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Ashley Steinman
Third Year PDS
April 1, 2016
Professor Abby Gould
Reflection Paper (Informational Interview)

I conducted my informational interview with the one and only Francis J. Carlo. Carlo is
part of the Board of Advisors for Nichols College. However, this is not only his job. Carlo is the
vice president of the NICE Systems Inc. He can be reach at via phone or email which are listed
below.
Telephone: (508) 366-0308
Mobile: (508) 846-5227
Email: Fran.Carlo@nice.com
I selected Francis Carlo or what he likes to be called Fran because it was interesting in the sheer
fact he was and still is a Bison. Fran is not only successful in the business community, but he
also takes the time out his schedule to give back to the community that once helped curve him
into the person he is today. It was interesting that Carlo grew up in a small town called Auburn,
MA and is now traveling all over the world for his company seeing many extraordinary things. I
chose Carlo because after doing research, I could see myself in his shoes one day.
With the face to face interview that lasted roughly thirty minutes on March 3, 2017 at
nine in the morning , I learned valuable insights that can be useful to me once I have graduated
from Nichols College. Carlo started to talk about his past and how he ended up where he is
today. We started to talk about how he was the youngest of seven children in his family, and

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stated education was not my priority when I was younger. I actually wanted to be a professional
baseball player, but you dont see five foot something players. With that said, Carlo decided to
be like his WWII Veteran father and be an engineer, but his father advised him into a different
field that will be useful for the rest of his life. From there, Carlo decided to go to college. Holy
Cross was his first choice; however, he chose Nichols College for the accounting program. Carlo
was part of the class of 1990. He then went on to get a MBA at Anna Maria College. One thing
he said which was interesting was, try to get an MBA, because learning is a journey, one should
never stop. It made think that even though I will eventually graduate I should try to learn even
once Im out of the classroom environment.
Carlo started to talk about connections. He advised not only to me, but people that has
asked him over the years is to make connections no matter what. It is extremely important,
because you never know what kind of opportunities can come up with that one conversation you
had with a person. With that information, he gave me some insight on how to handle things when
people ask you to do tasks and which are more important than the other. Carlo called it noise,
and he advised me to sit down and cancel out the noise that is not important. For example,
picking up a document that needs to be fax out in two weeks is more important that emailing
someone right away saying you have received the documents. He also calmed me down in a
sense that is it ok not to email someone right away. When he was advising me on this issue I
realized it ties into the whole noise thing he was saying.
Once Carlo finished talking about what he has done to get to where he is today, he
allowed me to ask him some questions that rose up during the interview. The number one thing
he said to me and has stuck with me still is his little code called PAR. PAR stands for

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performance, actions, and results. He said with that code one can get through anything no matter
how difficult the task can be at hand.
He taught me to realize that not everyone is a super hero and sometimes people do need
breaks at time. It was very inspirational because he has been married for over twenty-five years
and has two children. With all the obligations he has with his company as well as meeting his
obligations at home, it allowed me to think that everything does come down to the performance
and how you can cancel out the noise. Once you cancel out the noise it is all about how one can
go about the actions thats needed to get results. Francis J. Carlo is a living example on how one
can be successful throughout his/her life in anything.

Questions Asked in the Interview

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How and why did you choose Nichols College?

Did you decide to go to college right after high school?
What made you choose the major you wanted to study for at Nichols?
Did you see yourself as being part of the Board of Advisors here at Nichols?
How did Nichols help you get you to the path you are on right now business wise?
Was it hard to make connections at first? If so how did you go about and

accomplishing the challenge?

7. Were you in a situation where you felt intimidated, and how did you use that as an
advantage rather than a disadvantage?
8. What would you advise me as a Junior here at Nichols to keep doing for the rest
of my life?
9. Have you ever get overwhelmed because you took on too much than what you can
actually handle?
10. How would rate me as student is the crucial time to make connections?
11. Is LinkedIn a good place to have those connections?
12. How do you balance your obligations at work and your obligations at home?
13. Does one take up more time than the other and how do you compensate?
14. Is it ok to deny a person in a task if you are overwhelmed with the tasks you have
already agreed to do?
15. What is one thing I should keep in mind once I graduate from Nichols and I am in
the business world?