WAVE Young Professionals Network Meeting Monthly in Brainerd Area

The WAVE Young Professionals Network, consisting of people ages 18-39, meets once a month in the Brainerd Lakes Area to trade ideas and learn from industry experts on how to get ahead professionally.

“We all want to see how we can grow within our businesses or run our own businesses, and that’s where we started with this,” explained Jacob Hanson, the vice chair of WAVE Young Professionals. “And at that same token, we get to explore all over the Brainerd Lakes Area and kind of see different businesses, how they operate, and get leaders from those industries in to talk directly to us.”

This month, the group met to learn more about the role that human resources departments play within a company.

“I was really impressed with the amount of questions that were asked by the crowd,” continued Hanson. “I mean, we had people asking everything from, ‘Hey, how do I handle the new paid family medical leave act’ down to, ‘Hey, what does it look like to get a raise?’ You know, ‘HR doesn’t have a good name in some places. How do I have that conversation?’ And it was really fun because we got to see different businesses, how they interact at all different levels from just a couple employees, all the way up to thousands.”

Hanson acknowledges the challenges that people early in their career may face when trying to deal with HR.

“We brought in some HR professionals from different facilities throughout the Brainerd Lakes Area and we were able to ask them questions that you may not feel comfortable with asking HR, but we were able to go directly to them and be like, ‘Hey, what happens in this area? How do I ask for a raise? What do I look like for growth? How does that conversation happen?’ And they were able to teach us different ways to walk through that,” he said.

Leah Boedigheimer, the chair of WAVE, says that the organization isn’t just a way to grow professionally, but personally as well.

“It’s really hard to make friends as an adult and outside of maybe your profession or just proximity,” she stated. “So I was really looking for a program where I could meet people like-minded, going through the same goals. It’s really nice because the WAVE program, it includes that professional development along with personal development.”

WAVE’s next event will be on July 17th, with a focus on recruiting more members into their network.