Recent graduate praises internship for current career

Despite graduating from the University less than a year ago, Matt Propeck has already established a solid career, which would never have been possible without a summer internship.

Propeck graduated from the University in December 2003 with a bachelor's degree in political science. During summer 2003, he had the opportunity to intern for a music company in Portland called Rumblefish. The internship later led to a career. Propeck, director of operations and catalog for the company, has worked there for just under a year. Rumblefish is a music delivery company that provides other businesses with music for all kinds of uses, Propeck said.

"As an intern I did bookkeeping and general office tasks ... I did everything I could, working long hours for free," Propeck said.

Upon graduating, Propeck was immediately offered a permanent position at the company, which he began promptly after completing his final day of classes at the University.

"I guess I was at the right place at the right time," Propeck said. "It's ten times harder, ten times faster, but ten times more fun than school."

Propeck encourages current undergraduates to meet as many people in their desired profession as possible.

"Start networking and growing professional and business networks so you have resources to fall back on when you graduate," Propeck said.

Propeck said either accounting or a Japanese art history class he took was his hardest class at the University, but he really liked the personal finance class taught by Jeanne Wagenknecht.

"The teacher made that class good; I took more classes because of her," Propeck said.

"Matt's just a good guy, outgoing, fun-loving, just a really personable guy," said Robby Schutte, one of Propeck's longtime friends and a fellow University graduate who earned a bachelor's degree in business marketing in 2003.

In the future, Propeck hopes to go back to school to get his master's of Business Administration.

"I want to get my MBA and take it to own my own company," Propeck said.

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