MGMT 496 Leads the Way towards Career Success

SEN Intern: What year did you graduate?

Tim Byrne: Spring 2019

SEN: What was your major?

T: Finance

SEN: Can you tell us a bit about your experience in the MGMT 496 Consulting Practicum while at Penn State? How has that impacted your current role? Are there any skills or interests you found in that experience that lead you to your current role?

T: I was involved with MGMT 496 Consulting at Penn State from the fall semester of my sophomore year up until I graduated. During my sophomore year, I was a team member on several projects including Downtown Improvement District, SCASD IB initiative, and Montessori Schools. During my junior year, I was the SBU Director of our Innovation and Strategy group in which I led several teams interacting with AccuWeather, Raytheon, and the Smeal Diversity & Inclusion Board. During my senior year, I was Managing Partner & TA for MGMT 496 and oversaw all projects, client relationships, and class learnings.

My experience with MGMT 496 Consulting has had a tremendous impact on my current career. Perhaps the most significant impact from learning in 496 is my understanding of the importance and impact on inductive reasoning. Too often, consultants—and people in general—will jump to conclusions about root causes and potential solutions. By diving into a problem and understanding the root cause through observation and scientific method, you not only have a better grasp on how to address the issue but have also simultaneously developed a strong sense of trust between your team and the client.

MGMT 496 has also helped me understand the qualities of a successful consulting team and how to leverage the skills of each individual. Often, in 496 I was working with—and learning from—other students with different technical skills, majors, backgrounds, and interests. By working into leadership positions within the class, you find it more and more important to leverage those skills and foster a collaborative environment.

Lastly, MGMT 496 offers a rare opportunity for students to learn how to work with real clients and the associated challenges. Developing a conscious and sensitivity to delivering complicated, negative, or conflicting information to a client while still creating a sense of optimism and forward-looking behavior is a very difficult skill to learn—especially while a student in college.

SEN: At the Student Engagement Network, we focus on five growth areas when discussing experiences. The five growth areas are: Multicultural Awareness, Civic Responsibility, Professional Development, Ethical Reasoning, and Systems Thinking. During your time at Penn State in this involvement do you see any of the growth areas being applicable to you? If so, which stand out to you in your experience and why?

T: Professional Development is a clear growth area with respect to MGMT 496. Students quickly learn how to operate as a consulting team, work with a real client, collect data, and deliver quality recommendations and presentations to stakeholders.

Additionally, during most brainstorming sessions for a project in 496, the discussion can often be enhanced using systems theory. After collecting data from research conducted by the team, systems theory often comes into play when trying to make sense of abstract information and draw trends between data points.

SEN: What advice would you give to a Penn State student looking to find their why?

T: The people around you are your greatest resource. Talk to as many upperclassmen as possible and try to understand what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how they got there. Most of the experiences I had at Penn State came from that conversation because I had felt aligned with their values or interests. However, if you try a different path or career and don’t feel excited or intellectually stimulated, don’t be afraid to change routes and discover something new. College is the time to meet as many people as possible, learn as much as possible, and discover as many experiences as possible. Never stay complacent.