Category: Other Successful Berklee Alumni

Rodney Harrison

 

Listen to the interview (approx. 57 min.) or download it.

 

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

 

Position:  Case Manager at The Treehouse, a rehabilitation facility that helps people suffering from substance abuse and/or mental illness.  As a case manager Rodney processes paperwork, guides clients through their orientation and lines up resources during and after their stay, but he also is an open door where people come with any issues.

Overview:  Rodney finished Berklee and went straight into a 1-year Masters program in International Business from Hult University San Francisco campus.  Graduating in the spring of 2012, he decided to move home to Houston, Texas where rents were lower and he could save money.  Rodney also decided that he really wanted a career more related to helping people, so rather than work for a business consulting firm or an oil company, he used a family connection to get a job as an academic counselor at Houston Community College.  The pay was modest, but the work was very satisfying.  “People at HCC. Many people at HCC were the first person in their family to go to college, and often never thought they’d be in college. We got to push people to do things they never thought they could do.”

Rodney worked at HCC for 3 years, gigging on the side.  Then  in mid-2016 an good friend became director of operations at The Treehouse and encouraged Rodney to become a case manager, as Rodney’s job as an academic counselor was very relevant experience.  Rodney visited the facility to make sure it was a good fit, but concluded that it was and took the job, where he has been since September, 2016.  On the side, he has music gear all set up in his home and is working on an EP.

 

 

You can see Rodney’s (somewhat out-of-date) LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “We talk to families, to therapists. It’s whatever they need. I’ts fun, because there’s a lot of clients telling us we saved their lives. Alumni come back and are staying sober and holding it together.”

“I’m the friendly face. I’m the door that never seems to shut. The therapist can only do so much; for everything else they knock on my door and I see to their needs. We officially have four meetings (one/week) with clients, but they come by nearly every day.”

“When I got to The Treehouse clients thought it was cool that I went to Berklee. I  got to start an informal music therapy program there that meets twice/week, where we’ll talk about songs.. The group has gone from 6 clients to 40, and has changed people’s lives.”

“I have zero regrets about going to Berklee. I met the best people, had the best teachers, and had the best experiences of my life there. You take that with you and keep on rolling. That’s it.”

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Chris Wadsworth

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

 

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

 

Position:  Business Development (sales) at WorkforceQA.    WorksforceQA provides drug and alcohol testing, as well as trainings on drug and alcohol-related issues, to businesses.  Chris is one of only two sales people in a company of over 100.  Chris splits his time roughly evenly between managing current accounts and seeking new business.

 

Overview:  Chris did his final-semester internship with a music publisher in Nashville, and stayed in Nashville after graduation, hoping to become a professional songwriter.  For four years he wrote music and performed it locally, but the income (and fame) from music was negligible and tending bar, while paying decently, felt like a dead-end job.  So he moved back home to Salt Lake City, Utah in late 2013 while hoping to figure out the next step in his career.  To make some money, his did some light construction work at his uncle’s drug-testing company for a few weeks, then was offered a sales role at a base salary of $10/hour.  Hesitant to take the job, Chris accepted once it was made clear that his pay would increase once he had proved himself.

Through rugged determination Chris stuck it out in this low-paying job to the point where 6 months later, the other salespeople and their manager all had quit or been fired.  With greater knowledge of the product, the whole country to seek business, and the newfound freedom to sell as he saw fit, Chris sales, and his income, improved dramatically.

You can see Chris’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “I enjoy the freedom in my job–where I can do what I think it best in order to earn the business and the excitement and satisfaction that comes along when I bring in a new client.”

I get paid, simply put, per drug test–a certain % the first year, a certain % the second year, then it stops. Clients can leave anytime, so I have an incentive to keep them happy.

Berklee was a great experience, but the fact that I’m in sales now is perfectly fine. It’s OK for something not to feel right anymore and what you lived at 18 or 20 changes

I’m happy about providing the promised service. I don’t embellish, so when it comes into fruition everyone is happy. I also get to meet with really cool companies and cool, sophisticated people.”

 

 

 

Chris as a Berklee student.  “Creativity isn’t just limited to art or music. An education where creativity was supported and the environment was so creative has made me an employee who takes initiative and doesn’t just look for a manual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris with colleagues.  “My industry is totally a relationship sell. The reason I’m good at it is that I’m good at connecting with someone and earning their trust.  That’s how you climb the ladder in sales.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Alexander Bercow

Listen to the interview (approx. 50 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2016 with a major in Electronic Production & Design.  Principal Instrument:  guitar.

