Sometimes, life lessons are hard. Other times, they’ll get you 50 bucks.
Andrew Griffin, a channel solutions engineer with Verkada and a two-time ECU alumnus, speaks to students during the Technology Summit on March 4. The summit focused on career development and opportunities for business and technology students. (Photo by Rhett Butler)
East Carolina University student Jacob Reinger learned the latter during the Technology Summit on Tuesday in the Main Campus Student Center. Reinger received a $50 gift card from presenter Andrew Griffin, a channel solutions engineer with Verkada, a security technology company.
“He was talking about needing to jump on opportunities and then he went silent,” Reinger said. “He said he had something for us, and he held it out and waited for someone to come up and grab it. It took me about 13 seconds to figure out what it was. I figured someone in the front row would pick it up. I’m in row seven, and I just ran out and grabbed it.”
Created by student organizations in the College of Business and Department of Computer Science, the summit focused on career paths and opportunities — or in Reinger’s case, an opportunity for $50. It’s a lesson the sophomore information and cybersecurity technology major from Wilmington won’t soon forget.
“Show up and take the opportunity,” he said.
Griffin said the gift card lesson was one he experienced as a student at ECU. With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in information and cybersecurity technology, he believes the gift card provides an important lesson for students entering the job market.
“The whole purpose is an exercise: The opportunity is there, and it’s up to you to take it,” Griffin said. “It doesn’t matter if there are instructions. It doesn’t matter if you’re unsure. It’s a matter of having confidence, going up there knowing that you might be embarrassed, get nervous or even look like a fool, but you took the opportunity that no one else did.”
Griffin was among five presenters at the event, which also included panel discussions with industry representatives about career exploration as well as emerging roles in technology.
Robert Daigle, global artificial intelligence business director at Lenovo who holds two ECU degrees, told students that their career possibilities are endless and to explore their options. (Photo by Ken Buday)
Robert Daigle, global artificial intelligence business director at Lenovo who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the College of Business, told students that a career path is far from a straight line. After all, he thought he was going to be a police officer or in a band when he was young.
“No way on my radar was working in artificial intelligence,” he said.
He cited a survey that noted most people would work 12 jobs in their lifetimes and that 92 million jobs would be displaced with 170 million new jobs as technology continues to change the employment landscape.
“You’re preparing for jobs and careers that don’t exist today. … Being flexible and having an openness to change is more important now than ever,” he told students.
Daigle also said students should not chase a job just because it pays a lot.
“Stay true to your values and let them guide you,” he said. “Our satisfaction is more than just a title and salary.”
He told students to build their own personal brand, mix specialized skills with general ones, continue lifelong learning, leverage technology as a competitive advantage and be curious.
“Approach your career as an exploration,” Daigle said. “The possibilities are endless.”
Lucas Murray, a junior accounting major from Oxford, is looking to work with an accounting firm in the future, but an internship is on his immediate horizon. He said Daigle’s thoughts on career flexibility and changes didn’t worry him.
From left, students Stephanie Sarambo, Shweta Kumar and Marian Sousan listen to a presentation during the Technology Summit. (Photo by Ken Buday)
“It’s exciting. I’ve already had three jobs,” Murray said. “I just have to trust the process. Some companies aren’t hiring, but as long as you stay on your path and get that degree, there should be opportunities for everybody.”
Shweta Kumar, a senior computer science major and biology minor from Cary, said she could relate to Daigle.
“He only graduated in 2010 and now in 2025, 15 years, and he’s already in a top company like Lenovo,” she said. “We’re able to see what we can do in 15 years and how we can make it.”
Kumar attended the event with Marian Sousan, a senior computer science major from Greenville. As someone deciding between a job in software development or graduate school, Sousan enjoyed Daigle’s perspective.
“I think it really calmed the current anxieties that a lot of students have about the job market,” she said. “He gave us a lot of hope, essentially, for being able to transition to jobs so easily.”
The Technology Summit is in its second year, and Sousan attended last year as well.
“I think it’s really important because it brings in a lot of interesting speakers, a lot of whom have emerged from ECU,” she said. “It really gives us a lot of perspective on how students today can jumpstart their own careers.”