Alums, locals land dream jobs
Emily Breiner
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Features
While students plan for the perfect careers, post-graduation professionals say commitment, not fantasy, makes their occupation gratifying.
Blake Smith '07 is a financial analyst for a private hedge fund within Journeymen LLC, a stock/option trading company.
"I didn't grow up wanting to do this," Smith said. "It is ideal for where I'm at right now, though. I wake up and go to sleep thinking about it."
Smith spends most of his time building a financial model for the fund. And the job has its perks. He said he's been to Canada twice and will most likely travel in the future.
"Much of my training is about soaking up knowledge where I can," Smith said. "One third of my work is to go out and play."
After his sophomore year at Hillsdale, Smith still wasn't sure which path his life would take. He said he began interviewing everywhere he possibly could. He spent summers interning with Clarus Group, a financial planner in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Smith said he received a call from a man at his church in March of his senior year offering him a position at his company. After taking a month off after college, Smith began the job.
"It wasn't about the qualities in me that got me the job," Smith said. "God just laid it in my lap."
Locally, business people have their share of dream job experiences too. One restaurant owner says she is living the dream she always wanted.
Prapai Ringenberg, 66, has owned Coffee Cup Diner for nine years. It is exactly what she imagined, though probably not everyone's dream, she said.
"This job is a hard job," Ringenberg said. "You have to have a passion for what you do. You can't just say you want to own a restaurant."
Ringenberg said she began cooking in restaurants as a teenager.
At first she wanted to open a small restaurant in Detroit.
Now in Hillsdale, Ringenberg says the business and customers are like family.
"My favorite thing about business is that I know the customers by name and they have become my good friends," Ringenberg said. "Some people started coming the day I opened and they're still coming in every day. My business couldn't succeed without them."
Hillsdale College Collegian, 2007
Blake Smith '07 is a financial analyst for a private hedge fund within Journeymen LLC, a stock/option trading company.
"I didn't grow up wanting to do this," Smith said. "It is ideal for where I'm at right now, though. I wake up and go to sleep thinking about it."
Smith spends most of his time building a financial model for the fund. And the job has its perks. He said he's been to Canada twice and will most likely travel in the future.
"Much of my training is about soaking up knowledge where I can," Smith said. "One third of my work is to go out and play."
After his sophomore year at Hillsdale, Smith still wasn't sure which path his life would take. He said he began interviewing everywhere he possibly could. He spent summers interning with Clarus Group, a financial planner in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Smith said he received a call from a man at his church in March of his senior year offering him a position at his company. After taking a month off after college, Smith began the job.
"It wasn't about the qualities in me that got me the job," Smith said. "God just laid it in my lap."
Locally, business people have their share of dream job experiences too. One restaurant owner says she is living the dream she always wanted.
Prapai Ringenberg, 66, has owned Coffee Cup Diner for nine years. It is exactly what she imagined, though probably not everyone's dream, she said.
"This job is a hard job," Ringenberg said. "You have to have a passion for what you do. You can't just say you want to own a restaurant."
Ringenberg said she began cooking in restaurants as a teenager.
At first she wanted to open a small restaurant in Detroit.
Now in Hillsdale, Ringenberg says the business and customers are like family.
"My favorite thing about business is that I know the customers by name and they have become my good friends," Ringenberg said. "Some people started coming the day I opened and they're still coming in every day. My business couldn't succeed without them."
Hillsdale College Collegian, 2007
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