 

Position:  “Customer Operations Adviser’ (Customer Service/Support) at SquareSpace, a company with over 500 employees (roughly half in customer operations!) which serves as a do-it-yourself website and blogging platform.  “We handle everything from billing issues to helping people design their websites.”  Alexander helps people via live chat and email, but during parts of the day he’s also learning to code.

 

Overview:  Two years into Berklee Alex left for a year to do music full-time in New York, but decided he wanted to get more into the business end and got involved with Berklee’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (ICE).  For two years he and a partner worked on starting a new tech-based music business, hiring people to write code.  However, after graduation Alexander wanted to move to New York to be with his girlfriend, and the prospects for the start-up were tenuous, so they wrapped it up.

A couple of weeks after graduation, Alexander was at a party in New York, and he bumped into an engineer who had done a project for his startup the year before.  The engineer was working at SquareSpace, and suggested that Alexander work there as well, in the entry-level position of customer operations.  Alexander applied, and four interviews (one with a robot!) later, got his current job.

 

You can see Alexander’s LinkedIn profile here.   Alex also invites folks to email him at Alexander [at] bercow [dot] com.

 

Choice Quotes:   “I’m on a wonderful team with great people. Like with a band, everyone does their thing. It’s also fun to chat and connect with people, help them out. What drove me into tech, other than being from Silicon Valley, is I love innovation and progress. I always appreciated innovative music and that love carries over to what Squarespace does.”

“Customer service is a good entry-level thing that can lead to something else.  I have a lot of ambitions in tech besides just customer service, which is why I’m learning to code. One great thing about my company is there’s a lot of opportunity to grow and develop professionally–I didn’t want to leave music unless my job offered a really good career path.”

“One thing I didn’t like about music was the instability. It’s nice to get a paycheck every couple of weeks.  My job has good pay for a first job out of college, and the benefits are excellent, including flexible paid time off and a company lounge with free alcohol after 6!”

“Berklee taught me is learning how to be collaborative. Being in a band you have to learn to work together and be a team player–that and being able to communicate in a team–how to take criticism and guide others productively. ”

Actions really do speak louder than words.  You want to work with people who act on stuff—and be that person!  I didn’t know if my start-up would work out–and it didn’t–but it led to great stuff. A friend recently said he really wanted to make candles, and I was like, ‘Do it! Make a candle.  You’ll learn things, and maybe it’ll ultimately turn into something that can support you.'”

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Josh Nachbar

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 7 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2014 with a major in Music Business.  Principal Instrument:  guitar.

 

Position:  Technical Consultant at The Amaral Group.  The Amaral Group, a high-tech consulting firm based in Boston, sends Josh and others to businesses (and occasionally schools or governments) to deal with their computer needs, from setting up new systems to fixing things when they break.  Josh spends half his time onsite with customers and most of the rest at home researching technical solutions to problems.

 

Overview:  Josh always loved technology, from being an amateur hacker in high school to spending lots of time in studios while a Berklee student.  (Josh had wanted to study MP&E at Berklee, but that’s another story.)  After graduation he worked at Guitar center, teaching guitar, Pro-Tools, and putting together a program on being a DJ, but within months he realized he wanted to work in tech, so he bought books and spent time self-educating on web development, IT infrastructure, database administration, etc.  Late in 2014 friends of his band mates who worked at InMusic put in the good word and he got a job there doing Quality Assurance.  Sadly, there wasn’t much opportunity to advance his knowledge, and it ended in early 2016 when the company moved its entire development to another state.

Unemployed for several months, Josh continued to study computers while making some money with freelance web development and some music gigs.  One of these was working as audio tech for the album recording by local band Unstraight, featuring Katie Amaral.  Katie was very impressed with Josh’s work, and when she learned that he was looking for a tech job, referred him to her father, president of the Amaral Group.  Josh was hired in June 2016 as a part-time employee.  As his skills and competencies grew so did his hours until, by the spring 2017, it had turned into a full-time job.

 

(Sadly, Josh does not have a LinkedIn page at the moment, but he still does music on the side.  Here’s his DJ page.)

 

Choice Quotes:  “Part of the consulting game: like a good chess player, think 5 steps ahead and put things in a way that it won’t break later. Also document what you do well and don’t ‘create fires’ of your own.”

