From weather-girl dreams to hotel budgets, Markell Haslem’s career path proves you can pivot anywhere. Karl and Trekker dive into how a communications major became a financial analyst, why networking matters more than GPA, and why those so-called ‘crappy’ first jobs aren’t so crappy after all. Oh! And don’t forget to stick around to hear how Bigfoot may not be of this world? All this and more on the Career Cafe Podcast!
From dreams of being a TV weather girl to becoming a financial analyst for a major hospitality company, Markell Haslem's career path is a powerful reminder that it's okay to pivot. In this episode, Karl and Trekker sit down with Markell to discuss how a communications major with a self-proclaimed aversion to math found her way into the world of finance. Markell shares her journey of navigating college, changing majors, and the unexpected opportunities that came from her early work experiences. This episode is packed with candid advice about the value of networking, the importance of work-life balance, and why your first job—no matter how "crappy" it seems—can set you up for future success.
In this episode, we discuss:
Karl Rostron 00:12
Well, hello and welcome to career cafe, the podcast of Southern Utah University's Career and Professional Development Center, where we look and talk about all things career related, whether it be to students during their academic journey or transitioning through the world of work and after graduation, I am your host today, Karl Rostron, the Assistant Director of the career center, joined by my co host, Trekker Burt, and today our special guest is markelle Haslem from Safari hospitality. Markel, welcome.
Trekker Burt 00:37
Welcome. Markel, so glad to have you here. You're just thrilled to be here, aren't you?
Karl Rostron 00:44
And of course, on the boards producer, Bobby, welcome. Hey, here we go. So tell us all about yourself in 30 seconds. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well,
Trekker Burt 00:55
30 minutes, how about that? Right? A brief LinkedIn search said you work for Safari hospitality. Does it have anything to do with African mammals? No, wow. Well, tell us. Tell us
Karl Rostron 01:05
we're not nice to them.
Markell Haslem 01:06
No, but Safari hospitality is a hotel property management company. They own about 40 hotels in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, now, Nevada, and I do the finance for them. So basically, just budgets, month end closings. Work with accounting. A lot falling asleep. All right,
Trekker Burt 01:29
let's just cut to the end. What's your official job title
Markell Haslem 01:34
with budget or, sorry, finance
Trekker Burt 01:36
analyst. Finance analyst. Very cool, very cool.
Karl Rostron 01:39
So, growing up, I'm sure that was your dream. Oh, yeah, for sure.
Markell Haslem 01:44
What? No, I was growing up, I wanted to be a meteorologist. I wanted to be a weather girl, but, like, I don't do math. So you
Trekker Burt 01:52
don't do math, but you're a financial analyst, right?
Markell Haslem 01:55
Finance, or finances all Excel, meteorology, you actually know how to do that
Karl Rostron 01:59
explains my banking account. All right,
Trekker Burt 02:01
so did you? So let's, let's start at that journey. You, you went, You graduated high school. You wanted to be a meteorologist.
Markell Haslem 02:09
No, my dad told me in high school there was no chance, because I was in remedial math in high school. So he,
Trekker Burt 02:16
how did he was a little do that nicely? Or how did
Markell Haslem 02:19
he tried? He tried. What did he do? Just my junior year in high school, I was in remedial math, and he's like, you need, you know, you need to do calculus to get a meteorology degree. So we might need a pivot here. And I was very upset, right? What do you do? So that
Karl Rostron 02:34
explains my failed career path in meteorology. I was, I was a broadcast major when I came to SUU and I was actually the weather. Oh, really. And so that explains why that was a short lived career. I couldn't do math. Well, I thought if I could say one inch of rain, four inches of snow, that
Trekker Burt 02:53
was math with a with a whitening white and smile and a quick glance at the camera, right? Well, that, no, that that was a cause for a career change. I was a geology major for a hot second, and then math happened, right? And math didn't happen. And, yeah, yeah, so graduated was, was finance. I mean, after meteorology, was finance, like, you're just the next goal.
