Category: Other Successful Berklee Alumni

Graduated in 2020 with a major in Electronic Production & Design. Principal instrument: guitar.

Position: (Internal) Recruiter at Publicis Health Media, which is part of a large marketing / public relations company with tens of thousands of employees. Jaeman finds platform administrators, social media marketers,, data analysts, etc on LinkedIn, and offers them job opportunities at his company. He also communicates with candidates, screens them, and guides them through the interview and job offer process.

Overview: Jaeman transferred to Berklee after studying media and communications for two years. While at Berklee he organized Berklee’s first K-Pop Summit, but the pandemic pushed it back to the year after he graduated but was still excellent experience. After graduating, Jaeman moved home to Philadelphia, and spent several frustrating months unemployed. A friend from church suggested he apply for a recruiter position at a different, smaller company.

Jaemon got that job, which was initially half-time but became full-time later on. After a year and a half, Jaeman started actively looking for better opportunities. A recruiter reached out to him about his current position, which he started in June, 2022.
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You can see Jaeman’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I like working directly with people. One great thing is I sometime match people who got laid off or are unhappy at their jobs and get to connect them with new opportunities. My employer, Publicis Group, is known to provide great benefits and have a great work culture.”

The music career is a long-term fight. For other stuff, coursera courses will help. Learning Excel will help a lot–know that and you can land many jobs that you’d want. “After graduating you’ll go through hard time. Everyone thinks they’ll be the one who won’t struggle. Everyone I graduated with is struggling, I’m probably the only one making decent $. But don’t stress. Time is long.”

“Working as a recruiter is a good starting point. You just need to have a good personality and customer service skills. Getting your fit into any business field is really crucial. You don’t need a degree for this job, bu tat the same time there’s a lower ceiling than other business jobs. You’re getting decent $ for sure, then can use the time after 5 pm to pursue something else.

“It was scary to move to my current job–I didn’t have a business degree and I’d worked at a smaller company. I wondered if other legit recruiters would look down on my experience. But after moving I realized my new job wasn’t all that different.”

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Graduated in 2020 with a major in Professional Music. Principal instrument: voice.

Position: Associate Go-To-Market Manager at T-Mobile, a multinational cell phone company. A type of project manager, Aria works remotely, handling over 100 proposed sales of different types of phones, plans, etc., sending them on for approval, then informing all locations of what the new prices will be and for how long.

Overview: While at Berklee, Aria promoted caf shows as part of her student employment. Graduating during the pandemic, she moved home to Washington state and looked for jobs. Her first job was with a small marketing firm, but the pay was low and she didn’t like it and soon left. She then took a 5-month contract job managing a large fundraising event for a local Indian-American community organization.

After that event had ended, Aaria started hearing from many recruiters about project manager positions. Soon she was hired into her current job, initially as a contractor, but after a year she became a full-time employee. Since the job was remote, Aaria moved from the Seattle area to Detriot, where the cost of living is lower.
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You can see Aria’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I always wanted to get into marketing of some sort. I enjoyed enjoyed adminstative tasks. I do know how to do it and enjoy it.”

“Berklee has 8+ classes per semester and that helped me stay organized and on top of things, which is really important when you look at how many things can come in in my job.”

“Music isn’t something I want to give up on. My day job is a means to an end. In the future, I hope to create an album.”

Don’t freak out. Things are scary. It will take time to find a job and your first job won’t be what you want it to be. It’s a resume builder. Contract jobs are a great way to get your foot in the door. No matter how short the contract, it may be extended or they may hire you full-time.”

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Graduated in 2016 with a major in Music Business. Principal instrument: piano.

