Author: Kevin

Graduated in 2016 with a majors in Songwriting and Professional Music. Principal instrument: guitar.

Position: Senior software engineer (web developer) at Transamerica, a very large investment firm, part of an even larger global investment firm. They do investing, particularly for retirement, working with both individuals and corporations. Jacy is one of two software developers on the ten-person visual design team. His team makes sure that all company websites have similar styles, functionality, etc, while at the same time making sure they comply with regulations and function as designed.

Overview: For 9 months after graduating, Jacy touted with a minor Americana artist as her lead guitarist, and when not on tour he stayed with her and her husband, working in a warehouse and teaching lessons for extra money. But he was barely scraping by and feeling bad about his situation, and decided he wanted a change in direction and to move to Colorado. Investigating the job market in Denver, Jacy observed that there was a high demand for people in technology. He dabbled a bit with Codecademy.com , teaching himself the basics, then enrolled in General Assembly‘s 3-month “boot camp” to learn web development.

While still doing the boot camp, Jacy got an unpaid internship, then soon after finishing he got an internship that paid, albeit modestly. That turned into a job which paid better, but still on the lower end of what web developers were paid, and with no obvious way forward, so after close to a year there Jacy started looking for other positions. Friends from the boot camp, who worked in design and done projects with Jacy, were working at Transamerica and recommended him for a position. He was hired as a contractor. The project he was hired for was delayed, so he was transfered to the design team. After 4 months as a contractor, he was converted to a regular employee with his current job title.
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You can see Jacy’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I’m a songwriter. When you work on a song to make the lyrics hit when it gets to a certain point, it’s a type of problem solving. In a sense, software engineering is the same thing. You try to problem solve to figure something out. It take a lot of creativity, and thinking outside the box to get to the solution.

“We’ll receive design files with explanations, but our job is to make sure we have the same information that developers from other teams need, so we can incorporate all that into what we’re developing. I’m in constant communication with other teams — it’s a communication-focused job for sure, and Berklee helped make me good at communication!”

“Taking on more student debt on top of my Berklee debt and going to that intense program at General Assembly was nerve-wracking. But in a sense it was a motivator. I didn’t have the flexibility to not succeed in the program and find a job . And General Assembly provided us with a lot of professional development and how to get hired.”

“I’ve seen people who got a college degree in Computer Science and still had to do boot camp to learn how to code. As a Berklee grad, I got to the same career and though a much more fun way.”

“There’s so much pressure on college grads to stick the landing. People are too hard on themselves. Failure is part of the game. At the end of the day, your mental health is important. Get to a place where you’re content. You’ll be kinder to yourself and will invest more in yourself and passions. It’s totally normal and OK to not work in music. And sometimes you have to go follow your gut and take a leap of faith.”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2009 with a major in Professional Music. Principal instrument: drums.

Position: Financial Assistant (staff accountant) at ACAS (Atlantic Coast Aircraft Services), a small company which operates three aircraft designed for custom flights to out-of-the-way destinations that often don’t have regular airports. Relatively new to the company, Jordan spends much of his time observing and learning, as well as preparing for the CPA exams. He also helps clean up the books and with payroll.

Overview: Prior to coming to Berklee, Jordan did four years in the Army. He finished Berklee in three years, and spent the next four touring with a band living with and helping take care of his grandparents when not touring. By the fourth year the band was slowing down, and Jordan needed to make more money, so after a long job search he took a job as a nursing assistant at the hospital where his mother worked. Jordan like the work and considered going back to school to be a Registered Nurse, but he hurt his back and, unable to lift patients, realized he needed a different career. By 2014 he was exploring other options and the more he learned about accounting, the more interesting it sounded. He was accepted into the Liberty University Online program for a Masters in Accounting and, after almost three years, completed his degree in the summer of 2017.

In 2015 Jordan got his first accounting-related job, working in the music industry for a company Rockit Cargo that handles freight for touring musicians and mostly doing accounts payable/receivable. It was a good job, but with no room for career growths, so by 2019 he was looking online for new opportunities. He applied to the position at ACAS, and his military experience plus experience in logistics made him a very attractive candidate, and he was hired into his current job in April, 2019.

