I got my first full-time job in politics by bluffing my way in. I was first recruited for the job by someone who went to summer camp with the daughter of the owner of the political consulting firm. They needed a computer guy because the last guy was an alcoholic who stole all of their [...]

From The Classroom I’d love to tell you that my attention to detail, hard work, and academic excellence have landed me all of my jobs after graduation. Since the speech during freshman orientation on the Honor Code still sticks with me, I won’t lie to you. While all of those are certainly qualities of a [...]

As the chief architect for the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s capacity building, professional and leadership development offerings, I spend a lot of time thinking about the skills and expertise our next generation of creative leaders will need to be successful, particularly in an environment where change and complexity are the rule, not the [...]

What are some key things you have learned since graduation from college? 1. Having a plan is good, taking advantage of other opportunities, even if they divert said plan, can be even better. I walked into W&L as a pre-med Biology major and graduated with a B.A. in Art History. I moved to Washington, DC [...]

General Electric employs roughly 300,000 people around the world. CNBC, a subsidiary of GE during my entire 6 ½ year tenure at the network, had somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,500 employees while I worked there. I currently have five employees. In February 2006, I left my job as Managing Editor at CNBC/Dow Jones Business [...]

This editorial was originally posted by Alumni Affairs in March 2012. We've decided to re-post Jill's excellent editorial so that other alums can get a sense of her wonderful spirit. Jill Bailey Chenet '03 was a second grade teacher at the River School in Washington, D.C. Tragically, Jill passed away on July 25, 2012, after [...]

New college graduates can now expect to work for eight to 10 companies, on average, during their careers. For 26 years, I worked for only one company – so I have a lot of job-hopping to catch up on. Even before graduation from Washington and Lee, I started with the company (Media General) as an [...]

While you will always be a General after leaving W&L, you’ll have a few other labels slapped on over the years. Down the road people may think of you more in terms of your graduate education or last job. However others may label you, don’t forget your W&L roots in recruiting over the years. When [...]

WARNING, to you, the reader: this is strictly an opinion piece.  There was no grant money sent my way to do an in-depth study on the topic.  Below are simply my observations about networking after years and years and years of doing it myself. So if you were expecting scientific, prepare yourself for disappointment. For [...]

Politics is a challenging, exciting and rewarding profession. To succeed, one must have a combination of skills, including: 1) the ability to develop and communicate strong beliefs; 2) motivate volunteers and voters; 3) know when to compromise; and 4) a willingness to work long hours with little pay and little sleep for a candidate or [...]