check out her website. You can also hear her speak about her passion for local businesses and the impact we make every day with our purchase decisions by clicking here.

Super Bowl Commercials Sacked by Social Media

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

If you've had a chance to keep up with the news, one of the recent headlines is Pepsi's decision to strategically re-focus its advertising dollars that have typically been budgeted for the NFL Super Bowl. Like Budweiser, Coca Cola, and GoDaddy.com, Pepsi has been known to spend millions of dollars in advertisements during this spectacle that reaches millions of viewers every single year. So where will these dollars be spent this year? As you might have guessed, this year Pepsi is going with Social Media!

According to the Wall Street Journal, Pepsi plans to focus its advertising strategy on a "marketing platform" rather than blitzing viewers with commercials during this single event. So, by using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to reach consumers, Pepsi will be tapping into a virtual world of endless advertising possibilities. On Facebook, for example, Pepsi can issue invitations to its followers to participate in a poll. When someone votes, a message will get posted on their personal Facebook page that says they participated in the poll. This my friends, is what we are referring to when we talk about viral advertising.

According to one report, Facebook is a virtual treasure trove for advertisers wishing to target 18 to 49-year olds. Twitter's numbers are a little lower, but impressive, nonetheless. Social Media Today, however, noted that 19 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have used Twitter or something like it, 20 percent between ages 25 and 34, and 10 percent between ages 35 and 44. These numbers are the reason that Pepsi has reconsidered their advertising strategy.

So how does this relate to the Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship? Well, it just so happens that the majority of our host companies in this entrepreneurial fellowship are start-up technology companies. Thus, Orr Fellows are taking entry level technology jobs in some of the fastest growing Indianapolis companies. So what types of things are some of these host companies doing in the social media world? Well, a 2010 host company, Formspring, has recently reached new heights with their social media application called Formspring.me. This application is a free, simple service that allows you to create anonymous question boxes for all of your social networks.

Pepsi's migration away from televised Super Bowl ads is a trend we can expect other big companies to follow. There is far more bang for the buck in advertising online rather than producing and paying for 30 seconds of airtime during one of the most expensive televised events of the year.

For those that don't know much about the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship, it is an Indiana-based non-profit organization that provides jobs for recent graduates in fast growing Indianapolis companies. Whether you're looking to start a marketing career, an entrepreneurship career, or maybe just a career in business, this is one unique fellowship program like no other.

Adaptiveness

Monday, January 11, 2010 by Nate Bullock

The May 2006 issue of Human Resources magazine featured an article by Sommer Kehrli and Truy Sopp in which the authors attempted to share tips with older generations on how to manage Generation Y, a group roughly 80 million strong born after 1978 that began entering the workforce five years ago. Often the onus for change is on older generations. After all, we 'Millennials' are coming into the workforce whether current generations like it or not. Why should the 'new' be the ones to change our habits or learn new ones from the 'old'?

An an entrepreneurial fellowship, we constantly strive to place distinguished college graduates into high growth start-ups. But at the same time, we also communicate the need for constant improvement and learning from industry leaders. Nobody is a subject matter expert anymore and while entry-level jobs in start-ups will help you become more knowledgeable about a specific area, it won't guarantee career-long success. To quote Dr. Thomas Mason, Professor of Economics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, "to be successful at [an older] age, you need to keep learning."

Need real world examples?

Did you major in Public Relations or Marketing in college? Are you pretty confident writing press releases? Cool. BUT, looks like Presslift is a step ahead and that skill set will become mainstream in the near future.

Did you major in Web Design or UX in college? Are you pretty confident designing emails for your company's marketing team? Great!. BUT, Toddle is making email newsletter design and marketing a breeze.

Major in Finance? ChubbyBrain is democratizing your skill set.

Going to Law School? Legal Zoom has the basics covered.

Are you a scrapbooking professional? Yup...the semantic web has taken over this too.

EVERYTHING is changing. High-growth start-ups and technology jobs in Indianapolis will KEEP changing. Being an expert today doesn't ensure anything for tomorrow. As Gen-Y'ers, we want to be mentored, use new technology, and be given the space to try new things. But we can be too confident, and in the process, atrophy our innate strengths of learning and development.

Your job won't be around forever, and if you don't keep learning, neither will you. The first step is accepting that a college degree doesn't make you an expert. The second is opening yourself up to learn skills, habits, and lessons from Generations past.

Oh...and sign-up to have your tree lugged through TREE LUGGERS or follow our tweets @treeluggers.

