Kevin Kankel
- Senior Practice Director - Data & AI Services
- Krasan Consulting Services
School Information
School: University of California, Davis
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2011
Career Information
Working For: Krasan Consulting Services
Title: Senior Practice Director – Data & AI Services
Industry: IT
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Interviewed, selected, and onboarded a team of 4 SQL and Informatica developers to build a Data Warehouse tailor-made to enable reporting continuity as the client migrated from an on-premise SQL system to Salesforce, including: – Standing up brand new server environment – Initial implementation of Informatica cloud as ETL solution – Designing, building, and initializing Data Warehouse model – Directly supporting business processes through transitional development & testing
What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?Development of a real-time nurse staffing assignment tool to take the burden of thought off of our charge nurses. It’s bringing the way our main nursing floor is managed forward by decades.
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting has meant changing the way I view myself so I never settle for less than my absolute best.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
Immediately after graduation my experience with College Works Painting had me knowing that I can make great things happen. My interviewer senses that, so they brought me on even knowing that I had much to learn in my field. Now, I take the approach toward improvement I learned in College Works Painting and I apply it every day, rapidly expanding my own skills and building the tools to bring my organization to the bleeding edge of managerial information technology.
What do you want to tell your clients about what it meant to work with them and how it has helped you get to where you are today?
I wish I could tell them all how much it means to me that they had the faith to let me work with them, and what it’s led to for me. I wish I could apologize for any of the hiccups as well ;)
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
You can always do better because you are always missing opportunities, no matter how many you catch. Learn from each one you miss, never make the same mistake twice
How have the friendships and networks you built during CW affected you?
Even years later I still need people to vent business ideas to. I will absolutely lose my mind if I don’t, because I was able to get so creative with the team I was on as an intern. I still talk to as many as I can all the time, and hope to crank that up as time goes on!
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
Open your mind to what your higher-ups are telling you. Their success is measured by your success, and they’re more than smart enough to know how to ensure you meet your goals as long as you put in the effort and do what they say.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Take College Works Painting, hands-down. The hands-on skills you will learn in another internship may or may not be helpful in a job, but learning to be a leader is so ridiculously valuable that you’ll look back and be amazed you thought about doing anything else.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
I went into a new territory with another intern and we spent our first two hours marketing with almost no success. After a while the sun comes out and we both end up almost sprinting door to door with these absurd smiles on our faces, cracking jokes and having a great time. Went from 1 lead per hour to ten and was the most successful marketing day either of us had had since the first week.
Last words of wisdom?
Real life is hard, and good people are rare but they’re well worth hanging around to help get you through it. Keep the good ones you can find and ride it out as long as possible, your whole life will be better for it.