Category: Other Successful Berklee Alumni

Chantale Sterling

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 20 min) or download it.

 

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

 

Position:  “Partnerships Associate” (Online Advertising)  at Initiative, a large marketing agency that’s part of the IPG Group.   One of about 25 people doing this sort of role, Chantale oversees roughly $75,000,000 per year of digital advertising spending on behalf of various clients, mostly in the pharmaceutical industry.  Chantale formulates campaigns, estimates costs and effectiveness, and negotiates payment rates with online providers.

 

Overview:  After graduation, Chantale spent the summer working food-service jobs, then moved to New York City, unsure what she wanted to do–wanting to work in media/communications but not necessarily in music.  She applied to jobs and got an unpaid internship at a fashion company and a paying job at a fashion boutique to pay the bills.  She then got a succession of contract-jobs, with progressively more responsibility through a staffing agency:  working on CRM databases for a luxury goods company, as an admin. assistant for several hedge funds, and a marketing job at Macys, a billing coordinator with HUGE, an online marketing agency, then finally her current job in October 2016, which started out as another contract job but she was taken on permanently after just over 6 months.

 

You can see Chantale’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “Digital buying is advertising through different networks, and targeting the adversiting to reach your ideal customers.”

“I enjoy the strategic part of online advertising the most. I’d interact with applications like Instagram and the online news and see types of brand messaging for things I liked–I didn’t know a digital buyer and strategist were crafting the experience for me based on my online profile. I love partnering with vendors & publishers and learning about the cool things technology is letting brands do and take advantage of.”

“Learning and education, and discipline are what’s going to get you where you need to go. Read an article each day, interact with someone in your network each week–whatever that goal, set it and fulfill it. Never think that because something isn’t in music that it may not be worth learning about. It might open you to an industry you didn’t know existed such as how I discovered digital advertising.”

“Berklee taught me to move quickly along the learning curve–recognize what I don’t know, and figure out what tools do I need and how I get these tools.  This helps me in my career, which is all about understanding fundamentals and asking the necessary questions to figure out budget allocation, etc. ”

“It’s good to have a career in the digital space.  Digital is growing and it’s not going to stop growing.”

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Zach Miller

 

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 6 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2008 with a major in Music Business.  Principal instrument:  guitar.

 

Position:  Freelance Photographer.  Zach’s professional website shows many examples of his work.  As a freelancer, Zach works on a large variety of projects, but most of his work comes from business, particularly events and commercial real estate.  In addition to shooting photos, Zach does his own marketing as well as post-production.

 

Overview:  Zach enjoyed photography as a hobby while at Berklee.  After graduation, he was unable to find a job in the music industry, so he moved back to the DC area, and worked an administrative-job for his father’s construction company for money while he played drums with a local band.  By 2011, the band was tapering off, and a bandmate suggested he study photography since he liked it.  Zach went to the Art Institute of Washington (DC) and in one year of study earned a Diploma in Commercial Photography.

He continued to work that office-job while building his photography business on the side, getting a lot of work through Thumbtack, where clients post desired services and professionals bid to provide them.  He also built up his portfolio and started a photography blog. It took years, but in January 2017 Zach had enough business that he left the office job to be a full-time professional photographer.  He also plays drums for a new band, where he has fun gigging around the DC area, for for all of them it’s a side-thing.

 

You can see Zach’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “The camera has pushed me to step out being quiet and nervous. I’ve photographed celebrities, and as a photographer to me they’re just people. It’s fun to bring everyone down to earth.  I have to think about it, be creative, make someone comfortable–which has led to beautiful friendships & connections.”

“As a professional photographer, I spend very little time behind the camera. Most of my time is spent doing paperwork, putting in hours to send photos around, editing files, the whole 9 yards.”

“When I first shot photos I was like ‘I’m going to just shoot models!’ and yeah that sounds glamorous, but now I’m shooting commercial real estate and that’s bringing in a lot of money. You can’t let your head get into the way and have to listen to what is coming your way. Accept what’s working for you and keep pushing for that rather than what’s not.”

“I saw this at Berklee too: Everything is cool when it’s a hobby, but once there’s financial pressure applied, it brings some different thoughts– do I really want to do this? Anyone can shoot a photo and feel good about it. What happens when there are deadlines, when people don’t like a photo? Not everyone is going to like that. Test it out, see what your limits are. If you’re OK with the negatives, see where you can go.”

