My First Year Out – Telling Your Story

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Here at Afterword, we like telling stories. Throughout the year we will bring you a continuing series called My First Year Out about recent graduates (including yourselves), to hopefully inspire and remind you that many UVM graduates take a variety of different paths to success in their first year out.

This week we are featuring one of our favorite check ins from last year’s class, Kristen Roche ’17, who took a chance on Portland, Oregon.

As her story demonstrates, if you network strategically and keep an open mind about what you want to do, you’ll put yourself in the position to do what you have always wanted (and learn more about yourself along the way).

Enjoy Kristen’s story!

Describe your first year out:

My first year of post-grad has been weird.

I can’t believe it’s almost been a full year since graduation. I’ve spent the past year focusing on myself and having fun trying to ‘figure it out.’ Don’t let anyone fool you, though, even if someone looks like they have it figured out…they don’t.

After graduation, I packed everything I own into my tiny car, and did the whole ‘cross-country road trip’ thing. I drove from Vermont to Oregon, to start my new life in Portland.

In my first five months here, I moved five separate times before finally signing a lease, on my own, in downtown Portland. I got a temp job working at Business Oregon, the State’s Economic Development Agency, helping with the Governor’s trade mission to Japan.

After that, I worked as a pizza delivery person for a hot sec…delivering pizzas until 5am at a very punk Portland establishment. Then I was offered a job as a Marketing Assistant for an Engineering firm.

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What was your biggest challenge, and how did you overcome it?

I’m really proud of myself for getting a job that challenges me and sparks my interest.

Moving across the country with no connections and zero professional work experience proved to be quite the challenge. You always hear “it’s all about who you know” when trying to find a job, and I knew no one.

I joke around that it’s really impressive I moved to Oregon with nothing and could have easily been flipping burgers at McDonalds (nothing wrong with that) but instead found myself shaking hands with the Governor.

I overcame the struggle by reaching out to anyone and everyone that was pointed in my direction. You cannot let rejection and awkwardness inhibit you from putting yourself out there.

There’s a lot of little details you need to remember; writing thank you notes, making great first impressions, and consistently following through even if your first email gets ignored. It’s important to remember it’s not personal and that people are just busy.

It was an emotional roller coaster, and especially difficult when all of my friends and family were back on the east coast. In order to overcome any challenges, I am learning to embrace the experience and accept that life is supposed to be a little weird right now.

What did you learn from this experience?

I’ve learned that I love drinking tea, I hate Doc Martens. And no matter how hard I try I can’t paint to save my life.

In the bigger picture, I’ve learned that it is SO IMPORTANT to trust your gut and just go for it – whatever that may be. You really grow as a person and figure yourself out when you put yourself in tough situations.

What are you doing now?

Honestly, I’m thriving as I continue to use different gyms for their free-week promos. I’m learning to not spend $50 every weekend on brunch and which skincare routine works best for me.

I’m going out, making new friends and enjoying the fact that random strangers find me interesting and laugh at my dumb jokes.

Professionally, I’m a Marketing Assistant for a civil engineering firm. It’s really cool because marketing is done the same across the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, so I’ve joined a niche community, SMPS, that I believe will immensely help me to develop professionally. I’m being exposed to a variety of different projects, and I enjoy knowing little details of what’s going on around me. I’m really interested in urban development, so it’s a really good fit.

Any advice?

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Put yourself in situations that force you to develop people skills and grow your network. Use your youth and ignorance as an advantage and ask for help, because no one needs it more than a recent college grad with absolutely no experience – plus people inherently want to help.

Take risks now because even if you fail, you’re still young enough to bounce back. Plus, it’s more interesting if you have adventures to tell stories about later.

Think you might be developing your own exciting first-year out story? Know a friend who will be doing something awesome? Click the button below and refer a friend (or yourself).

Check In with Your Afterword Hosts

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Welcome back to Afterword!

This week we thought, as your hosts on Afterword, we would introduce ourselves and give you a little background about us. All three of us graduated from UVM, so we know what it’s like to be in your shoes and we wanted to share our stories with you.

We’ll be checking with other alumni and your own classmates throughout the year – so take a look at our stories and stay tuned for even more in the coming weeks!

What was your first year out like?

My first year out was a struggle to find a career identity. As an English major, I had skills, but was uncertain how to put them to use in a career sense. I moved back home with my parents to save money with a rough plan to go to graduate school, but in reality I should have either stayed in Burlington or moved somewhere else to get some internships and career work.

Now I always tell graduating students, go where you want to be, even if you have to rough it – basically don’t play it safe.

While at home (this was 2010/11) I binge watched TV shows on DVDs rented from local libraries and helped my dad with yard-work and read books in my spare time when I wasn’t working.

