Author: Kevin

Charlotte Moore

Listen to the interview (approx. 52 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2005 with majors in Music Business and Music Production and Engineering (MP&E).  Principal instrument:  vibrophone.

Position:  Bidding Manager at Double Negative, a large visual effects company that produces effects for movies. Charlotte works with prospective clients to detail the work, then works with department managers to produce and accurate estimate of the effort required.  She then submits the bids “In order to keep over a thousand special effects people who work here employed.”

UPDATE December 2016:  A few months after doing her interview, Charlotte was promoted at her company!  She will be production manager on an upcoming film Meg., and visual effects producer on another upcoming film Hostiles.

Overview:  Upon graduating Berklee Charlotte did three (unpaid) internships while working for money as an usher.  One was at a recording studio, which helped her figure out that “The non-stop lifestyle of recording albums wasn’t for me–I once worked 24 hours straight, and didn’t think I could do it in the long run.” She sent out many resumes, including to Boston-based studio Soundtrack, and was offered a job as a receptionist. Charlotte took the job, seeing it as a “foot in the door,” and soon took over accounting when someone resigned, then moving on to handling payments and a myriad of other business-end tasks, while taking night classes toward an MBA from Suffolk University.

By 2008, Charlotte wanted to move to California, and was sending out resumes.  She got a job offer from Skywalker Sound.  Starting as a production accountant, over the next 6.5 years she finished her MBA and was promoted twice to Associate Producer of Bidding, and then Associate Produces of Bidding & Scheduling.  At that point, a recruiter for Sony reached out to her to do finance and bidding for visual effects in Vancover.  Charlotte took the job, then a year later took the opportunity to work for Double Negative in her current position.

 

You can see Charlotte’s LinkedIn profile here.  Charlotte encourages Berklee graduates interested in working in the business end of film to contact her via LinkedIn.  She has learned many things, knows many people, and is happy to make a connection!

 

Choice Quotes:  ‘I enjoy working with  the artists and seeing how it goes from nothing to the most amazing thing you’ve seen on the screen!  I’m lucky to be able to work with people who are just THAT talented.”

“I read a lot of (movie) scripts. Sometimes that’s all I get.  Sometimes I get concept art, scene breakdowns, or even storyboards.  I spend a lot of time with Excel–I’m bidding down to the detail of how many days of work each facet of the work is going to take.  I’ll do the first pass estimate, then run everything by the supervisors of those who are doing the work.”

“It’s rare for people in film to have MBA’s, and it has been really valuable.   If you have that education you then can discuss why something doesn’t work and say what you would do instead–and you can articulate it well and be taken seriously.  I feel a lot more confident at work and am glad I did it.”

“If you’re first coming out of school and want to work in this field, look for production runner or production assistant jobs.  IF you see people doing something good that you’d like to  learn tell people.  Most of the time people are happy to help you out and talk about what they do.  Talk to recruiters about what you’re interested in.”

 

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

 

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Cam Bjork

Listen to the interview (approx 1 hr, 1 min), or download it.

 

Graduated in 2015 with a major in Electronic Production & Design (EPD).  Principal Instrument:  bass guitar.

Position:  Business Development Representative ( business-to-business salesperson) at Bevspot.  Cam works in the office, cold-calling restaurants/bars to get them interested in Bevspot’s software, which makes it much easier to track their inventory of alcoholic drinks and order the appropriate amounts at the appropriate times.  He partners with a field representative, and earns a base salary plus commission.

Update October 2016:  Shortly after the interview left Bevspot to take on  a similar Business Development Representative (business-to-business sales) role at Nexthink.

Overview:  Cam initially went to UMASS-Boston to study business, thinking he’d go into software sales like his father.  However, he transferred to Berklee because he wanted to explore his creative/musical side.  Cam worked various restaurant jobs (busboy, server) while in college.  By his last year at Berklee he decided that, while he loved music, he wasn’t convinced it would make a good career path.  His father got him a part-time job doing cold-call sales during his last semester, which went fine.  Shortly before graduation he applied to another software company where his father knew people and could make an introduction.  He got the job and started right after graduation.  However, he didn’t feel he fit in well with the culture at that company, so some months later when a friend from Berklee who worked at Bevspot mentioned that they were looking for Business Development Reps, Cam expressed interest.  They talked, and he got the job–Cam’s restaurant industry experience also helped.