You can see Jordan’s LinkedIn profile here.

Choice Quotes: “I enjoy business. I enjoy learning the ins and outs of how businesses work. Accounting was something every business depends on — providing a service they all rely on. There’s a demand for it, and it’s a way to provide a stable career, and it makes a valuable contribution and keeps a business accountable and honest.”

“If you’re not 100% ready to do whatever you need to do for a music career, find another career to make a living while you’re doing music. I’ve seen people do music only and be successful, which is great, but many others don’t get that opportunity. Figure out early on, ideally in college, if music really is for you. And if not, figure out what your career can be.”

“At the end of the day I can confidently know that I don’t regret going to Berklee. I loved being there. I’m a better person for it. It was such a great experience. Life is a journey. Things can turn out very differently from what you planned for.”
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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2013 with a major in Professional Music. Principal instrument: guitar.

Position: Project Manager at Wvelabs, a mobile app development firm that mostly builds apps for other companies under contract. John is the liaison between the American side, which focuses on sales and management, and the development team located in India, which he officially manages. Also, unlike many project managers, Jon is in direct communication with the clients, making sure they are happy and that the product that Wavelabs is building meets all of their requirements.

Overview: Jon graduated hoping his band would be successful enough to support himself. One of the members had another year left at Berklee, so he stuck around Boston. He busked and found a job working retail at a clothing store. While the pay wasn’t great, he enjoyed the flexibility and being around other young people trying to find their way. In September, 2014, he had his bandmate moved to L.A. to join a third member of the band. For the next two years he worked in other clothing retail jobs for income, then the store he was at was bought out and he tried selling real estate. However, that proved unsuccessful — the pay is commission-only, and without a great network or knowledge of the neighborhood Jon sold very few properties. Jon looked for a new opportunity.

A friend, former manager of his band, and roommate from a Berklee summer program in high school, mentioned that he had been made vice president of a company that built websites and was looking to build a team. Jon overcame his skepticism and persuaded him to give Jon an interview. That went well, and he was hired into a sales role. After a year he transitioned to an account management position (similar money, but more free time and flexibility to play out with his band). Jon did well, but after 9 months or so it was clear that there was no way to move up at this small company, so he started looking for new opptunities elsewhere. A search on Indeed put him in contact with his current company, and he was hired into his current job in March, 2019. Jon also plans to go to law school part-time in the near future while continuing his current job.
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You can see Jon’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: Every day is different, but it’s predominantly dealing with spreadsheets, internal meetings, and communicating with clients. I meet with clients, since if it goes forward I’m the one they’re working with.”

“I really like interacting with clients, and when they pose challenges. I get to explain how it works, or if it’s a real problem I take it to my team. It’s nice to be in control, believes strongly in the team– we have a good company culture. They believe in me too. Doing a position I’m fond of is more than I could ask for. The pay is great too.”

“I realized very quickly that my primary income was never going to come from music, and I’m OK with that. I wanted to know what my options were to have a life and still have financial stability. In the tech sector, I have a good time, have colleagues who support my band Covality’s shows, and earn enough not to worry about bills.”

“At Berklee you get an fantastic music education. Though much of that is on the internet. For me the biggest value was the network I made and still have. Plus I got my job through networking. My network has been really good for me professionally, and all that focus on it in college made me better at building my network.”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2012 with a major in Music Production & Engineering (MP&E). Principal instrument: voice.

Position: Data Scientist (software engineer) at Spreetail, an e-commerce company with around 750 employees that purchases goods from manufacturers and then sells them to consumers online on Amazon and other online platforms. Williams is on a 2-person (plus sometimes an intern) Machine Learning team. He builds online tools used internally to model sales, such as how many of an item they expect to sell at a given price.

