Post-Graduate Networking Opportunities Indiana

• Welcoming the largest class of Orr Fellows in the history of the organization. (Earlier this year, 27 new Orr Fellows took positions at some of Indiana's best and fastest growing companies.)
• The first acquisition of a company founded by an Orr Fellow. (MyJibe, founded by Fellowship alumnus Mike Langellier, was purchased by Utah-based MoneyDesktop less than a year after its initial launch.)
• A prestigious honor bestowed to an Orr Fellowship alumnus and his Indiana-based startup. (Yaw Aning, founder and CEO of Pocket Tales, took top honors at this year's Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Global Education Challenge.)
• National media coverage for a current Orr Fellow and his bootstrapped social polling tool. (Max Yoder and Quipol have been covered by or used by NBC Chicago, Forbes, and TechCrunch.)

Thursday night we were frantic; poring over the info we had gathered on each host company and bombarding each other with questions. Which companies are you interviewing with? What do you think they will ask? I don’t even know what some of these companies do! What are they looking for?

I’m sure these very same thoughts are running through the minds of potential candidates this week. Current fellows as well as host company executives can attest that the Fellowship is interested in the “who”, not the “what”. We want to know who you are, rather than what your specific skills are. Finalist Day is an invaluable experience as well as exposure to post-graduate networking in Indianapolis. Ask yourself if you could envision yourself working with the executives interviewing you. Enjoy the energy and ambition surrounding you. The energy of Orr Fellows continuously motivates me.

This year, Sally Reasoner and I will once again be riding to Finalist Day together. I still live on caffeine; Sally has managed to kick the habit. This year, we are roommates and will be enjoying the company of our peers by hosting a pre-Finalist Day dinner at our apartment in Broad Ripple! This time last year, we had no idea what to expect of other potential candidates. In 6 short months we have gotten to know each other on a professional as well as social level. We have all come to respect each other’s interests and passions and formed lasting friendships.

Thursday night, we will once again find ourselves chattering away about Finalist Day. This year we are buzzing with excitement for the potential candidates, and eager for the new class to share in our experience.

After attending ROTC (Reception on the Circle) last Thursday, I was reminded of the nerves, excitement, anxiousness, and did I mention, nerves?!? that I was feeling at the same time last year. A year ago, a group of Butler candidates drove together to ROTC and we were all chatting about the fellowship and how excited we were to be moving forward in the application process. We had the chance to meet fellows and interact with the directors during an evening of networking at the Marvis.

It’s amazing now, a year later, to see that same group of Butler students and the role each of us have at our host companies through the Orr Fellowship. Ashton is leading the way at Slane Capitol and making huge impressions, Ann is traveling weekly across the nation to consult Bid Pal events, Conner is making waves at iGoDigital and improving the online customer experience, John is working in sales and account management roles at Compendium, and I’m gaining valuable experience through events marketing, outbound marketing, and talent management and organizational development at ExactTarget.

But beyond the day-to-day contribution that we make at our host companies, we have the unique opportunity to connect with other fellows, young professionals, local business leaders, entrepreneurs, host company executives, and fellowship directors. I like to think of it as the perks beyond the typical 8-5 job – our chance to really learn, connect, and grow. The mission and core values of the fellowship are truly being acted upon throughout all aspects of the fellowship and it’s exciting and motivating to be a part of it.  Each interaction, connection made, and lesson learned inspire me to discover how I can best serve the community with my skills and passions.

A year ago, I could only dream of this opportunity, and I’ve realized being a part of the fellowship was worth every bit of nervousness and uncertainty. For me, it came down to taking a leap and holding on tightly to an invaluable opportunity, and there has never been any looking back. May all of our eyes be opened to the invaluable opportunities in front of us today, and always.

1. How can I be sure I'll be happy in my career?


2. How can I be sure my relationships with my friends and family become an enduring source of happiness?


3. How can I stay out of jail?

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: I’m not the camping sort of girl.  Being outdoors for an extended amount of time in a buggy, muggy atmosphere isn’t something that I really jump to do.  The other Orr Fellows can attest to this.

You see, this past weekend, we all packed up and headed out to Bradford Woods in Martinsville, IN for a weekend-long retreat.  Given that we had bunk rooms, weak air conditioning, and a full kitchen full of goodies, I’m kind of thinking they may have made fun of me a bit for how out of place I seemed amongst the trees and bugs (I might have made the slightly dramatic comment that I was pretending to be on “Survivor”…).