“Networking is so key; you can apply it to nearly every industry–especially the freelance world!  I got good at that in Berklee, where to be in a band or jam it was all about hanging out and getting to know people.”

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Parker Ferguson

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 11 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2008 with a major in Music Business.  Principal instrument:  guitar.

 

Position:  VP of Technology & Product (a.k.a. Chief Technology Officer or CTO) at Coindesk, an online media site focused on blockchain and crypto-currency technology (e.g. bitcoin).  Parker’s task is to build out the technology team; he currently supervises close to ten employees.  His tasks involve a lot of cross-functional collaborative work, such speaking with the CEO about where to put attention and resources, helping the development team implement features, and reviewing code.

Overview:  In high school, Parker did some coding for fun, and at Berklee he’d be the go-to person for tech-related issues.  He graduated and hoped to get a career in musical composition, but when months later the economy tanked he started doing low-level restaurant work for cash.  Meanwhile, he took over a friend’s lease and found himself living in a building of art-school dropouts who were all attempting to start careers in technology.  Over the next couple of years he started working as a freelance tech consultant, but saw it as a way to pay bills while he focused on music.  But by 2010 a musical partnership went sour and he had met and fallen in love and figured technology would be a better, surer path financially sustaining his future family.  Parker spent roughly 6 months working the minimum he could while teaching himself programming, using a wide variety of resourses such as Code Academy, Open courses at MIT, and relevant books, while he did projects.

By 2011 he was feeling competent, and first sought technical employment in the music industry “where my Berklee background would be a plus.” after a few years working as a web developer or product manager, Parker reached out to a recruiter to see what was out there, particularly in the field of crowd-funded investments.  That led to a job at Ace Portal, where he started as a developer and, due to expansion, was promoted to CTO only months later.  Sadly, that company failed financially, but he quickly got another job as V.P. of Engineering at Artfinder, then moved on to his current job in August, 2017.

 

You can see Parker’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “The challenges as CTO are really dynamic and vary between the strategic direction and tactical on how it’s done. I like collaborating with the team. How you navigate market conditions, structure business deals, collaborating with my team, learn from past decisions that weren’t as good, shift to new capabilities on a technical level, hire and keep talent. I like both figuring out what to build and collaborating to build it brick by brick. It’s great, creative work where you can get your fingerprints on a lot and you get to use your whole brain.”

“The Chief Technology Officer of a company totally needs to have come up through the ranks. Without that knowledge, the team wouldn’t respect you, and at worst you’d make all sorts of bad calls that would ruin the business. It’s extremely detail oriented and you need to know how things work.”

“A lot of folks I collaborate with in tech are from art school or former musicians. There’s a lot of overlap in the skill sets. You’re dealing with symbolic systems and you have to practice your instrument and get better and learn. On a human element, you listen to people, figure out how to harmonize, have a sense of play and curiosity. As an artist, you have a comparative advantage so long as the fundamentals are there.”

“Berklee’s motto is ‘To Be, not to Seem.’  Tech is like that.  You can’t fake it–be prepared to spent a lot of time just to get to where you have an opportunity to succeed. What differentiated me was I focused on software, and I focused on hacking the marketplace to figure out where I needed to be.”

“If you want to go into management, you have to have your soft skills nailed just as much as your hard skills. The lead developer isn’t always the best coder on the team. Figure out that role first, and that’ll open up other leadership opportunities.”

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Will Larche

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 19 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2008 from the Boston Conservatory, with a major in Musical Theater.

 

Position:  Software Engineer at Google (New York office).  Part of the Material Design team, Will’s “domain” is visual, text-based interfaces on apps.  Google is, of course, a large, well-known company with over 80,000 employees, the majority of those software engineers.

 

Overview:  Shortly after Will graduated, the Great Recession hit, and a lot of opportunities that had been there the year before were now gone.   Will worked a bit in theater, but had been struggling with depression and developed anxiety about auditions, so that in 2009 he decided on a different career path, playing piano and doing odd jobs to make ends meet.  In 2010 he was getting proper treatment for depression, and a friend asked Will to be a computer help technician as a short term job.  Will found parts of the job interesting enough to merit exploring a career as a network administrator, and planned to do a program at NYU’s School of Professional Studies.  It being the summer, no network administrator courses were offered, so he took a programming class (Intro. to C) and found he liked that even more!  The programming education there was Windows-based, while Will sensed that IPhone apps were the next big thing, so he got an internship through friend, bought a book, and taught himself all about that programming language (C-shell) and the IOS operating system.

