For anonymity purposes, this interview is only available in transcript form.
Eri Lee: Okay, hello! Do you want to do a quick intro?
Alum Class ‘21: Sure. I’m originally from Connecticut and then went to Northeastern, where I graduated in 2021 with a major in sociology and a minor in anthropology.
Eri Lee: Nice, I also have an anthro minor, with the combo of classes. Yeah. Okay, cool. Let’s start with your co-ops. Can you tell me about your co-op experiences?
Alum Class ‘21: Yeah. So, my first co-op was during the spring of my sophomore year, and that was that Harvard Medical School in the office of alumi affairs and development, and I think I kind of didn’t really know what I wanted to apply to. So, I think I applied to at least 2 or 3 that were in higher ed, in some sort of higher ed administration. I think I also might have applied to a couple more like social justice ones like Pine Street Inn, or something like that. I definitely didn’t have a big interest in policy. So yeah, I don’t recall applying to any of those. But when I started the interview process with Harvard, I remember I really liked them. I really like the people who I ended up working with when I was there and then the work that I was doing while I was there. So, I was on the alumi engagement team in the office of alumi development. So, my work there was mainly helping alumi day to day like if they called and had a question about something, picking up the phone for them. And then I did a lot of help with their reunion as well. So, it was kind of a little bit of events experience, but mostly just office administration… and that was in the beginning of 2019. And then my second co-op was during the Spring of my junior year, and I knew I wanted to do something different, because it’s basically an opportunity to do whatever you want and have it be temporary. So, I knew that I wanted to do something different than my first co-op. I also knew I wanted to go abroad. So, I ended up co-op-ing for the Irish Council for prisoners overseas, which is a branch of the Irish Chaplaincy and that one was located in London. So, it was very different in terms of kind of like not only what I was doing, but also company culture. The organization was like a very small social action charity that focused on helping Irish prisoners who are incarcerated in England or Wales. A lot of them didn’t have any resources or any connections in England, so my organization would provide them with funds or connect them with like legal advisors or just provide someone to confide in or like kind of like social support in a way. So that was very different. That was unfortunately cut short by the pandemic, so I was only there for 2 and a half months, but it was enough time to make me realize that I didn’t want to pursue that in the long term just because of I just felt the costs like the personal cost of entering social work and case work where it’s just really high. And if it were well paid that might make it worth it. But it’s not well paid. So, it just wasn’t worth that cost to me. But I did really enjoy being there for the time that I was there.
Eri Lee: Yeah, totally. Yeah, I think that that’s definitely a struggle that a lot of us in the social sciences go through like you know, balancing the emotional work with doing something that you feel like is meaningful and impactful. But we certainly don’t go into this field for the money. Well, thank you for sharing those experiences. You mentioned a little bit about your application process with the first one, and you know, not really knowing what you wanted to do. Could you tell me a little bit more about that? And how you eventually came to that alumi relations job or like your application process for co-op, and like deciding what industry and what role you wanted?
Alum Class ‘21: Yeah, I think in terms of that job, I remember kind of just applying to a couple of different ones. I knew I was keeping my search in Boston and then from there it was just seeing what looked appealing. I remember the co-op search portal wasn’t like hugely directed at soc or anthro majors. I mean, it’s kind of just the portal that everyone going on co-op uses. So, you have to kind of do a lot of your own research. And maybe it’s changed since then, but I remember at the time it was kind of just a very open-ended search. So, I don’t know, maybe… maybe now, like I’d have an easier time, or like having more knowledge. But like coming into it with no professional job experience like, I think I remember just like applying to what sounded appealing, but not having like a great deal of direction, and that, I think, isn’t only related to the job search process itself, but also myself. As a person like there isn’t a lot of like… There is no prescripted path for a lot of humanities careers. I think a lot of people just fall into their careers kind of by accident. And more or less end up happy or in the search for something else. But yeah, I definitely didn’t know what I wanted to go into, and I don’t have a lot of immediate family members who are in like humanities related careers. So, I really didn’t know what that looked like for me. And I think I’m thankful that my first co-op was at Harvard, because I did realize that in a lot of aspects I do really like the higher education atmosphere. But yeah, I think that kind of guided my process in terms of like the not really knowing what I was looking for.
Eri Lee: Yeah, totally. Thank you for that. Yeah, I think you know something that I definitely realized during my first co-op search was like, “Oh, like, this is really like looking for a job.” And for some reason that didn’t really connect in my head. But yeah, there’s so many options out there, definitely. I think you’re totally right that those of us in the social sciences and humanities are often just like fall into the kinds of roles that we do. So yeah, definitely insightful. Kind of shifting gears a little bit, but still in undergrad… Did you participate in any other extracurriculars in undergrad that you think you’d like to highlight?