However…no matter how much I didn’t like getting sweaty and nasty in the middle of the day or itching all of my new mosquito bites (15)…the retreat was an absolute blast.  I got to know those in my class, as well as people in the class above me, in a completely different atmosphere – not at work, not at a meeting, not in a bar – but instead in the middle of nowhere, completely removed from the outside world (Internet access was spotty).  Being disconnected from the outside world has its advantages, though…it births deep conversations about the most random things, and I found out just how much I have in common with those that surround me.

The Orr Fellowship is an amazing thing; it brings together people that have some pretty common “working” traits, a fair amount of ambition, and lots of different personalities and interests.  But no matter how different we all seem, our “below the surface” thoughts and values are uncannily similar.

These similarities aren’t things that are “tested” or searched out during our months of recruiting new fellows, but somehow we’ve created a group that serves not only as the basis of our new professional network, but has also become a solid group of friends.

I’ll humbly say that we have a pretty amazing group of people – it’s a group made of individuals that have accomplished unique and inspiring things in their short 22 or 23 years; a group that inspires me to want to work harder and be better at what I do.  And after seeing just how well we all mesh and work together after a weekend of roughing it in the woods, I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to see what our collective future holds.

If you’d like to learn more about my personal experiences in the Orr Fellowship, ask general questions about what the Fellowship really is, or find out how you can be part of this incredibly fun group, send me an email at ashton.chaffeee@orrfellowship.org (or hear about my daily exploits by following me on Twitter).

Last week, I received a very interesting email. This message informed me that Mayor Ballard, and Governor Mitch Daniels would be paying a visit to Angie's List, my host company, the following day. As I drove up to the ever eclectic Angie's List campus the next morning, the energy was undeniable. The entire company was counting down the minutes until 9:15, when the two were scheduled to arrive. At about 9:00am, my department was buzzing was eagerness. We all walked over to the courtyard where a mix of employees, including many Orr Fellowship alumni, sat on hand-me-down picnic tables, looking on as Angie Hicks introduced the mayor and the governor.

The first statement Governor Daniels made was that he was proud of this organization and the impact it has made on the near east side of Indianapolis. As he continued his speech, I could not help but feel pride as well. I am proud to be a part of Angie's List. I am proud to be associated with one of the Best Places to Work in Indianapolis; a company that will be providing over 500 jobs in the city of Indianapolis in the next 5 years. I then looked around at all of the Orr Fellow alumni, and thought about their positions within Angie's List, as well as all of the entrepreneurial endeavors they work on after hours and the career opportunities they are pursuing.

I could not help but feel, in that moment, that I was beginning to fully realize the mission of the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship in Indiana. Angie Hicks, Co-founder of my host company, is motivating me to take a career risk. The current Orr Fellows and alumni I associate with, aside from their distinguished post-grad jobs, are motivating me to do more with my energy than just a 9-5 job. Governor Daniels and Mayor Ballard are motivating me to make a tangible impact on the city of Indianapolis.

As I left my office that day, my head was buzzing with opportunities to pursue around the city. I spent that evening sending emails and brainstorming how I could give back to this community that is offering so much to me during my fellowship experience. I found myself reaching out to connections I have already made through the Fellowship to offer help in various volunteer avenue. I was beginning to take advantage of post-graduate networking in Indianapolis. I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to experience the influence of city and state leaders just three short months out of college.

• Just adding people will no longer solve the problem:  Rob talked with us about how not too long ago, simply adding educated people to a country's workforce and not necessarily worrying about productivity gains within that workforce would bring about increases in economic growth for the country.  That day in age is long gone now and becoming more productive as a workforce with less resources is driving economic growth much more than simply adding another body to the stem.  
• Finding new and innovative ideas to solve big problems is as important now as it ever has been: Much of the time in conversation with Rob revolved around the issues that the Lilly Foundation has identified in education and health care and how they are trying to solve them.  One thing I found refreshing about his approach to solving issues was trying to find workable solutions on a small scale before advocating them on a large scale.  For example, in the education field, the Lilly Foundation doesn't try and solve entire country's problem in one big cash-flush solution, but instead they take small, but calculated, bets on Indianapolis and Indiana based initiatives that are innovative and take new approaches to solving problems of things such as getting more students to graduate and improving the quality of education.  Then if they see success in these smaller initiatives they advocate these solutions on a larger scale, thereby advocating for more proven and refined solutions then ones that are great in theory but may not be great in practice.