OSU Spears School graduate students receive advice on balancing school, life

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

After a successful presentation last year, Jay Rao returned to the Oklahoma State University’s Watson Graduate School of Management to speak to masters students in the MBA and MS in MIS program.

The senior program manager for Communications Test Design, Inc. (CTDI) again spoke to students about balancing life’s circumstances and the importance of maintaining a good presence on social and professional media.

Rao discussed the significance of equally balancing personal, professional and family lives. He informed students each category has roles a person must play and goals that need to be accomplished and these roles and goals are defined by the individual.

“Again, you have to make sure those circles stay the same size,” said Rao. “As we age, our personal circle is the one that shrinks the fastest. Don’t lose touch with your personal circle. It’s extremely important.”

He explained it’s not about the amount of time you spend in a particular circle, it’s about what you do with the time.

First-year MBA student Davis Parker was pleased with the information presented by Rao.

“He said to stay true to yourself and make sure circles don’t overlap which is a big thing,” said Parker. “Like don’t let your job become more important than your family… and I think that is really important in general.”

Rao also focused on the importance of well-managed social and professional media. He told the students to make sure there was nothing on social media they wouldn’t want an employer to see, or make their information private so employers cannot view it because 91 percent of recruiter’s use social networking cites to screen employees.

Rao then told the students more companies are hiring employees from professional media, and the students should take advantage of professional networking cites like LinkedIn. He used the statistic that 70 percent of all jobs are found through networking and gave them advice on do’s and don’ts of professional networking cites.

With degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology and Wake Forest and more than 25 years work experience, Rao had a lot of personal and professional knowledge to share with students.

“I really like what he had to say,” said Parker. “I found it [the presentation] very helpful.”

“A big part of MBA learning is networking with successful leaders and alumni. Jay Rao inspired our students,” said Jan Analla, Assistant Director of the MBA Program.