How a Graduate’s Career Path Went Through the Poole Career Center

In the Poole Career Center course Tucker Parrish took as a business student, he attended an “etiquette dinner” at NC State’s McKimmon Center to learn tips about handling business meals.

The 2023 Poole graduate could have used that guidance a few weeks earlier, when he met a mentor for lunch. His companion, a financial adviser, ordered a salad. Parrish chose another entree. 

“About 15 minutes in, I realized why I shouldn’t have gotten a burger,” he recalls. “It was a good meeting, but I definitely felt out of place because my lunch got messy.”  

Fortunately, the Poole course, M120: Professional Development and Career Planning, helped Parrish avoid other messy or awkward situations in his search for an internship and employment after graduation.   

Parrish, a Poole transfer student, calls the class “the most beneficial course I took at NC State — and maybe period, in my college career in all four years. It’s definitely had the most impact.”

That impact influenced every step of his career path in college, from creating a resume and cover letter to talking with recruiters, pursuing an internship, interviewing and evaluating job offers.

In the fall of his junior year, he met weekly with Undergraduate Career Services Associate Director Christina DeBerardino, who taught the M120 course, to review his resume and discuss other topics. He also attended Career Center workshops, coffee chats with company representatives and career fairs. 

“It was good practice talking with recruiters, and it showed me what was available [at the fairs],” says Parrish, who majored in business administration with a finance concentration. 

Those conversations paid off. A career fair led him to an internship with financial services company TIAA, where he helped a technology team that supports financial advisers. 

He met with DeBerardino before his internship interview to prepare — and he covered all the bases. “I even showed her what I planned to wear to make sure it would be OK,” Parrish says. 

The preparation worked. He was hired for the internship.

And that led to an offer from TIAA for full-time employment, which he reviewed with DeBerardino before he accepted. “I directly credit the Career Center with helping me land the internship and my full-time job later,” Parrish says.

Now as a TIAA retirement adviser in Charlotte, he focuses on asset withdrawal strategy, asset allocation and similar issues.

“I directly credit the Career Center with helping me land the internship and my full-time job later.”

Every day he taps what he learned in Poole courses. That includes using tools developed by investment research company Morningstar, and finance concepts related to portfolio and investment management, financial modeling and asset classes. 

Poole courses also prepared Parrish to study for and pass Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) exams, required for his TIAA role. “I had a leg up over some of my colleagues who didn’t have a finance background because I’d seen the concepts in class before,” he says.     

Even as a Poole graduate, he uses Career Center resources and guidance to keep his resume up to date and to help friends and his brother, a Poole student, in their job searches. 

He plans to stay in touch with DeBerardino.

“For her, it’s not just whether you’re a student or not. She wants to see everyone succeed. I know she’s always there, which I really appreciate,” Parrish says.

He also appreciates what he learned at the Career Center’s M120 etiquette dinner — which utensils to use for various foods and other business meal tips and even how to eat asparagus — useful skills for outside an office setting.    

“I imagine these are things that could be considered by an employer, how you handle yourself in a different environment outside of work,” he says. “I still don’t like soup, but at least I know the right way to eat it now.”