Month: January 2022

Graduated in 2018 with a major in Performance. Principal instrument: voice.

Position: Talent Acquisition specialist (HR) at Wellpath, a nationwide staffing agency the provides medical personnel for institutions such as prisons and rehab centers. Krystina, a contract employee at the moment, handles the administrative end of onboarding newly hired people. She’ll verify background information, work them through the paperwork to ensure they get paid and taxes are collected, and gets them into the system so that they get their I.D. cards, connects them to the leadership of the site they’ll be working at, and answers any questions along the way.

Overview: By the time she was finishing up Berklee, Krystina knew she didn’t want to tour for a living but wanted a stable job. She went straight to law school in Boston after Berklee, hoping to go into entertainment law, but realized that a career in law wasn’t for her. That summer one year into law school Krystina had an unpaid internship at a music management firm in Nashville, where her boyfriend lived, and she decided to remain in that area. She also realized that she really enjoyed the human interaction. To support herself, she did odd jobs such as dog walking while she looked harder for a good position.

In early 2020 a recruiter reached out to Krystina to work for Amazon as a recruiting coordinator. She took that position and enjoyed it, but soon found her position changing into more of a marketing and web design role. Wanting to get back into recruiting/human resources, she applied for jobs, and was hired into her current position. She also plans to go to grad school in the near future for a Masters in Human Resource management.
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You can see Krystina’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I’m a big people person. I love learning about people, listening to them, hearing their stories. When the pandemic started and people’s morale was low I spearheaded a committee to see how we can fix that–make people feel heard and more comfortable coming to work. It helped me showcase leadership. I get to be a positive force in people’s lives. I get to help people and solve complex problems. I get to take the creative part of my brain and translate it into helping people in corporate America.”

“One of the best things I did was to say yes and try different things. I found more about myself through this zigzag journey I’ve been on. It’s made me better in my career field and confident that I can do whatever I set my mind to. If you’re ever wondering about a career, go learn about it. You owe it to yourself to try new things and see what happens.”

“The whole Berklee degree was so creative and made me use my brain in a new way–trying to see every possibility is a good mindset for HR. Berklee set me up for success as I knew I’d have to do new music, unlike my classical training as a kid, I had to learn to improvise. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, and that helped me in my career, to be comfortable in the uncomfortable unknown makes it easier to grow myself, so that through HR I can help others grow and learn.”

“Find something that piques your interest. Even within HR, there are so many entry-level positions and different specializations you can do.”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2018 from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, with a major in Musical Theater.

Position: Content Marketing Analyst at Komarketing Associates, a small, Boston-based Business-to-Business digital marketing firm. In her remote, entry-level position, Avery produces content/blogs, rewrites content to work better with popular keyword searches, and makes blog topic recommendations based on what’s popular.

Overview: After finishing BoCo, Avery moved to NYC and waited tables as she started auditioning. Her long hours made her feel burned out, and her first year there was rather frustrating. Then in September 2019 she got a job performing on a cruise ship–then the pandemic hit, ending her cruise ship job and the prospect of near-term employment in live theater. Avery moved back home to Cape Cod, helping her mother’s day care company, and finding herself most interested in helping with the company’s marketing and social media profile. By early 2021, she realized that she enjoyed that work a good amount and started looking for marketing jobs.

Among many others, Avery applied to a job a Komarketing. She didn’t get the position, but asked them to keep her in mind. Several week later they contacted her about another position. One sample project, four interviews, and two months later she was hired into her current role.

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You can see Avery’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “Marketing and SEO is completely new to me. But I like the challenge, and trying to learn new fields, and I like the people. The more I learn about this field the more I like it. It’s fun and challenging.”

“Working remotely I’m not feeling that in-office vibe. On the other hand, I spent all summer in France with my boyfriend whose family summers there. I definitely feel very lucky to have a job that’s able to accommodate that!”

“The harsh reality of writing this content is it’ll neve have my name on it.” It’ll have someone bigger in the industry’s name on it, though they will review and approve what I write.”

“BoCo is really good about making sure you communicate a story in your performance. The writing classes helped you bring yourself to what you did. Marketing is similar–you’re trying to tell a story and share an experience.”