“It’s crazy–we techies all deserve multiple titles–I’m a go-to network engineer, security consultant, CISCO firewall pro, windows infrastructure, LINUX system admin.  We at the Amaral Group each have our areas of expertise, but everyone has a foot in at least two places and we all cross-train. When it’s a slow week it’s expected that you’re learning new things and growing in another direction so that you can take on new projects should someone get overbooked.”

“People ask how I went from music to technical problem solving. I reply that I haven’t really changed at all–it’s just a different medium and it’s one day at a time.  The draw for me is finding a creative solution to a technical issue, which is what’s done in a recording studio, and is exactly what we do here! We’re coming in right at the intersection of creative problem solving with technical skills at companies that all rely on machines.”

“Don’t limit your opportunities just because you feel you should be in music.  The world is full of really interesting problems to solve. Regardless of your education, if you want to get out there and be part of solving them–really within any industry–it’s well within reach.”

“Early on in my job I’d go too far and try to solve problems I saw, but the golden rule of consulting is ‘If you touch it you own it.’ If I’d try to fix something and now stuff didn’t work guess whose fault it is…and guess who gets to spend as many hours as it takes–unpaid –fixing it!”

“If you want to be a technical consultant,  prepare to lose sleep. Prepare for someone to set you down and go ‘OK there’s a certification in network engineering. It takes most folks 3-5 years. You have 6 months. On, and here are a few more certifications to get as well. And during this time you’ll be working with clients and there’s no HR bubble between then and you, so keep smiling.”   You’ll only make it if you really want it and you think it’s cool, so embrace your inner nerd as hard as you can!”

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Chris Franzen

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr, 12 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2008 with a major in Songwriting.  Principal instrument:  drums.

 

Position:  Account executive at Spot Hero.  Spot Hero is an app like Fandango or hotels dot com, except it works with parking garages–with the app, consumers can pre-purchase parking as well as find good deals and accurate directions.  While Spot Hero is based on Chicago; Chris is currently the one person representing the company in the San Francisco Bay area.  Chris’s job is “70% account management (keeping things working smoothly with current clients), 20% new sales, and 10% other administrative tasks.”

 

Overview:  While at Berklee, Chris worked restaurant jobs for extra money, and had a band.  Graduating, in the spring of 2008, Chris was tired of restaurant jobs, so that when a Berklee friend and roommate who worked for Zipcar as a “brand ambassador” suggested that Chris work the same job at Zipcar, Chris took advantage of the opportunity, as it offered better pay and a more pleasant work atmosphere.   Chris stayed with Zipcar nearly 8 years, working his way up to marketing coordinator, then account manager, and finally account executive (a similar position to what he has now).  This included a move from Boston to San Francisco in early 2015 where he was able to do the same work–by now the band had fizzled out and Chris wanted a change.

In the spring of 2016, Spothero was looking for someone to be based in the Bay Area full-time, while Chris was feeling like his career at Zipcar had hit a plateau andready for new challenges.  When Spothero’s head of sales reached out to him about the opportunity he responded positively.  Several interviews later to make sure it was a good fit for everyone, Chris took his current job.

 

You can see Chris’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “It’s a very unique position that I have. ‘ Tech is very new to the parking industry, so there’s a lot of relationship building, a lot of trust. Parking lot operators are nervous that we’ll be like Uber to the taxi industry, so there’s a lot of hanging out, drinking beers, making sure we’re on the same page.”

“I love how we’re talking an industry and making it more efficient, seamless, moders. Now people won’t have to cruise around looking for parking, which will reduce traffic and pollution. I love that our product gives consumer confidence that they’ have a spot and are getting the price and location they want–like when buying something on Amazon. I enjoy the relationship with our operations. A lot of them are really appreciative the way we’re modernizing the industry and making it just a bit cooler.A lot of these people are my friends now.”

“Spot Hero’s corporate team/culture is incredible–driven, intelligent, kind. Ther’es not one person I wouldn’t go to war with–or have a beer with! All those relationsihp and support make me really enjoy the job. Though I do look forward to getting another person on my team and hopefully not having to work 60 hours/week.”

“Having Berklee on my resume was very impressive to Zipcar’s marketing team. They knew I was a hard worker due to all that practice, but also that I was creative, laid back, and a good teammate from all the working with bands which we all do.”