 

You can see Cam’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice quotes:  “Sales is very difficult, very challenging.  But I view every call as a sort of performance.  using that creative musician mentality of trying new things and not getting too deep into my comfort zone.  A pitch that might work with one person won’t with another.”
“Sales has different techniques, and there are things you can do to make yourself better, but it’s mostly in the way you present yourself.  Believe in yourself and project that every way you can–tone of voice, how you walk–be confident.  Ask open-ended questions; for example, ‘What problems do you have as a business?  How are you trying so solve them?’  Be conversational, but also concise.”

“At Berklee, I had to present very personal stuff (my music) to my peers and people I barely knew.   It toughened me up for the sales role.  I’m up for pushing forward even if someone’s trying to get me off the phone.”

“EPD gave me a great understanding about the relationship between software & hardware.  I had to learn about so many different systems.  It made me good at picking up software quickly, which has helped a lot with my software sales jobs.”

“Most musicians never get commercial traction, and that’s OK because at the end of the day they’re still creatively expressing themselves and contributing to this world.  It’s not giving up; your relationship with music just changes.”

“If I ever want to to get my music out there, my sales experience has given me more of an ability to push my music to record labels.”

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

Max Pohl

Listen to the Interview (approx. 1 hr, 9 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2013 with a degree in Music Business.  Principal Instrument: (acoustic) guitar.

 

Position:  Product Manager (“Specialist”) at Wayfair, a large Boston-based online retailer of furniture and home goods.  Working on a team that develops and refines interally-used software and using “agile” methods of 2-week development cycles, Max meets with others in the company to assess desired improvements to the software, writes specifications, does mock-ups, analyzes data, and tests the results.

Overview:  Max spent much of his last year at Berklee looking for a music-industry job without success.  As graduation approached, a non-Berklee friend who had worked at a Business consulting and software company Eze suggested that Max apply.  Very much wanting to have a job, and also wanting to stay in Boston if possible, Max applied and got a well-paying job doing customer support and software installations.

One year later, Max searched for a new job, he liked the technology, but not the business consulting, and he sensed that his company wanted to promote him to a business consultant and move him out of Boston.  A friend at a ClearCompany, a small (at the time) software-startup, helped get him a job where he wore many hats, including sales and customer service.  Max realized that, while he had though he wanted to interact with customers, he really wanted to work more with technology.  He interviewed for several positions at Wayfair, but was told that they were all too junior-level for him and they’d get in touch if they had a more appropriate opening.  Months later, they did!  He interviewed and got his current job.

 

You can see Max’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “Creative types will appreciate this:  at my job I can conceptualize something, design it, go through the process of building it, and see it being used.  I never anticipated that this job would have  such a large creative aspect, but I really enjoy it.  I also like the social element, being in contact with so many accomplished people, which has helped me grow professionally.  The tech side of it also is really interesting.”

“One great thing about working at a small startup, my previous job, is you’re forced to wear a bunch of hats, which exposes you to, and makes you skilled in, many areas.”

“At Berklee you have to perform in front of others and get judged/graded on it.  That’s stressful and hard, but it helps prepare you to perform in front of others.  It taught me how important it is to prepare and try to be perfect.  This applies just as much to performances in the workplace:    a job interview, a presentation.”

 

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

 

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Alexia Layne-Lomon

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr 15 min.) or download it.

Left Berklee in 2013 (She finished up one last class and officially graduated in 2014.) with a degree in Professional Music.  Principal Instrument:  Voice.

Position:  Grants Manager at Action for Boston Community Development (“ABCD”) a large human-services non-profit organization.  Alexia applies for outside grants to fund 76 distinct programs designed to alleviate poverty in the Boston area.  She also supervises and edits the work of two other grant writers, and oversees ABCD’s direct-mail fundraising operation.