Two years of moving from job to job in search of learning more and lots of self-study since that first class, Will had established himself as a software engineer and was earning well into the 6-figures freelancing.  He went to work for a startup, but the startup ran out of money in late 2015.  Meanwhile, Will had just interviewed with Google, which had reached out to him, as a way to keep in practice, but the unexpected job offer from them was fortuitously timed.  Will accepted the offer and started there, choosing to work on the Material Design team because he liked the people and found the subject matter really interesting.

 

You can see Will’s LinkedIn profile here.  Will encouraged people who want to get into programming to reach out to him.

 

Choice Quotes:  “We actors are capable, once we’ve learned how to manipulate our own human behavior, and to be smart and understand things on behalf of a character, to do that for ourselves.  I see software engineering as a successful role I have taken on for the past seven years.”

A lot of teams at Google are smaller than you think they are.  Google does that on purpose, to make everyone feel like they’re making a big impact. Rather than a giant machine you’re just a cog in, they make a tiny billion machines all working toward a common goal.”

“In the arts, you can work harder than everyone and get nowhere.  And vice-versa–I know someone who got into a Broadway show because, with zero training, he auditioned on a dare.  But in software the more hours I worked, the more pay I got, the more I could charge, the more interesting projects I can take on, the more choices I had on what to do.”

“Google is strict about 40-hour weeks. If you find yourself working more, your manager will meet with you. They consider us the best in the world and don’t want to lose anyone by having us to burn out from over-work. This is the first job I’ve really been happy at, not just knowing it’s good for me. A lot of that is not working 80-hour weeks like when I was working at start-ups.”

“There’s always a group of jobs that aren’t being filled fast enough. Search for that information online; ask recruiters what kinds of people they’re having trouble finding for good jobs. See if there’s a practical way into the field that doesn’t involve years of schooling.”

“Do not listen to people who tell you that you can’t be a software engineer unless you have a computer science degree.  Musical theater at BoCo is a harder program than any computer science degree.”

 

See the full index of successful Berklee/BoCo alumni

Raleigh Bisbee

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 6 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2012 from the Boston Conservatory with a major in Musical Theater.

 

Position:  Account Manager at Switch, a company specializing in providing centers for other corporations to house their computers and data storage.  A salaried position,  Releigh’s job is  to speak with current clients regarding new offerings Switch has and making sure they’re taking advantage of all appropriate offerings by her company.  She also gives tours of the facilities.

 

Overview:  Raleigh was more ambivalent about wanting a career in musical theater than many of her peers, but she moved to New York after graduating after an agency signed her.  But she didn’t hustle as much as many of her peers and grew frustrated about not landing roles, while supporting herself by waitressing and bartending.  She tried a 9-to-5 job as a technical recruiter in 2014, but disliked it as she felt unsupported and the hours were too long and went back to auditioning and bartending.  Meeting her now-fiance made her realize that she wanted  steady income and a family and a career in musical theater was not for her.

One day in 2015 while tending bar, an older couple chatted with her and asked what she wanted to do; Raleigh replied that she wanted to be in sales.  The husband was an executive at Ricoh, and got her a job selling photocopiers and business services to large law firms, where after a tough first few months Raleigh excelled.  Then in 2017 her fiance got a good job offer in Las Vegas so they moved.  Raleigh looked for other opportunities in sales or account management at a company with a good culture, and eventually a recruiter connected her with Switch, where they clicked well and a month later she was hired into her current position once it became open.

 

You can see Raleigh’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “What I love most about my job is the company I work for–their mission, and the team of people I work with.  It’s important for me to be on a team that is passionate about what they do, helpful, and invested in my own success.”

“I got into tech sales because I like interacting with people and am very competitive, so my personality was a good fit for sales. A beautiful thing about technology is that if you can acquire the skills and knowledge and put yourself in the field you can excel in it and climb the ranks. I also figured I’d go into tech sales because if I wasn’t going to do something I was in love with at least I could make a ton of money.”

During our last year at BoCo, we did a lot of workshops were on how to present ourselves in an audition. That’s incredibly relevant to sales, where you have about 15 seconds to make an impression!  Those audition skills transferfed over in a way I couldn’t have imagined before.

“You have to pursue your dreams, but your dreams can change. I get that same enjoyment doing some community theater or cabaret on the side while doing having else as my main job as I would from being in musical theater for money.”