“I became more optimistic about my music after becoming financially stable.   With a good day job, I had the $ to buy the gear i wanted, and to go into a professional studio if I wanted to. That job opened up more opportunities, and it also reduced anxiety, which can get in the way of the creative process.”

“I got to where I am professionally by starting at ground zero as a brand ambassador at Zipcar.  That introduced me to corporate clients and my knowledge of the consumer sector was great preparation. By starting at the bottom I really knew all about the company and felt really empowered–better than 95% of acct. executives because I really knew the company & product.

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Nicole Olver

Listen to the interview (approx. 38 min.) or download it.

 

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

 

Position:  Head of People Operations (Human Resources) at Contently, a tech-based marketing firm that helps companies tell their stories on various online media platforms.  Nicole’s job involves career guidance, problem solving, and ensuring fair treatment of her fellow employees as well as more administrative tasks.

Update, 2018:  A few months after speaking in mid-2017, Nicole got a new, somewhat similar position, as V.P. of People at another tech firm, Conductor.

 

Overview:  Nicole got a 2-year performance degree in Australia (where she’s from), then spent a number of years working in music as well as in a number of different jobs, including working retail, some business-type positions, and working for an international development organization educating people about poverty-related issues.  In 2010 Nicole and her husband moved to Boston to continue their educations, with Nicole going to Berklee.  She graduated with two music industry job offers, taking one as a campaign manager at PledgeMusic.  Nicole worked there for two and a half years, gradually “falling into” a more Human-Resources type role, as at the time nobody else was doing it.

Eventually Nicole felt that her career had gone as far as it would go at that company.  With good HR skills and a desire to be better paid, she went to the Uncubed conference in New York, a large, tech-based hiring fair.  She met with Contently there and followed up repeatedly telling them, “I’m your person!”  It took half a year from that first meeting until Nicole was hired in early 2016, but she has been there ever since.

You can see Nicole’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice quotes:  “There has been a major shift in HR (Human Resources). It used to be mainly hiring, firing, and performance reviews. Now we’re more ‘people operations’ — working as a strategic partner, and that makes HR a very complex role and a lot more interesting. We do staff engagement.  Once someone’s there we see how they are treated, oriented, and how their career develops. Plus we help ensure a smooth ending if they leave.”

“I wake up excited to go to work. It’s rare and special. As a musician you genuinely want to connect. HR for me is similar–many HR people I know are musicians–we get to connect with people. I get to advocate for staff; my focus is that people enjoy what they’re doing and have a place to do it in.”

“Creativity is at the forefront of tech, whether it’s in problem solving or how we look at the world.   At Berklee we had to really analyze our creativity, and perfect it, and that definitely made me better at my job.”

“When you start your career, don’t be above the starting point–y first jobs in college I worked at a bar and was a file clerk.  You can’t get to the top without the lower-level experience; you can’t lead people unless you know what they’re doing. Be OK and open with those early roles and be excited about it and learn from it. Then as you work your way up highlight how the skills led to the different roles.”

“If you want a career in HR, get really good at problem solving. Take psychology / organizational design classes if at all possible.  Learn different work styles, and how people think–t work well with people you have to understand what motivates & demotivates people.   Once you know, stuff there are a lot of meetups and training organizations & events. Go to those and meet people.”

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Mike Skauge

Listen to the interview (approx. 1 hr. 15. min, thought the last 15 are us talking about this project as opposed to his career) or download it.

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

 

Position:  Retail Store Manager.  Mike manages Filson’s one store in New York.  Filson makes “soft-luxury” outdoor wear and accessories.  The one salaried employee in the store, mike supervises employees, organizes events, attempts to grow the New York market, and interfaces with the corporate headquarters.

 

Overview:  Shortly after his arrival at Berklee in 2007, Mike realized he needed a side job.  He enjoyed the outdoors, so applied for and got a retail job at Hilton’s Tent City.  He worked there for the rest of his time at Berklee, gradually (and informally) taking on more of a managerial role.  Graduating during the terrible economy of 2010, he was unable to find a job in the music industry, so kept working at the store for another year.  However, it being a small, family-owned business his opportunity for advancement was very limited.

In 2011 a former coworker referred him to a job as a retail store manager with a European outdoor wear company which was expanding.  With excellent experience, Mike got the job.  However ultimately he felt that things were disorganized and he was underpaid, so he started putting out feelers for new opportunities.  He was familiar with the Filson brand and saw that they had recently opened up a store in a city other than their factory, so he cold-emailed their HR department saying, “If you ever want to open up a store in New York, I’m your guy!”  Several months later, in early 2014, they responded that indeed that was the plan, and several interviews later he got his current job.

