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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See the full index of successful Berklee/BoCo alumni.