Overview: After graduation, William moved to L.A. looking to work in music studios. He got a job at the well-known studio The Village, first as a runner, promoted to assistant engineer 1.5 years later. Over the next year he worked with big-name acts, but one day he heard the studio owner say that “If it ever stops being cool to work in music with famous people, then this job is not for you.” and he realized that that’s how he felt. He put in notice and left, initially planning to work part-time and work in music as a freelancer. William searched for part-time work, and got a part-time job with Star Education, teaching computer classes to children after school, while also doing some freelance music gigs. After 3 months, William was offered, and accepted, a full-time position at Star Education: developing, administering, and teaching coding & robotics classes.

That went well, but by 2016 William realized he really wanted a well-paying career where he had in-demand skills, and that meant going back to school. Being from Nebraska, he got to pay in-state tuition there, so in the fall of 2016 he entered the program for a Masters in Management Information Systems at the University of Nebraska, graduating in the spring of 2018. While there he did a couple of well-paying internships, the second of which turned into a full-time job after graduation at this tech consulting firm. After most of a year, Will felt that he wanted to work at a corporation rather than a consulting firm so that he could focus on projects longer term, so he looked for more opportunities. He found and was hired into his current position in February, 2019.

You can see William’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “I like solving problems in code, getting to write code, and see what I’ve conceptualized come to life and add value to a business. It’s like creating little soldiers who once you create them just go off on their own and work producing value, like magic.”

“I do about 50 hour/week in the office, but I’m also dedicated to being in software & data science. I spend every Saturday and Sunday in the library learning. I’m currently doing a machine learning Coursera course. I’m a big learner, and with machine learning, but it feels like there’s an enormous number of things still to learn. ”

At Berklee I learned how to package a deliverable in a way that’s pleasing to people. With music you’re making a product for people to enjoy, and have to keep that in mind, and similarly I try to make the product I’m making now enjoyable to use.”

If your’e 21 and haven’t had a full-time job you just got to go out and figure stuff out by trying different things. In music I saw people around me where it was clear they loved it and were in the right place, and they were better than me. I realized that I wasn’t in the right place, so I tried something else. “

“If you want to work in software, what you need most is the experience of working at a company. The real world problems you face are so different than in the educational setting. Whatever you can do to get a couple years of experience is worth it. Also, just like in music, having a robust portfolio helps. There will be a couple years of just grinding and not being sure what you’re doing and you just have to get through that.”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2010 with a major in Performance. Principal instrument: voice.

Position: Event Coordinator (Project Manager) at David Stark Design and Production, an event production company in New York City with close to 100 employees. They put of events ranging from large weddings and celebrations to nonprofit galas and corporate parties and store openings. As the event coordinator, Arielle works on a team of 6 or 7 and handles all of the team’s administrative details: finding and lining up vendors such as furniture rentals, caterers, audio-visual services, etc. Also communicating with the graphic designers to make sure they have everything they need, and maintaining the budget for every project. On actual event days, she’ll work 18+ hours, coordinating the set up and take down and making sure everything goes smoothly.


Overview: Arielle finished Berklee in 3 years and moved home to L.A., feeling burned out on music. She quickly found a job at a restaurant working as a hostess and helping with events, staying for two and a half years because was very comfortable. Finally, she was ready to work in music, and through a referral got a job at CAA (Creative Artists Agency), where she assisted an agent who booked famous musicians for private parties/events. Arielle worked there for two years, but knew it wouldn’t be her long-term career, as she didn’t want to be an agent and wanted to live in New York City. So in 2015 she left her job and got a sublet in New York.

It took her under two weeks to find a job, as someone she’s known as CAA helped her get hired at an agency that hires musical acts for events. It was a good job, except that it was located in Westchester County, with a 2-hour commute each way! After 8 months, Arielle was ready for something new. Again through someone she’d known at CAA she got a job at an event production company, but it was freelance and after the busy season things started to slow down. A colleague referred her to a private club to be an event coordinator there, putting on parties, trips, etc, which she did for over two years, until a chance meeting with a family friend led to a referral to David Stark. They met and discussed her career prospects, and Arielle took her current job as the company has a top reputation and a position involving more creativity and the potential for growth.