Alum Class ‘21: I did. I don’t think any of them influenced my career path but in terms of extracurriculars, I was engaged in Open Table, which is the Lutheran and Episcopal Campus Ministry at Northeastern and that was just great to have such a strong support network. And then I also did the Northeastern Food Journal, which I don’t even think is still a club, I think it had a pretty short tenure, but it was just a group of people who like talking and writing about food, and that was really fun. But those were my main extracurriculars. I also did NU Tells which is teaching English as a second language and literacy skills and that was really enjoyable, too. And that was really interesting.
Eri Lee: Yeah, it sounds like you had a lot of like very varying things that you were involved in. That’s super fun.
Alum Class ’21: Yeah, no, I’ve always enjoyed, I always found it nice to take a break from what I was studying to just do something different.
Eri Lee: Definitely agree. thank you for sharing that. So, shifting out of college. What did you do right after you graduated? Did you do more school, or did you go right into the workplace?
Alum Class ‘21: So, I graduated in 2021, and I remember Lisa Worsh meeting with me before I graduated to kind of figure out what my timeline should be for applying for jobs and she was kind of like, “Well, don’t apply until 6 to 8 weeks before you actually want to start.” And then I was like, well, I just need to finish school, and that’s a pretty short timeline. So, I’ll just start applying after I’ve graduated and that’s what I ended up doing. I worked part-time my senior year at Tatte, so I was able to kind of easily work full-time after graduating to kind of cover my living expenses while applying for more professional jobs. And then that application process, I remember I did a little bit of networking before, so I got in contact with my old co-workers at Harvard from my first co-op and found out through them that they had a position opening on the same team that I had been at, so I applied for it and did end up getting that job. So, it was kind of by luck because I really didn’t… like after my first call, I liked it, but I didn’t envision myself going back there mostly because it was in a development office, and I don’t see myself ever becoming a direct fundraiser. But I think something that I know now that I didn’t know like maybe during my first co-op was that like development in general is pretty wide like, or alumi affairs in general is pretty wide. And like, it’s not all just soliciting, like, there’s a lot of opportunities there. Yeah. But yeah, I remember kind of before being in the interview process for that job, I had like no idea, really where to start like and then I think not having an idea kind of made me fall back on what I knew, because literally every job pretty much that I applied for was in higher ed, because I knew I worked in higher ed before, and I liked the culture. Like I found it to be pretty professional, like pretty well funded, especially in Boston, where there’s a ton of big private schools. And I really like the structural element of like things having a set system that they ran on and things being reliable. So, kind of by nature, I ended up applying to a lot of administrative jobs in higher ed. And then because I knew there had been an opening on my old team, I applied for that one and was there for a year and a half.
Eri Lee: Very nice. Yeah, I think you know, as I’m in the job search process currently, I’ve found, yeah, I’m doing the exact same thing that sometimes I feel like, oh, diversity and inclusion in corporate like I know how to do that. That’s something that’s on my resume, easy to apply to. But I’m definitely like contending with like, is that really what I want to do, though? So yeah, I definitely feel that and I think that’s a bit of a like unspoken con, maybe to the co-op program that we don’t really talk about? So yeah, I appreciate you bringing that up. So, you did end up back at Harvard. Can you tell me how your work changed from being a co-op, and then being a full timer?
Alum Class ‘21: One of the main differences is who I reported to. So, when I was a co-op, I reported to one of the like assistant directors on the team. So, she had been there, I think, 4 years and she had maybe 10 years of experience working in alumi affairs. So, she was amazing and I love her, like at this point, she’s like, I consider her a friend. But when I went back to working there full time, I reported to like the managing director on the team. So, that was definitely a difference. But other than that, my work was still very much administrative work. Day to day, I was working with the same people. So, that was a big benefit kind of understanding how everything worked and knowing a couple of people’s work styles already. In terms of differences, because that’s the thing is, after I was the co-op there, they restructured in such a way that I was the last co-op. So, there was no one that filled that role after me. So, when I started full time I was still doing a lot of that work. I was just being fairly compensated for it. They did pay me as a co-op, but it was $15 an hour, and we can all acknowledge that that is not enough. So yeah, yeah, I mean, honestly, my work didn’t change a lot, but it was nice to be there and not kind of have an expiration date, like it was nice to consider longevity, even though I knew when I started that I didn’t want to have the job for a long time. But it was nice that that was kind of implied.
