Dina Perkins

What is the most useful piece of career advice you got as a student, and who gave it to you?

The most useful piece of career advice I received as a student came from my grad school department advisor. She told me to always stay connected with the good people I meet throughout my career. Very good advice that I've used to build a strong network of peers, former coworkers and teammates, former leaders/bosses, mentors and, yes, my department advisor. Great people help to connect you with other great people. You will find that genuine friendships and people who are willing to invest time in your success and development are a rarity. So when you good people, embrace them and stay in touch no matter where your career may take you.

When you were a student, did you do anything outside of school to build skills or get knowledge that has helped your career?

It's important to take advantage of both in-school and outside of school experience to build your career knowledge and skills sets. If you have to work while in school, look for positions that fit best with your career interests or plan for college studies. It's never to soon to start learning more about the things you want to do, and no time is wasted even if the experience changes the field you'd like to work in. Internships and apprenticeships are great! But if you don't need money, I encourage you to also consider volunteering with community-based organizations to increase your civic involvement, political awareness and philanthropic giving.

In layperson terms, what do you actually do at work?

I work for a managed care (health insurance) organization in the segment that provides Medicare Advantage health plans. In my role I support our Division President by acting as a buffer between her and the executives and market leaders that report to her across 17 states serving over 674,000 consumers and 660 employees in our geographic territory. I lead strategic initiatives by connecting experts across departments and functional teams. Together we work to solve problems, create easier and faster ways to work, design new plans, drive change, and collaborate on best practices to achieve our financial and operational goals. I also help with strategy and planning for employee engagement, well-being, inclusion and diversity activities. I am in meetings with varying management levels from front-end employees to the CEO. Written and verbal communication, presentation, influencing and negotiation skills are a must. I see myself as an air traffic controller. My job is to keep a close eye on all the inbound and outbound flight activity, ensuring everyone sticks to the schedule for timely and safe takeoffs and landings.