SC Johnson College panel discusses ‘expanding your range’

Your career can thrive when your path is not linear, a panel of alumni and business leaders told students, staff and faculty at the seventh annual Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and ManagementDean's Distinguished Lecture, Sept. 23 in the Alice Statler Auditorium.

"Expanding your range is important for today's business school students because the world of business is becoming more dynamic and complex, and requires diverse skills, adaptability, and creative and lateral thinking," Jinhua Zhao, the David J. Nolan Dean of the Dyson School at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, said in his opening remarks.

The event focused on "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World," by David Epstein, the book chosen for the seventh annual Dyson Summer Read. Incoming freshmen and transfer students are given a common business-themed book to read before arriving at Cornell; events throughout the year draw on concepts from the book.

"What we wish to accomplish with each Summer Book Read is to build a common vocabulary to advance our thinking and to unite our students on an important theme that will help shape a shared journey not just during their time at Cornell, but beyond," Zhao said.

Suzanne Shu, dean of faculty and research at the SC Johnson College, moderated the event. Her own career followed a zigzag path, from electrical engineering to college admissions to professor- and deanships.

"The path that you think you're on is often not the path that you will be on five or 10 or 20 years later," Shu said, asking panelists to share a roadblock they encountered that changed their career.

Eric Zilber '16 said that if you just looked at his resume, his career path might seem straightforward. But in reality, he had many setbacks.

The son of Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, Zilber said his interest in law was sparked by working with John McKinley, professor of practice at Dyson, and he expected to enter law school after graduation. But when his mother died, he struggled with the enormity of the loss. He deferred his acceptance to law school and felt he was falling behind his peers.

"It's OK to be different," Zilber said. "You're not on anyone else's timeline."

The deferral gave him time to explore and ultimately led him to his passion: sports law. He's now an associate in the Sports Group at Proskauer Rose.

Tiffany Washington, MBA '12, currently head of diversity, equity and inclusion strategies for a national nonprofit, also changed her path after experiencing a loss - the death of her father. She left her position as director in the project finance division at Sesame Workshop, Sesame Street's nonprofit educational organization - a job that combined her skills in theater, different cultures and math - and began working in investor relations for an energy company.

While at Sesame Workshop, Washington learned that understanding context is one way generalists can leverage their unique skills.

"In project finance," she said, "understanding the business problems that your colleagues are trying to solve helps you become even better at helping them. The conversation becomes more than just, 'Here's your budget.'"

Later, when the energy company was revamping its social responsibility arm, Washington asked to be part of the effort and offered to work additional hours beyond her primary role. By expanding her skills, she earned a promotion.

"Who had a parent that said, 'Extra credit is not extra, it's part of the assignment?'" Washington asked the audience. "That mindset paid off for me."

Rod Rotondi, president of Shared Kitchen Ithaca, said he's faced plenty of situations in which "I didn't have the expertise. You don't know the rules, you don't know the answers."

In his book, Epstein calls these situations "wicked" learning environments, full of uncertainty and ambiguity. Generalists, the book asserts, are uniquely suited to handle them.

Rotondi said that persistence and a willingness to fail and learn helped him face such situations. After many years working for the United Nations Development Program in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Rotondi made a major change. He "traded his three-piece suit for a Speedo" and opened SCUBA centers in the Sinai Peninsula. Later, he turned to food entrepreneurship and has now combined his food industry and economic development experience to help found Shared Kitchen Ithaca, a nonprofit, shared-use commercial kitchen. He encouraged students in the audience to seek many different experiences to discover what energizes them.

Following audience questions, Shu closed with a paraphrased quote from the book, urging students to "flirt with their possible selves."

Alison Fromme is a writer for the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

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