“Nobody else in sales/account management had experience before they started working; 9 times in 10 the most successful people have degrees in something else. You may not start in exactly the place you want to start. I can be stressful and unpleasant at times, but if they support you then with time, persistence, understanding and self-reflection you’ll be successful.”

 

See the full index of successful Berklee/BoCo alumni.

Aly Laughlin

Listen to the interview (approx. 53 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2012 from the Boston Conservatory with a major in Musical Theater.

 

Position:  Food blogger at her own blog, The Vegan Spy., a popular vegan food blog.  A one-person operation, Aly makes her living through three sources which synergize:  she develops new recipes for brands, she blogs about food (and gets associated ad revenue), and she guest-writes articles in other blogs and magazines.   She also helps local restaurants develop vegan menu items.  As of late 2017 The Vegan Spy has roughly 10,000 monthly subscribers and another 2,000 social media followers.

 

Overview:  Partway through her program at BoCo, Aly realized that she wanted a career with more stability than musical theater had to offer, and she wanted to help animals.  After a summer of teaching musical theater, Aly moved spent the better part of a year organizing, on her own initiative, a 1,000-person drag-themed fundraiser in Provincetown to help whales.  As that happened in the summer of 2013, a friend who worked at Manhattan Renovations (a large general contractor), reached out to her to be their event planner and social media publicist.  Aly worked there full-time,  but after a year felt she needed an outlet for her creativity and beliefs.

Aly had always had a passion for food, so she started The Vegan Spy in 2014 as a hobby.  In late 2015 she got her first paid work.  By 2016 she had enough professional connections and work coming in that she left her job in order to food blog full-time, while at the same time moving from New York to Cincinnati to be near family and benefit from the lower cost of living.

 

You can see Aly’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “One of my favorite things about this is being my own boss and making my own hours. That’s a really nice feeling. Also, I can do my work from absolutely anywhere!  The trick with any is you have to be really self-motivated and create your own deadlines, as nobody else is going to kick your butt.”

“If you want to be a professional blogger, follow lots of other blogs. It’s great to have your own style, but it’s so important to see what others are doing. Not just to keep up with trends, but to stay creative and be inspired. Just like at BoCo when we’d go to the museum to be inspired. Keep getting inspired so that you’re still growing.”

“Theater isn’t like doing math where you have ten problems to solve. You have to be self-motivated to practice until you’re ready and really figure things out yourself. My experience at BoCo taught me to set my own schedule and stay organized with minimal imposed structure.”

 

One of Aly’s creations–pumpkin shakes!  “When I started, my following was really small–so really all I could offer was high-quality photos that they could share and good recipes. It took a lot of work to get where I am now. For years I made little to no money, but I kept pushing and reaching out until I had forged those relationships. These days, they reach out to me.”

 

 

 

Another of Aly’s creations–pineapple fried rice with avocado!  “I’m a total perfectionist. I’ll usually make a recipe 5 times before I consider it perfect. The tricky thing is that I have to finish by 4:00 pm, because to get good food photos you need natural daylight.”

 

 

 

 

 

Aly with a feathered friend.  “I’ve always loved animals, and loved coming up with recipes and taking photos.  I don’t really have the skills to work at an animal non-profit (doing anything but the lowest-level job), but this work I do allows me to help animals by using my creativity. ”

 

 

 

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee/BoCo alumni.

Samantha Attaguile

Listen to the interview (approx. 37 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2012 from the Boston Conservatory with a major in Voice Performance.

 

Position:  Executive Assistant at Chicago Software Solutions,  a small software company that does mostly contracted development work.   It’s her, the founder, two other technical people, and sometimes a few temporary contractors.  Samantha is the one non-technical person tehre, and handles the billing, books, marketing, all clerical and office-related tasks, including coordinating travel human resources functions.

Overview:  For much of high school, Samantha made money working in offices, having been introduced to that sort of work by her mother, a paralegal.  During her four years at BoCo, she was a student-employee in BoCo’s HR office, sometimes helping in the President’s Office and the Admissions Office.  Graduating in 2012, Samantha went straight into a 2 year Masters program in voice performance at Roosevelt University in Chicago.  Her experience at BoCo led to her employment in their President’s Office during her time there.