Markell Haslem 03:17
Um, what? I mean, I don't know what. I don't even remember at this point. No, I just needed to go to college. My dad's a professor in finance, shocker here at Suu. But when I was I moved to Cedar City. When I was a senior in high school, my the street I lived on. All of the Burgess siblings lived on the same street, and they hired me to be their nanny. So Burgess, the Burgess family, yeah, like the kids, so like Jace, Jim, Jeff, Jamie, they all lived on the same street that we lived on we moved
Trekker Burt 03:50
to, and I happen to know that the Burgess family owns Safari
Markell Haslem 03:56
hospital. Yeah, there's some context for you. Sorry about that. Clouds are clear. So they hired me to be their nanny when I was a senior in high school, and I sucked at it. I hate I just am not built to be around kids. But Jamie liked me, and so she got me a job at the Hampton Inn in Cedar City. So I worked breakfast they owned in Cedar that's the small one, right? The smallest one over by the griffles. But I started as a breakfast attendant my the end of senior year, I worked all through the summer. I moved to front desk once I started my freshman year of college, and I worked there for four years, and then an internship opened up my junior year of college at the corporate office and revenue
Trekker Burt 04:40
management. So you were, let's slow down. So you were at the hotel. Yeah, they owned here in town during college. You did breakfast, you did front desk, which sounds awful, and then, and then they offered, or an internship opened up at the corporate office, which is also in Cedar City.
Markell Haslem 04:58
In Cedar City, yeah, yeah. My major at that time, my major was accounting, so I knew I needed to do I had to take out student loans like I knew I was gonna have to take out student loans, so I couldn't do anything actually interesting. I needed to do something that would make me money. So I was an accounting major, and I had to switch, much to my disappointment, because I can't pass math. So that came back, came back that came back to haunt me. Oh yes, I couldn't pass 1050 so
Trekker Burt 05:31
that's not dumb.
Markell Haslem 05:33
Yeah, I don't know. I would have tried harder. My problem was college was for fun. Like I loved college. I had a good time. Well,
Trekker Burt 05:41
let's, let's put a pause on your career path and talk about that. Let's talk about fun. Okay, I don't know anything about fun. Yeah, we want to hear all the fun things you didn't so you, you graduated, you moved to Cedar City, yeah, you went to Suu. Did you go anywhere else? Or was it? No, just, I just learned. Okay, yeah. Tell us about college being fun. Pros and cons,
Markell Haslem 06:01
the pros and cons, I don't know. I just I moved out after I graduated high school. I've always lived I always lived with friends. I got a job on campus at the accounting office, like the controller's office. I worked there for two years, and I loved all my co workers, and I worked at the hotel too. I liked all my co workers there, and I just didn't really like doing homework. I'd rather go hang out and do stuff, so I just didn't try hard enough. But do you have any any regrets? Yeah, absolutely, I wouldn't be in so much debt. Like, that's fair. If I would have tried harder, I probably would have finished in accounting and finance, and that would have worked out the same way anyway. I think doesn't really matter what my major was, but I'm sure I wouldn't. I wouldn't have been a seven year bachelor's degree. So
Trekker Burt 06:51
a lot of guys that go to school for seven years, they're called doctors. Sorry, I did the same thing. That's why I can make that joke. That's, I mean, that's totally fair. Like you look back, you would have saved money now you're probably still, maybe still paying for those student loans. I think, I think we all have some loans to our name, right? But you mentioned that you would have probably ended up at the same place, yeah? How, for sure, what? So what did you end up graduating with? And how would you have ended up in? Just up in the same
Markell Haslem 07:23
place? I switched to communications, which is ironic, because if I would have done that to begin with, I probably could have been a weather girl. I just want to have had the meteorology. I couldn't do the forecasting anyway. But I switched to communications just so I could get my degree done really quick. And I ended up with minors in accounting and finance really
Karl Rostron 07:41
quick, seven years again, the math issue comes up. Felt like eight,
Markell Haslem 07:50
yeah, but I was still at the corporate office doing revenue management. They just offered me a full time spot, so I was there for about
Trekker Burt 08:00
four years. So you got, you mentioned the internship. You got the internship.
