Georgia Southern University students participate in National Collegiate Sales Competition and Career Fair

April 10, 2008

Fourteen students from Georgia Southern University traveled to Atlanta recently to take part in the 2008 National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) and Career Fair. Each student was interviewed one or more times, and several graduating seniors have already accepted job offers.

‘At one point I looked over to see one of our students with a line of recruiters waiting to interview him,” said Linda Mullen, assistant professor of marketing and an expert in professional sales in the College of Business Administration. ‘Every year Georgia Southern students participating in this event have the opportunity to walk away with career options, and some receive job offers at the conference.”

Georgia Southern students Cody Ray and Adam Allen represented the institution in the competition, a 20-minute event that includes intensive role-playing. The competition attracted students from Canada, Mexico and across the U.S., and many major fields are represented.

‘Sales are important to any career path students may choose,” said Mullen.

Other students attending were Chris Collins, Kandice Chapman, Jay Horton, Jessica Kinder, Kimberly Shepherd, John Barnwell, Shalonda Parrish, Christa Stephenson, Jim Cowart, Breanna Rotell, Lauren Fountain, and Georgia Sewell. In addition to marketing, management, and finance majors, the group included students majoring in nutrition, Spanish, and general studies.

‘The ability to talk to so many Fortune 500 execs was really exciting and also really scary,” said Chapman. ‘This opportunity gave me the confidence I needed, not just for interviewing, but for interacting with anyone in the business world.”

‘The sales competition was very intense, but one of my most life-changing experiences,” said Allen. ‘The competition was definitely a positive experience. The participating recruiters weren’t just there to interview us; they were there to hire us.”