CM<\/strong>: I played on the baseball team for four years. I was involved in a few clubs here and there. A lot of my time was taken up by sports and school work. I was involved with the Trinity College Investment Club as well.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: What have you done since leaving Trinity? I know you just graduated last year.<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: I moved to Boston, MA last August. Currently, I am working in cyber security in the sales department, and I am selling services to IT departments, banks, credit unions, manufacturing companies, etc. I\u2019ve been there for 6 months. It’s been great so far.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: How do you like the Boston area?<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: I love Boston. There is a great Trinity network in the Boston area. Some of my friends are around, and I love every bit of it. You still have the energetic feel of the city, but it is more low key and communal and you don\u2019t feel like a small fish in a big pond.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: You were saying you have been working in Cybersecurity. How has that been going? What does that look like on a day to day?<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: The transition to working full-time was tough. It’s very different than the internships I had during college and the first three months were an adjustment. It forces you to mature. In my role, I do a lot of cold calls. I try to get a few seconds of their time to convince them to talk to us at a later date. Dealing with the rejection from that was certainly an eye opener. It was difficult but it was something I got used to. I have more responsibility now in terms of booking meetings, talking to people, and sealing the deals. The transition from college, where I had a lot of free time, to working was difficult, but I would say at night it is definitely more enjoyable to just sit back and relax after work.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: Do you have any recommendations for a student that is making that transition?<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: Stick with it. Before you know it, everything that was tough at first will become routine. It’s the same thing as school in a way. It gets easier. At Trinity, they teach you to be a hard worker and diligent. When people see a Trinity College degree, they take it seriously. While it may be routine for you, the way that we work goes a long way with upper management in these companies and I know a lot of my friends and people years above me all have moved up pretty quickly. Be proud of your Trinity degree you earned it. I’m proud of mine and of what it’s done for me in the workforce. The values we learned at Trinity may seem routine to us, but they get noticed at the companies my friends and I work for.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: Trinity then really helps set that mindset.<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: Trinity taught me discipline and work ethic. It gave me confidence in myself that a lot of other people do not have. It is good to have the Trinity degree behind you. Having the liberal arts degree and the alumni network that we have and everything that Trinity teaches really does set you up for success. Trinity prepares you for the workplace and allows you to have those attributes to go above and beyond and succeed and it definitely stems from Trinity.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: Was there any class or professor that stood out to you in doing this?<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: Professor Evans was my senior seminar teacher. She demanded so much out of you and helped instill that drive and competitive spirit in her students. She taught us skills without us even realizing it. Her teaching style made a big impact on me. It taught me how to communicate, manage my time, and how to get work done. I had Professor Maxwell as well; she was the same way. She demanded the same work ethic, dedication, and time management right from the get-go and I respected that as well.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: One of things you were talking about was the alumni network. What was your interaction with the alumni network like in the workforce or even at Trinity?<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: I had a teammate whose dad was really connected in Boston and heard I wanted to work in Boston. He gave me his card and I reached out. To his credit I ended up getting 6 interviews to places that I never thought I would have interviewed at. He got me a job with Goldman Sachs for investment banking. People want to help you because you share a Trinity degree. My dad was traveling for work and he was running on the treadmill wearing a Trinity shirt and a guy stopped him and asked if he went to Trinity. The man actually was a Trinity graduate and turned out to be the VP at JP Morgan. He gave my dad his business card and, long story short, he got me at least 3 job interviews and I have never met the guy face to face in my life. He just saw my dad, knew I went to Trinity and decided to help me just from Trinity alone. The network is just that strong. I had a great experience and I love that I can make a lifelong connection just through experiences at Trinity alone. It is a common love for the school. We take pride in wearing that \u201cT\u201d on our chest and want to help each other<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: You were a political science major and minored in formal organizations. How are those coming into play in your job now?<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: What I am using mostly is the communication skills. I learned to be comfortable with communicating with people I may never have met or known. The small classes at Trinity force you to talk and have confidence in what you say. Time management and work ethic is huge. It teaches you to dedicate yourself to the group. The dedication to show up every day is important and that carries into your job. The life lessons are even more important than the content.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: That work ethic moves you forward.<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: It\u2019s something I never really realized until I talked with others. Trinity will set you up for success. I know classics majors who are in investment banking so it’s more how you handle yourself than the major itself.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to know everything about the first job. It’s a learning process, using the skills that Trinity taught you. Companies see this and will realize that and choose you over others in the same concentration.<\/p>\n MV<\/strong>: How did you approach outreach to alumni?<\/p>\n CM<\/strong>: When I reach out to an alum, I bond with them through shared pride of our Trinity degree and explain that I am a kid fresh out of college and eager to improve, learn, and become successful. I am reaching out to them as a mentor because I want to learn how to progress professionally and personally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interviewed by Mateo Vazquez \u201821 MV: What did you do at Trinity, whether that be clubs, sports, or your major? CM: I played on the baseball team for four years. I was involved in a few clubs here and there. A lot of my time was taken up by sports and school work. I was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2584,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[33,24,49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2584"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/bantamstories\/files\/2019\/05\/Cooper-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n