Position: Data and Reporting Analyst at Healthstream, Inc., a large, Nashville-based tech firm that develops and sells many different pieces of medical-related software. Bradley reports regarding software licensure and usage for their clients. On a team of six, Bradley handles 7 huge accounts, each of which spends over $10,000,000 per year on software!) His job is broken into super-huge accounts (health groups with dozens of hospitals) that get full-time attention. He compiles data, analyzes it, and puts it into reports for the sales team and others. In the near future he’ll present to clients, walking them through reports. Between those reports, he handles ad hoc requests as they come in. Currently he’s also working on automating many processes, updating old scripts, etc., so he codes daily.

Overview: In his last year at Berklee, Bradley was working at an Apple store. After graduation, many of his friends were moving to Nashville, so he transferred to an Apple store in Nashville. He gigged and met people, then a year later an Apple store customer who worked at UMG put in the word and got Bradley a position there doing data entry. Bradley worked there for four year, gigging on the side, but at some point the job felt stagnant without the likelihood of promotion. In 2020, he used YouTube and Udemi/Courseacademy to learn SEQL and did a bit of side work on this. In early 2021 he left the UMG job voluntarily, living off savings plus gig income, and started to actively look for other opportunities, applying to 5 – 10 positions each day.

It took over 1,000 applications, but finally one application worked! Bradly was hired into his current positionin the spring of 2022.
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You can see Bradley’s LinkedIn profile here.
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Choice Quotes: “I enjoy the investigative part of data analytics, finding answers to questions, being able to speak a special langage and translating it for those who don’t speak it. It’s like being a translator, folks looking for me to tell a coherent story.”

“Berklee does a good job giving you the tools to be confident enough to know your musical strengths and get up and go do it. That can-do mentaltity translates to many other areas.”

“In today’s job market, most companies (outside of things like law, where you need a degree) are looking for what you can do rather than what school you went to. There are endless resources for you to learn new careers.”

“Our company is packed into the back end of their software usage. We see each time a license is activated, so we track how often a license is used. We partner with the sales team, that then uses the info to see what other needs we may be able to fill. This also includes when software isn’t being used.”

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Left Berklee in 2013 (officially finished in 2015) with a major in Music Therapy. Principal instrument: voice.

Position: Customer Success Team Lead at Wonolo, “The Uber of Temporary Staffing”. Wonolo’s platform vets workers and connnects them to places of employment who need temporary workers. Daphne is in touch with the businesses, making sure everything is going smoothly and resolving any issues. As a team lead, she also supervises and onboards other customer success employees.


Overview: For the first couple of years after leaving Berklee, Daphne was doing music therapy jobs but feeling unfulfilled. She then spent a year working at Trader Joes while figuring out what she wanted to do. She moved from her home in Florida to Nashville in 2017, hoping to start her own music therapy practice but took a job at Lyft doing customer success to pay the bills. After a brief interruption she ended up working for Lyft in operations; the music therapy business didn’t really take off, but she was content.

In early 2019, Daphne noticed that Wonolo was in the same shared office as Lyft and the people at Wonolo seemed really engaged and happy. She knocked on their door and introduced herself. The timing was good, as they were looking to hire their first customer success person! Taking that job made Daphne their most senior customer success person, which positioned her for a promotion to team lead as they grew. Shortly after this interview she was promoted to Customer Success Manager.
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You can see Daphne’s LinkedIn profile here.
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Choice Quotes: “I love just being a resourse to my team. I love building relationships wth my team, how I can quickly identify problems and come up with solutions. I love the company culture, and that it’s remote–I can travel and still work. It’s diverse and inclusive. I’m excited to come to work each day.”

“As a music therapist, leaning how to build relationships and rapport with pepole made me great at customer relations. We look for those soft skills in hiring new CSMs. Also, working with patients the goal is to assess and come up with a plan to meet those goals. We’d find pain points and figure out a treatment plan–in my role as a people manager again I’m responsible for making sure peopl eare donig their jobs, but also that they’re able to do those. I have one on ones, some of hwich is like a therapy session. Plus at the company I’ve been able to lead actual music therapy session for colleagues, lead a guided meditation session–it makes me strong at what I do.”

