Top Indiana Jobs

Name:  Mitch Causey

I concede that I am a nerd. No contest. As a friend recently put it, I "got to meet my Taylor Swift."

Prof. Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics was a recent speaker at Purdue for the Krannert Leadership Speaker Series which I had the privilege of attending and covering (article here). Aside from being a personal hero of mine, he has been heralded as the "Indiana Jones of Economics" by the Wall Street Journal. Time named him to the "Top 100 People Who Shape Our World" in 2006.

The man embodies everything that is entrepreneurial, minus the directly creating a business part. He has made a career out of challenging conventional wisdom and taking a moment to step back, and look at common problems at a slightly different angle. Isn't that essentially what an entrepreneur aims to do? Creating a need, solving a problem, explaining the abnormal, defining a connection, etc.

How does he apply to entrepreneurship careers? Like his father, he set out to answer the questions that others in their respective fields failed to. Therefore, he doesn't consider himself a "real" economist, but something gives me the feeling that he is OK with that. As members of the Orr Fellowship, placed in fast paced jobs, Fellows thrive on innovation. Whether it is expanding our role within our host organization or bouncing off ideas with other 20-somethings, I would like to think that we are trying to ask those unasked questions and seeking answers to ones that have been given up on.

If I learned anything from Prof. Levitt, it's that a key element to creating an industry is questioning the norm. Figuring out whether the way something has been done is in fact the best way to do it. Taking something that is granted and proving its worth.

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!