Overview:  Alexia started Berklee in 2000, but left after two years.  Having grown up low-income and strongly believing in social justice, Alexia wanted to do community organizing professionally.  For years, she worked at various administrative jobs in the non-profit section, while going to Berklee on and off.  Though she kept wanting to do what she was doing, Alexia realized that she needed a Bachelors Degree in order to advance her career, and that the easiest way to get that was to finish at Berklee.

By 2012 Alexia was both doing the books and fund raising for Community Change, a small anti-racism organization, where she could work part time while finishing her degree.   While finishing up, she started an 18-month job search for appropriate jobs in the non-profit sector in Boston looking for a larger organization where there was more hope for advancement.  She got the job offer at ABCD in the spring of 2014 while still one class shy of her degree.  Although the positions required a Bachelors Degree, ABCD gave her the leeway to finish up that semester while she worked.

 

You can see Alexia’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice quotes:  “A funding relationship is like getting to know someone.  Don’t propose on the first night you meet.  Talk to them, find out what each of you wants out of life, then maybe someday it matches up to a commitment.  Getting a grant is as much about the relationship building and the credibility of the organization and you as a professional as it is about the words on the paper.”

“Many people hate fundraising, even some who do it professionally, but I like it!  If you enjoy raising money, there are lots of opportunities.”

Berklee taught me that creatives move in the world a bit differently than others who don’t have that in them.  We examine problems differently and enter into conversations differently.  Berklee helped my creative side flourish.  That changed who I am for the better.”

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

 

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Shawn Young-Eagle

Listen to the interview (approx. 42 min.) or download it.

Graduated in 2013 with a degree in Music Business.  Principal instrument:  guitar.

Position:  Regional Sales Director at Columbia Threadneedle Investments.  Based in their Boston headquarters, Shawn works with a field partner in Arizona & New Mexico to sell financial products to financial advisers and investment managers.  Shawn is one of fifty people doing this job at this 2500-person company that handles roughly $500 billion of assets.

UPDATE August 2019:  In the spring of 2019 Shawn got a job with Ameriprise Financial Services as a personal financial adviser.

Overview:  Graduating shortly after the Boston Marathon terror-bombing, Shawn thought hard about what he wanted to do with his life, and realized that he wanted to go into finance rather than music.  He declined a job offer from a music firm he’d interned at, and started an aggressive job search.  Two months later he got a job at Fidelity, where he would work while passing his Series 7 and other financial exams.  Shawn started in customer service, then after 5 months was promoted into to financial product sales to individual investors.  After a bit over a year, Shawn wanted to do business-to-business (“B to B”) sales, as that is higher status and pay, but Fidelity didn’t do that in Boston, so Shawn contacted a former coworker who worked at Columbia Threadneedle who put in the good word and after several interviews Shawn got his current job.  He’s recently was put in their “top-gun” program, where he’s training to be in the field.

You can see Shawn’s LinkedIn profile here.  Shawn encourages Berklee students and alumni interested in working in finance to connect with him.

Choice quotes:  “My job is a marriage of personality skills and analytical skills…Every day is an opportunity to learn something new…I love that my work is fast paced, you talk to people, and you get paid for what you do.  It also helps to have good, fun colleagues; most are around my age (mid 20s).”

“I love music, but I didn’t envision anyone paying huge money to see me play.  The business community would give me more opportunity to be a leader, and I like business–it’s in my blood.  .”

“When I graduated, it was a full-time job looking for a job.  Six to eight hours each day game planning, polishing the resume & cover letters for different roles, getting myself out there.  It took about 2 months to get that call from Fidelity.”

What Berklee did the most for my future was surround me with all that creativity and back-and-forth with critical feedback.  I learned to “take it on the chin,” and built that into my professional style.  I seek out feedback on ways I can improve.  It always helps to get different perspectives and I learn a lot.”

“Music is still my lynch pin and my fire.  I play at least an hour per day, jam with friends, keep my eye on the music industry, and discover new songs.  My trained ears will always be with me.”