Markell Haslem 08:04
I was an intern for about a year, and then they asked me if I wanted to stay, and I said, Yes. So nice, nice. I worked as, like, the revenue management assistant. And then at that point, I really did like hotels. I liked working in hotels. I would even like go back to the Hampton and watch the front desk if, like, they were having a party, or anything like I'd enjoy to the environment. And so I know I wanted to stay, and the next step would have been to be a general manager. And because I love working at the corporate office, it's very relaxed. But I wanted to buy a house. I wanted to have a family, and that wasn't going to pay for it. So the next step was to become a journal manager, and opening opened up at that same Hampton Inn, here in Cedar City, in the beginning of 2020 so, oh, I buzzword, yeah, beginning of 2020, so it was the absolute worst timing of my life, because, oh, let me, let me go back just real quick, because I wanted to do this, yeah, let me go back real quick, because this, I think everything works out. Because I wanted to stay in revenue management. I really liked revenue management, so I was applying for revenue management management jobs across the country. And there was a hotel in El Paso Texas that I was interviewing for, and I went through about six rounds of interviews with them, and then they, yeah, it was like six rounds. It was, I remember mass not as strong. No, I swear it was like it might have been five, but it was a crazy amount of energy. I
Trekker Burt 09:42
want to hit that horn button,
Markell Haslem 09:46
um, but they just ghosted me. They never, I said six. I seriously did. It was like, five or six rounds, poof, yeah. And then they just, yeah. They just ghosted me. And so I was like, Okay, I guess I'll just. Go see if I can be a GM. And so I moved into the GM position at the Hampton Inn end of February. And then two weeks in covid Hit Judas, and there was like, I remember, like, yeah, mid March, probably when everything shut down. And I remember, like just all the calls coming in, canceling reservations, like the hotel, it was just dead, like nobody was staying at hotels. No one was allowed to travel. So and I had to furlough all of my staff. I had to cut back hours for everyone. That was, yeah, my first, my first taste of being a journal manager. Three weeks, three weeks in, it was horrible. Welcome to Management. Yeah, exactly. I learned very quickly I didn't like being in management. I didn't like it because and that was probably the worst time to be in management. And then right before covid hit, I was like, doing my training to be a GM, and that hotel in El Paso called me back and said, Do you want that? Are you still interested in that revenue management position, and I was like, Oh, I went to the bathroom and cried because I was like, I want to, but I feel so bad, like I just accepted this position I can't leave. So I told them no because of this, but I think it worked out, because if I would have moved to El blue, I would have dragged my husband to El Paso, they would have laid me off as soon as covid Hit also, and
Trekker Burt 11:23
who knows what kind of shenanigans your husband would have gotten up to in El
Markell Haslem 11:28
Paso. So I'm glad that it didn't work out, because
Karl Rostron 11:31
I've seen him in a cowboy hat and it wasn't, yeah, I know that guy. Who knows the guy?
Markell Haslem 11:39
So yeah, it worked out. I was very upset that I had to say no, but I felt like I should have said no, and I felt bad because I've been with this company at that point that would have been 2020, for eight years. So I was like, I don't want to leave like this, and just, you know, but I ended up quitting later anyway. I was like, I can't do this. I'm not cut out for management. So that summer, I didn't work, and it was horrible. I hated not working.
Trekker Burt 12:04
But, well, look, so you didn't, so you were training for GM, yeah, and I was, and you were the GM, and then why did you stop working? I
Markell Haslem 12:12
just didn't like management. I didn't, it's just not fun. How long? How long
Trekker Burt 12:16
were you in the position? Two months,
Karl Rostron 12:20
give or take,
Trekker Burt 12:21
could have been for math. Okay, so now you're, now you're you've graduated college, yeah, you've got a degree, a bachelor's, yeah, and you're unemployed, and
Markell Haslem 12:31
I'm unemployed, sounds bad, right? But at the time, like 20 everyone was unemployed, like, I remember talking like everyone was unemployed, everyone was getting laid off. So I wasn't like, that gap on my resume didn't look horrible, because I think there was a gap on everyone's resumes at that time. Um, but yeah, my dad, being the finance professor, is like, you should apply to Fidelity Investments. Like, they'll hire anyone. Like, I think you can pass the series seven. Like you should do it. And my husband and I wanted to get out of Utah. We always wanted to live in Denver, and so I applied to the Denver office, and I got the job. So we moved to Denver in September 2020.
Trekker Burt 13:10
Was your husband? What was his career? What did he do?
Markell Haslem 13:13
He, much to my parents dismay, he worked at a brewery in Boulder.
Karl Rostron 13:19
You know, I'm beginning to think we need to have her dad on, I
Markell Haslem 13:23
know, oh my gosh.
Trekker Burt 13:27
Grab the mic. Shut up. Oh, well, so so we're okay. So you, so you get to Denver, working for fidelity,
Markell Haslem 13:37
doing what um so fidelity. So anything with fine finance is a very like highly regulated industry. So all, like incoming employees basically did customer service. You can't by law, by law, regulation, trade, be a trader until you're licensed. And the nice thing about fidelity, if anyone is looking to get into like the financial industry is fidelity basically teaches you spends. Like, how many months was it September? I gotta make sure the math right, six months. Gonna
Karl Rostron 14:11
lend you my hands. We got a little high.