 

You can see Mike’s Linkedin Profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  ” I’ve always focused on making sure I believe in the products of the companies I work for. Filson started as an outfitter for the Klondike Gold Rush; we’ve been making products in our Seattle factory every since! Most brands don’t have that rich history. Helping people and being about to share that story is a real privilege. It’s great not working at a place where we don’t have to invent a story to sell a lousy product.”

“One thing I take the lead on is that we put on some sort of in-store event roughly once per week, to get new traffic. We’re looking for partners whose communities align well with out brand, whether food or drink or working artisans. One example of what we do is we had a guy come in and carve a mallet out of wood. We get up a table for him to work and live streamed it.”

“Musicians have to be cognizant of how to use their time–all the time to practice, juggling gigs, dealing with people. That has a very direct correlation with what I do. ”

“I may be the manager, but I’m not above doing any sort of job, whether it’s selling product, washing windows or sweeping the floor.  In general, if you want a career working for a retail-oriented business, it’s best to start off working on the retail floor. It’s a great experience everyone should have–you get a good perspective when it comes to deal with people–meeting and engaging with new people every day.”

“At that first retail job I wasn’t motivated all that much by the pay, but wanted to get the most out of it because good experiences would make me a lot of money down the road.”

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Jack Reedy

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

 

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

 

Position:  Production Line Supervisor at Anheuser-Busch (Becks).  As a management trainee, Jack is rotating through different positions in the large brewery.  In his current role, Jack primarily supervises almost 40 people on the bottling line, but he also does quality checks, analyzes processes and does projects designed to increase efficiency.

 

Overview:  After graduation, Jack moved home to Chicago.  Unable to find a local job in music publishing, Jack got a commission-only job selling insurance.  He hoped it would lead to a job in finance, but the pay was low and it was clear that this was a dead end.  After a couple of years he got a somewhat better but still not-great job as a customer service rep. at a corporate benefits firm.  Meanwhile, Jack became romantically involved with a German woman and when she moved back to Bremen, Germany he decided some months later to follow her there.

Arriving in Germany in 2014, Jack wanted to get a Masters in Business, though his classes needed to be in English.  The closest thing he could find was Jacobs University’s Masters in International Logistics, Management and Engineering (The program has changed slightly since his time.). Tuition was very low, so he went there.  Breweries were major local employers, so Jack focused his academic work on breweries.  He got an internship program halfway through his masters program, and having done well at that had his current job lined up when he graduated in 2016.

 

You can see Jack’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes: “I enjoyed beer in college, then I met my German girlfriend I got back into drinking beer. I tried many craft beers, talked and learned about beer, and so forth. Then I moved to Germany, the Mecca of beer!”

“I once  saw graffiti at Berklee that read “Keep your chin up.’ and it’s so true!  There will be tough times where you’re not sure where you’re going, but just keep going and believe that at some point things will get better they will be. Keep applying for better things–you might face rejection or go down false paths, but eventually it’ll work out.”

“I’m happy that I studied logistics. Logistics is more than just transportation–supply chains are extremely important and applicable to many different businesses.”

“At Berklee, I liked playing jazz, and the general atmosphere of Berklee taught me to improvise well. Taking those improvisational  skills into life has helped me think on my feet and adapt to change.”

 

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John Branch IV

Listen to the interview (approx. 46 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2010 with a major in Electronic Production & Design (EPD).  Principal Instrument:  alto saxophone.

 

Positions: Main Job:  Customer Operations Team Lead at SquareSpace., company with over 500 employees (roughly half in customer support!) which serves as a do-it-yourself website and blogging platform.  Having worked his way up from Customer Support Representative, John now supervises a team of ten, making sure his team members are performing well as helping them advance their own careers.

Side Job:  Wedding Photograher at John Branch Photography, his own business in which he performs all roles:  marketing, planning, photography, photo editing, etc.  John did six weddings in 2016 and expects to do ten in 2017.  Each wedding is a good 40-50 hours of work on his end.

