Editor’s Note: To further connect alumni to current students, The College Voice is working to create a consistent Alumni Spotlight column, featuring alumni from all walks of life. If you are a Connecticut College graduate and are interested in being interviewed by one of our writers, please email contact@thecollegevoice.org.
As a first-year, I’ve spent the past year or so trying to figure out what I want to do; be that in terms of college, job or just general life. Being at Conn now answers one of those questions at least, but being very much undecided as far as a major goes leaves the rest of those questions fairly unanswered. The future has always been a fairly intimidating thing for me (especially with so much indecision on my part as to what I actually want to do), so it was good to catch up with recent alum Hallie Selinger ’14.
I wanted to learn about life after college. Does college actually prepare you for the real world or is it just a buffer between high school and turning into a ‘real person?’ “Is it intimidating going into the workforce?” I asked tentatively, hoping the answer would be “no, of course not, easiest thing I’ve ever done.” I knew realistically, that really wasn’t the case. Her answer was yes because moving to a city like Boston, where she works now, was a bit of a shock. “Coming from such a small place,” she replied, “you have to start at the bottom again.” But she quickly noted how much CELS had helped her. “Now that I can see how important all these skills [from CELS] are, from both perspectives, I am so appreciative of everything I learned from CELS.”
Selinger started her life after college at a nonprofit and has since moved to the Institute of Contemporary Art as a gallery attendant. Since her supervisor went on maternity leave, Selinger has been asked to step up as gallery supervisor, despite the fact that the position is not usually held by employees this early in their career. “It’s an incredible career step for me and an exciting challenge” she said. Although she very modestly admits to being lucky with the way things have panned out, it is clear that the hard work has paid off in getting her to where she is now.
“Both perspectives” she talks about come from the interesting, and advanced, new position Selinger has acquired at the ICA. Part of her new position is reviewing job applications. “I didn’t expect that I would be in a position to hire people so soon out of school, but now I have a chance to see how a poorly written cover letter or resume looks from the side of the person hiring. I’ll admit, I read some very frightening cover letters this past week.” She continued to emphasize the lessons she learned from CELS and how now she sees just how much those helped her, compared, especially, to a lot of other people coming out of college who didn’t have this resource. She said she now looks for some of the things that CELS taught her when hiring people, too. An example she used is that of thanking the person doing the job interview in an email after the interview itself. “It’s courteous, professional and appropriate,” she finished.
Selinger’s story was comforting to me. She had majored in Art and art history and was able to continue her passions into the workforce. Through her hard work, she was able to leap up into an advanced position at ICA where she’s teaching and leading discussions amongst her coworkers, managing the schedule and gaining a new perspective of the job application process by actually being the one to hire people. •