I visited friends in Burlington a lot and moved back up about 11 months after I left. Soon after I started graduate school at UVM. Everything worked out and I’m still living in Burlington.

If you could go back, what would you change about your experience at UVM?

I wish I got involved in EVERYTHING I could, more clubs, more intramural sports etc. – Now I volunteer at WRUV to sort of make up for missing that as an undergrad. I’m lucky to have such a cool opportunity.

 

What was your first year out like?

When I graduated from UVM in 2015, I had absolutely no plan.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I had a part time job at Macy’s working in the stock room, and enough cash to justify staying in Vermont while I began my search for a full time position. Within a month, I was working full time on the floor at Macy’s and with every closing shift I knew in my bones that retail was not for me.

When a Development Assistant position opened at the UVM Foundation, I decided to apply for it – A change of pace. I’m not sure what I expected when I took that position, but it didn’t fully live up to what I was hoping I would find in a job.

I told myself I would stick it out and stay for a full year. When I began my job search again, a year later, I realized how much I had learned about myself.

My job search didn’t go anywhere fast. Luckily, Six months later I was approached about moving into the Assistant Director of Annual Giving position at the Foundation. I love living in Vermont post-UVM, and was thrilled to have an exciting new opportunity to stay.

If you could go back, what would you change about your experience at UVM?

I would have gotten more involved with student groups. I found the people I loved, and I stuck with them. But, that doesn’t mean I found the THING that I loved. I think that if I had been a bit more outgoing and involved with things I may have found something that I was truly passionate about.

Same goes for my studies – I always envisioned myself going on to get higher degrees, but I never found the right mentor relationship with my professors, and didn’t find the thing that I loved enough to get me there.

But hey, let’s be real. Hindsight is 20/20, and I had a lot of growing up to do (I hope I still do!) and if I was 18 again I would probably make the same mistakes all over again. We’re all just the sum of our experiences, and that’s okay!

Everybody give yourself a break- you’re not going to know the answers right now, and that’s fine. Let’s enjoy finding the way together.

 

What was your first year out like?

After I graduated I had no idea what I was going to do professionally. I had an unpaid internship doing some graphic design work with a local non-profit animal rescue but other than that I didn’t have a plan.

I got in touch with one of my old professors who I had become close with and she offered me an opportunity to be her teaching assistant for her digital art class. It was my favorite class that I took at UVM so I couldn’t say no. Through that experience I got to work with students and her on various graphic design projects.

From there I fell in love with graphic design and I knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life!

After TAing I got two other internships, paid this time (woo!) as a graphic design intern for the University of Vermont Foundation, spoiler it ended up turning into a full-time position, hence why I’m here, and the other one was at Meredith Corporation working with EatingWell magazine.

I was fortunate enough to get offered a position at UVMF after interning there for a year and have been there ever since.

If you could go back, what would you change about your experience at UVM?

If I could go back, there would be a few things I would change. For one, and this is a big one, I would have started out as a declared studio art major. Since I started out as a mechanical engineering major I had to do a lot of catching up after switching half way through my junior year and on top of that I could not afford to go to school for longer than four years.

Had I taken this path to begin with, I probably would’ve been able to take more of the art classes I wanted to take, instead of one that just fit into my schedule. Since I switched so late and was taking summer classes to catch up, I didn’t get any internship experience while in school because of my schedule.

This delayed my job search as well because most jobs now you need previous experience and I had none. Graphic design is an extremely competitive field and you need experience to even be considered.

I also would have loved to travel abroad and get involved in more groups and activities on campus to gain experience.

But all in all it ended up working out even though it took longer than I expected to get a full-time job but I did it.

My advice to you all is to stick it out! It took me about a year and a half to get a position that I liked so don’t give up!

Would you like to be part of our Check In posts? Head over to the Tell Your Story tab at the top of the page and submit your story or if you have a friend that is doing something interesting refer them to be featured!

For you, Class of 2018

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Welcome to Afterword! We’re so glad you’re here.

We know it’s only been a month since you graduated, and you aren’t feeling nostalgic for UVM yet…

Or maybe you are nostalgic because the ‘real world’ is happening now. Some next level Sunday Scaries, if you ask us.

But first, you are probably wondering what this blog is all about.

Well, contrary to popular UVM lore – we’re not asking you for anything. This isn’t a secret trick to ask you for money or barrage your inbox with useless information.

This blog is the afterword to your UVM story. We’re here to keep you connected to UVM, Burlington, and to your classmates. And, we’re here to help you write your next chapter.

We’re recent grads like you. We work at the UVM Foundation and Alumni Association and our job is to help you.