Tree Luggers: Giving Back to Our Community

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

It's that time of year again; the Holiday Season has passed and in a short amount of time you'll find yourself taking down those holiday decorations that probably cover your entire house. After you've mustered up enough motivation to finally begin this lengthy process, the last struggle is always the disposal of the family Christmas tree. However, that's not going to be the case for you this year - the Orr Fellows are here to help!

As a non-profit organization, the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship places a strong emphasis on community outreach, civic responsibility, and self-sustainability. As such, one of our annual fundraisers is called "Tree Luggers" in which we travel around the Indianapolis community collecting and disposing of Christmas trees while collecting donations. But how does this fundraiser actually benefit the community? Well, first, we are providing a service that for many people is extremely helpful. More importantly, though, we offer an incentive to local churches and other non-profit entities that promote our fundraiser to their members. For all money that is donated to the Governor Bob Orr Fellowship during Tree Luggers, half of the proceeds are given to the specific non-profit that created the referral. In this way, we are able to assist Indianapolis-based non-profits in funding their efforts.

One of the most important values that the Indiana-based Orr Fellowship promotes is entrepreneurship. Tree Luggers is a great example of entrepreneurship in action as the Orr Fellows carefully organize, plan, and execute the fundraiser from start to finish. So what goes into Tree Luggers to ensure its success year in and year out? Many of the Orr Fellows are "luggers," or those that travel to homes, collect the trees, and then later dispose of the holiday conifers. Several others use their marketing expertise to help spread the word through social media like Twitter and Facebook, strategically placed fliers in the Indianapolis community, and specified email lists owned by several Orr Fellowship host companies. We also have fellows that help create partnerships with churches and other non-profit organizations. Lastly, a couple of fellows take on a financial role so that all donations and referrals are carefully recorded. To participate in this fundraiser, and save yourself a great deal of time and effort, please sign-up here. Remaining pick-up dates are:

Saturday, January 9th
Saturday, January 16th
Saturday, January 23rd

For those that don't know much about the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship, it is an Indiana-based non-profit organization that provides jobs for recent graduates in fast growing Indianapolis companies. Whether you're looking to start a marketing career, an entrepreneurship career, or maybe just a career in business, this is one unique fellowship program like no other.

Good Failures: Thomas Mason Business Leader Meeting

Friday, December 18, 2009 by Alicia Gaba

Last night the Orr Fellowship squad gathered for our December Business Leader Meeting (BLM) with Thomas Mason, Ph.D. Mason is a Professor of Economics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and is an avid proponent of entrepreneurship in Indiana. Having seen and experienced a number of entrepreneurial growth situations in his lifetime, he had ample advice about high growth startups, entreprenuerial careers and how to continue your own personal growth whether through post-graduate education or just being a learning "sponge" during your career.

One thing Mason talked about that caught me by slight surprise (I say slight because I had looked at some of his articles already), was his take on failing. Mason argues that having a good failure (preferably early on in your career) is a learning experience like no other. And its best to take your chances and fail while you're young because you don't have as much to lose. Of course being in a room with a bunch of young twenty-somethings who don't know much about failure and want to stay far from it garnered some blank stares. You want me to do WHAT? However, he does have a valid point and made some good cases for his argument with anecdotes of students from his past who had gone on to do great things after having "great" failures.

It was some interesting advice for the Orr Fellows as some are in the midst of making big decisions about what lies ahead after the Fellowship.

To the Fellowship and Beyond...

Monday, November 23, 2009 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

With Turkey-day quickly approaching and the holiday season nearly upon us, I thought a good focus for this blog would be to discuss what a Fellows' options look like when they've completed their two-year committment of being in the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship. Ok wait, you're right, holidays and post-Fellowship opportunities have literally nothing to do with one another. Oh well, it's a Monday - give me a break, already!

As I'm sure you can imagine, being in the Orr Fellowship isn't always easy; nor is it glamorous at times. To do well and set yourself up for success you have to spend a lot of time with your nose to the grindstone and your pride in your back pocket. But what happens when you've completed your two years with the Fellowship?

At this point in your career you have an important decision to make. Your first option is to stay on with your current host company. This is probably the most common route that graduating Orr Fellows take, but it is by no means what is expected. Many Fellows decide to go this direction because they've spent the past two years developing a foundation for themselves in their organization. Building relationships and making a name for yourself takes time and a great deal of effort. Also, most of these host companies are fast growing Indianapolis companies. Just by being in the organization for a couple of years, these Fellows have been able to experience accelerated career growth that would most likely not have taken place had they begun their career in a large corporation.

Another option that exists for graduating Orr Fellows is to change companies. Some Fellows decide to move on to completely separate companies, while others stay within the Fellowship family and join a different host company. The Orr Fellowship has a reputation of providing some of the best networking opportunities in Indianapolis, so it's not surprising that connections are made between Fellows and host company executives that result in a career opportunity.

