Graduated in 2017 with a major in Songwriting. Principal instrument: voice.
Position: Team Lead and Trainer at Nom Nom, a company that develops and sells its own food and supplements for dogs and cats. There are a bit over a hundred employees, and around 25 of those are in customer service, which includes sales and account management as well as support. Lauren developed and maintains training modules to onboard new customer service people. She both trains new people and oversees other trainers, including her assistant. Lauren also reviews communications to make sure everything is done correctly.
Overview: Lauren moved straight to Nashville after Berklee. Her attitude was that she wanted a day job, which then would allow her time to do music evenings and weekends. A temp agency placed her in a medical office–she’d had prior, related work experience–and after five months she was made a regular employee. By 2019 she had enough experience that she felt she had earned a raise and promotion, but they weren’t forthcoming, so she started looking for a new job. Finding the Nom Nom position on Indeed, she was one of a group of folks hired to do customer service at the rapidly-growing company.
While there, Lauren would informally train new customer service hires as the company continued to grow. Eventually the company grew to the point where they asked her to specialize in training and create formal training materials while giving her the new title and a raise.
.
You can see Lauren’s LinkedIn profile here.
.
Choice Quotes: “I really like bringing happiness and joy to people. I like being that first point of contact to welcome people and make them feel like part of the team. Also, at my company specifically, we talk about people’s pets all day! I love dogs & cats and like to get people excited about what we’re doing — we sell really cool products.”
“A misconception of the day job is that you won’t be able to do your music anymore. If you take a job that specifically gives you the times to do you want to do, it definitely can work. Almost every evening I do music or am at a show or meeting music people. You definitely can do those without feeling like you’re struggling for money.”
“At Berklee, I took advantage of the liberal arts classes. I think that really worked to my advantage in the corporate world. Now I do a lot of written communication and documentation, and I have a valuable skill set that came from taking a lot of poetry and writing classes. I’m really glad I got that Berklee degree rather than a BFA, which has less Liberal Arts. Many of my friends who have a BFA had a harder time getting non-performance jobs.”
“I kind of stumbled into this position. But in hindsight, in a lot of places I worked when new people came in I would show them the ropes. Training is something you can get experience in if you’re willing to help new people. Just be vocal about wanting to help train people in whatever you’re currently doing. Once you have that experience it’s easier to get hired into that position officially.”
.
.
.
.
.
See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.