“Berklee folks figuring out what you want to do, don’t be afraid to fail.  Use the Berklee Alumni Network! Read read read about the industry you’re curious about.  Learn as much as you can before you start interviewing.  Whatever you want to do, HUSTLE!”

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

Christmas Eger

Listen to the interview (approx 1 hr, 1 min) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2007 with a degree in Music Business.  Principal Instrument:  flute.

Position:  Midwest Regional Employee Relations Generalist (Human Resources) at H&M.  Christmas’s region covers 130 stores and thousands of employees.  She processes unemployment claims, terminations, benefits questions, and gathers information for litigations.  She also tried to mediate disputes and takes calls from employees who are in crisis.  Additionally, Christmas travels the region to teach workshops to H&M store managers.

 

Overview:  Christmas started working part-time at H&M as a retail clerk while a Berklee student.  After graduation, she moved to New Jersey and was able to transfer to another store.  She had opportunities for jobs in other cities and to manage tours, but felt that those were too uncertain and she liked the steady income, so she went full-time and H&M.  6 months later, she was promoted to dept. managers, which doubled her pay.

Christmas spent 6 years as a dept. manager, moving several times, H&M letting her transfer to a new store each time.  After ending up in Chicago, she got to fill in temporarily as a recruiter, which she enjoyed.  Soon after, a permanent recruiter positions opened up, which she took.  After close to a year, the person doing her current job, who was aware of her extensive volunteer work with Hope for the Day, encouraged her to apply for that job which he would be leaving.  One highly competitive process and seven interviews (!) later, Christmas got the job!

 

You can see Christmas’s LinkedIn Profile here.  She also invites anyone eager to discuss jobs in HR, or at H&M, to contact her directly at christmas [dot] eger [at] gmail [dot] com

 

Choice Quotes:  “When an employee needs to vent and feels that something is unfair, I let them talk.  If they’re in crisis I encourage them to seek out resources and get help.  People don’t call me about happy things; I’m their last resort before they leave or are fired, and I’m their last shot at them being happy with their job here.”

“I got my current job thanks to my volunteer work with Hope for the Day which works with at-risk youth & self-harmers.  I can keep a calm demeanor and coach pepole through a crisis.  It also helped me because I am aware of the enormous impact, for good or bad, that a single conversation can have one someone’s life.

“I’m one of four regional human relations generalists working for H&M in the United States.  All four of us started lower down in the company and worked our way up.”

“If you want to work in HR, be sure to find a company you care about.  I couldn’t do my job if I didn’t believe in my company and what it stands for.”

 

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

 

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Dr. Jenny Martin

 

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 5 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2006 with a major in Songwriting.  Principal instrument:  voice.

Position:  Licenced Psychotherapist in private practice.  Jenny is one of a half dozen people in the Mindful Path practice in Chicago, but her clients are her own.  She typically sees clients, many of whom are abuse victims or GLBT, for the long term psychotherapy.  As a (very) side job, she teaches a graduate course at Adler University for others working on their PsyD degrees. “Teaching doctoral students is wonderful, and is a great way for me to ‘keep my tools sharp.'”

UPDATE:  (Fall 2016):  Shortly after being interviewed, Jenny left the Mindful Path group practice to found her own private practice:  Gemstone Wellness

Overview:  Coming from a music-themed high school, Jenny majored in psychology at the University of Michigan for two years, but found it unsatisfying at the undergrad level and a good friend convinced her to transfer to Berklee.  She did her last two years at Berklee, but during the first year that same friend withdrew from Berklee and later committed suicide.  Jenny found this personally devastating.

After graduation, Jenny worked briefly at Bug Music in New York, then a friend at Cherry Lane music got her a job there, working in the royalties department, while writing music in her spare time.  Ultimately, Jenny found the work unsatisfying, and felt that opportunities to be a staff-songwriter were drying up, so she left her job and moved home to decide what she wanted to do.  She felt that a career as a psychotherapist would be a fulfilling way to honor her friend and be herself, and in 2009 enrolled in a six-year program at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, getting her doctorate in 2014 and her professional license in 2015.  A connection she’d met through a post-doc job introduced her to the person putting together the Mindful Path practice, and she decided to work with them.

