Kruse: TAMPA — On Saturday morning, not 24 hours after the state announced a record-high unemployment rate, business students from the University of South Florida stood in the lobby of the sleek Regions building downtown, ready to work on skills to land jobs that might not exist.
Alan Alford asked his wife to get in the elevator with him for one last practice run before USF’s second annual elevator pitch competition.
The 34-year-old lives in Valrico, works full-time selling car insurance for Geico in Lakeland and is set to finish school this summer. Stocky, confident and dressed in a three-piece suit with a lavender shirt, he said he wants to work for Oracle and doesn’t drink coffee because coffee stains your teeth.
“I’m putting pressure on myself,” he said, “to win this.”
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