Advice to Students

We spoke with Penn State alum, Thomas Hess to ask his advice for current students. Mr. Hess is the current Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Genomind. 

"Without that degree I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. I would encourage the students to  take advantage of everything Penn State has to offer. Think about not just showing up for class, but really diving in and trying to push yourself. I’m so a big fan of people majoring in accounting for a couple reasons. I think it gives you a broad base. One, you likely have a guaranteed job when you graduate, but you get exposed to all aspects of business. Then maybe look as a master’s degree—if you say, “Look healthcare is where I really want to be,” maybe a master’s in healthcare or a general MBA or you can go to law school. That Penn State foundation really allows you to do pretty much anything once you find the industry you really like."

"I would always encourage people, don’t judge a job in accounting and finance based on the introduction class. Those are just tools that you need to understand down the road. Having a good understanding of those really can help you down the road. As the CFO, I don’t make a lot of journal entries, but I can still do it for some of the bigger items. I spend very little time on journal entries or debits and credits and spend most of my time managing the HR department, cashflow projections, working with the other department heads to hopefully help them reach their goals."

Watch our other videos of Mr. Hess discussing the ideas and research behind the company Genomind and also his discussion on Invent Penn State and Happy Valley Launchbox.