“I know I have a lot of weaknesses, but the MPA program has helped me come to know what my strengths are,” says BYU Marriott School of Business student Ben Maxfield. As he prepares to graduate, he reflects on how the lessons he has learned have prepared him to start his career with confidence.
“At the end of the day, what I want most in my career is to feel like I’m doing something good and that I’m helping people,” Maxfield says. He recalls working jobs in high school where he was only focused on earning a little money—and felt miserable. Maxfield went into college looking for fulfillment.
After graduating from BYU–Idaho with a degree in political science, Maxfield moved to Provo and began studying for the LSAT, hoping to find a fulfilling career in immigration law. But as he was studying, he couldn’t stop thinking about a visit from the BYU Marriott MPA program to one of his senior classes during his undergrad. “I liked the idea of Christ-centered public service,” Maxfield says.
Believing that an MPA program would enable him to play more to his strengths, Maxfield pivoted and applied to the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, where he was accepted. “With the MPA and with the track I’m headed down, I feel like I’ll be able to really see the impact of what I do.”
Maxfield says he first started to see an impact in himself. Before he even started the program, he committed to saying “yes” to opportunities. “That was a big deal for me,” Maxfield says, adding that he is usually hesitant to step outside of his comfort zone.
That willingness to say “yes” took Maxfield to Pittsburgh in his first month as a student for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Annual Conference, where he met BYU Marriott MPA alumni that work in local government. “That was kind of a real turning point for me, where I was able to see that I wanted to go all-in on local government,” he says.
The relationships Maxfield has built with professors and alumni have helped him find opportunities and build confidence, he says. In an internship with the city of Orem, Maxfield connected with more MPA alumni, including his boss and one of his team members. “Learning from them and getting to be with them—that helped me feel more confident in pursuing local government,” Maxfield says.
He applied for his current position as a management analyst with the city of Lehi because he was inspired by one of his adjunct professors, Jason Walker, who is the Lehi city administrator. “I liked him a lot as a professor and the kind of things he was doing in his work,” Maxfield says. “That encouraged me to apply in the first place and then feel comfortable taking the job.”
Maxfield credits his classes for helping him gain confidence in his career path partly because the knowledge he learned felt applicable. “I feel like the classes have been really relevant to what I want to do,” he says. “I never felt in this program like I was wasting my time.” Maxfield says he was able to directly apply what he was learning from his classes into his work, like data analysis and policy research.
“It’s been a hard two years academically, but I’ve done well,” Maxfield says. “My professors and my work experience have helped me see that I can be good at this.” As he prepares for graduation, Maxfield summarizes how he grew as an MPA student: “I learned to be confident in my strengths and seek to develop those talents in ways that can maximize my potential to make a difference.”
