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Sigma Pi University

The Tony Siress Career and Educational Institute

A Need for Personal and Professional Development:
With laid-off investment bankers snapping up jobs as bank tellers and Bachelor’s degrees barely worth the paper they’re printed on, college students are approaching graduation with a mixture of dread and resignation.
As a Sigma Pi and recent graduate from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, a top 25 Business College according to US News & World Report, Jade was justifiably disappointed when he landed a job in a cubicle that barely pays minimum wage. This was until he was laid off and ended up working maintenance for a small property management company in Des Moines.

With a double-major in business and finance, and a strong GPA of 3.6, he thought for sure he was on the fast track to a career as a financial analyst, a field he'd secured a summer internship in, working countless hours learning the ropes of the Chicago Stock Exchange. But with senior-level retention at an all-time high and entry-level positions being filled by over-qualified lay-offs, Jade found himself working as a glorified insurance salesman for $10.00 an hour. Then he was laid off. Now he fixes gutters and hangs drywall for $8 an hour.

"I'm applying for jobs now that I wouldn't have even considered when I was a freshman," he says.

The battle for internships has grown even more competitive as underclassmen realize that they’ll need every possible leg up in a job market that may not recover before they graduate. For upperclassmen, the "grad school is my alternative to finding a job" mentality is becoming less popular than it has been in past recessions, as soaring debt loads create a need to get to work – any work – and start digging out of the hole as soon as possible.

Layoffs near the top have inundated the job market with overwhelming competition for recent grads: qualified veterans with developed résumés and networks of connections—not to mention families to feed and mortgages to pay—are understandably more motivated than your average 22 year old with nothing but a beer and pizza habit to support. And it’s not just the financial industry swimming with the accomplished unemployed. In February, 8.4 million Americans were referred to as involuntary part-time workers and the national unemployment rate was reported at 9.0%. Many of these unemployed are now competing with younger people for jobs that both would have thought beneath them not so long ago.

Even with these arduous circumstances some college graduates are successfully being placed in career-jobs within the area there colleges prepared them for. Some fortunate graduates are acing interviews and having to decide which job to take or which city to move to. Some students have developed résumés and networked connections so well that they were considered shoe-ins at Fortune 500 companies. Some students have it all figured out – but how did they come across this knowledge?

An Innovative Answer:
Although possibly at an all-time high, need for personal and professional development is not a new problem. 10 years ago Sigma Pi University, The Tony Siress Career and Educational Institute, was created to develop leaders with skills in financial management, résumé development, interviewing skills, networking and social excellence. Graduates of Sigma Pi University return to their college environments with a new portfolio of skills and a desire to apply the knowledge they just attained; they return ready to gain a competitive advantage on their fellow class-mates. SPU graduates continually are an integral part of the small percent of students who do get dream job placements. And for the first time in its history SPU is going to bring back some of those successful alumni to

facilitate at the 2011 conference. The first generation of leaders is helping create a new generation of leaders.

The purpose of SPU is not to create better run chapters or to stimulate growth in recruitment, although it commonly happens. The purpose is not to train officers about their positions or to teach students about fraternity values-based movements, even though SPU graduates frequent officer positions in their chapters. The purpose is not to create better brotherhood in Sigma Pi, even if it has. These are all fortunate side-effects of creating a better, more rounded man; an SPU graduate.

Ten years ago when SPU was started the majority of the classes were taught by ELC’s and other Executive Office Staff. Every two years the conference progressed as more outside presenters were brought. In 2009 a great majority of classes were taught by experts in their fields and the Executive Office Staff facilitated the first ever Dot Groups. This year we will not only be bringing even more expert presenters, but for the first time the Dot Groups will be facilitated by past SPU attendees– bringing a new perspective to a maturing program.

Thanks to our supporters, the Foundation will be covering 25% of the registration costs for Sigma Pi Undergraduate attendees in 2011.