A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

As a recent Hofstra graduate (2017), I remember my senior year constantly feeling the stress when I hear of all of my peers going on job interviews and signing their contracts, and I had NO clue where to start. I was soon going to be holding my BBA in Marketing and had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I went on a bunch of interviews and nothing felt right. 

I ended up landing a position at a small, family-run project management firm in NYC as the Executive Assistant to the CEO. It ended up being the most amazing first job I could have dreamed of. I loved working for a small company because while my title was Executive Assistant, I was handling all of their marketing, which I was able to brag about on my resume. Eventually I got brought into the swing of project management and got promoted to assist with client projects. 

I still felt something was missing. I would work 9-5 and go home and ask myself "now what?". I tried to volunteer locally, looked for local part-time jobs, I needed to fill my extra time because that's how I am! A year after graduating I decided to apply for graduate school, do a complete u-turn in my career path, and got into the Higher Education Leadership & Policy Program here at Hofstra. 

SURPRISE! I want to work in student affairs because of what Hofstra gave me during my undergraduate years. Hofstra gave me joy and inspiration and being here doesn't feel like a 9-5 to me. The best part about being able to change your career direction is that you can learn how to apply all the various skills you've acquired and apply them in anything you do. I've taken my marketing and customer service skills and applied that to my project management position. I then took my project management skills and applied it to running events throughout campus. All my skills and my passions are brought with me no matter what I do in the end. 

So what I hope you get out of my story is that it is OKAY to change your path and it doesn't matter WHEN you decide to change your path!

Kari Schaefer
Graduate Marketing Assistant
The Career Center