Matt Clear
Graduated in 2010 with a major in Music Production and Engineering (MP&E). Principal instrument: Voice.
Position: Customer Success Manager at Pitchbook Data. Matt finds, trains, and maintains clients for a “Google for venture capital” business. He earns mostly salary, with opportunities for commissions on top of that.
Overview: Upon graduation, Matt got an mostly-unpaid internship with a producer in Seattle, while bartending and waiting tables for money. Eventually the producer moved away, and a bar client mentioned that his place, a contractor the National Cancer Institute, was hiring “cancer specialists” (basically working at a cancer information hotline.) He put in the good word, and Matt got the job. He stayed there over 2 years, it was an OK job, but dead-end, so he looked for something better. He was helping a friend, who worked at Pitchbook Data, quit smoking. When her company was hiring, she knew he wanted a new job and recommended him for the job and coached him on what to say during interviews.
You can see his LinkedIn profile here.
Choice quotes: “I’m always open to opportunity and to learning something new.”
“Being an MP&E student taught me about collaboration, to be a good listener first. To be a cancer specialist is to listen to people, meet them where they are, and give them info to take it a step further. That’s exactly what being an engineer or producer is all about.”
“I wish Berklee taught us more more about professional networking and how to present yourself as a professional & demand that kind of respect. Also how to handle our student loans (and our last day of school isn’t the time to do that).”
Matt while at Berklee, working in the studio. “Whether or not you decide to work in music doens’t take away from the fact that you are a musician!”
Matthew likes to go hiking. He hasn’t yet hit that final peak in his career, but he’s well on his way. “It’s not over yet. You can try to move forward toward where you want to be and make the appropriate decisions, but today is not IT.”
See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.