Graduated in 2023 with a degree in Professional Music. Principal instrument: guitar.
Position: Alumni Relations Assistant, working for the Harvard Alumni Association at Harvard University. Most of Andrew’s work in this entry-level administrative position involves planning events, on-campus, off-campus, and virtual, for Harvard alumni.
Overview: In his final semester Andrew launched a music-based site, but it didn’t take off, so upon finishing in December 2023 Andrew applied to many jobs: music, music-adjacent such as A/V, and general. One of the applications hit and he was hired at M.I.T. as a desk associate at a grad student dormatory. Initially this was as a contractor but M.I.T. brought him on as a regular employee. Unfortunately, the job was all evenings and weekends. During this time, Andrew took a data analysis course, then started looking for other positions with a better schedule. After about a year at M.I.T. Harvard called him back for a job he had applied for and he was hired into his current position in January 2025.
.
You can see Andrew’s LinkedIn profile here.
.
Choice Quotes: “Working at Harvard gives great benefits; it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work at such a prestigious institution. As to job itself, I get to work with data a lot, managing registration lists, updating CRM database. I’m getting more valuable hands-on expeience with Excel.”
“Berklee’s best skills it teaches you are soft skills and won’t show up on a resume. Being at Berklee taught me persistence. Being in an environment with many musicians more talanted than I was pushed me to work extra-hard.”
“If you’re pursuing a project, you have a actually enjoy the work–that’s the only way you’ll be able to sustain yourself when you’re not getting the success. I had a fairly successful presence on YouTube, but doing videos stopped being fun, and when I forced it the results didn’t make me feel good because it wasn’t my best work. Tbhis applies to job as well, as if you don’t enjoy it you’ll find yourself competing against people who enjoy what they do 10 times more than you. For jobs, it’s also important to build up the soft skills that’ll help you stand out. Unless the recruiter enjoys talking with you they won’t forward your application.”
“For a while I didn’t apply to work at Harvard, thinking I wasn’t good enough, but finally I went for it and my 2nd application hit. You can’t get in if you don’t try.”
.
.
.
.
See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.