Alumni Spotlight: Alesia Dunlap
Alesia Dunlap graduated from Wayne State University in 2014 with a B.A. in political science, and has since used her degree to create her own non-profit and to become a commercial recruiter at Kelly Services. Her non-profit organization is called Word to Word and it focuses on assisting those in need by donating Bibles and providing them with basic life necessities.
As a recruiter, Alesia is tasked with finding candidates for jobs in the various industries that use Kelly Services as a recruiting firm. She is also involved with helping job candidates prepare for their interviews, participates the interview process, and assists with the onboarding of new hires. Alesia finds recruiting to be very rewarding as her job is to help others find a job and achieve their dreams.
Alesia's job requires that she does a substantial amount of research into job markets when she is searching for talent for a job. Each job she researches is different in the experience needed and the level of pay expected depending on what the job is and where it is located.
How political science has helped her career
She credits her political science courses with helping her to develop her research, analytical, and problem solving skills to help her find the best talent available for a job. She also believes that political science courses teach leadership and teamwork skills that are imperative to success in the competitive field of recruiting.
Advice to students
Alesia's advice to students is to be confident in themselves when entering the workforce. She fears that new employees are often afraid to express their opinions or share their ideas, but she feels that respectfully sharing your thoughts as a new employee can show your benefit to the company and lead to a great amount of success. Alesia is also acutely aware that a major should not define your career options, and she wants all political science students to realize that they should not limit themselves to traditional political science jobs in government positions.
She urges all students to dream big and to apply the skills they used in their classes to go after the career they are excited to have. Alesia feels that the best way to broaden your career options is to network as much as possible as an undergraduate student and beyond. She believes that every interaction you have can lead to a job opportunity, and that students should market themselves on sites like LinkedIn.