 

Overview:  Team lead:  John started at Berklee in 2003, but ran out of money partway through and spent a couple of years at home in North Carolina before returning as a part-time student and completing his degree.  During that interim time, John got a job at the Apple store, first in sales and later doing one-on-one trainings with customers, which he enjoyed.  He continued to work  for Apple while at Berklee as well as afterward in NYC where for four years he also worked in a studio as “the coffee boy.”  Frustrated with what felt like dead-end jobs, he left both.  Then a former coworker from the Apple Store in New York reached out to him, saying they were working at Squarespace and he should work there too.  On their recommendation and some interviews he got the job.  After a year or so he was promoted to shift lead–a combination of customer support and supervisory role, and after another year, in mid-2015, Squarespace created these Team Lead positions and he was promoted into it.

Photography:  In 2013 his first child was born and, with his wife staying at home taking care of the baby, he felt the need to supplement their income.  He enjoyed photography, and his wife encouraged him to start his own business.  Business has been gradually increasing as experience gives him both more word-or-mouth recommendations and a larger portfolio.

 

You can see his LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “I’ve always been into customer service. I like helping people and teaching people. During my hiatus from Berklee, just for fun, I’d make YouTube tutorials on Ableton Live. Now I’m directly coaching my advisers. ‘I’ve been in your role. I can give you ideas on how to better do it.'”

“Don’t just find what you love, but find the ABOUT what you love. For example, I like the creative process and bringing it to fruition. That’s my ABOUT. I can do that in music, but also in other fields. So I don’t feel bad about not doing music.”

“Squarespace is really big on one-on-ones between managers and team members. I meet with each person on my team at least every other week, and a majority of my time is spent in those meetings or prepping for them. . There’s also manager meetings regarding overall how customer operations is going, anything that should change, new directives, etc. What time is left we fill with our own projects.”

“Wedding photography is mainly customer service & people skills, and the photography part is what you do the least of. During the wedding day you try to capture as much as possible while adhering to the timeline. You’re also right there with the couple, so if things go badly you get to keep people calm and happy.”

“I get paid around $2,500 to do a wedding, but a typical wedding is 8 hours that I’m there, plus a hour or more travel time each way, 5 hours communication about details and up 30 hours for photo editing. So that one wedding becomes almost 50 hours of work.”

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.

Luis Augusto

Listen to the interview (approx. 26 min.) or download it.

 

Graduated in 2014 with a major in Music Production and Engineering (MP&E).  Principle instrument:  bass guitar.

 

Position:  Front-End Web Developer at HDMZ, an online marketing/communications agency the builds websites and does online marketing for health and biotech firms.  August’s job is to build the websites for clients, working on an 8-person technical team.

 

Overview:  Shortly after starting Berklee Luis got heavily involved with the BIRN.  His second year, the BIRN’s web person had graduated, so Luis offered to be their web developer as a work-study position, which he did for two years.  His time was split between building/upgrading the website and learning online how to do so.  During his final year Luis was station manager, so didn’t so much with the web.

When Luis graduated, he moved to San Francisco and wanted to work in sound in the video game industry.  For the next two years, he got a number of temporary contract jobs doing that, initially via networking at a video game developers conference.  However, he grew weary of the highly-variable income and uncertainties associated with contracting, and wanted to steadier job, with being in music no longer a priority.  A friend referred him to a recruiter, who helped him find and land his current job.

 

You can seen Luis’s LinkedIn profile here.

 

Choice Quotes:  “Web development is a very flexible field. I could move anywhere and still do it. It’s also a very easy field to find a job in.”

“When a client signs up with us, we have a designer, a front end developer, and a back end developer work together to build their site.  I’m the front-end developer.”

 

You definitely have to have the dedication and motivation to learn web development successfully. It can be a rough start at the beginning, much like learning to play the violin. You may not understand why you’re doing certain things, but later on it’ll make sense.  A good way to learn this stuff is to sue online resources.   Code Academy is good; Lynda and Udacity are great too.”

 

Luis as a Berklee student, at the console.  “I like web development. I enjoy building stuff, That’s why I got into sound design at Berklee–getting into the nitty-gritty, and seeing something I envisioned come into existence.”

Luis remains involved in music production though doing sound for Clockwork 5 Productions, a film and video company he and several friends started together.

 

 

Luis playing with a band.  While music remains part of his life, he cautions, “If you enjoy doing something else besides music, don’t lock yourself into doing music just because you have a music degree. It could turn out a lot better if you go with something else you enjoy rather than struggle while looking for that perfect music job.”

 

 

 

 

Luis’s parting thoughts:  “Good luck to the new grads out there–I hope everything works out for you!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.