Meet Our Spartan Rec Employee Julia Kolenkina

Here at Spartan Recreation, we encourage professional development through professional staff that assist our students in attaining their career goals. We are proud to showcase such an individual who has shown exemplary work skills throughout her employment at the Bowling Center.

Julia has worked at the Bowling Center for two years, starting as a student with no work experience, gradually moving up the ranks to a supervisor. Now, Julia has graciously accepted a position at the Grant Thornton as a risk advisor. As a parting gift, she offers her unique sights and advice to future ambitious applicants of Spartan Recreation. 

Most impactful thing you bring to work
My willingness to learn. I started my job at the Bowling Center not knowing anything about bowling. My willingness to learn not only helped me gain work experience, but also gave me knowledge of operating expensive machinery and the ability to adapt and take in an overwhelming amount of information. 

Staying motivated
Both of my parents truly inspire me in countless ways. They both came from Russia and immigrated to America in the mid to late 90s. They initially came here with very little, with my mom attending school for nursing in the day time, and my dad working shifts at night. My dad worked hard to become an electrical engineer, and my mom finished up her schooling and became a registered nurse. It's amazing to see how far they came, starting with almost nothing, slowly building a life together and giving me the life I have today. Also, because my roots are in Russia, I have learned to appreciate things more, and whenever I complain about how hard school is becoming she always says, “It has to be hard, everyone would do it if it was easy.” Both my parents are super supportive, and their aspirational careers have always inspired me to be a go-getter too.

Building professional relationships
My boss Larry lives by the motto of “School comes first.” During my job search in the past accounting season, Larry helped me shape my interview skills and polish my resume. He assisted me in applying my technical skills as Bowling Center Supervisor into skills relevant towards my professional career in accounting. For example, he explained that looking into transactions and big variances is essentially auditing. In doing so, Larry enabled me to turn my current position into something desirable and relevant towards my professional career.

Advice for future students
Whether it’s a part-time position or a full-time position, I would tell them to not be afraid of applying and to just go for it. For this position in particular, applicants should keep in mind that this is a recreational facility, and it’s important to keep a positive mindset and help customers have a good time.

Recently, I helped my boss with the recruitment process, and I was able to see which applicants would mesh well with our team. We highly prize having a positive attitude as a staff member. We prepared an icebreaker question for the applicants, but we asked the question in a serious manner to see who would see the humor in the situation. For example, my supervisor would tell them that the question would be the most important question of the day, then proceed to ask them “What do you do for fun?”. There were a mix of answers to this question, and while some applicants were thrown off, others laughed and gave a lighthearted answer. So, the biggest advice I can give to applicants is to just relax and show that you are able to be professional yet easygoing.

Professional development takeaways
Some beneficial things I took away from my overall working experience here is how to better prepare for interviews after watching other applicants. After becoming supervisor, I have learned how to better manage other employees and I am now much more comfortable with having more responsibilities. My boss Larry also gave me some really good advice when I was applying for accounting firms, and he helped adapt what I was doing at the Bowling Center towards a professional accounting environment. One of the things he said to me was, “Julia, you look over big variances and transactions every night, which is essentially what auditors do. You should put that in your resume.” Little tips like this really went a long way, and helped me land a job at Grant Thornton as a risk advisor. Overall, I loved my experiences working at the Bowling Center at the Student Union, Inc, and it was the perfect stepping stone to get towards my next professional destination.

We thank Julia for her time at the Bowling Center, and wish her the best of luck at her new position. The Spartan Recreation is happy to watch our students prosper as employees and move forward with their academic and professional careers.