Visiting Executives Offer Advice to College of Business Students

University of Findlay alumni and brothers Brant and Ty Rhoad, as College of Business visiting executives, advised students to take risks and believe in themselves when they pursue careers.
At a public presentation held Tuesday, Brant, an attorney and business owner, offered these tips:

• Have confidence. “Sometimes you might think, ‘I don’t belong here.’ If you have confidence, you can make up for a lot.
• Find things that you are passionate about and that you enjoy.
• Know, like and trust the people you work with.
• Don’t be afraid to make significant life changes if you’re not happy.

Brant, who is also a UF Board of Trustees member, said University faculty helped him transition from aiming for medical school to law school during his senior year. “What Findlay did for me was they supported my decision to change. Don’t be scared (to make changes). You’ll get more support than you imagined. If you’ve got the feeling that you need to do it, do it. It’ll work out in the end.

Ty’s path to corporate success also was not linear. He switched companies and tried worked at different jobs before becoming a regional sales manager for a family-owned company that creates reusable packaging and containers, such as recycle bins.
Ty’s advice to students:

• Don’t be afraid to take a chance. “It took me about seven years (after graduating from UF) to really understand what I enjoyed.
• Build relationships. “Be involved and get out in the community. You never know who you’re going to meet.”
• Be prepared. Research companies where you want to work and jobs you want to land.
• Take advantage of all that college has to offer. Don’t just limit yourself to a few key foci. h
• Learn from your failures, which are inevitable, and admit them. “Try to minimize your failures so that you don’t make it worse. If you try to cover things up and say you did everything right all the time, that’s when the problem becomes 100 times worse than it could’ve been,” he said.

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