“Shut out the external noise and really see what you want to do and what will make you happy. Be in the moment and honest with yourself. If I’d been more honest I could’ve avoided a lot of ups and downs. You only have one life. Don’t get discouraged when you feel lost–everyone feels that way sometimes. Be OK with changing. We all change.”

“In my role I’m a people manager, subject expert, project manager, and onboard new employees.”

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Graduated from Berklee Online in 2020 with a major in Professional Studies. Principal instrument: Guitar.

Position: Quality Analyst: Trust & Safety at TikTok, the popular short-form video app. James has three responsibilities that each take up roughly equal time: looking the the work of content moderators to ensure they’re doing their jobs correctly, analyzing data, and reporting his findings.

Overview: James came to “brick-and-mortar” Berklee in 2009, but he left after two years, eager to get out and tour. He had some rough years, but by 2014 he has living in Nashville and playing base and touring with a guy who was doing extremely experimental music. By 2018 this was winding down. James had to take a job in a restaurant to make ends meet, meanwhile, that experience had made him lose interest in more conventional music gigs. James decided he needed a decent day job, and that meant completing his degree.

James was able to stay in Nashville and complete his degree on Berklee Online while he made money filing papers in a law office. He finished his Berklee Online degree just as the pandemic hit and started looking for jobs. Pretty quickly James was hired by Tiktok in a contract position as a content moderator, but his high quality work and diligence led to a conversion to salaried employee and a promotion into his current position within six months.
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You can see James’s LinkedIn profile here.
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Choice Quotes: ” I really love Tiktok! I love the people I work with and what I do. As to the work itself, it’s never exactly the same thing twice. There’s room for play, thinking, and trying to figure out why things are happening the way they are. That makes my job a refreshing experience every day.”

“When I was first at Berklee, I avoided non-music classes. But you really want to be a full person–folks who go for more traditional degrees get to do that more. I couldn’t do my job today if it weren’t for the Berklee Online math class.”

“Seek outsized responsibilities for your role. What’s been exciting for me at Tiktok is the same as what excited me while touring. Back then I’d never toured before, played a somewhat unfamiliar instrument in a brand new genre. Responsibility is an opportunity to learn and grow. Don’t just frame yourself as able to do what you’re already doing. People or companies, if they buy in that you’re capable, will give you opportunities to do more. I’ve gotten the greatest return on my investment at those jobs where I had to stretch myself.”

“After I got the job at TikTok they required a photo of my diploma. I was like, ‘Wow, thanks to Berklee Online I finally have this’! In general, music is a language and in many ways your brain starts to work in terms of communicating with other people, what makes people tick/what are their internal systems/talents? In my wife’s school, computer programming is part of the language dept. Music should be too.”

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Graduated in 2019 with a major in Music Business. Principal instrument: voice.

Position: Digital Content Coordinator (since promoted to Digital Marketing Manager) at Golden Technologies., a large family business that makes powered wheelchairs and other items to assist mobility for the physically disabled and well as reclining furniture. Alyssa creates digital advertising content, works with the marketing team to develop strategies to build brand awareness, and meets with retailers to discuss ways to help them grow their business.

Overview: Alyssa grew up aware of the family business, but she wasn’t interested and her parents didn’t pressure her. While at Berklee she discovered the Music Business program and really enjoyed it. Alyssa decided to go straight to graduate school to study business; she applied in got into a Masters in Communications program at Drexler University. In her first year she worked at a paid internship at Universal and did classes at night, then the pandemic hit and the internship was indefinitely paused. She moved back home and started to work at the family business as a marketing assistant — the business was considered essential so remained open.

