Posted on

Meet Alum, Viennie Chanthachack ’11, Campus Recruiting Coordinator, HubSpot

Name: Viennie Chanthachack

Class Year: 2011

Title: Campus Recruiting Coordinator

Organization: HubSpot

 

In one sentence, what does your job entail?

In my role as a campus recruiting coordinator at HubSpot, I’m responsible for planning remarkable events aimed to help students discover career opportunities in our global offices, while also ensuring students have a positive interviewing experience with our team.

 

What were you involved in when you were on campus?

I was involved in many student orgs, but back then, I was most active as a CAB (Campus Activities Board) co-chair, a Fall and Summer Orientation Leader, and as a graphic artist for the Student Involvement office.

 

What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

As a Psychology major at Holy Cross, you take classes that help you understand human behavior through a number of different perspectives and then apply that knowledge through research. Through that journey, I learned that I loved to be analytical and critically think through solving interesting problems. That discovery not only helped me define my personal career goals, but also the types of opportunities I wanted to pursue after graduation.

 

What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?

While working in Professor (Patricia) Kramer’s research lab during my senior year, I was unexpectedly enamored by the technologies we used to organize and conduct our research. From the software to the equipment we used, I increasingly grew interested in how our technology worked, and constantly thought about how I could enable the team to do our work best in the lab. That love for helping people, like my research group, find technology solutions ultimately inspired my decision to go into the tech industry. After graduation, I was fortunate to start my journey working for Apple. After a month into the role, I knew it was the right fit because I was aligning my passion for helping others everyday with tasks and projects that naturally leveraged my skills and strengths.

 

What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

When you take Research Methods as a psychology major, you learn about and practice the methods and techniques used in psychological research. Things like experimental design and statistical analysis are skills that I use daily in my role. Our team is always trying to identify ways to improve the candidate interviewing experience. To do that, we regularly design experiments and analyze data to test processes that we hypothesize will have positive outcomes on our candidates during their interview process. During a time in which businesses are becoming more data-driven in their decision making, these skills are becoming more and more invaluable in the workplace.
Posted on

Meet Alumna Sydney Latour ’17, Analyst – Asset Owner Sales, J.P. Morgan

Name: Sydney Latour

Class Year: 2017

Title: Analyst – Asset Owner Sales

Organization Name: J.P. Morgan

 

In one sentence, what does your job entail? 

I am an analyst on the Asset Owner Sales team and support senior client executives who sell securities services to corporate and public pension funds, endowments and foundations.

 

What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?  

Events such as the Finance Intern Panel and Women in Business Conference sparked my interest in finance. I began networking with alumni during my sophomore year and continued those conversations during my first internship in financial journalism between sophomore and junior year. Following that internship, I completed an academic internship at a financial planning office and a summer internship at J.P. Morgan. My internship experience confirmed my decision to pursue a career in finance.

 

What were you involved in when you were on campus? 

 On campus, I was involved in Finance Club, study abroad and Purple Key Society. I also worked as a Peer Career Assistant in the Center for Career Development.

 

What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions? 

 I was a double major in Economics and Spanish. I knew I wanted to pursue a career that required strong analytical and communication skills.

 

What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work? 

 Time management and resourcefulness. Holy Cross taught me to balance various commitments and meet deadlines. The liberal arts education also taught me to think broadly and critically when approaching a project.

 

What advice do you have for students on campus today? 

 Leverage the resources Holy Cross offers, such as the HC Network, Career Development drop-in hours and alumni job shadowing. Reach out to alumni early to establish a professional network. Take classes that interest you and don’t forget to enjoy the fastest four years of your life!
Posted on

Meet Alumna Abaigeal Healy ’11, Communication & Change Management Consultant, Willis Towers Watson

Name: Abaigeal Heally

Class Year: 2011

Title: Communication & Change Management Consultant

Organization Name: Willis Towers Watson

 

In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I develop and implement communication strategies and employee engagement tools to help large organizations enhance their total employee experience.

 

What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross?

 Several extra-curricular activities connected me to the communications industry and the business world, including:

  • Pre-Business club and its accompanying networking events – this is how I learned about EMC, which was my first job after Holy Cross; I spoke up during a Q&A session and afterward an alumni and employee of EMC encouraged me to apply to their Marketing Development Program
  • Summer Internship Program (SIP) – I had two fantastic internships where I worked alongside Holy Cross alumni, one of them who was the CEO of the company at the time
  • Communications and Advertising Club (now called the Agency, I believe)
  • Alumni panel where I explored fields I might be interested in
  • Holy Cross sponsored Career Fairs

 

What were you involved in when you were on campus?

Besides some of the career-focused activities, I noted above, I studied abroad for a year in Ireland. This was a unique opportunity that provided me with fresh perspectives – it set me apart from other candidates when applying for jobs who studied for just a semester or so. I have been able to apply my experiences from my year abroad to every job I have had since graduating. Having, since worked at three global companies, I find this continues to be an important part of my career – working at a company that’s involved in international projects and seeks to understand global perspectives.

I was also involved with the Jesuit community at Holy Cross, having served as a Eucharistic minister.

 

What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I was a Psychology major and Studio Art Minor. I knew I enjoyed studying people, especially, emotional intelligence. I wanted to mix my interest in Psychology with my passion for design. That naturally led me to explore marketing and branding. What I learned after several internships was that writing was a way to influence people, and if you do it right, you can change behaviors. This was exciting to me! I wanted to be able to use my degree and what I knew about cognitive processes and apply that to the real world – to the everyday working person, employees.

That’s when I learned more about Communications and all the different hats that Communications people wear at corporations. Communications is a job where you use words and visuals to reach and inform the everyday consumer – the employee (you and me) on all sorts of topics from announcements like leadership changes to new benefit programs. As a consultant, I help companies all over the world do this. It’s always changing and I get to learn about lots of news, workplaces and cultures!

 

What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

 The obvious ones are time management, project management and writing skills. The more philosophical one that Holy Cross encouraged me to develop was my ability to question. Challenging the status quo is the approach I take to solve everyday business problems.

 

What advice do you have for students on campus today?

 I recently went to the Massachusetts Women’s Conference and saw Elizabeth Gilbert speak, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, and she said the one thing we all need to do more of is RELAX. I thought this was such a simple bit of advice, but so profound. She said, the next time you are in a meeting, look around an observe everyone. The most powerful person in the room is the most relaxed. As students and as alumni, we all are working so hard, and we should continue to push ourselves to our fullest, but if you feel like you can’t do it all that day, just take a breath, and know it’s all going to be alright! Make sure you have a strong support system and you take the time to prioritize those people. Wellbeing is becoming an ever more important part of work/life culture, if you don’t have your health physically and mentally, we can’t be our best selves. So during your next moment of stress or anxiety, remember… just RELAX! It’s all going to be alright.