Graduated in 2021 with a major in Songwriting. Principal instrument: piano.
Position: Assistant Property Manager at Resprop Management, a large, growing company with around 500 employess that manages large residential apartment buildings in multiple southern states. Hannibal is actually a Real Estate Operations Program Leadership Associate, where he will be rotated through different positions so as to learn more about the entire company’s operations and determine were he will fit in best, but this is his first job within that position. Hannibal is one of 8 people at this 7 building, 400 unit complex and he assists the Senior Property Manager with many tasks, from reconciling and verifying the financials on tenant accounts to dealing with problems as they arise and even helping the Leasing Agents if there’s more work than they can handle.
Overview: Hannibal applied to masters programs in music production or engineering, but decided he could learn almost as much by recording and producing his own album, which he did during the year after graduation, working with a Berklee professor. During that time he made money as a private instructor, working for various music schools, but he wasn’t good at marketing himself and didn’t get enough students for it to be financially sustainable. He moved in wtih family in Tampa, Florida, and, with the help of a relative who was an expert software architect, taught himself web development. For a year he worked on the website of his aunt’s business, but by then he realized that he didn’t enjoy software enough to want to be doing it for decades. Hannibal explored possible careers, using LinkedIn Learning, and found himself very interested in finance–something that had interested him earlier on as well.
In January, 2024, Hannibal enrolled in the Masters of Liberal Arts in Finance program at Harvard Extension School. Most of his fellow students were part-time, but he went full time and completed this mostly-online program in May, 2025. While still in school, a recruiter from a wealth management firm in Georgia recruited him to work as a financial advisor. He started this job after graduation, but soon discovered he didn’t like the work and moved back to Tampa. To get more experience, Hannibal started doing “externships” through Extern. Effectively these are internships, but done through an intermediate company, meaning they were easier to get by the pay was low. In his first two externships he was recognized for being a top performer. Meanwhile, he was applying widely to jobs. He applied to work for Resprop in Texas, but they let him know that they had an opening in Florida near Tampa! He started in October, 2025.
On top of working 55-hour weeks, Hannibal is doing another externship, and is working on a degree in accounting!
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You can see Hannibal’s LinkedIn profile here.
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Choice Quotes: “I like the problem solving / customer serve aspects of property management. You’re not going to be bored, as it’s different every day. From my finance nerd side, I get exposed to the day-to-day mechanics of every idea from the finance side. How the day-to-day operations affect the final outcome.”
“My current job is very people-focused, and threre’s a level of having social skills. It’s not ubiquitous among accounting students. Art is in some ways a very advanced form of communication. At Harvard I got a lot of compliments on my wrirting ability. Was it related to my songwriting degree? While at Berklee I did spend a lot of time thinking how to write things well.”
“I took a taxation class at Berklee and also a class about business and contracts. Those two classses definitely did help. Having some experience with those issue before getting into the business world made it easier to quickly figure out what I’m doing now.”
“If there’s something want to pursue, figure out a way to publicly brand yourself in alignment with the thing you’re trying to accomplish. That’ll make it easier for people in that field to understand that you’re a good person to speak with. I express myself through LinkedIn. It could be Instagram or YouTube. It could be your own side project. Many decision makers are looking for someone where they can understand what’s going on with them when they’re looking for whom to give an opportunity to. Without a clear story, they’re likely to pass. A clear story doesn’t mean you need a boring, one-track life. You can see all the different things I’ve done in the last 5 years, but I was able to persent, for the most part, a story about how this lead me to where I am now.”
“The bigggest difference between my job and that of the property manager, is that the property manager doens’t have the luxury of asking someone else if they don’t know the answer. She also sets the annual budget.”
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