Initially Alyssa planed to return to Universal, but she found she really enjoyed the business, and with her growing responsibilities at this job an internship somewhere else felt like a step backward in her career. She opted to stay with Golden Technologies. At the end of 2020 she received her Masters Degree, and six months later she was promoted to Digital Content Coordinator.
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You can see Alyssa’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I’ve always been business-driven. I always liked marketing the best. I enjoy creating content, getting to know my audience–in part because I’m a performer. I love that I’m helping people–I see every day how our products truly help improve people’s quality of life. I’m one small part of that.”

“Every skill I learned at Berklee has been totally tranferable to my professional and personal career. Companies want to hire musicians! Before my job at Golden I interviewed and companies were so interested in my music caerer. They like creators.”

“Things have a funny way of working themselves out. I found something that was giving me purpose.”

“Keep learning. Marketing is CONSTANTLY changing! One week later there can be a new thing trending. Subscribe to marketing newsfeeds to stay on top of it. But at the same time your job isn’t your identity. Keep up with your passions, and if you’re meant to be at a different place, go with that feeling.”

“That first year after Berklee I was burned out on music and focused on school. Then Covid hit and I started to practice more. I never gigged much while at Berklee, though I sang a bit. Now I’m gigging more than ever and getting paid for it on top of my day job!”
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Graduated in 2014 from the Boston Conservatory, with a major in Musical Theater, with a focus on acting/directing.

Position: Technical Recruiter at Google. Connor works directly for Google, helping find promising software engineers and network engineers to work for the Google Global Network–their online cloud platform. Connor is given promising candidates and his job is to guide these people through the interview and hiring process. While Connor is in New York, many of the teams he hires people for are based on the West Coast.

Overview: During his last year at BoCo Connor realized that he liked acting and directing, but did not really envision himself being a professional musical theater performer. He moved to Chicago in search of alternative opportunities, worked a variety of side jobs, and started his own theater company which did well for about a year, then fell apart. The woman he’d cofounded the theater company with was temping at a recruiting firm. He got a temp job at this firm as their office manager/receptionist, did well brought on by the recruiting agency to be their full-time office manager–his first real job.

Because nobody else in this small office was doing it, Connor took care of their marketing, and ran their DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) program. It felt good, but it was a lot, and he chose to focus on his day job and do less theater. Then the pandemic hit and there wasn’t really an office to manage. Sensing that he would soon be laid off, Connor convinced them that he would make a good recruiter. He was given that position, and worked there for nearly a year. He moved to New York in 2021 to be with friends, and a recruiter reached out to Connor to work for Google.
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You can see Connor’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I love being a recruiter! It is so fun! It’s emotional, which can be good or bad. At my old agency I got this woman a job at a big law firm as an entry-level admin role. I really walked her through the whole process. When she got the job she cried to me–saying she was the first person at her company to get that caliber job–she’d been working at Target and serving coffee. Now she had this huge opportunity. It’s those moments that make me so happy!”

“Inherently, performers are well-suited for this job. We really learned at BoCo how to work on the fly and be flexible and open. Accepting the situation at the moment and knowing how to manage things. You’re always learning lines, doing shows, have lots of text in your head. I still reply on that now–in recruiting you have awkward conversations such as when someone doesn’t get the title/pay hoped for or gets rejected and is upset. being able to memorize lines and go through talking points–having those in my head while making it not sound like I’m reading a script.”

“If you are an artist and want to get into a corporate environment but are not sure how, be an office manager. It’s the best way to learn the lingo, get involved with things, take advantage of opportunities to do projects, get a sense of what you want to do.”

I had many ups and downs, especially downs, in theater. I thought I’d never recover. Looking back, I wouldn’t have changed anything. Even the awful moments–I learned and grew so much! Let things happen, learn and grow, apply what you know in your next situation.

My roommate is a BoCo grad. He’s been working restaurants his whole life. When he started hering my corporate speak last year he was so thrown off by it–like I’d really changed. 1 year later, tomorrow he has an interview with an office admin role at an insurance company. He saw how easy it is for us performers to “fake it until we make it”. It’s a good lesson: you may think you’re not qualified–my roommate is all nervous that he doesn’t know stuff, but I’m like “You’re going to learn it.” If you’re feeling stuck, give it a shot.
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Graduated in 2015 with a major in Songwriting. Principal instrument: bass.

