Hello what is your name? My name is Steph Phipps. Alright, and before coming here, what were your undergrad and grad school degrees? So I have graduate degrees in human relations, or human resources, from the University of Oklahoma. I have a masters of Business Administration in the MBA from Oklahoma Christian, and I have a PhD from Oklahoma State University. Okay and amongst all of that, when did you what year did you start at Spears? So I started with Spears the fall of 2022. Okay what courses do you teach for Spears? Management, fundamentals of management. I teach a corporate strategy, and I teach professional development. Okay perfect and so in between all that, did you go straight into school? Did you have any industry experience? Yeah no, I spent about 20 years in in corporate, um specifically oil and gas for the majority of the time, but in executive leadership roles. I was vice president of human resources and strategy for about 16 years. 

Okay you had mentioned HR , what do you think are some of the three things students should remember when going into a company? If students are looking for companies that they're interested in, going to or once they get a new position with the company, the number one thing is to make sure that the corporate culture and their objectives are aligned with both their personal objectives as well as their business objectives, because the more those are in alignment the better and the happier the employee is going to be, the more engaged they'll be, and likely the more opportunities they'll get in that organization. So in order to find a company that you'll fit well into you need to spend some time on the front end and do some research. Not only go out and look at their website, read if there's any news stories about that company, and read about that. 

Then if you can reach out to people that work there, if you have family or friends that maybe have a acquaintances in that organization, the more you can learn about the organization, the more you will know. That way when you go in, you'll be armed with questions that can lead you down a path to make the decision or at least you'll know going in what to expect, and then once you get in the organization again, the work is going to be a large part of of the success that you have there. 

But, the other piece is making sure that you are aligned with their values. So organizations have cultures that that have a set of values, and obviously people do too, and when those values are aligned and you understand what Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, kind of where those values land, for organizations. Some organizations are very devoted to diversity in the workforce, some are very devoted to community outreach, some are devoted to environmental understanding. What's important to you and then understanding how that aligns with the company that you're going to work for can be very helpful.