Meet A Deac
It’s Meet A Deac Monday! As parents and families, one of your likely goals for college is for your student to end up gainfully employed 🙂 Today I am pleased to introduce you to Stuart Mease of the Office of Personal and Career Development.
To get us started, will you please tell me your job title and how long you’ve been at Wake? I am Executive Director, Employer Relations. I’ve been here for 3 years.
Wow, usually I’m the longtimer, but you have me beat! Now tell me a little about your educational background. I went to Virginia Tech. I have a degree in Marketing and an MBA.
How would you describe your job in layperson’s terms? Our office connects employers who have positions to fill with students who are looking for jobs.
COVID changed the way almost all of us do our work and live our lives at home. How did the pandemic impact you? There were a few huge challenges: homeschooling an 8 year old (that was the biggest challenge), trying to care for my widowed mother in another state, and oh, the entire college recruiting industry fundamentally changed!
Anything you are particularly looking forward to for this semester? For the pandemic to be over since Fall Recruiting is the busiest time of the year, and employers want to get the best talent as soon as they can.
What do you like best about working at Wake? My staff!
If you were offering advice to a student, what would you say? There are plenty of jobs if you are willing to acquire skills in demand, and are willing to humble oneself and take an opportunity that may not be your dream job. Apply to jobs early and often. And then do some more.
What about advice to Wake parents and families? My goal is to get them off your payroll and put them on their own payroll.
I’m sure our families appreciate that 🙂 Now, for the lightning round questions!
Books you’re reading now:Â the Bible, and Halftime
Favorite band/musician/genre: Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Dave Matthews Band
TV, movies, Netflix, etc.:Â TV: Seinfeld, 24, 90210, Everybody Loves Raymond; movies: Rudy, Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Greatest Showman – anything with a person overcoming obstacles to achieve success
Website you frequent: LinkedIn
Guilty pleasures: caramel, gummy candy, ice cream, golf, Carolina basketball – can I say this on a Wake Forest website? [I have a lot of feelings about that, Stuart…]
Introvert or extrovert: Extrovert.
Something most people don’t know about you: I grew up on a beef cattle and tobacco farm in Virginia.
Stuart, many thanks for being this week’s Meet A Deac, and for all you do to help our students in their journey from college to career!Â
[Editor’s note – you can read past Meet A Deacs here].