Markell Haslem 14:15
It's above 10 months of trade, or basically school to take the series seven, which is a license to become an equities trader. So if you're not licensed, you can't place trades or fidelity gets fined, but any but they offer the training. But they offer the training a lot of jobs, like Wells, Fargo, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, like they just say, Here's your test date. Good luck. So you kind of have to deal with it on it on your own. So, but fidelity, like actually has a whole program where you're in class most of the day, and they teach you basically anything you learn in college if you went into finance or accounting. So like all about bonds, stocks, basic math options were the bane of my existence for a few months. But you. You know what? We did it. I passed it. I passed the series seven. And
Trekker Burt 15:03
I that, I mean, this, it's a hearty that sounds difficult, is
Markell Haslem 15:07
it? Yeah, I think it's hard. I mean, for most people, it's hard. My brother, who has a master's degree in finance, told me that any idiot can pass it. But well, you know, masters, it's really hard. It is. It's not an easy test. It doesn't have a super high pass rate, but it was the first time I have, like, studied for anything in my life, because my employment depended on it. Like, if I would have studied this hard in school, I probably would have finished with a four year degree in accounting or finance. But anyway, I got my license. I was they start you out as a mutual fund trader before you go into stocks. So I was a mutual fund trader for a hot second. And then one of the owners of Safari called me and said, Safari back in Cedar City. Yeah, okay. One of the owners called and said, I'm leaving my like. I'm leaving my position at Safari. Um, you have the hotel experience, and, like, you just passed a series seven, so I know that you're competent in basic finance. Like, would you want to come back to Cedar City and take my job? Hell yeah, we did not like Denver. It was super expensive. Um, I missed the mountains and like the outdoors, like I don't know if anyone's ever lived in Denver, but it's about two hours on a good day to get to the mountains, so it's just not fun. I just didn't love it. I liked my coworkers a lot. There's one co worker I really miss still, but I knew that this job here, back in Cedar City would be a lot more flexible, and I wouldn't make as much money as I probably if I was still at Fidelity now, I'd probably be making way more than I'm making now. But the flexibility and the ability to be able to be at home for my kid is more important. So there's always trade offs in anything you do.
Karl Rostron 16:57
And that's a good point. We've talked about it kind of off and on with our guests. You know, is money, the point work, life, balance, freedom, and that's a personal journey for each of us to kind of go through. And so when did you recognize that? Was that something of value you always had, or was it as you're going through that financial training and they're throwing all these income potentials at you. Was that kind of over driving at the moment? Did you have to realize, man, maybe Money isn't the way. When did that? Was it during college? Have you just having fun?
Markell Haslem 17:31
No, when I was having fun in college? No, I think when you're in your early 20s, you think that phase is going to last forever. So I really did. I thought I could get out and just work, get money for a few years and work up. But I waste, I feel like I wasted too much time. So I was in my late 20s by then, and I, yeah, I was probably in training. And so since it was during covid, we worked remotely. We worked from home, which I hated. I am, like, I am not a work from Homer. I hated it, but my office, so the Denver office, the Salt Lake office and the Dallas office all worked together, like, through zoom. All of our classes were on Zoom. And of course, being Salt Lake, there was a few women that had kids that were training, and they had to go back and forth to, like, take care of their kids. And I was like, That just seems miserable because you're on like, you're doing customer service, and you're typically, like, arguing with some really angry old person who doesn't know how to place a trade. I'm not that angry. Like, and they're just so mad. And like, like, you know that there are kids in the other room screaming and like, you can't stop the call to, like, take care of a mouse. I don't want to live like this. And it just was so expensive to live. And I knew I there was no way I could afford to quit work if I had a kid in Denver, but I wasn't able to afford daycare like there's so many trade offs. So yeah, I definitely thought I want. I decided while I was in training, I wanted, if there was any way to go back to Utah, I wanted to go back just, is just too expensive to have children, which was kind of our goal at that point. So,
Karl Rostron 19:11
yeah, and so this job offer is, that's the one you're still in. I
Markell Haslem 19:15
am still, yeah, in the same position. I really like I really like it. I have my busy season is from September to about January, because that's budget season. There's 40 hotels, so you have to make budgets for it's a whole process too, because first you have to, like, work with the revenue managers in each GM and decide what are our revenue goals for every single month of the next year. And then expenses are based off of how much revenue they're making each month. And then a two of our hotels have almost equal partners, and they are a lot more of like your typical Investment Group, where they want to see growth, they want to see and it's horrible, like you spend about a month fighting with them to try to come to an agreement, but most of their investors are just they're very chill. People. They're local people that just invested in these hotels, and they make a return every month, and they're happy. So it's a very chill job, but it's just very time consuming, just for those months, but for the rest of the year is it's just month end closings, it's quarterly bonuses. But I'm here for any Excel issue that comes up, or Dropbox issue or internet issue. I'm starting to list
Trekker Burt 20:25
so. So this is something from, from a layman's perspective. I hear the job title, financial analyst. And I think, okay, bachelor's of finance, bare minimum. I think masters of finance probably you've got your Bachelor's in communication. Communications, yeah. What? What would you tell a student who I don't know, maybe they, maybe they wanted to be a meteorologist and and they can't pass math, or they wanted to do something. What would you say to somebody who's whose first goal, first career goal, is, is proving to be unachievable for them, and they're still in in school. They're still in school. I
Markell Haslem 21:06
don't know. I just feel like you'll always find something else, like sometimes you just not everyone is meant to do everything that they want to do. But I feel also feel like, if you have other hobbies, I I'm not. I'm not of the type that thinks that you need to work in what you love, because sometimes that'll make you hate what you love. So, um, I would definitely say, like, find something that fits into your lifestyle. Do you want to be a stay at home mom? Do you want to make a lot of money? Do you want to, like, have time to go travel, I don't know, find you can just find something else.