You can see Arielle’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes: “The biggest part of my job is being very organized and staying on top of all the details until the event happens. We’re constantly revising our pitch decks, from graphic designers having to tweak things, Communicating with the venue, scheduling site visits, making sure graphics are up to date. Sorting through products and noting our inventory. It’s a lot to keep track of, and no two days are the same, but that makes it fun.” “Beyond the variety, there’s nothing better than being part of a team that plans these evenings. Start from nothing and build and exciting even for people. It’s a lot of work and hours, but it’s really rewarding to see these events come to life.”

“It’s totally OK to not have that music job or that ‘perfect’ first job. It’ll inevitably lead to other experience and learning other stuff. If yo’re willing to break away and learn new things you can do well in a new field.”

“If you’re considering this as a career, an internship is really helpful. It’ll give you that experience and also help you figure out if it’s really what you want to do, including if you can deal with the occasional extremely long day. You have to get the bug for it. I find it very fulfilling–you’ll quickly figure out if it’s for you.”

“The biggest skills in my job are being organized and detail-focused. Graduating early made me good at time management and figuring out all the details on what I needed to get done. That felt similar.”

“I rent rehearsal space and still take voice lessons. That is my time to focus on music and practicing and stay connected to that part of my life.”

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Graduated in 2010 with a major in Music Business. Principal instrument: guitar.

Position: Strategic Account Manager (officially Account Manager 2) at Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer. Joe works in the advertising operation, on the search side. So he works with large clients including Microsoft and Google to ensure that they are meeting their targets when people search for their relevant products on the Amazon website. His job consists of corresponding with his clients by email and phone, the occasional visit to deliver a presentation, keeping up with new developments at his company, and analyzing the data from his clients’ advertising activities.

Overview: While at Berklee, Joe learned how to do websites with HTML in a class, and made a bit of side money building / maintaining websites for local businesses. The year after graduation, he stayed in Boston and continued on with that, did some music, and applied without success to music industry and other professional jobs (2010 was a tough year to graduate). After a year, a friend got him a job co-managing a menswear store in New York City, and he moved. He enjoyed that job, and still did websites on the side, but after a few years grew weary of the work schedule (long hours often involving weekends and evenings) and the mediocre pay, so he searched in Indeed for new opportunities and applied. Joe’s experience doing websites and working in clothing got him hired at a subsidiary of Amazon, now called Shopbop, which did flash online sales, arranging the display of the products on the screen.

Amazon encourages people to follow their preferred career path within the company. After two years Joe switched into account management advertising, helping clients put ads on Amazon. He was promoted from level 1 to level 2 in December 2017, then in early 2018 he decided that he was ready for a change of setting, so he moved to Seattle, transferring to a similar job at Amazon’s corporate headquarters.


You can see Joe’s LinkedIn profile here.


Choice Quotes: “I love working face to face with clients to help them achieve their goals. I used to help auto-industry clients, and it was fun to see cool projects. Also, Amazon is a great place to work, with brilliant people ready to help and an entrepreneurial spirit where everyone is listened to.”

I can’t emphasize enough the value of networking. Go meet a diverse set of people across many industries. That’s helped bridge the gap and got my foot in the door. These large companies get hundreds of thousands of resumes, so you need something on top of that.

If you want to work in account management, start from the basics. Get good with the Microsoft Office suite, especially Excel. Also familiarize yourself with the advertising world and be aware of the new trends.

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Andrew Silverio

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Listen to the interview (approx. 48 min.) or download it.

Graduated in 2010 with a major of Professional Music.  Principal instrument:  saxophone.

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Position:  Compliance and Oversight Counsel (in-house corporate attorney) at The Phia Group, a medical consulting firm based in the Massachusetts which provides guidance to companies which do health insurance in-house.  Andrew’s specialty is knowing all the different regulations and thereby assessing what strategies will and will not be legal.  His time is split roughly evenly between larger projects and answering random questions sent his way each day.

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Overview.  A couple of years into Berklee, Andrew felt that a music career was precarious and had no guarantee of success even if you do everything right.  He wanted a career with a better shot at being financially comfortable.  His aunt, a lawyer, suggested he consider law school, given how he was very logical and liked to debate.  Andrew took a practice LSAT and really enjoyed it.  He took the LSAT and applied to law school while still at Berklee, getting a scholarship to attend Suffolk University Law School in Boston.  Andrew finished Berklee in May, 2010, took it easy that summer, and started that program in September of that year, figuring he’d specialize in Intellectual Property (“IP”) and be an entertainment lawyer.

