MEET CHARLES BELIN III! He will graduate in May 2021 with his Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing with a concentration in Professional Selling. He is active in the American Marketing Association and Delta Sigma Pi. Charles completed an internship in Event Sales for the Dallas Cowboys before landing his current role as a Client Service Representative with Fidelity Investments.
We asked Charles some questions, advice for current students, and how UNT helped him to succeed and SOAR BEYOND!
When you started at UNT, what were your plans after graduation? How have these plans changed My plans are to be in a business development/account management role at a software as a service company. My plans haven’t changed much, however, the internships and programs I’ve been a part of have helped me accelerate the process immensely.
What advice do you have for prospective or current students as they decide what they want their next steps to be? Salespeople have a saying “ABC” Always be closing. I would advise prospective and current students to “ABN” Always be Networking. Always be building relationships and trying to meet new people that widen your perspective. This will help you grow and you never know how you can help each other in the future. On top of this always have a proactive mindset. Realize you have the power to take control of your own life and create better situations. It just takes a little effort on your part.
How did your program at UNT help you to feel prepared for these roles? The Professional Selling Program is filled with rigorous 1-hour sales roleplays. On top of this, there are numerous presentations you must give breaking down different businesses and their operations, products, markets, and how to sell to them. The roleplays have vastly improved my sales and customer service skills while showing me how to think critically under pressure, and the presentations showed me how to learn a company inside and out from the outside for networking, job search, and prospecting purposes. This program has definitely given me a leg up on other interns I meet from other schools and has allowed me to help them by sharing my knowledge.
How did you find your internship and your current role? I was able to find my internship with the Dallas Cowboys on LinkedIn. There are dozens of internships advertised on LinkedIn so I definitely recommend students use it. For my current role at Fidelity, I was messaged through Handshake via Education at Work, another great program, and connected to Fidelity where I currently work. When it comes to job searching you should definitely keep your Handshake and LinkedIn up to date because you never know what opportunities you’ll find.
What was the toughest interview question each asked you? Dallas Cowboys: If for some reason things didn’t work out for you in your career, and despite all your hard work everything fell through, how would you handle it and what would be your next steps? Fidelity Investments: How do you handle a teammate who was dragging down your team’s productivity? Also, you can’t cut them loose.
How did the Career Center help you? The Career Center helped me immensely in getting my LinkedIn and Handshake looking authentically professional. On top of this, they helped me put together my resume in an effective way while providing networking tips. The career center is the place to go if you want to get set up for success.
Want to hear more of Charles’s story? Check out his testimonial video!
Would you like to be featured in our Soaring Beyond Success Series? Email Jeanette Hickl. We’d love to share your story!
