Meet Brendan Joyce, one of our newest adjunct professors in the Business & Entrepreneurship Department. Brendan is the talent buyer at Reggie’s Rock Club and the instructor in the Booking and Presenting Live Performances course at Columbia College Chicago. Considered as out going, sporadic, and unconventional, Brendan brings an additional expert perspective to the department with his industry knowledge and talent for teaching.

As a student at Columbia College Chicago, Brendan started out as a Marketing major and switched to Music Business with a Marketing minor added along the way. He had the opportunity to intern with a few record labels that led to multiple music industry jobs up until his current position at Reggie’s Rock Club. By maintaining a working relationship with with full-time faculty member, Joe Bogdan, through Club Management: Practicum, the opportunity opened up for Brendan to teach with the Business & Entrepreneurship Department.

“My day-to-day operations coincide with what I’m teaching so I’m able to give real-world examples that relate to the lesson plan for the day. If they listen to my lectures, and they learn, I will give them the real-world examples and gossip that come through my day-to-day life to keep things interesting.” Being an independent person at work, Brendan is always thinking about his industry and how the little things from work can relate and benefit the class he teaches.

“While doing my job, I’ll see an article that would be good for the lecture. I’ll hand it out, we’ll have a discussion, talk about why it’s important, and why we should know about it–the importance of the little things that go into the big picture.”

The most important piece of wisdom that Brendan would share with students about college life is, “You get out what you put into it.” He’s a strong believer in students pursuing a career in their desired fields as soon as possible. “Don’t get a job at Target, get a job in your field at the lower level and climb the ladder because people hire those who are around the most and even if you’re not getting college credit, you should be interning. If money is really tight, find a serving, or bartending job on nights to make rent money easier.” He expressed that even if there are opportunities that do not offer college credit, you will learn from it whether you like or dislike that type of career.

“College is also about what you do to fill up your time. If you have free time, you’re not doing it the right way.”