Position: Digital Lockup Manager and Media Support Specialist at Lesley University’s College of Art & Design. Lesley University a commuter school based in Cambridge, Massachusetts with over 6,000 students, the majority graduate students and including many artists. Theo works at a center at the Art and Design School where audio/visual equipment is loaned out to students. He also supervises student employees and manages several computer labs, updating equipment and troubleshooting when things go wrong.

Overview: After graduating from Berklee Theo get an internship at a local music label, hoping it would turn into a full-time job, but that didn’t happen and he lacked the connections to get another job right away in the music industry. He moved home to Connecticut and worked with his father’s video production company for the better part of a year before returning to Boston. Theo got two part-time jobs: Music Assistant at a boys & girls club in South Boston, and media assistant at Harvard. Then a few months later he got a better media support job at Mount Ida College, which lasted until the college shut down a year later.

After being unemployed for a bit, Theo went back to that boys & girls club, but the pay was low and he was looking for other jobs, particularly a/v jobs in academia. After about a year, in late 2019 he spotted the position and Lesley University and was hired. The job has evolved into his current position. Theo continues to volunteer at the boys & girls club.

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You can see Theo’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: It’s really awesome to be surrounded by artists. Many faculty/staff are artists in the community. It’s great being around crfeative people. I’ve also had a knack for tech jobs, assisting people. I’d worked for my dad’s video production company and picked it up well. It was easy to learn, and fun to assist others.”

“Have an open mind and don’t think you must work in music just because you have a music degree. Would working 40 hours/week in music take away some of your passion? Think about other skills you have that you might use for work. Find a way to make your full time job outside of music enjoyable and then you can do that and do the music you want to do. “

“if you’re interviewing for an A/V support position, be honest about your experience, but be 100% open to learning about new equipment and learn all new stuff. I test a/v equipment at home, filming myself drumming.”

“I will continue to try to find a music career, but by no means am I unhappy in my position. I’m grateful for where I’m at, the strong community, the benefits. It keeps me in the Boston area and give me the opportunity to network with creative people. I’m grateful for where I am.”

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Graduated in 2014 from Boston Conservatory with a degree in Vocal Performance. Tyler went straight from there to earn a Masters in Opera Singing, also from BoCo, which he received in 2016.

Position: Manager of Planning and Partnerships a William H. Kopke Jr. Inc., a.k.a. Kopke, a major importer of fresh fruit and 4th generation family business. Tyler wears many hats in this administrative/managerial position. He writes and helps negotiate contracts with retailers and then makes sure that those contracts can be fulfilled. Tyler also works on branding initiatives and making sure the company’s workflow is going smoothly.

Overview: Tyler grew up a navy brat, constantly moving. As he was finishing his education he realized that he didn’t want a touring lifestyle and wasn’t certain what he wanted to do, so he took a break and moved home to Minnesota. Tyler spoke with financially successful people about what how they got there, and they suggested he learn sales-related skills. He got a job selling door-to-door in the winter. But his fiancee was soon moving to New York for graduate school; her father worked in the fruit industry and suggested Tyler speak with Kopke, which is based in New York. Although her father put in the word, Tyler didn’t get an interview. However, after reaching out several times and finding his now-boss’s phone number, Tyler was given an interview.

In a bit of luck, the president of Kopke was a major supporter of the Metropolitan Opera, and the first half hour of the interview was them chatting about opera! Tyler was hired as an executive assistant, but worked extremely hard to prove himself and take on more responsibility, and over the years his position and areas of responsibility have grown substantially.