A third option that many Orr Fellows over the years have pursued is graduate school. Typically, Orr Fellows go to either law school or business school, but there have been many others that have gone on to receive a range of different graduate degrees. This path has become more and more common among Fellows as they're often considered to be life-long learners. They appreciate learning new things and are curious about what they lack knowledge in.

The last option for graduating Orr Fellows is to pursue personal business ventures. There have been several Fellows that have built entrepreneurial companies in Indianapolis on their own, while several others have teamed-up with their fellow Orr Fellows to create high growth start-ups together.

Although these several options are available for Orr Fellows after they complete their two-year stint with the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship, one thing that all Fellows involuntarily do is join the list of successful Orr Fellow alumni that came before them. Many stay active in Fellowship events/activities, but this is something that we're working to improve upon. It is important to keep the Orr Fellowship as tight as possible and the alumni network as strong as ever. It certainly is a blessing to have so many young, successful business leaders in our network that are more than happy to help out if you just reach out to them.

This is just another reason why the Orr Fellowship is one of the best places to work in Indiana!

Creating a Shared Experience

Monday, November 23, 2009 by Nate Bullock

This American Life is a radio program out of WBEZ in Chicago that attempts to display what it is like to live an ‘American life’, complete with its dullness as well as its luster. Reporting is not done in the way we see on television or hear on more traditional radio. Rather, the producers attempt to place us into the culture of the topic area; the sounds bites are not ‘bites’ at all. They are actual, full, complete stories that connect the listener to a new set of experiences. This American Life attempts to make the events that mold our being (whatever that means), which makes understanding the experience more transparent. The radio program, at it's core, is about manufacturing an experience.

For example, attempting to paint the picture of Rome to my friends and family when I returned from a tour of Europe was excruciating. My pictures of Trevi’s Fountain did not nearly do it justice. My explanations of the white cliffs of Dover were juvenile. The only way in which my friends could understand the awesomeness of my trip would have been for them to experience it for themselves. In the absence of a shared “experience,” the narrative loses a little bit of sincerity.

The Orr Fellowship strives to create entrepreneurship careers that do more than simply provide post-graduate networking, entre-level jobs in startups, and an Indianapolis job opportunity; The Orr Fellowship strives to create a shared experience among Orr Fellows. Distinguished post-grad jobs are often about putting in time quietly on the sidelines while you wait your turn to play in the game.

This business fellowship is different. Jumping into fast growing Indianapolis companies is not something that most entry-level jobs in Indiana afford a fresh graduate. But entreprenurial companies need driven graduates to help contribute immediately. These companies look to Orr Fellows to help fulfill that need, providing a shared entreprenurial experience in the process.

Click here to find out how you can be included in this experience!

Giving Back. The Orr Fellowship Way.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Natalie Ciambrone

The propensity of students to give back to their communities while in college, rarely translates after they graduate (based on my observations). It’s not because we become bad people as soon as we leave a college campus, it’s because, frankly, the opportunities aren’t as accessible and finding time between working your first full time job and all the other responsibilities the real world brings new grads is often hard.

Through the Orr Fellowship’s Personal Service Initiative (PSI), Fellows give back to their local communities in whatever way they choose. Some prefer to mentor, others prefer to walk dogs at the Humane Society. Personally, I am reconnecting with a non-profit I was involved with during college. But no matter our interest, the Orr Fellowship allows us follow our own passions related to volunteerism.

When talking to prospective Fellows, I love to talk about the Fellowship’s PSI because it doesn’t allow us to put service on the back-burner. Rather, the Fellowship provides the extra motivation to give back in our own right. Plus, doing group service projects is another great way for our group (who all work in different entry-level jobs in entrepreneurial companies) to bond!

So, although the Orr Fellowship prides itself on the business connections it creates, giving back through the Personal Service Initiation is yet another unique opportunity of the program.

Who is the Orr Fellowship For?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Bryan Povlinski

As we near Finalist Day when the class of 2010 Orr Fellows will make their decisions on whether to accept an offer to join the Fellowship, I think it's worth looking at who the Orr Fellowship is for. Working with high growth start-ups takes a certain kind of person, and it's certainly not for everyone. Here are a few characteristics that you might want to keep in mind.

The Orr Fellowship might be a good fit if you…

- Are graduating from an Indiana college or you’re originally from Indiana, and you have a strong GPA (preferably 3.5 and above)

- Enjoy working with smaller companies where everything is usually fast paced and everyone has to be willing to help out on various projects and different functional areas like marketing, finance, etc.

