Business Alumnus Offers Guidance to Undergrads

Trinity’s business professors see alumni as one of their best teaching resources. Last week, students in the Personal Selling Class, taught by Assistant Professor of Business Kyle Harkema, learned about life after Trinity from alumnus Jeff Weidenaar ’96.

Tracing his career trajectory from Trinity grad to sales manager at Silva International, Weidenaar described his experiences in the business world. Silva International is a company providing dehydrated vegetable, herb, and select fruit ingredients to the food industry.

Weidenaar sees networking as an important step in landing a great job out of college. He encouraged students to network while they are undergrads. In regard to his experience as a sales manager, Weidenaar emphasized that while price is important in sales, having high standards of value will do more to help a company succeed in the long run.

Harkema said this presentation was beneficial to soon-to-be-graduates in several ways.

“First, the presentation helped them get over the ‘salesperson stigma’ that most of them have. Second, Weidenaar showed the students that you can have a successful and fulfilling career as a Christian salesperson. Third, he reinforced a lot of what we cover in class with true to life scenarios and experience, which really resonate with the students.”