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You can see Tyler’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I love the relationships we get to build. We’ve worked with some growers for generations! Some buyers will send me photos of kids, or we’ll grab drinks after a day at a convention. The produce industry is very personally driven. We’re making a lot of logistical investments and are expanding and it’s exciting to be part of that. It’s also fun to go a grocery story and see a label on a shelf that I helped make.”

“The produce industry is a heavy workload–we work with perishable product. For example, Walmart is closed one day per year. If a truck with grapes can’t deliver on a Friday, I can’t wait until Monday.”

“The ability to creatively problem-solve, think outside the box, good communication skills. It’s all played into my role here and I learned it all in my performing career. A lot of those intangible skills are something people can really lean into, and are very valued by companies.”

‘The best advice I got was the year after I graduated. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or have to do. What is it you want to do that’ll let you sleep soundly at night.’ I really wanted/needed stability and community. If you don’t know what you want, take some time and do some genuine self-reflecting. It takes a certain type to be happy on the road; if that’s not making you happy, don’t waste your time. Life is too short.”

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Graduated in 2020 with a major in Music Business. Principal instrument: voice.

Positions: 1) Tiktok “influencer”, with over a million followers on her TikTok page. Mina creates videos featuring herself and her trained animals, particularly a pot-bellied pig named Merlin and a bearded dragon named Mochi. 2) Tiktok influencer manager at Parrotok Media, where she acts as an agent/manager for other Tiktok influencers, getting them promotion deals and other revenue. Mina is half-time in each of these two roles.

Overview: While a Berklee student, Mina was a signed artist working with a small label, but at some point she realized that she didn’t want to be a performing musician, and would rather focus on the business end. In 2019 Mina received a bearded dragon, Mochi, from neighbors who felt he wasn’t getting enough attention. When the pandemic hit, Mina spent some of her time along at home training Mochi to do some simple tricks, such as coming when called. (Later, Mina learned that she had done the impossible: bearded dragons were supposed to be untrainable!). Mina posted some videos of Mochi on TikTok and in early 2021 one got over a million views! She set her planned music business app aside to see about building a career on TikTok.

At 10,000 followers she started to receive (small) royalties. At 100,000 followers she was invited to join the “Tiktok Creator Marketplace”, where she was approached by many companies and paid video sponsorships. (This is her primary source of income. Most products relate to fashion, as her followers are disproportionately young women.)

Soon after hitting 100,000 followers, in January 2022 Mina was approached by Parrotok Media, a subsidiary of TikTok, which had opened an office near where she lives in California. The combination of Mina’s educational background, experience, and being an influencer herself made her an ideal candidate for the influencer manager position. She worked full-time at Parrotok Media for several months, before opting to go to half-time in order to put more time end energy into her increasingly-lucrative influencer career.

You can see Mina’s LinkedIn profile here.

Choice Quotes: “It’s exciting to have a viral video, but you’re not going to turn or even 5 into a career. That first year I was on TikTok was a lot of trial and error–figuring out what people want to see, which videos will do well.”

“My niche is mostly animals / animal training and my life & bond with my pets. That’s what got me the big followin gin the beginning. A lot of people had never seen a trained lizard before. Part of that was Covid–I was at home a lot and had a lot of time, but I sensed that Mochi was exceptional.”

“I’d say it’s a pretty similar industry–TikTok, music, entertainment. It’s all social media. The potential of virality, boosting your account. Artists are often their own managers–music and here. The Music Business major helped a lot; I got a lot of knowledge that helped me do my job now: dealing with contracts etc. it all ties together really well!”

“Most of us enter Berklee at 18,19. What you wanted in high school may not be what you want to do with your life and that’s OK. Be open to changes and opportunities. I remember how disorienting it was that I didn’t want to be a full-tim artist anymore. I think as long as you have a good work ethic and keep your eyes open it’s all going to work out. IT’s OK not to know what you’ll be doing in 12 or even 6 months. I feel so much more satisfied now than before and I’m OK with that.

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.