 

You can see Jenny’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “There’s nothing more meaningful to me than sitting in a space with someone, being authentic and hear people’s truth and be with them in raw, vulnerable moments.  I get to live with that all day.  People ask if it’s hard to hear suffering, but I feel like we all go through that at some point, so it means a lot to me to be there in those moments.  It feels like I’m home.”

“One of my first placements during grad school was working with women in the Cook Country Jail.  These woman had been through trauma, but I found the power of music to work there–the women were singing, drumming on tables, etc.  I figured i’d see about writing a group song.  It started a whole process for me, diving into research what happens to your brain when you’re creating music–incredible things happen–and I did my doctoral dissertation on that.”

“Studying songwriting at Berklee got me comfortable being vulnerable in front of a group, and connecting to my sense of self.  “Songwriting and Psychotherapy are similar in some ways:  they’re both improvising, and the only way you’re going to do a good job is to LISTEN.”

 

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

 

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India Thomson

Listen to the interview (approx. 58 min.) or download it.

Graduated in 2014 with a major in Music Business.  Principal Instrument:  voice.

Position:  Investment Services Analyst at Citigroup in New York.  India works on a team of ten, supporting 150 financial advisors.  India helps with inquiries from customers and financial advisors, places trades, and helps operations.  Her goal is to move up into a role directly evaluating investments.

Overview:  India’s mother is a day-trader, so she was exposed to finance growing up.  By her penultimate year at Berklee, she had decided that she wanted a career in finance.  India moved to New York after graduation, supporting herself by doing social media publicity for a music label while she searched for an internship in finance.  After four months of aggressive searching, she got an unpaid internship, while she studied for and obtained her first financial industry certification (“Series 7” and “Series 63”) which involve lots of studying and a test.

Networking events led to her next job, a financial services sales position, which was paid, but India wanted to move away from sales and into something that paid better than that position.  She got an investment analyst position, which she loved, but after six months the company was having financial problems, so she started looking for another job.  A recruiter from Citigroup led her to her current position.

You can see India’s LinkedIn profile here.

Choice quotes:  “I have this duality:  I have a passion for math and am good at it, but I have a creative side as well.  My finance job also has both  As an analyst, I do a lot of math, using metrics to rate investments based on suitability, rate of return, and so forth.  But I also do creative stuff, such as putting together presentations & reports and talking to people.”

“When you put your resume out there, know that Search Engine Optimization is used by companies on resumes.  Software looks for key words and will filter 1000 resumes online down to 50.  Put the job title and key words from the job position in your resume.”

“You can love music, but don’t ever feel like you’re stuck because music is all you can do….  You can still be happy, find your passions, do stuff you love and have meaningful experiences even if what your ultimate dream doesn’t work out.  What you end up doing can and up being your dream without you even realizing it.”

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

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Dawn-Marie Dunn

Listen to the interview (approx. 50 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2012 with majors in Electronic Production & Design (EPD) and Professional Music.  Principal Instrument: violin.

Position:  Software QA (Quality Assurance) Engineer at Advanced Practice Strategies (a.k.a. Brightwork Health), which makes tools used by doctors and nurses to help them identify uncommon medical conditions.   Dawn-Marie makes sure that the software specifications are properly described and feasible.  She does both manual testing and writes “scripts” (small programs) to automate some testing to as to ensure that the software works properly under all circumstances.

Overview:  Dawn-Marie started Berklee in 1998 (14 years before graduating), but left in 2001, as she was unsure what she wanted to do afterward.  She worked a lot of retail jobs, then to move back to Boston she got a medical certificate and ultimately worked as an adminsitrative assistant in a hospital’s “quality office” where medical records are kept and sorted through.  Finding that without a Bachelor’s Degree her prospects for career advancement were dim, she returned to Berklee and completed her degree in five semesters.

