Preparing for the Rookie Year: Lessons from Those Who Have Gone Before

Abstract

Christian business faculty prepare students for careers in the marketplace. But do they do enough to help students with their crucial rookie year in business? This paper proposes that faculty could do more and that the place to begin is to learn from the experiences of prior rookies. It provides an overview on the process of organizational entry and the lives of Christians in business as well as data from interviews of recent Christian college graduates who have entered the business world. The essay highlights dozens of stories of their experiences during their rookie years. Consideration is then turned to how faculty can use this information in their teaching and advising to help facilitate students’ transition from college to corporation. Finally, implications for future research are discussed.