Transitioning from a big fish in a small pond to a regular-size fish in a large pond — that’s how Trae Jordan W21 GCP22 describes coming to Wharton as an undergraduate. He shared his journey from growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, to working for Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development with students at an Alumni Insights Dinner in October. Launched last fall by Wharton’s Undergraduate Division, the series introduces first-year students in the Wharton 1010: Business & You course to a range of career pathways as they explore undergraduate concentrations. Intentionally designed to advance the Division’s Explore and Apply framework, the series leverages alumni perspectives to help students connect early exploration of industries with real-world insight, while fostering meaningful relationships between students and graduates.
Having graduated just a few years ago, Jordan was easily able to put himself in the students’ shoes at the event. “Everyone obviously is super smart and very ambitious, and you’re now surrounded by a lot of other incredibly bright and ambitious students,” he says of arriving at campus fresh out of high school. “Sometimes you feel like you don’t measure up or like you’re not able to stand out the way that you used to.”
Jordan also offered a unique perspective as someone who leveraged his business economics and public policy Wharton concentration and Weitzman degree to create a career in community development. He urged students to consider alternative paths, such as an internship in the public sector.
So far, the undergraduate division has hosted three dinners. Each had the same structure: After the panel, alumni went to different corners of the room while students rotated around, asking alumni specific questions about their careers. Jordan shared more of his day-to-day experiences, recounting recent press conferences with the governor and conveying that the skills learned at Wharton can be transferable anywhere.
“That’s the great thing about the younger generation — we don’t have to feel so confined to one industry anymore,” says Jordan. “Try something for a few years, and if it doesn’t work, then try something else.”
That was a message that a panelist at another Alumni Insights Dinner last fall, Jack Franklin W23, wished he considered when he was a student. Franklin, now finance manager for Co-Pilot AI at Microsoft, was fortunate to land an internship on Wall Street during his sophomore year but only pursued it because it seemed like “the right thing to do.” “You should never feel locked into a path, especially as a sophomore or junior,” says Franklin. “There’s just such a world of opportunity, especially for Wharton students.”
During his panel, Franklin also shared a practical exercise that could help students find their way: Look up 10 leaders you admire in a business and scroll all the way back to beginning of their résumés. When you look at their first jobs, Franklin says, you’ll likely discover that they started in surprising places.
“I also was saying: Don’t feel like you need to go into an industry as an expert,” he says. “They’re certainly not expecting that. Just come with like a willingness to learn and be open.”
The Insights panels also included alumni with more years of experience under their belts. When speaking to students, Mike Weinbach W95, president of Mr. Cooper Group (recently acquired by Rocket Mortgage), emphasized adapting and navigating inevitable setbacks. “A lot of the students picture the business world as a ladder that they’ve got to climb as quickly as possible,” says Weinbach. “And it’s not really a ladder. It’s like the spider-web-looking thing on the playground where sometimes you go up and sometimes you go down and sometimes you go sideways.”
When Weinbach’s “dot-com company” went bust in the late 1990s, it felt like his first failure, but to his surprise his investors ended up offering him jobs, noting that they appreciated his honest and thorough communication through the process. “You can’t always control what happens,” he says, “but you can control the way you react to what happens, and people notice that.”
As the father of an 18-year-old, Weinbach knows how hard it is to keep the next generation’s attention. During his Alumni Insights Dinner, he recalls, the vice dean of Wharton’s Undergraduate Division, Cait Lamberton, did just that when she kicked off the event. “She has this energy that speaks to the students,” Weinbach says. “That helped set the stage in a way that made it easy for the presenters and contributed to the students being more engaged.” The Undergraduate Division plans to continue the program this fall.
Franklin similarly credits Wharton faculty, such as Generative AI Labs at Wharton co-director Ethan Mollick, for making a difference. Industry exploration classes steered Franklin toward the tech space as he met with leaders at companies including TikTok and Salesforce. Many of the alumni he met started on a more traditional path but then took a leap. “That was so freeing for me to hear,” says Franklin. “If you’re going to take a risk, now’s the time to do it. Why not?”
