{"id":251645,"date":"2026-08-17T13:57:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=251645"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:59:31","slug":"executive-jason-correia-says-people-skills-are-essential-for-aspiring-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/08\/executive-jason-correia-says-people-skills-are-essential-for-aspiring-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Executive Jason Correia Says People Skills Are Essential for Aspiring Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Correia \u201910, \u201913 MSA has nothing against artificial intelligence, but when the corporate executive is hiring a new employee, he\u2019s looking for great communication skills, a strong work ethic, and the ability to work as part of a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the advent of AI, I feel like the ability to communicate in person has become deprioritized,\u2019\u2019 said Correia a principal at CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), based in West Hartford.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many brilliant people know how to do great things with AI, but get a little flustered when dealing face-to-face with clients. You need soft skills for that,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cIt is critical to know how to build relationships, build trust and to enjoy working with people. I feel like we\u2019ve shortchanged young people if they aren\u2019t able to do that.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Correia to Receive \u201840 Under Forty\u2019 Award<\/h2>\n

Correia is one of three UConn School of Business alumni being honored with a \u201c40 Under Forty\u2019\u2019 award from the Hartford Business Journal in September. The award recognizes young leaders having a tremendous impact in their industries.<\/p>\n

At CLA, Correia\u2019s division specializes in merger and acquisition transactions between private equity firms and mid-sized family businesses. He supervises teams of highly-focused experts spearheading these complex transactions, and the company prides itself on impeccable customer service.<\/p>\n

Correia became interested in the field more than a dozen years ago, when he lived in Boston and was partnering with Harvard Business School graduates seeking to build their own businesses.
\n\u201cI fell in love with the work,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI liked being shoulder-to-shoulder with entrepreneurs building a business of their own.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Today he retains that passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy the challenge of the work. I\u2019m always on my toes and every day is new; never stale and boring,\u2019\u2019 Correia said. \u201cThere\u2019s a tangible impact to what we\u2019re doing and it feels more meaningful to me than, say, completing a tax return.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are small enough that there\u2019s a tight team dynamic. I\u2019ve had great mentors in my career who shaped me as a professional and I feel it is my responsibility to pay it back,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\"A
Alumnus Jason Correia and his children pose for a photo with a UConn Men’s Basketball trophy. Correia has been recognized among the top young leaders in Greater Hartford by the Hartford Business Journal. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018He Was Such an Engaged Teacher\u2019<\/h2>\n

Correia came to UConn as a finance major, but an introductory accounting course taught by professor Dick Kochanek changed his major and his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was such an engaged teacher. He told stories throughout the class. His way of teaching made accounting entertaining, not dry, and the concepts were easy to remember. The whole class was paying attention. The way he taught just made it easy to be engaged.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He also fondly recalls a forensic accounting seminar which so intrigued him that he earned a minor in psychology. \u201cI even considered working for the FBI or the CIA for a while,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

One piece of advice he would share with students and young alumni is to always do the right thing, fulfill your commitments and if your run into a problem, don\u2019t lie, he said. \u201cMy mentors always told me to have the difficult conversations and I think that\u2019s very valuable advice,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Balancing Work, Family, and a Commute<\/h2>\n

Correia, met his wife, Abbe Muller, at Conard High School in West Hartford and they were high school sweethearts. She earned her bachelor of nursing degree at UConn in 2012, followed by a Ph.D. at Yale in 2018. On their honeymoon trip to Tuscany, they learned to cook authentic Italian food and hand-roll pasta, and today Correia still enjoys cooking it for the family.<\/p>\n

The couple have three children, ages 10, 8 and 5, who are interested in everything from sports to the arts to fast cars. Correia coaches Little League baseball and a winter basketball clinic in Woodstock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a challenge to balance work, family, and a long commute,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve been blessed with is the flexibility to work from home if needed and the ability to leave a little early before a game. I\u2019m appreciative of the ability to balance my career and still be able to be there for the important things for my family.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Correia is one of three UConn School of Business alumni being honored with a \u201c40 Under Forty\u2019\u2019 award from the Hartford Business Journal in September. The award recognizes young leaders having a tremendous impact in their industries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":251647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-251645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-25 19:41:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251645"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251651,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251645\/revisions\/251651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/251647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251645"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=251645"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=251645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}