Griffin Davis ’20, a double major in economics and finance, landed a job right after graduating with highest honors and collecting the J. Wilson Mixon Jr. Outstanding Senior in Economics Award. Today he is thriving in his position as a CORE finance associate with Comcast NBCUniversal and says the right combination of academics, on-campus jobs and internships contributed to his success.
Through the LifeWorks program, Davis held positions that built transferable skills useful to a business career, including leadership, communication and organization. He was a resident assistant for two years and worked as an ambassador for the Berry College Admission Office, leading campus tours every week for prospective students and their families as well as planning and implementing on-campus events.
Davis used his summers to gain a variety of experiences that would complement his academic training. “My summer internships were crucial in helping me decipher what type of career I wanted to pursue,” he says. “The summer after freshman year, I interned at an insurance agency in Knoxville … It made me realize that selling insurance wasn’t what I wanted to do.” The following summer, Davis served as a leader during Berry’s Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR) for incoming first-year students. “It was an absolute blast, and I realized that I loved working on a team,” he says.
Everything fell into place when Davis took an internship with Comcast NBCUniversal in Atlanta before his senior year. As a finance intern on the compensation analytics team, he put into practice what he had been learning in the classroom. Davis developed a strong working relationship with his manager, who later recommended him for the CORE (Career Opportunities & Rotational Experiences) Finance program.
“I learned that I could live in three different cities in two years, and I wanted to do it,” he says. “I work for the commissions analytics team at the central division headquarters. I primarily oversee the compensation of the sales representatives in our Xfinity stores. I load their goals, analyze performance and model out potential changes to the compensation plans.”
Davis notes that Berry professors had a profound impact on his career: “Dr. Jamie Sharpe taught some of my favorite economics classes at Berry and advised me on pivotal career decisions … Dr. Thema Monroe-White, my information systems professor, helped me develop foundational Excel skills, which I use every day for my job.”
He adds that his double major is a real plus. “I’ve heard economics described as the philosophy of business. I like that description because philosophers are people who think. And similarly, I would say an economics degree teaches you to think critically about business. It definitely complemented my finance degree.”