Andrew did specialize in IP, but he also took some classes in health law and was on the school’s Health Journal.  He figured that health was a good prospect if IP didn’t work out.  Graduating in the spring of 2013 and taking (and passing) the Bar Exam a few months later, Andrew started job hunting in earnest, focusing on the IP and Health fields.  It was a tough job market, flooded with newly-minted lawyers.  He applied to a position in the Phia Group in late 2014, but didn’t get the job.  however, in the spring of 2014, they called him back as they had another position open.  Hired as a consultant working with their customers, Andrew gradually specialized in compliance regulations.  In late 2018 he asked the higher-ups for a new job title that reflected his specialty, and received both that and a raise.

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You can see Andrew’s LinkedIn profile here.

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Choice Quotes:  “What I like most about my job is “theres always something new to do, a new questino to answer. Admittedly after 5 years you see some questions over and over again. But you still get surprised sometimes, even when the rules are old, but a new combination comes up. Also, people are very resourceful in terms of saving money and want to know if it’s compliant. Sometimes it’s like ‘Congratulations. You re-invented insurance fraud.’ but sometimes it’s a really cool, workable idea!”

“If you want to be a lawyer, I’d really recommend a LSAT prep course.  Also, first year law school is very intense — it’s a TON of reading. If you can’t just sit down and read for 6 hours straight, don’t do it.  That said, I was diagnosed with ADD as a kid, but the real issue was lack of interest. Once I’m interested in something, I can study for hours on end.””

“To be successful as a lawyer, you want to make sure you’re the type of person that can consistently value being really thorough. Look under every rock even if you think the first rock gave you the answer.  It’s not just answering a question, it’s about ruling out every other possible answer.  If that sound bothersome or tedious, then maybe this career is not for you.”

“Keep an open mind about your options — don’t fixate on one thing. When you come to a fork in the road, think about the next fork in the road. Will door A only give you one path, while door B allows you to make different choices? Go for the one that will give you more flexiblity in the future. “

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Andrew at Berklee.  “One of the great things about music is you can do it anywhere, anytime, with anybody. …I play in a band these days called ‘Titans of Industry’.  It’s an important hobby to me that I get a lot of joy from.”

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Andrew hiking with his dog.  “Psychologically my Berklee experience helped me a lot. I was much more laid back and easy-going about it all than most of my law school peers. I took my work seriously, but didn’t take myself to seriously.   Anyone doing music understands that you need to put in the work before you get good.  That helped me not spiral into a ball of stress..”

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See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

ZJ Olivarez

 

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Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 4 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2011 with  a major in Composition.  Principal instrument:  guitar.

 

Position:  Engineer 2 – Product Technologist (technical support engineer) at Dell / EMC Technologies, a large, multinational tech firm based in Austin, Texas.  ZJ is on a team  of six that support the sales staff and helping get their enterprise (large business) customers’ systems properly configured.  ZJ answers many questions from sales / marketing people as well as helps clients.  When not answering questions, ZJ is in meetings, or is either giving or getting technical trainings.

 

Overview:  ZJ wanted try his luck in New York, so after a brief stint at home in Austin delivering pizzas and saving money, he moved to NYC, working for the better part of the year at Barnes and Noble, but the money was tight and he was homesick, so he moved back to Austin and lived at home while working as a line cook in a restaurant, as he was always interested in cooking.  But the pay was low and the hours were late and long, so after a year he followed his father’s career and got a job selling cars.  The money was good but highly variable, and the hours were long and exhausting, and there was always the stress of being let go if he didn’t meet his quota.  After about two  years, friends who worked at Dell encouraged him to get a job there, as both the pay and the work-live balance were better.  One of them recommending him for a technical sales job.