Eri Lee: Yeah, totally. Thank you for sharing that. I kind of have some follow up questions, I think, you know, particularly about the application process itself for that first, you know job out of college. I think, as Northeastern students, it’s often frustrating for us, I think, right out of college, being fresh graduates having that date on our resume, but also having, you know, a year or more worth of full-time experience that not a lot of fresh graduates have. How did you navigate the application process with, you know, that kind of experience under your belt, but still, being a fresh grad?
Alum Class of ’21: Yeah. I think I just tried to use it to my advantage. And I mean I think it does come across pretty strongly on a resume when an employer sees that you had, like, a solid chunk of work experience. Like I think it does definitely set you apart from other candidates. But at the same time, I think it’s very different to work full-time, even in an entry level role as opposed to being a co-op, because you, as a co-op, I think you can be less concerned about the relationships you forge with people there, like it’s great if you can build those relationships with people. But I don’t think it’s like the standard at all. And ultimately, if there’s people where you’re like, “Oh, I really didn’t like working with them,” well, at the end of the day it’s 6 months and you might never see them again. So, it’s fine as opposed to in like an actual job like you see them every day, and obviously people move on from jobs, but like day to day, the implication is that you’ll see them every day forever. So, I think that, like I think part of the application process as well, and is always a big part of job application process for me, is who I’m interviewing with and kind of realizing that like that’s something that I guess I don’t know if I paid a lot of attention to as a co-op or I think maybe I did, but just like never really realized it. But I think looking for a full-time job, like that is something that’s definitely on my mind. Like it’s important to like who I work with every day, just because I think the relational component is a lot different.
Eri Lee: Yeah, definitely. Super insightful. Yeah, I think similarly, like something that co-op really taught me was like the importance of the people that you’re working with. I think, like you said, I wasn’t paying attention to that all that much during my co-op application, but having had that, like full-time experience in an office, and knowing that you have to see the same people over and over again, it’s definitely something I’ve been focusing on my search. Alright. Where did you move on to after that first job?
Alum Class ‘21: Yeah. So in, let’s see… So, I ended that job in December of 2022, so pretty recently. And then I started my current job a Law School in 2023 in January. And I knew I kind of had a certain timeline in mind for moving. So that was my primary motivation for switching jobs that I wanted to move to New York. I had kind of a personal deadline of moving in 2023. My least ended in Boston in 2022, so I kind of had that motivating me. And then from October to November, basically in 2022, was when I was job hunting and I at that point had, like I knew I wanted to stay pretty much in higher ed. But I also have the specification that I really like events work and wanted to stay within that and that had kind of been affirmed like during my time being full-time at Harvard was that I definitely wanted to continue that. So, I applied to mostly either schools in New York or really big, like cultural institutions like the Met, or like MoMA where I knew, like the company, culture would probably be similar. But that being said, I think something I’ve realized since coming to this school is, it is so different at every school. Yeah, I had always heard that like, but I guess I never really considered like every school, even departments at one school are all so different from each other just in terms of levels of professionalism and the types of work. Like, it’s very different. But yeah, I was applying for jobs and interviewing in October and November, and then accepted my current job in late November and started in January. So, my current job, I work on the Institutional Events team. So, it’s definitely, like despite having events in the name, it’s a very different approach to events than I’d had at Harvard, where my work was more centered around organizing like alumi meetings or reunions. Like my previous job had a lot of hands-on work, but my current job takes more of a bird side view approach where the institutional events team is responsible for reviewing and approving requests for space at the school. So, if a student group wants to have an event, they need to receive permission through my team and my office. So, it’s a lot less like feet on the ground, like organizing events. And it’s more taking a look at institutional priorities and understanding what events we should and shouldn’t, like, stand behind. And there is some organizational work and events that we do sponsor. But it’s definitely, it’s a different direction than what I was doing at Harvard.
Eri Lee: For sure. Well, very exciting that you’re in a new city. How’s that been for you?
Alum Class ‘21: A lot of change at once, moving and starting a new job. And I mean, I’m originally from Connecticut, so I’m from like somewhat close by. But like, yeah, it was actually incredibly exhausting. I think like starting a new job alone is like one piece, and like I think I will never take for granted being comfortable in a place again, because I think… It made me recognize like what a privilege that is. I think comfort is something that you actually like, build up for yourself over time and, like, I didn’t realize the extent to which I had done that in Boston, of really building a life that I like living day to day until I had to start from scratch and start building everything over again. So, it’s been exhausting, but rewarding as like I start to notice, like more regularity of routine, I guess. But yeah, it’s definitely, I think the job aspect is something that’s definitely difficult. I definitely miss my old co-workers a lot. They’re really great. My current co-workers are great people, I think I have a different perspective sometimes from them. And it’s difficult, because one of the things about working in higher ed just in general, I think, is that it’s really hard to change anything. because everything is so big that you really need to get a lot of people to agree on something before anything is changed. So, if you have a different perspective than anyone else, it’s kind of difficult. So, I think that’s one kind of growing pain that I’ve been encountering. But overall, the move has been great.