Karl Rostron 21:45
That's kind of a thing we've talked about this year. I mean, you changed majors, you've changed career paths, and it's okay. It's okay, exactly, you know. And oftentimes, you know, one of the things we talk about is some some kids go to college, and their parents have told them what they should be. Yours was the opposite, you know, but you have this idea in your head, oftentimes, of careers, of a life that you've never experienced. Don't really know it exists, other than maybe watching it on YouTube or TV and so and then you start investing this time, money, whatever it is, in the completion of this thing, and then you kind of start to find out, man, maybe it isn't what I like, what I love, but you're too afraid now to step back and say, Man, I can't tell Mom and Dad. I'm not gonna do this. Or this has been my goal since I was like, I have to complete it. Or I just don't know how to make a change. I don't have the courage to make a change well, so What's that process like? What was it like for you to go through that? I mean, telling your change
Markell Haslem 22:48
process, change process. I mean it's I hate change. Like, you can ask my husband, I hated Denver, and the moment we got there, I was like, I want to go back to my old job. Like, and my dad's so funny. Like, when I quit my job at the hotel as a manager. He's like, That's what all the corporate people do. They think that they have this cushy job in the corporate office, and then they think that they need more adventure. They go into management and they realize they're not cut out for it. And I think he was exactly right. And we've seen, I've had other GMs that have we've lost since then, even in Denver that did the same thing. They were bored in their corporate office job, so they went and became a GM, and they were like, wow, this sucks. I'm going back to the corporate office, but it's, yeah, it's hard, but at the same time, like, every hard thing is also a learning experience. I learned a lot, you know? I grew a lot. I learned that I can do hard, intellectual things, I can study the series seven. I learned how to study. I came back. I got my Masters of Business Administration, and I don't think I would have got my MBA if I didn't do the series seven. I didn't know how to study until I was in my mid 20s. Studying for the series seven, I had no idea. So that helped me, that taught me to buckle down and just learn, or study, learn how to take tests more confidently, and, and, yeah. So, so
Trekker Burt 24:11
that's great. I think, I think you mentioned that what, what keeps coming back to me is when you were on Zoom calls with with fidelity, yeah. And you'd see these, these working mothers who had kids in the background, and you kind of had a step back and thought, yeah, what do I really want? Yeah, and that's something we've talked to a lot of folks we've had on the podcast this year. We've said, like, you know what? What was it that guided you? And all of these people go through this self exploration of figuring out what is important to them, yeah, well,
Karl Rostron 24:44
and the point you brought up, don't do something you love, because then maybe you may not love it anymore, and others exact opposite. I only want to do something I love because then it isn't work, yeah, you know. And so it's an interesting every personality is different, exactly, and that's okay, you know, we've talked a lot there. All AI is going to tell you what to do. In my day, there was stone tablets and books that would tell you what to do for them. But everybody, I mean, libraries became full of books that people wrote to make money, telling other people how to live their lives, yeah, and at some point you get to decide for yourself. Some people can do that earlier, some people much later. Some people are old and still don't know what they want to be when they grow up. And I'm all right, but, but what about that process? You know, you're 17 years in college. I'm not good at math either and but would you have traded that time? I mean, did that play a point in being getting you to the maturity level where you could make a career shift and know yourself well enough that you could do it, if you would have graduated after four years and went right in that career track, that's a good point. I mean,
Trekker Burt 25:58
would you have traded the ultimate slacker experience, right for a confident career?