You have to be patient with yourself, especially if you want an arts career. In the meantime, find something in or out of the arts you’re passionate about so you don’t feel like you’re in a waiting game. Also, your major gave you creativity and shows your passion. Find what’s unique to yourself and how you can market that in interviews and that you’re talented in a different way.”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2018 from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a major in Dance. Primary focus: ballet.

Position: Private Movement/Fitness trainer/entrepreneur at kiaraburns.com. Kiara works one-on-one with both local clients and with folks all over the country over video. In addition, her website has a very affordable video workout subscription service, with 75-and-counting different workout videos.

Overview: While at BoCo, Kiara needed to work for money. Initially working at restaurants, she found that didn’t fit her schedule, and a friend suggested she try working as a fitness trainer at Pure Barre. She was hired, made it through a very tough training, and worked there for a bit over a year until graduation. Kiara really enjoyed working in fitness, and found that more motivating than performing. After graduating, Kiara moved to L.A. and transferred to a Pure Barre franchise in that area. Looking for more career growth, Kiara left Pure Barre after a few months to work at a private studio, waiting tables on the side for more money.

Then the pandemic hit and the work dried up. Collecting unemployment checks, Kiara decided that the best way to guarantee her continued fitness career was to use that time and money to set up her own business. Her first clients knew her from when she had worked at private studios, then most other clients came through word-of-mouth–the pandemic greatly increased demand for remote, private fitness training.

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You can see Kiara’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “My job is super-rewarding! I get to see people have less pain, more energy emotionally, and also the physical changes that come with doing this. And being able to offer such affordable access–people appreciate it. It’s expensive to live in this world. I get a lot of joy from moving my body so much myself and seeing the changes in people’s mindsets and physical bodies.”

“I keep things really fresh. No one workout is repeated or mocked. I do an average of 7 sessions/day, and no two are the same.”

“Lean into the jobs you are doing. I found a lot of insight and camaraderie from my work colleagues, even in restaurants or while doing the Berklee/BoCo telethon–that gave me great skills such as speaking clearly. Jobs help you develop skills you may not know you need. Lean into the skills your job is giving you, whatever you’re doing, and it may help create a pathway you may not have imagined.

“Fitness and dancing are very connected. I feel like I’m dancing every day, the way I move. I just didn’t take it the usual way.”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2018 with a major in Music Business. Principal instrument: voice.

Position: Communications Specialist at the Center for Retirement Research. Housed at Boston College and funded primarily by grants, the Center for Retirement Research has roughly 25 employees, researches the relationship between retirement and finances, and shares the results. Kara does many different tasks: She runs their social media, does our graphic design / layouts on anything they put out, runs their email marketing and advertisement program, helps advertise the grants they make, enhances content for the blog by editing and adding graphics, sends out the newsletter, sets up interviews with the press, communicates with corporate funders, etc.

Overview: For two years while at Berklee, Kara worked for the Berklee Performance Center, doing marketing and communications. She enjoyed the work and wanted to keep doing that sort of work after graduation. Her job search was initially focused on the music industry, but the positions she found were too low-level or monotonous, so Kara broadened her search. A family friend put in the good word for Kara to do a temporary communications position at the Beaver Country Day School, filling in for someone on maternity leave. One year later, that person returned and Kara needed to find a new job. She applied widely and was hired into her current position.

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You can see Kara’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I enjoy having a job that’s somewhat creative–I do graphic design and posting to social media. But I also enjoy the specific work we do. I run the blog and see firsthand comments of people using our reserach to determinde their retirement strategy. IT’s rewarding to help out not just the elderly but everyone else who’s planning to retire someday.”

“I use a lot of what I learned at Berklee at my job. My management & marketing classes–especially “Principles of Marketing” with George Howard. Also my computer applications class. I do a lot of reading and writing, so those liberal arts classes helped get my skills up to speed. A videography class I took taught me good software.”

“Each day I have regular tasks, but also new projects. It’s about being flexible and learning new things–and being open to that even if it means watching a bunch of YouTube tutorials. Communications is a good industry for people who are self-starters, like to do their own projects and learn as they go. Watch some videos and learn new stuff. You want to write, start your own blog. Learn what you enjoy, then figure out how you can apply them to your organization.”

“The biggest thing I learned after leaving Berklee–it scared me but was also helpful–was not feeling like you have a have a plan. If you like what you’re doing every day, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. If you’re in music but doing something you hate every day you’re not going to be happy.”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.