Completing her Masters Degree in the spring of 2014, she spent the summer performing and working a side job at a Segway touring company.  But by August the performance program had wrapped and the tours were winding down.  She needed an income, so looked for an office/temp job.  In October she got a 3-month  temp job, and applied to jobs online.  She found her current job through craigslist, applied, and was hired in early 2016 right as the temp job ended.  Samantha continues to do many musical projects on the side.

You can see Samantha’s LinkedIn profile here.

Choice Quotes:  “I enjoy the administrative aspects of work. Especially when I started and as the first admin person instituted a whole lot of procedures. I like making my boss’s life easier and having a say over things–setting my own pace in an independent work environment. ”

“A lot of musicians are good at admin-type jobs. We need to know how to present ourselves and our materials well, and know how to organize out own lives.  Because I auditioned for strangers I’ve been more comfortable in job interviews. Being a performer made me more comfortable speaking on the phone.”

“Working in music is still the goal, but I need to pay the bills and I need to eat.  The work can be enjoyable and I appreciate what it brings. I couldn’t imagine not having a stable, salaried position.  You can make good money doing office work, and if ultimately music doesn’t work out I’ll probably be doing this.”

“While you search for that music career, be honest about your talent and prospects–a career in music is very uncertain and can you compete successfully? If not, how are you going to survive? Focus on your strengths, make connections.  Little service gigs are fine, but office work is pretty easy, comfortable work that pays pretty well, and a lot of folks can start in that. It’s stable, not taxing on my voice or body, and my work-life balance is respected, so that works for me.  Find what works for you.”

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee/BoCo alumni.

Susana Monsalve-Jones

Listen to the interview (approx. 36 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2013 with majors in Music Production & Engineering and Film Scoring.  Principal instrument:  Voice.

 

Position:  Management Consultant at Roland Berger, London (UK) office.  Roland Berger is a multinational business consulting firm with around 5,000 employees worldwide, though the London Office has roughly 40 consultants, plus support staff.  Susana puts in long hours advising companies in different industries on business and private equity deals.

 

Overview:  After graduating in the summer of 2013, Susana got a job as an assistant at a studio in L.A., where she worked for a bit over a year.  Roughly halfway through, she started feeling restless–the job started to feel unchallenging and she found she liked working in music less than she thought she would.  Speaking with friends in other industries, she figured that she’d enjoy a business career more and sought ways to get into an elite business school.  Always good with numbers, she studied for and did well on the GMAT exam.  Aware that top schools like interesting work experience, Susana actively pursued and got an 8-month volunteer position , working in microfinance in Madagascar at the international poverty-relief organization Unbound.  Her application to the Australian Graduate Schools of Management (AGSM)’s MBA program was accepted, and she started her studies in the fall of 2015.

As was common with her program, Susana did the second half of her program at a partner school, in this case, the London Business School.  Many companies came there to recruit talented individuals, and shared what their industry and businesses were all about.  Working as a management consultant appealed to Susana, and she liked what Roland Berger had to offer, so she went straight into her current job after graduating in the spring of 2017.

 

You can see Susana’s LinkedIn profile here.  Susana encourages Berklee folks who are interested in management consulting to reach out to her.

 

Choice Quotes:  “Two things I like about being a management consultant. One is that I’m always learning, reading about new things and being intellectually engaged.  The other is being part of a high-performing team.  Everyone here is incredibly smart and driven.”

“In a four-week project, week 1 you’re learning all about the industry. Early in week 2 you meet with clients and they give you a scope of the project. Then you start working with the team and developing a good story line: what you want to tell, the info you need, how you get the information. Weeks 2 and 3 you’re gathering the info & building an understandable power point presentation. Week 4 you talk to the clients, showing them what you have–answer further questions or see what they want more and add it in. Then you give the final presentation and you’re on to the next project.”

“For your first 5 years you’re a generalist consultant, and they want you to do lots of different things. I’ve done projects in the oil/gas,, nuclear, healthcare and IT industries.  If during those 5 years you find something you really like, you can become a specialist.”

“Thanks to Berklee and my music background I think differently–more creatively–which can be useful in mgmt consulting.  Berklee also exposed me to a very diverse group of people and I became very culturally aware very fast, which is important in my field too as we work with a large diversity of clients.”

“Don’t be afraid to try anything.  It’s never too late, and if you change paths in a structured and wholehearted manner you can transition to nearly anything–like I did!”

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Tiffany Spearman

Listen to the interview (approx. 51 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2008 from the Boston Conservatory with a major in Modern Dance.