During her last year, Dawn-Marie interned at Cakewalk, which makes music software.  Shortly after graduating, that internship turned into a full-time job doing QA.  5 months later, as she was not-yet-visibly pregnant with her now-toddler son, Dawn-Marie got laid off.  She realized she needed another job immediately  as no company would want to hire someone who obviously would be going on maternity leave right away; staying in music wasn’t a priority under the circumstances.  Fortunately, one day after she was laid off, her (now former) boss recommended her to a former colleague who had moved to Advanced Practice Strategies which needed a QA person.  Dawn-Marie got the job, in part because of her medical experience.

 

You can see Dawn-Marie’s LinkedIn profile here.  In addition, Dawn-Marie invites anyone seriously considering QA as a career to contact her at  dunn.dawnmarie [at] gmail dot com.

 

Choice quotes:    “As far as I know, QA isn’t taught in schools anywhere.  It’s a combination of being very detail-oriented and picking up the skills on the job.  It’s hard for businesses to find good QA professionals because they need someone who’s very tech savvy, but isn’t a software developer. Developers often want to code and aren’t as detail-oriented as needed. QA is paid maybe 20% less than being a developer–the education isn’t as specialized–but that’s still a very good salary.”

“My company helps doctors and nurses get medical details right, and we’ve heard from clinicians that it helped them saves lives. That means a lot to me and it’s an awesome feeling! ”

“I love learning new medical things and programming all the time and I get to use that knowledge to refine ideas and make a good product.  When I went to Berklee I was considering being a producer because I like to help people who have a great initial idea refine it into something amazing.   That’s essentially what I get to do now.”

 

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

 

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Claudia Caliano-Rida (formerly Caliano)

Listen to the interview (in 2 parts.  Total approx 1 hr 45 min.) or download them.

 

Graduated in 2009 with a major in Music Business.  Principal Instrument:  voice.

Position:  Change Management Consultant.  (Update September 2016:  Shortly after the interview Claudia’s good work was recognized in the form of a promotion to Principal Change Management Consultant!) Consultant at NTT Data, a very large (80,000 people worldwide) technology consulting company based in Japan.   A travelling consultant, Claudia helps corporations adapt to new software and processes.  She works with companies to learn about their process and transition, then develops training materials, designs in implements trainings, and trains people.  She spends almost half of her time travelling, and the rest working from home.

Overview:  Claudia is from Switzerland, where she got the equivalent of an Associates Degree and training in Information Technology (IT) and had worked for years for Microsoft doing accounting, sales, and customer support.  Claudia came to Berklee at age 25 to try something new and was a student employee during her time at Berklee.  Post-graduation, she was recommended for a job with a music start up as executive assistant to the president, but she was laid off one week before her visa expired!  For about a year Claudia was unemployed, taking classes just in order to get a student visa, then she got a certificate to teach ESL (English as a Second Language). Claudia did that for a couple of years, but the pay was very low.

Eventually, a friend of a friend who worked at NTT Data recommended her for her current job, as she had good background in both IT and teaching.  Claudia has been at NTT since 2013, and gradually has been working her way up in autonomy, title, and pay.

 

You can see Claudia’s LinkedIn profile here.  In addition, Claudia invites anyone interested in pursuing a job in corporate training to email her at claudiacaliano (at) msn.com .

 

Choice quotes: “I’m a teacher by heart.  My favorite part of a project is the end where I’m in a classroom and helping people learn.  I take something that’s really scary for them–nobody wants change–and help them deal with it and get through it.  I teach people and see that ‘A-ha moment!’ and people say I just made their life better.  It’s extremely rewarding.”

“Why should I work my ass off just to be a poor, mediocre musician?  I’m not as musically talented as many at Berklee.  I’m all about exploiting your strengths, and I’m really good at some things!”

“Be open–you never know who you’re going to meet that can help you get a job.  You should have an excellent 30-second “elevator pitch.”  Also, learn really good interviewing skills.  I got this job because I rocked that interview.”

“Companies are erratic about when they hire consultants, so keep looking and keep sending your resume, even to the same place.  It’s about timing, so be persistent and believe in yourself.  Whatever you do, keep going–all you need is one job.”

 

See the full index of Successful Berklee Grads.

 

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