Eri Lee: Okay, yeah, definitely. I mean, it sounds like you’ve been thinking about it a lot for sure, and you’re very articulate about your experience. So, how do you think your degree in sociology, and then also your minor in anthropology, how do you think they’ve prepared you for your career, or even just for adult life, your career journey?
Alum Class ‘21: Yeah. I think if I took away anything from college, it was just the social skills. And I feel like you do get those in a degree program like, I think a lot of classes are kind of theory based. And it’s like, I’m not actually going to apply like, Karl Marx’s theories on Communism in my job like that just won’t happen. And it’s not a field like engineering where you’re taking like, I don’t know, like a thermal dynamics course and you’re directly doing something that applies to that. Like it’s not, especially if you go into an administrative job like I did, there isn’t a class that will prepare you for that. I think, looking at the curriculum in general and just thinking about the cohort of people I was with, I guess I think, like socially, it was good to be with people who, for the most part, thought about things holistically, like we aren’t trying to find one single answer to a problem. And I think the curriculum in general encourages that kind of thinking, more about the big picture as opposed to the detail, yeah. And I mean the major as well like, I think it’s more about just having the general understanding of how institutions work. And I think that’s benefited me just in terms of not being so focused on like not getting too caught in the weeds, maybe, is what I’m trying to say. And also like, I think, something that does actually come across in theory classes is that like there are a lot of really famous sociologists that have conflicting theories with one another. And you like, none of them are right or wrong, they’re just different. So, I think that’s like a helpful mindset to have in college, and maybe not even just directly at work, but also in life in general.
Eri Lee: Yeah, I think you know, I’m definitely in agreement with you. I think like the first thing that we open with is the sociological imagination and I know, like just that perspective on the world is unique. And yeah, I definitely really value, like the world view that I’ve gained from being a sociology student. So definitely agree, even if you know, we’re not seeing the direct application of our degree in day-to-day life, I think, yeah, that world view and that perspective is even more valuable, I think in a lot of ways. Okay. If you could do it all over again, would you do the same thing?
Alum Class ‘21: The only thing I would do differently is… I mean, that’s the thing is like I was gonna say the only thing I would do differently is maybe like ask different questions during my most recent job application process. Just because there were things that when I started I realized I had taken them for granted in my previous job. And like the thing is like, if I went back, at the time, like I didn’t know… How do I say this, like, I don’t blame myself for making any of the choices I did, and I don’t like, I don’t hold anything against myself, because I know I was just doing what I thought was best, and like I was doing everything within my knowledge. But I think like since starting like, since gaining more experience in higher ed with a different employer, like I think it just helps you realize that nothing is guaranteed and don’t take anything for granted. So yeah, I think if I could do it all get over again, I would be asking different questions during the interview process, because I think that might have informed my choice of my, the job that I was going to take. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. I wouldn’t redo any of my degree stuff over, I feel pretty content with all of it.
Eri Lee: Thank you. Okay. Last question. You can kind of like, take it in whatever direction you want. It’s kind of like an and/or. But do you have any advice for a student looking for their first co-op or job? Or do you have advice for a prospective student who’s interested in sociology or anthropology?
Alum Class ‘21: I would say keep an open mind. Keep an open mind, because this is 6 months you have to do something that might sound interesting to you, and the consequences are very little. And also maybe do something out of your comfort zone because you might do multiple co-ops. So, get out there, do something that appeals to you and don’t do something just because you think you should be doing it. Do something you genuinely want to do. And I feel like that advice would also apply for a job, like don’t just do something that you feel obligated to do out of necessity, do something because you feel like your heart is behind it. And I think more so, advice for your first job would be like, utilize your network. Like the goal of networking, I think, like the goal of networking isn’t to get a job. The goal of networking is to talk to people and there’s never like a bad time to network. Like it’s always valuable to know someone who might be able to help you out down the line, or just offer advice. Like, I think a lot of the networking I did before I worked at Harvard full time was just understanding like, what did these people do day-to-day? like those kinds of professional jobs like, does that appeal to me? So yeah, definitely advice I would have would be just using your network to find out, like possible career paths, what directions you’re drawn to, and what doesn’t sound appealing.