Major: Accounting
Ryan Hanrahan built an impressive resume at a young age.
As a teenager, he was a Senior Advisor and Assistant Manager with Vector Marketing Corporation. Then he landed an internship at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, for which he became licensed in Illinois to sell life, disability and long-term care insurance as well as other financial options for his position as a financial representative.
“My job with Vector gave me experience like no other kid on the planet would have,” he explained. “It is the reason why I was even able to get hired with Northwestern Mutual. Sixty kids were interviewed and only four were hired, and I was one of them. All of the other kids were seniors or older who were about to graduate and I was only 19.
“It fit into my goals because it gave me the chance to have an amazing resume at a very young age, and even a possible career option.”
The small class sizes gave me a chance to interact with my teachers more, and I'm not distracted by 100 other people sitting in an auditorium.
Ryan Hanrahan
Hanrahan also made a conscious decision to attend College of DuPage based upon the quality of education offered at an affordable cost.
“I decided to attend COD to save a bunch of money by getting my gen eds out of the way, even though I got into all of the schools I applied to,” he said. “This helped me toward achieving my main goal of being 100 percent debt-free while I’m in college.
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“I’ve also lived in the area my entire life, and I’ve seen how COD has transformed itself into a great campus. The small class sizes gave me a chance to interact with my teachers more, and I'm not distracted by 100 other people sitting in an auditorium. As a business finance major, I was taking many business-oriented classes, including financial and managerial accounting classes. The teachers were great, and if I took the same classes at a four-year school, they would be 10 times more expensive.”
After earning his associate degree, Hanrahan transferred to the University of Iowa to study business finance. He has worked as a leasing broker for managed luxury high-rises in Chicago, as a sales executive with Everlong Group Medical Captive Services and as a licensed health insurance advisor with Healthworks. He currently is the sales manager with Pure Processing.
Hanrahan is happy about the time he spent at COD.
“College of DuPage allowed me time to build up money and look at different job options instead of being stuck making no money at a university for my first few years.”
Learn more about the Accounting program at College of DuPage