Although ZJ did not get that job, he reapplied about 6 months later and did get a technical sales position.  He did well, and after a year his boss offered him a choice:  continue to work in sales with a better territory, or switch into technical support.  ZJ was in the process of purchasing a home, and the reliability of a salaried position had a lot of appeal, so in late 2017 he switched to tech support as an Engineer-1.  He was promoted to engineer-2 in October, 2018.  (Ranks go 1, 2, senior, principal).

 

You can see ZJ’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes: “I like being that go-to person. If anyone has a question I either know it off the top of my head, or if not I’m an answer seeker doing my best to figure it out. It’s nice to be able to help the sales organization meet their numbers and close their deals.”

“I learn a lot from my peers. Del is very good about retaining employees, so many have huge seniority. I can go to them with a question, or for info about an old ‘legacy’ system. Each of us 6 on the team has our specialty. Mine is what they call hyper-conversion infrastructure and visualization. When we get a project, we figure out the exact needs. If multiple specialties are requred we’ll team together.”

“Berklee helped get me to where I am now. Being a musician, you learn about delayed gratification — you have to put in the work and time and dedication to become a musician. Same thing with composition — it’s a language of its own. Music made me a lot more detail-oriented”

“Tech is a vast industry. There are so many avenues you can take within it. In a big corporation, they nurture their internal talent, and you can follow your interests to that sector of the company.”

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Henry Leitzinger

 

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Left Berklee in 2012 (officially graduated in 2014) with a major in Professional Music.  Principal instrument:  piano.

Position:  Managing Director of Homebrella, a home insurance company in France selling renters insurance, focusing on younger people and non-natives, part of the Admiral Insurance Group.  Henry was hired to start this sub-corporation, which launched in early 2019.  He came up with the strategic plan and hired the necessary people (starting with around 12, up to 30 less than 6 months later).  He focuses on the strategic direction of the company, personnel issues, and making sure work with corporate partners is going well.  Henry has the support of the Admiral Group, but he functions much like an entrepreneur.

Overview:  After leaving Berklee in May 2012, Henry moved home to L.A., where he hung out a lot and gigged a bit, but he was feeling under-challenged and worried he’d stagnate.  He realized he could finish his Liberal Arts courses for a semester at The Sorbonne University in Paris (for 400 Euros!), where he could learn a new language and hopefully do well in the music scene, so he moved to Paris at the end of August.  He enjoyed Paris, and was doing well in the music scene, so he stayed.  For the next two years, he cobbled together a living gigging, playing in a wedding band, teaching music classes and private lessons.  But by late 2014 Henry was starting to feel burned out — it was becoming less fun, and the income was unpredictable, so he started to explore other options.  He found an ad for a job in online marketing, wanting someone bilingual, and contacted the company, asking for an internship for 6 months (with a possible job after that if everything looked good).

That 6 month internship led to a job, Over the next 3 years, Henry was promoted twice, to where he was handling the social media accounts for huge corporations.  However, Henry had risen as far as he could at this small firm, and since he liked business and strategy, he decided to get an MBA.  He applied to top schools and was accepted at INSEAD, near Paris, which had a highly-rated 1-year program.  Halfway through the program the CEO of the Admiral Insurance Group came to Henry’s Corporate Entrepreneur class as a guest-speaker.  The CEO would routinely peruse the resumes of the students, and invited Henry to have a conversation.  A number of conversations later, Henry was offered his current job, starting right after graduation in July 2018.

 

You can see Henry’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “The key pillar that attracts me to this job is the creative aspect. I wanted to create things that didn’t exist before and develop them. Instead of choosing the members of the band and writing the music, I now choose the members of the company and write out the strategy. At the end of the day, we get to look back at all that we achieved and created. That’s what gets me up in the morning.”

“Just hang in there. Don’t let the situation make you feel like giving up. It may sound like my path was an easy progression which just happened, but when I was in it I had no idea it would turn out anything good. At one point I was a 25-year old intern where everyone else had business degrees.  Once you get an opportunity, give it your all, and it will lead to great success.””

“When I was 18 I had had a big passion for music. If I hadn’t gone to Berklee I’d have always had some aspect of regret for not giving music a shot. I’m glad I did it. Even if today I’m not in a music-related career, I saw it through until my departure from it.”

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.