Markell Haslem 26:04
Oh, gosh, I think that's I mean, I can afford the extra student loan payments right now, so I would say it probably was worth the seven years. If I was, like, buried in them, I would definitely say absolutely not. I should have just, like, done the four year track and, like, made enough money to pay him off. But, like, it's very personal as an individual, and so for me, fortunately, like, the student loan payments aren't overwhelming me. So it was worth it, I think because I did have fun, like, I didn't even get that internship, I think networking is most important. That in Jace was the one. This was back in 2015 he came, went into an accounting class that my friend that I worked with at the controller's office was in, and he was the one that said, we have an internship open at Safari. And she's the one that came and told me, like I didn't the only that's the only reason I even knew about it. So, um, I think that all that time spent on campus and like making friends, getting to know my professors, like networking, is by far the most important part of college I really think, like, as long as you're not going on into like Deloitte, or any of the big four accounting firms that, like, will look at your GPA, or, I don't know if engineering and math is similar, where they look at your GPA, probably focus on that. But I think besides that, networking is the most
Karl Rostron 27:20
important and to take that one step further, I mean, networking, to me, is the most important thing in life, yeah, that will take you down career paths and journeys and life paths and journeys that you'll never experience otherwise,
Trekker Burt 27:31
you probably wouldn't have even gotten an interview for your job right now with a communications degree, had you not networked. Yeah, right, yeah.
Karl Rostron 27:39
And that's, you know, as the Career Center, we try to put on a lot of events. We bring employers on campus. We do career fairs, but we also do networking nights, meet the employers. And, you know, I'd say, take advantage of all of that stuff, because it's really meeting people, getting on that first name basis, getting on their list, you know, waiting till six months before graduation, he's like, Oh, crap, I need a job. It's not super effective, but networking during that time, while you're in school, taking advantages of the programs and offerings, and even just getting out and meeting people, you know that more and more is becoming such a lost skill among people. I hear it from employers all the time. People just don't even know how to talk, you know. And at some point you got to get past AI in the computer and talk to a human being, yeah? And, you know, so networking is that place where you just learn that soft skill of being able to talk to people and getting along in different situations and learning, yeah, and finding out about things that you don't know, understand or maybe even believe in, but it's all there, yeah, and so I know I that's probably one of the most unsold skills that you can develop in college, just naturally
Trekker Burt 28:52
well and piggybacking on that. It's, it's a skill like we talk about, overcoming the hurdles of, you know, awkward socialness or a whatever it is getting out of your shell. But every single alum that I've spoken to that comes to a career fair, comes to a podcast, comes and does a workshop for us. They are eager to meet students and to help students. We had a program recently that the Career Center helped do and the Alumni Center and alumni would get on and just be available for students. And alumni. Wanted to give internships like you got two fellow T bird students. They wanted to give job offers. They wanted to just give them an hour's worth of time and talk to them, and they they're eager to do it. So the student is really in a good place, but after college, I mean, you're, you're not going to have so many of those opportunities.
Markell Haslem 29:45
My brother was doing his master's of finance program at the University of Utah during covid. So he it was, it was hard, because a lot of master's degrees like, the whole point is to network, right? And so he, there was no network. He. Events those years he was there, and so he felt like I was definitely a disadvantage for him. The job he's at now is good, but he got it because his roommate worked there. So yeah, like, don't ever, like, it's just it's hard if you don't get out there and talk to people, make connections. So
Trekker Burt 30:18
yeah, that's I still my last, my most recent position I applied for, and this is a few years ago, but I would, I referenced a professor I have met here at SUU youth, and we just keep in touch. I'd stop by his office. He'll come by mine. We see each other or whatever, and and just having those connections that you make in college can benefit you the rest of your life, you know, and it gives you the opportunity to help other people too. You're not just on the receiving end, but you're you're giving back,
Markell Haslem 30:45
yep, so
Karl Rostron 30:49
from your time in college, all the fun days, and then contrasting that to to job and career, yeah. What do you think was the biggest misconception you had coming into college.
Markell Haslem 31:05
I don't know, because I My dad's a professor, like I said, but I was born while he was still an undergrad, and I was kind of raised on college campuses. My dad went to Indiana University for his PhD for seven years. So we were always, I was always on campus with him while he was he had a PhD in seven years. I know Isn't that ridiculous. I know it's some people get a lot done, I know. And then he his first job was a professor at Florida State, and so we'd go down to FSUU Seminoles, the Seminoles, and now he's here. So I, I have always been raised around colleges, so I kind of knew what to expect. He definitely like. It was definitely expected that me and all my siblings would go to college. So that advantage, yeah, I had that advantage for sure, because I know a lot of I was surprised. A lot of people do not like they have no idea what to expect when they go to college.
