Extra Credit Lecture

The lecture given by Matt Lazenby and Brian Sullivan from Sogeti USA was both informative and interesting. Brian Sullivan made it clear that MIS is not just about computers and coding, but can have a big business aspect too. He helped us realize the possibilites we can have if we are MIS majors. However, he also noted that it is never too late to become involved in this field since he himself was a general business major and a marketing minor. Brian Sullivan's enthusiasm kept my attention and even got my excited to join the work force after graduation. He highlighted four main aspects of life after college and told us how we can apply them to better ourselves and our success. The first idea he talked about was competition. To keep the lecture fun, he showed a clip of cheetas chasing eachother and had a man appear out of no where and reach the target cheeta first. Through this example, he was trying to show us that competition can come out of no where so it is important to set ourselves apart from other people by accomplishing everything we possibly can, despite the current state of our competitors. He then spoke about communication. He showed us many quotes from former Loyola students who have gone on to accomplish great things. One point an Alum made was that it is not always the exact material that we learn at Loyola that will be used in the real world but rather the skills we acquired. Next he spoke about the need for direction and set goals. Finally, he spoke about opportunity. Basically he stressed that we need to take every opportunity we are offered. To show how life changing a single opportunity can be, he told us a story about his own life. As a young man he waited tables and one day when he told a person he was waiting on that he would be graduating in the spring, the man gave him his business card and said to give him a call. The summer after his graduation, he called the man and was given a job a Xerox. At a party for employees early on in this job, he met a woman that would later become his wife. Overall, Brian Sullivan and Matt Lazenby gave a very informative lecture.The combination of Brian Sullivan's excitement and enthusiasm as well as his desire to help us in any way he could made the lecture very worth while.