Aaron Filzen
- Team Director
- FOCUS Catholic
School Information
School: Minnesota State University Mankato
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2015
Career Information
Working For: FOCUS Catholic
Title: Team Director
Industry: Education
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Support raised a salary thru cold calls, face to face meetings, and regular two way communication to be able to sustain mission and a growing family. Maintain and regularly cultivate relationships with over 100 financial partners. Coached and consulted 4 teammates to fundraise an average salary of 40,000. Maintain and balance a Campus Team Account with an annual budget of $25,000. Led and coached a team of 6 to become strategic leaders through weekly team meetings and formation. Lead efforts to increase new registrations at St. Paul’s Newman Center from 400 to 581 students during fall recruitment. Conducted staff interviews at national recruitment weekends using the top grading interview process.
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
Light and key- I have been able to find and open many locked doors.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
I am still in college but this year I have been offered jobs solely based off of my experience and the ability to network and meet people. A skill that was greatly improved on during my internship with College Works Painting.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
Know your limits and then push them. Have a balance in your life no matter what you are doing.
How have the friendships and networks you built during CW affected you?
Good friends to have around at college
If you had to come up with a one line slogan for CW, what would it be?
The few the proud the interns of College Works Painting
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
Stick with it, it is like college- an investment. You will regret quitting much more than having a challenging summer
Many college students struggle to choose between an internship specific to their target industry or doing CW. What advice would you give them on this subject if they wanted to enter your career field?
College Works Painting is a perfect internship for Construction Management students- perhaps even better experience than what you could get from your typical internship in the industry
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Work experience is huge. Especially leadership/management experience. Also do whatever it takes to finish your degree, I know people who could and should be a lot further along in their careers or at the companies they are at but they just didn’t take one or two classes they needed to graduate so they stopped.