Karl Rostron 31:58
So moving into the career part of it, though, now what maybe has been your biggest surprise, or maybe your biggest life lesson,
Markell Haslem 32:06
my biggest life lesson, I always tell students that I talk to every semester in the business school, that is, you can always pivot. You always can like, I mean, I have a friend right now that's she's been working in real estate for years, and she wants to get out, and she feels like she's too old, but you really are, like, you can always pivot. So never be afraid to you always have to start at the bottom, though, like, I think that's one thing, especially you get students that think because they went to college and they never did the customer service crappy front desk jobs, like, they immediately can go into management, but most industries, like, I'm basing this off of hotels and like, restaurants and resorts, hospitality, um, they are not, you're not they're gonna see your degree, and that helps a ton, but you're still gonna be working front desk, so you might as well, like, get the crappy front desk intro level stuff during College,
Trekker Burt 33:00
we I had a student worker who was a hospitality HR, hm major, and I said, She's graduating. I'm so excited for her great What are you doing next? And she's like, I interviewed and I got a job, working at a front desk. And I'm just like, congratulations, but like, you could have done that during college? Yeah, you know you could have.
Markell Haslem 33:19
And it's hard, I think. But then again, I feel bad, because I think, like we said earlier, some students don't know what to expect going to college. Um, they don't really, I don't think that they understand what to expect. So they go to college, and they think their whole job during college is school, um, and that there's no time.
Trekker Burt 33:39
Maybe, traditionally, 20 years ago, it was right. Maybe it was, yeah, I don't know, but when did you go to school
Karl Rostron 33:47
longer than 20 years ago?
Markell Haslem 33:50
But I definitely, I would say, like, just get if, if you know what you want to do after graduation, just like, know what the entry level is, and if you're able to go in and just do the entry level crap jobs. Just get it done while you're also in the trenches of school. So when you're finished, you're already
Trekker Burt 34:08
maybe ahead. Maybe we can call that and and it seems like this is something you've probably got is you were already building your resume while you're in school. You're building your resume one way or another. Yeah,
Karl Rostron 34:20
you know you refer to as crap jobs, and yet, in the career journey, they're vital.
Markell Haslem 34:27
When I say crap, I mean, it's crappy to work, yeah, yeah. They're not crap jobs. Everyone needs to needs like, it's just they're crap jobs because you go into work and you get yelled at by people, and you're like
Karl Rostron 34:38
to her boss that's listening. Yeah,
Markell Haslem 34:40
yeah, my boss is listening. No, I do feel bad, because they really
Karl Rostron 34:43
aren't crap on the most part,
Markell Haslem 34:45
stepping stone, stepping stone jobs, you get abused by the general public. That's what I
Karl Rostron 34:52
but it's that's a microcosm of just life and everything. Is a journey in life. Yeah, no. Careers, its first job, better job.
Trekker Burt 35:00
Best, some journeys are more enjoyable than others,
Karl Rostron 35:03
you know, and that first job may be at a different level, but it's never you don't start usually at the terminal place. You're going to end up still going to grow and develop, yeah, and that's just part of growth as a human being general, you're always going to want to try and find a way to grow and progress and better yourself. And so if you take advantage of whatever situation you're in, get the most out of it, that you can learn everything, that you can do the best at it, that you can it opens up more and more and more opportunities for you down the road,
Trekker Burt 35:32
exactly. Let's talk about major changes. We mentioned career changes, career pivots, and you had a couple major changes. Maybe, what do you I just
Markell Haslem 35:41
I knew a few accounting students while I was in the accounting program that did that. They went to the nursing program. They saw a couple dead bodies, and they were like, I'm not doing this anymore. There's an elementary ed, which is even further along, because there I knew one girl that was in a bunch of my accounting classes who was elementary ed, and she had made it to the block, which is, like, pretty far, I think that was junior senior year, and she had to, like, teach in a couple classes, and said, There's no way I'm doing this. I'm switching to accounting so, so and it's just, it's just life. Like, I don't think it's anything to, like, take too serious, I guess, like, I hope that's not horrible advice, but I don't think it is. I like, you just have to pivot in life, like you just have to be willing to move, you know, move your goals, change things up if you're not happy, or if you know that this is going to be a mistake. So, and I think they were fine, like all the kids, the people I knew that were in the accounting program, who moved from either nursing or elementary ed like they were happier they knew that they'd be going to a big four and they'd be working 80 hours a week. But they were like, That's so much better than teaching kindergarteners. So
Trekker Burt 36:48
for some people, for some people, so while, while you could make a career pivot later on anytime, like your friend in real estate, probably easier to make the change. Oh,
Markell Haslem 36:58
yeah for sure. Yeah for sure. Oh,
Karl Rostron 37:00
that's good, and one of the ways to do that is to take advantage of that time while you're in school. And like I said, network, go to career events, talk to employers, talk to people in that profession, join, you know, clubs, groups, networks, online for professionals working in that career, ask some questions, read about what they do. Try to get that real life experience before you know your
Markell Haslem 37:25
way down the road exactly.
