MHRM Alumni Spotlights

My name is Megan Frederick and I am a graduate of the Master of Human Resource Management (MHRM) program! You may recognize me if you have ever attended an open house for the program, as I always join to share my experiences and insights with prospective students.

After completing my Bachelors in Psychology from TCNJ in 2021, I found that I did not feel ready to enter the workforce immediately. My professor guided me to the RU MHRM program as a great way to continue my education, gain more working experience, and sharpen my skills when it comes to HR. I was able to gain all of these in just three short semesters through an agreement between Rutgers and TCNJ where certain graduate courses are waived if high grades in associated undergraduate courses are obtained.

One of the key aspects that have truly made my time in this program so worthwhile is the faculty. The professors are not only knowledgeable and provide the freshest take on current HR trends, but they are also very caring and considerate, especially regarding your job search. Two professors who have greatly supported me are Dave Ferio, who teaches Strategy III, and Vince Sweeney, who teaches Benefits.

The value of your degree from SMLR: Having a strong foundation of Human Resources best practices, strategies, and case studies broadened my understanding of the field, and allowed to me to connect “real-world” applications to what I learned at SMLR. I was able to leverage knowledge from several courses to help me in my day-to-day work.

Any advice to recent graduates: Say “yes” to any learning opportunity you can get, especially when you are first starting your career. This might mean additional workload, working hours, and challenges, but the insights and experience will be critical to advance your career in the future. Plus: the more you step up & stand out at work – the more you will prove your value to your leadership team, which will provide greater career opportunities down the line.

SMLR course you found particularly useful in your career development: The most useful class for me was Employment Law. There are so many situations we navigate at work that may trigger legal responses - it's critical to have a background in these topics if you want to succeed in HR. I still reference that textbook to this day! I keep it at my desk at work - you never know when you have to reference a case study in a meeting to help drive effective policy within the organization.

Greatest professional accomplishment thus far: At my current company, I volunteered to create a framework for starting Employee Resource Groups (ERG). This framework was approved by executive leadership, which then led me to create Spectrum, Brother’s first LGBTQ+ ERG. I have had the honor of serving as President of Spectrum for the past 2 years, and leading multiple initiatives to promote our mission of education, awareness, and inclusion. Additionally, I had the opportunity to travel to our Nagoya, Japan headquarters and live there for 3 months to study our international business relations and share best practices related to our USA HR programs.

Currently working on: I support a continuous manufacturing site so we run 24/7, 365 days a year.... and we provide adsorbents and catalysts to the oil and gas industry.... therefore, we are essential. During these unprecedented times my role quickly took one everything that is crisis management. I have helped my site to implement temperature screening for all essential employees that need to be onsite, I monitor potential COVID-19 cases, plan who can work from home and who cannot and much more. Before COVID-19, I was leading two major projects: The first was moving all of our Maintenance Technicians and Chemical Operators into the Honeywell Performance Development system. The site I support has a very tenured workforce (20+ years of experience or more for the average employee) and this is something they had never been rated on performance. The site although a non-union facility had many practices that are in line with union manufacturing for example everyone makes the same amount of money. Now employees would get rated on performance, and their raises would be based on performance. The two important things here were 1. Change Management and 2. Communication. The goal was to reach roughly 200 employees with the same message without any major employee relations issues. 

The value of your degree from SMLR: With that being said, the projects I mentioned above and everything else that I have done in my 12 months since graduating could not have been accomplished without my degree from SMLR. The two things I got from SMLR were how to be a trusted advisor and business partner to my client group, and how to think about and communicate change. For every challenge I am faced with I ask myself how do I define success? What does success for this project look like? What does success in this role look like for me? How do I add value? How do I become a trusted advisor to this client? Before coming to Rutgers that’s not how I thought about my role or the projects and tasks I was handed. 