- Are someone that is eager to take initiative and make things happen rather than waiting to be told what job you need to do everyday

- Are interested in working in a variety of different roles. Many Orr Fellows rotate through different departments or work for a company that’s small enough to require every employee to be multi-dimensional.

- Would like to have a network of like-minded peers that you can work on potential business ideas with and get together socially

- Want to work for a fast growing Indianapolis company, and have the ability to get to know executives from other high growth start-ups

- Want to define your own career path by taking on big responsibilities in a small company rather than being a number in an entry level program at a large corporation

The Orr Fellowship might NOT be the right program if you…

- Are hoping to travel and have opportunities to work abroad right away. Although many Orr Fellows will have the opportunity to take smaller trips through the course of their job, the program is not designed to be travel intensive

- Need a boss to tell you exactly what to do every day. The most successful Orr Fellows are the ones who take initiative and execute beyond what they’re expected to do

- Expect to be in charge of the most important projects from Day 1. As an Orr Fellow you will likely have some less than glamorous projects at some point. However, they’re only opportunities to over deliver and build your reputation so that you can lead major projects in the future

- Base your job search on finding the highest possible starting salary. If you make it through the Orr Fellowship recruiting process you can find a better paying entry level job in Indiana or elsewhere. The Orr Fellowship is not for people who are looking for the money now, but for students that are more interested in learning, establishing a network, and getting a great experience so they can advance their careers more quickly in the long term.

This is not a comprehensive list of characteristics that define the Orr Fellowship. Hopefully it does give you at least a slightly better idea about whether or not the program is right for you. Among business jobs in Indianapolis, the Orr Fellowship may be one of the best opportunities for college graduates.

Learning Lessons

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Katie Veatch

You may ask – what am I learning? Well, I’ve been learning a lot of new things, but most recently, that you can’t trust a Wabash boy!! Yes, Blaine stole my picture to use in his blog. So, in response, here is another picture. Notice how Blaine isn’t fighting back in this one.

Something else I learned over the last week is to not take the people in your life for granted. I met some amazing people at DePauw, and over my four years there, they became like family. It is easy to think that those people will always be around, and then after graduation everyone splits off in different directions. Being back together with everyone at the Monon Bell game really made us all appreciate the time we have together. That weekend was one of the best experiences I’ve had.

The transition from the college “bubble” to working in your first full time job in the “real world” can be tough, and now I’m realizing how important the Governor Bob Orr Fellowship has been in that process. At the Orr Fellowship Reception on the Circle last week, I was asked several times what my favorite part of the Fellowship is. My answer is simple: the people. Being a part of the Fellowship opened up more connections than I ever thought possible. It helps ease that difficult transition by surrounding you with friendship, guidance, and unique opportunities. The current Fellows have already become a social network and support system. We are all working in high-growth Indianapolis companies and can share our experiences and learn from each other. The alumni offer their experience and advice. The executives and directors are accessible and volunteer their time and energy to contribute to our personal and professional development. When I joined the Orr Fellowship, I was welcomed with open arms into this fantastic new group of people.

All of the candidates I met last week at the Reception on the Circle were incredibly intelligent and motivated individuals, and it was great to have a chance to get to know them. I’m looking forward to see who moves on to Finalist Day. And I can’t wait to meet my new group of friends… I mean the new class of Fellows.

So despite the fact that we’ve been trained to be enemies during our college careers and we might not like to admit it, Blaine, Ty, Natalie and I are all actually friends. Maybe sometime I’ll put up a picture where we are all being cordial. If only we can get Blaine to agree to take one…

A Day in the Life of an Orr Fellow

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

One of the questions that I commonly receive from Orr Fellowship candidates is, "What types of things do you do at work?" For most Orr Fellows this is a straight-forward question, but for me, the answer is a bit more long-winded.

When I accepted my offer with the Orr Fellowship, I also accepted an offer with ExactTarget. ExactTarget has participated as an Orr Fellowship host company for many years now. It differs from the rest, though, in that it offers a particular program for recent college graduates - the Catapult Rotational Program. The Catapult Program is designed to provide college graduates the opportunity to rotate through three departments within ExactTarget. It allows you to develop your professional skill-set while obtaining cross-functional experiences. Upon completion of the three two-month rotations, "Catapulters" are placed in a permanent position that allows them to deeply impact the success of both their department and ExactTarget as a whole.