Karl Rostron 37:28
I joined an autopsy club once, and I quit when they said tonight's open mic night.
Trekker Burt 37:42
I was about to go. Was it like state sponsored you guys just hitting up the cemetery with shovels or what? Okay, open mic night. Let's get back on track. That really derailed everything,
Karl Rostron 37:56
all right?
Trekker Burt 37:58
Well, well, let's, let's, let's kind of sum everything up. So you've had, you've had, not your traditional four year experience. But are we learning maybe that is traditional? I'm starting to think, yeah, because I'm starting to think, I think, I think we grew up seeing these college these movies on college campuses, yeah, and TV shows, and you hear stories, oh, you go to school, it's four years, okay, well, and
Karl Rostron 38:25
then you go to work for a company for 50 years. Yeah, get your gold watch, and you're done, and
Trekker Burt 38:30
your coffee mug. And then, yeah, go to Florida, Boca Raton, yeah, maybe it's not traditional, you know, maybe, maybe that is the new norm,
Karl Rostron 38:38
yeah, well, and we talked about to each individual is their path. I mean, is there a traditional when we're talking about human beings? I mean, it's you making your life, career journey and it is yours, yeah, and so taking ownership of it, exploring it, and then being comfortable in what you do and being comfortable with change. Maybe that.
Trekker Burt 38:59
Maybe that's sticky. I think so. I think we can say our Markel is comfortable with change. Good.
Markell Haslem 39:07
We'll see. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I am. I decided to go back to school for Anthropology, because currently, because I love my job and I have no desire to leave it for a long time. It's great to raise kids with, but when our kids are raised, I love archeology. I would love to work in either a museum or even just teach adjunct at a Utah State Extension in some small town in eastern Utah. So I'm like just prepping. You know, it's just expect the unexpected and just be able to be open, to be open to the journey. Yeah, exactly. So
Trekker Burt 39:44
that's cool. All right, we're always, we always intend on talking about career stuff, but it always like evolves, or evolves into life philosophy. This is an existentialist podcast,
Karl Rostron 39:56
right? And Sasquatch Fact or Fiction.
Markell Haslem 39:59
He's fact. Awesome for sure. All
Karl Rostron 40:01
right, Markel, it has been awesome to have you with us today. Thank you so much for coming. Yes. Final words, parting show
Markell Haslem 40:10
you guys finished. No, you guys finished it with Bigfoot, and I look like it more on on here. No parting words after
Karl Rostron 40:18
that. All right, well, it's been good, nice seeing
Trekker Burt 40:22
you. Thank you very much for joining us on career Cafe Markel, it's been a pleasure
Karl Rostron 40:27
and everyone else come into our next podcast and see what we can come up with next.
Trekker Burt 40:42
You, is there a single Sasquatch, or are they multiple? There's multiple multiple. It's like a species Sam squanch,
Markell Haslem 40:53
oh, man. I used to think he was an actual physical being, but I have read too many, too much stuff that he's interdimensional. And at first I wrote it off. Inter Yes, at first I wrote it off. But if you read like Navajo mythology, and you start reading stories from like the Navajo reservation, he's out there all that he's as an interdimensional being. He is an interdimensional being. That's what I've read. This is I've read this. I sound like an authority, not just online, but like in books and stuff. It's okay, books and stuff, books and I'm not really a YouTube dude,
Karl Rostron 41:30
amen, yeah, it's been a pleasure. No, we won't stand that's gospel, right? That's probably going to be the focus. That'll be the highlight, that's our lead.
Trekker Burt 41:41
Follow up. Question is the skunk ape the same as the Sasquatch? I don't know.
Karl Rostron 41:46
Can you smell interdimensional
Markell Haslem 41:48
beans? You can, all right, I don't know. Probably there's a book. I don't know if you read it. Is that Navajo um Ranger that wrote that wrote a book. What is it called? I just bought it. You need to read it because you'd like it. Let me find on Amazon. But he talks about, like, him and his partner were the only ones that would like investigate supernatural things on the reservation, Ranger, like a park, no, a literal, no. He was a cop, okay, a cop. That's what they called him on the Navajo reservation, um, but yeah. They talk about big fan, about how they would be bothering, like these old people, but as soon as, like, they realized it was Bigfoot and not a skinwalker, they'd be like, Okay, that's fine. Then, as long as no one's doing bad magic on me, I'm fine. But what is it called
Trekker Burt 42:28
you two? Should you two? Should do a podcast I would tune into that. I