Hi Kate! We’re super excited to catch up with you. Tell us, what have you been up to since graduating in May 2014?
Following graduation, I moved home to California to crack down on my job search. Learning about social entrepreneurship in my senior year at Northeastern made for a less than timely pivot in career trajectory – but I was grateful to have had my eyes opened to much more interesting applications of a finance degree than I had previously known existed.
I also made the job search quite difficult for myself by casting a narrow net: social enterprises with economic empowerment missions and solid business models. I was fortunate enough to interview with some really great organizations before finding the best fit with One Acre Fund. But for the purposes of full disclosure, this process lasted nearly nine months! I held out for a long time in search of the right fit, longer than would have been reasonable and even responsible for most, and it’s unlikely I would have lasted half as long had I not taken on a few odd jobs and passion projects (one of which being with SEI!) along the way.
I am now very happily employed as an Associate Recruiter on One Acre Fund’s People Operations team, and it is absolutely more than a job. In many ways, I am also grateful for the time between graduation and this point because it definitely fostered a form of empathy relevant to my work as a recruiter.
How do you think your undergraduate career pushed you in that direction?
While at Northeastern, I studied International Business with concentrations in Finance and Entrepreneurship. My first co-op was with Wellington Management, and my second co-op was with a very small start-up travel and lifestyle agency in Paris. Both strong and very different experiences, neither a perfect fit.
I returned to Boston after my expatriate year in France hoping my fifth and final year at Northeastern would bring some clarity (I think this is the hope of most graduating seniors). Some years bring questions, others bring answers – my senior year definitely opened the floor to more questions. What would it mean for me to shift the focus of my job search to international development? How is my experience in investment management and luxury travel going to translate? Can development be a sustainable career path?
If not for the classes I took with Professor Shaughnessy in my senior year, I’m not sure I would even know about One Acre Fund let alone the tremendous need for organizations like it. SEI became a really useful lens and tool for me as I explored the world of social enterprise.
Also, during my last year at Northeastern, I worked within D’Amore-McKim’s Co-op Department as a Senior Peer Mentor, conducting resume reviews and mock interviews with business students preparing for their first co-op assignments. This is definitely where the initial seed was planted that sparked my interest in recruitment.
Can you tell us a bit about what you do at your current job?
One Acre Fund is working to improve the lives of millions of smallholder farmers across Africa by providing access to the financing, quality inputs and education they need to be successful. In order to do this, One Acre Fund must recruit, grow and retain the world’s best international development talent. As a recruiter, I support the People Operations team and its vision of making One Acre Fund a leading non-profit in the areas of recruitment and staff growth and retention.
The People Operations team applies an incredible amount of rigor to the measurement of its success in these areas, too! We receive and process hundreds of applications each week, so managing this candidate pipeline is a large part of my day-to-day work, as is executing the various stages of One Acre Fund’s unique and demanding interview process.
If the work of One Acre Fund’s People Operations team interests you, check out our current internship openings here!
Can you also tell us a bit about your involvement with SEI both now and in the past? How did you get involved?
My first introduction to SEI did not take place until my senior year when I took my first social entrepreneurship course (better late than never!), and it wasn’t long afterwards that I started exploring and assessing this world as a possible place for a long-term career.
Under the fearless leadership of Ali Matalon, I traveled to Jamaica with the 2014 capstone class around this time last year. It was one of the highlights of my time as an undergraduate, and it’s an experience I revisit often. As a class we were awarded $25,000 to apply as either an impact investment or structured grant to a pilot project in-country, and since graduation I have been contributing in a remote capacity to the microwork project that was selected by my classmates (also under Ali’s leadership!).
If you could give one piece of advice to students struggling to understand their “path” what would it be?
Paths are really only visible once we’ve started walking and then turn around to see where we’ve traveled; at least this is true for our own paths. It’s hard to share advice on this subject when our journeys are so individual, and I think we are too often told to follow our passions when he haven’t quite yet figured out what those passions are yet. So, my advice is to be patient with yourself while you search for your passion. Passion is an intense emotion and it doesn’t grow simply because we want it to. Use the rest of your time at Northeastern (and the rest of your life, too!) being open to the opportunities that will spark new interests and eventually grow into passions. Having a good understanding of your strengths is really important– otherwise how are you going to contribute when you finally know what you really care about?
If you could give one piece of advice for students looking to work within social enterprise, what would it be?
Of the many qualifications One Acre Fund seeks in candidates, leadership is among the most important. Becoming involved with SEI is a fantastic way to develop your leadership style in the context of social entrepreneurship. It doesn’t matter how much time you have left at Northeastern; contribute your strengths and “GSD” abilities! The work SEI is doing is real – and it’s really important.