 

Positions:  1) Management Consultant/Event Planner.  Tiffany started her own company, At Liberty, which helps run events, deal with logistics and organizational shifts, and focus on individual health and fulfillment.
2)  Property Manager / Sales at Ross Management Services.  This mostly-administrative real-estate job, working for a firm that has multiple multi-family developments, is to pay the bills until Tiffany’s business brings in enough revenue to go full time.

 

Overview:  After graduation, Tiffany moved to NYC, where she danced in many different venues, choreographed a play, and started her own dance project in 2010 dedicated to making modern dance more accessible.  But after 5 years she started feeling that this life wasn’t as much fun as expected–it felt like she was stagnating, doing the same thing repeatedly.  She went online and started applying to jobs.  In early 2014, she got an administrative job, assisting the director, at a charter school in the Washington, DC area.

Tiffany started at that job for two years, but wanted to start her own company and found the work at the charter school too demanding to pursue a side job.  So in 2016 she applied for and took a job with Ross Management Services, still in the DC area, in order to have the time and energy to start her business.  Soon after, she got her first client.

 

You can see Tiffany’s LinkedIn profile here.  Tiffany also encourages folks to reach out to her at  info@atlibertylife.com.

 

Choice Quotes: “Consulting is a lot of fun for me. I like talking with people, and I get a really good feeling out of helping people. I’m ready to jump in on anything, and the work is really fun because it’s always changing. I get to wear different hats and learn so much–I love continuous learning and talking to people who know things I don’t know.”

“Whenever you bring people together around a common cause or initiative, it brings in life in a way that emails don’t. In-person events engage us more in what we’re doing and engage us with our communities.”

“I follow the agile technique–doing things iteratively and growing them incrementally. This lets me not just test things out and continue to scale my business.”

 

 

 

Tiffany, dancing while a student at BoCo.  “The Boston Conservatory taught me grit.  While there, I also learned to think outside the box, and also to express myself fully.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To those who are struggling to find their way, Tiffany advises, “Staying open to opportunities will serve you well. Don’t let yourself be blinded by how you think things should be. Know that you’re not alone and you have every advantage.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee/BoCo alumni.

Sasha Foster

(formerly Sasha Taylor)

Listen to the interview (approx. 43 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2011 with a major in Music Business.  Principal instrument:  voice.

 

Position:  Production Coordinator in the Management Operations department at ESPN.  In this multifaceted administrative role, Sasha schedules film crews and producers, books flights and handles other logistics, deals with payroll and other accounts, helps the online ad sales team with ensuring that purchased ads work properly on the website, and runs analyses to help get things done more efficiently.

 

Overview:  Unsure what she wanted to do after graduation, Sasha moved home to Connecticut after graduation, and got a job on the sales floor of an Apple Store, as a “specialist” but also selling to businesses.  One day a customer she was chatting with said his wife was a dean at Bay Path University and encouraged Sasha to look at Bay Path University’s  Online MBA program.  It looked good, so Sasha enrolled in the summer of 2012, and earned her MBA at the end of 2013.

As she was finishing up her degree, Sasha reached out to AccountTemps, a temp agency for skilled employees, hoping that would get her some good experience and a better job.  She left the Apple store, then in January 2014 got a temporary position processing invoices and expense reports at ESPN.  Eight months later, ESPN hired her into her current position.

 

You can seen Sasha’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:   “I’m the behind-the-scenes of the behind-the-scenes. Production is all-hands-on-deck and you do whatever’s needed.”

“An online MBA program really is about time management. If you don’t get it done on your own, it doesn’t get done, and some folks need that ‘push’ of being in a classroom. I recommend it to people who are self-driven.”

“I enjoy the people I work with. We all get along well and that makes the work environment easy. I also enjoy diving into the more analytical side of things, being able use the program MicroStrategy and I’m one of the few people at my company learning to use it. Analytical stuff take time, but it’s like a puzzle, and when you get it it’s such a feeling of joy!”

“I went to school for music, but ESPN is still entertainment, so a lot of things feel similar.  Also in some projects I have to deal with music licensing, and my music business background means I can talk to other folks and know exactly what’s going on.”

“While I’m not doing music professionally at this point, I still sing weekly in church and coordinate my church’s music services..  In addition, my husband–also a Berklee grad–works in music and he often asks me for financial advice.”

“Take chances and reach out–all they can say is no. You never know unless you ask.”

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.