Now, back to the question that I was previously talking about. When answering the posed question about my typical day at work, I generally describe my current and past rotations. My first rotation at ExactTarget was in the Human Resources department. I then transitioned to Customer Relationship Management. My third, and current rotation, is in Sales Operations. So what types of things am I doing during my time at the office? I'm currently preparing to lead a portion of our Sales Training On-boarding class that is now taking place. When a salesperson joins the team at ExactTarget, they go through a rigorous, two-week long training course. Within the first two days in my current rotation, my manager asked me to learn everything I possibly could about our Salesforce Integration application through AppExchange, while creating the presentaton from scratch, in order to set myself up to teach the group of new hires. Needless to say, I feel ready to go for next Tuesday's class!

After I've shared my experiences with these college seniors, I like to turn the focus on them. I ask them if there are other career opportunities that they're pursuing that allow them to join a company and immediately be able to make an impact within the organization. The answer is almost always a resounding "no."

So why do Orr Fellows get the leg-up when it comes to career-growth opportunities? From talking to several different employers and upper-level management, the overall consensus is that the Orr Fellowship has a reputation of supplying high-growth Indianapolis companies with talented, hardworking employees. I consistently hear these business leaders talk about how comfortable they feel putting these Fellows in a sink-or-swim environment because they always know that these young professionals will find a way to come out on top.

So when considering your first full-time job out of college, think about what I've said. If you're looking to grow professionally while making a positive impact in your organization, the Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship might be for you!

What Does Nate Bullock Do Everyday?

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Nate Bullock

People often misunderstand the value and cost savings that effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) has on everything we interact with day-to-day. In fact, over the past 15 years SCM has become the dominant way companies compete. For example, in the early 90’s it took roughly 104 days for a box of cereal to get from the factory to the supermarket (over 3 months for those of you wondering if I do good math). Through optimizing their supply chain, the grocery industry over the past 15 years has been able to save over $30 billion.

On the surface, supply chains seem relatively simple; most chains are only 5-7 ‘links’ long. However, modern day supply chains have become overwhelmingly complex (see image above). The internet boom and growth of sophisticated communication technologies allow companies to reduce material and shipping costs through the strategic sourcing of raw materials used to make ‘stuff’. As such, it’s the job of the supply chain professional to find cost effective and strategic ways to integrate these complex supply chains, reduce lead times, and sync sales channels.

I get asked quite often what I do at Brightpoint. I quip that I answer emails and ship cell phones. Then there is an awkward silence as the supplicant stares at me whilst I conjure up a lay-level explanation of “what I do.” It’s a difficult question for most recent college grads who have found technology jobs in Indianapolis. Much like ‘Supply Chain’, 21st century careers are unique post-graduation jobs, and jobs in fast paced companies are difficult to understand. Try explaining corporate blogging to someone, or why they should pay money for consumer reviews, or why Indianapolis business careers kick ‘SaaS’…it’s complicated. But these types of 21st century and high-growth company jobs, like Supply Chain Management, will be differentiators in a global economy.

The Governor Bob Orr Fellowship provides jobs in startups like Bluelock, Compendium Blogware, Canteloupe.tv, and Oxygen Education. These companies do complex work for a complex world. If you're looking for fast paced, and complex, 21st century jobs, click here.

My Path to the Orr Fellowship

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, and Christmas around the block, it's difficult to believe that I've been working in the real world for just over four months now. I can remember like it was yesterday what it was like to look for a job while still in college. I remember how confused I was as an Economics major who knew I wanted to be in business someday, but you and I both know how vague of a career path business really is. So what did I look for and how did I get to be where I am today?

Luckily for me, as a senior in college I knew that the economy was beginning to look grim and that the market was probably going to get rough. To prepare myself for the tough situation, I did my due-diligence and began looking for a quality job opportunity to kick off my new career. I realized that I lacked specific skills that most large companies would be looking for, and also that I would be looking for an entry level job just like the rest of my graduating class. However, I knew that I wanted to live and work in Indianapolis as it has emerged a growing hub for small, technology start-ups. One of my other interests throughout college was entrepreneurship, so I then began looking for entrepreneurial fellowships in the Indianapolis area. What I soon stumbled upon was the Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship. To learn more about this graduate fellowship, I connected with current Orr fellows to learn more about what the program has to offer.

So why did I choose to pursue the Orr Fellowship? There were several reasons, but here are a few:

the presence of a network of young professionals like myself to share ideas, concerns, successes, etc.
the pipeline of Indiana business leaders that fellows are given the opportunity to interact and build relationships with
the position and ability to join a small, start-up company and, through hard work, be able to make an impact within the organization
knowing that I'm making a good investment in my career by being in an environment that forces me to learn as much as possible about running a small business

So has my first few months in the working world provided me with the opportunities and experiences that were promised to me by the Orr Fellowship? The answer to this question is a confident "YES!"