Any advice to recent graduates: My advice to recent graduates is to find the company and role that works for you. Figure out what matters to you and where you want to be in 5 years and pick a role that makes sense within a company that makes sense. We are all different and the things that matter to us are different. Take every situation good and bad as a learning experience and keep pushing forward. Your journey is going to take you through a rollercoaster of experiences so buckle up and embrace it. You are going to face major challenges (for me it has been constant challenges both professional and personal), it’s your response to those challenges that are going to shape you. You are not alone, use your support system and ask for help.  My go to motto is put on some Fleetwood Mac (or your go to feel good music) and handle it. 

Recent project: Implementing new policy management system in 30+ countries.

The value of your degree from SMLR: Achieving my Bachelors degree from SMLR opened many doors, and achieving my Masters degree helped me to step through those doors!

Any advice to current students: INTERN! Having that experience as an undergraduate will not only help you with school but gives you credibility when stepping into your first full-time role.

“After contemplating pursing a master’s degree after my undergraduate degree in Human Resources, I took the leap and completed the one-year Rutgers SMLR Master of Human Resources Program. To date, this is the best decision I’ve made in my career and it has opened up so many doors for me. I graduated with a full-time job offer in a competitive rotational program for the EthosEnergy Group where I moved to Houston, TX. A big thank you to all the professors and SMLR Career Services who made it all possible.”

“My career at Rutgers started through my role as a teaching assistant for Ildi Koczan. For 2 years, I was a teaching assistant for her career management class that provided me with more in-depth knowledge on the career needs for undergraduate students. This included providing knowledge regarding resumes, cover letters, and talking to students about internship preparation through my own experiences. This was a great experience because I was not only able to learn about students from a variety of backgrounds who needed career management help, but also be an advocate for the resources that we had in our location. I loved this role because I was able to spend each and every day with the students. I also participated in classes that taught them about how to be prepared for a variety of challenges that they would face within the working world, and that improved a variety of their work-related skills. Most importantly, I enjoyed being that person that students could come to for help regarding career related tasks. In my second year as a graduate student, I then became a Peer Ambassador which enabled me to partner with other Peer Ambassadors on high engagement projects that had high impact on our SMLR students. One project I enjoyed the most was the roll out of Handshake, an online platform for Rutgers students.”

“Having gained both my Bachelor's and Master's degree from Rutgers, I really pride myself as a RU student. It gave me a strong foundation to build on after Graduation and led to a successful career in Talent Acquisition. After graduation, I always turned to SMLR career services as my primary resource from having my resume critiqued a few times to receiving career advice. In fact, I landed two internships (1 in HR and 1 in a Labor Union) and my first HR job through job listings from SMLR career services by simply being on the alumni e-mail listserv for the last 10 years. It does not stop there, I took time off to raise my family and when I needed to get back in the workforce, I naturally turned to SMLR. I always dreamt of coming back to Rutgers and working here, as I always wondered what it would be like. Little did I know that after I applied for a role in Talent Management & Workforce Development, I would get a call for an interview and have the chance to work here. Serendipity? Or the amazing work that the School does in ensuring their students succeed even long after they graduate!”

“Having gained both my Bachelor's and Master's degree from Rutgers, I really pride myself as a RU student. It gave me a strong foundation to build on after Graduation and led to a successful career in Talent Acquisition. After graduation, I always turned to SMLR career services as my primary resource from having my resume critiqued a few times to receiving career advice. In fact, I landed two internships (1 in HR and 1 in a Labor Union) and my first HR job through job listings from SMLR career services by simply being on the alumni e-mail listserv for the last 10 years. It does not stop there, I took time off to raise my family and when I needed to get back in the workforce, I naturally turned to SMLR. I always dreamt of coming back to Rutgers and working here, as I always wondered what it would be like. Little did I know that after I applied for a role in Talent Management & Workforce Development, I would get a call for an interview and have the chance to work here. Serendipity? Or the amazing work that the School does in ensuring their students succeed even long after they graduate!”