Students, Alumni Connect at Career Interest Night
The Academy’s second Career Interest Night, held on Sunday, April 14, introduced Exonians to a variety of potential careers that Exeter alumni have pursued in the past.
According to Allison Goddard, the Director of Alumni Relations, the intention behind this event was to “offer students an opportunity to learn more about a variety of careers and what life is like after Exeter in a professional capacity.”
Moderated by Janney Wilson ’83, the panel showcased seven alumni in the fields of law, education, finance, research, broadcasting/journalism, entrepreneurship/production and medicine. The wide variety of fields allowed each student to find something of interest. However, some students wished that more non-traditional careers would be represented in future iterations of the Career Interest Night.
The event commenced with a panel, followed by small group Harkness conversations with students and alumni. Throughout the event, many of the alumni noted the beneficial applications of the Harkness method on the rest of Exonians’ lives. “The style of learning here—we all learned to communicate with one another in an academic setting—that is a total gift to you guys. You will maybe never be in an environment where it is so encouraged as it is here, including college,” Brian Shactman ’90, morning anchor at NBC Boston 10 and broadcasting/journalism panelist, said.
Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Office, Managing Director at Commonfund and finance panelist Caroline Gillespie Greer ’83 also spoke to the value [that] Harkness brought to the rest of her career. “Exeter gave me a discipline of thought—a construct around which to think about problems. The Harkness system of thinking laterally around a problem is incredibly valuable,” Greer said.
During the event, many alumni also touched on the plasticity of one’s career path. “You may be set on one thing, but there are going to be some roadblocks, there are going to be some opportunities, there are going to be some zigs and zags on the road that you probably hadn’t known would be there,” lecturer at the Economics Department of Brown University and education panelist Brad Gibbs ’88 said.
Similarly, as partner at McDermott Will & Emery and law panelist Byron Kalogerou ’79 observed, the dialogue revolved around the theme that “one’s career path is rarely linear.”
This message very much impacted the students. As upper Smaiyl Makyshov said, “While I am mostly set and confident on the area of my career that I hope to pursue, I was inspired to keep my mind open and look for any various opportunities in front of me and perhaps try new things and explore.”
Greer encouraged sentiments such as Makyshov’s, saying, “Pursue your passion! Anytime you do something you have passion for, especially if you are an Exonian and have a tendency to try and be a perfectionist, which most Exonians do, if you pursue your passion you will be successful.”
During a Harkness discussion, Director of Lower Extremity Transplant Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and medicine panelist Matt Carty ’90 echoed the same sentiments. “Once you figure out who you are and what you want to do, it’s life-changing. In this stage of life, you should be like a radio tower, taking in signals from all over the place,” Carty said. “You’re in such an amazing environment here with the ability to get exposed to stuff that you might never, ever do again. It might be totally beyond what you think your world is, you may accidentally stumble upon the you that will be you for the rest of your life.”
This message resonated with students and left a lasting impression. Not only were students inspired to expand their horizons, but the event also sparked meaningful conversations amongst alumni and between students. Lower Diana Lorch said, “One of the main takeaways of the event was that if you’re truly passionate about something, it’ll work out, and also that in general life works itself out sometimes.”
Although the alumni at Career Interest Night diverged on vastly different paths after Exeter, they all found success in their own way. “It was really helpful to know that there is life after Exeter. We get stuck in this bubble where we think that all that matters is our GPA, but that’s just not it,” lower Bizzie Lynch said. “It was really amazing to see other Exonians that had made it. They didn’t know any more about where they were going to go than us and yet they were still able to do great.”