Unlike your parents, we don’t expect you to know everything right now. You’re under a lot of pressure to plan the rest of your life (whether you have a job, a place to live, or neither) and we want to give you a place to feel at home.

We’ve been doing this for the past three years with the Classes of 2015, 2016, and 2017 so we are really excited to talk to you, get to know you all, and be as helpful as we can.

With that in mind, during Senior Week, we set up shop in Alumni House and asked many of you a few questions about your upcoming year, and recorded your answers with a professional podcasting microphone. Pretty neat.

Post-grad life is often very uncertain, and the reality sets in quickly that you are now really in charge of your life. Luckily, your classmates all feel the same way. And trust us, not everyone has a plan yet for what they are going to do next.

So take a minute and listen below to hear your classmates’ answers recorded live during senior week. Enjoy!

Stay tuned in the coming months for all of this helpful content and more!

Are you excited? We sure are.

 

So Long, Class of 2017

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This is it, Class of 2017, the final post of your afterword journey.

I know it seems a bit crazy to think about how an entire year has passed since your graduation.

We’re honored to have been on this journey with you for the past year, and we hope that by sharing the stories of you and your classmates, we helped you in some small way.

Maybe you got some free stuff, maybe you felt like you weren’t the only one feeling a little lost, or maybe you feel a bit more connected to your classmates.

Whatever the outcome, it’s been so much fun connecting with you all.

For some feels, we dug out the first Afterword post we sent to you: the audio stories that we collected from many of you at your senior week.

Take a listen, and hear how much you all have grown:

Thank you all so much for sharing your stories with us, and having a little fun along the way.

I know, you’re thinking: Wait, what happens now?

Well, there are tons of ways to stay involved with the Alumni Association, and the easiest options are ones you’ve probably already done! We’re on Facebook, Insta, Twitter, and LinkedIn – so if you haven’t followed us, go hit those Follow buttons!

Through our social, you’ll hear about opportunities to volunteer, as well as events that are happening near you!

Beyond that, we also have a new network for alumni that you should join!

It’s called UVM Connect, and it’s a space for UVM alums to come together for career networking of all kinds – whether it’s coffee, or a job shadow, there’s probably an alum out there who would be willing to share a thing or two with you!

You can also offer to help a fellow alum or a current student – use the life experience you gained this year for good!

Sound like a plan?

Cheers,

-Kathryn and Ryan

Checking in with William Lemos

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This week we checked in with one of your classmates, William Lemos who is doing exciting things in Boston. Read what he had to say about his first year out!

What are you up to in your first year out of UVM?

Since leaving Burlington I have been BUSY!

I’m a full time graduate student at Suffolk University working on a dual degree in Public Administration and Political Science. My focus is on government and professional politics. I’ve worked as a Graduate Fellow for the Universities Office of Student Leadership and Involvement, supporting their Fraternity and Sorority Life community. This past semester, I had the opportunity to be an associate intern at The Blue Lab, a political consulting group for campaigns in the Greater Boston and Massachusetts area.

When I’m not supporting Suffolk students or future politicians, I’m a Graduate RA for a fraternity at MIT.

Having my hand in a lot of different cookie jars has been both existing and exhausting at times but also immensely fulfilling. Every day is an entire new adventure and I honestly never really know what I’m going to have on my plate when I wake up in the morning.

I haven’t forgotten, though, the lessons on self-care and mindfulness that UVM taught me. I make time to focus on myself be it with early morning workouts or walks along the Charles River.

What are you looking forward to in the next year? What do you think will be your biggest challenge? 

One year from now, I’ll (hopefully) will have finished my degrees and will be graduating from Suffolk. Where the road will take me after that moment, I haven’t entirely figured out yet.

Will I be in Boston? Will I even be in New England? Better yet, will I be employed?

These are the big challenges and obstacle that are ahead of me in the year to come. Even with all this possible uncertainty, I’ll keep in mind the wise words from UVM Orientation: Be a duck!

What are you most proud of since you graduated?

Since graduating, I’m both grateful and thankful to still be able to work with undergraduate students through my roles at Suffolk University and MIT.

Being able to pass on what I have learned and share my experiences has been fulfilling and gratifying. The conversations that I’ve had about life, lived experiences, and the future with the students that I’ve worked with have been opening to me and, hopefully, supportive for them.

Being able to give back is all I want to do and that’s just what I’m doing now.

We are just a few weeks away from welcoming the Class of 2018 to Afterword!

Share your own first year out story with us we’ll tell it to the newest group of UVM alumni. Or, if you have a friend who has an awesome first-year-out story, we want to feature them on the blog too!