Interview with William Gannon, Wesleyan University

Interviewer: And today we have William Gannon joining us from Wesleyan, super excited again, always appreciate when students can find time, it’s not easy these days, coming off spring break, we got finals lingering and then all the things that you’re probably gearing up for during the summer, so another huge thank you, very excited,

…we’re just going to jump into kind of your own intro and hearing about how you got to Wesleyan, so first question of every interview, how did you choose Wesleyan? Did you look at a lot of different schools? What was it about this school that made you end up there?

William: Absolutely, first of all, thank you Will for having me on this. It’s already a blast, and I’m really excited to discuss my experience and some of the things that made me choose Wesleyan as a university. But to answer your first question, I’d like to rewind a little bit to 2019-2020, back when I was a junior or senior at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, and I was a junior at the Hackley School in New York, and that was a very interesting time as we all know based on sort of COVID and how that ended up playing out. But before you know February-March of 2020, I was sort of a very ordinary high school student just trying to figure out where I wanted to go, and I was getting ready to go on a number of college Visits to Wesleyan was one of the schools that I did visit in person, obviously. With COVID there were a number of schools that were on my list that I was simply never able to visit in person just due to COVID restrictions and things like that. But in addition to Wesleyan, I was able to visit in person: Colgate, Hamilton, Skidmore, Union-just a number of schools that are in the Northeast, which was sort of my primary kind of motive. Coming out of a small private school, I didn’t really want to go to a larger school. I also wanted to be fairly close to home, so pretty much all of my schools of interest were in the Northeast, I think the furthest south I would go was sort of Pennsylvania and Lafayette and Haverford, those were kind of two schools that were on my list, but I wasn’t able to see them because of COVID. But as I was saying, COVID kind of really changed my plans, so to speak. I was sort of more interested in looking at other schools. For reference, both of my parents went to Wesleyan, so that was a big factor in sort of learning more about the school when it was very difficult to do so given the parameters of COVID. So they were obviously telling me stories about, you know, when they were students and the various things that were happening on campus. And, oh, you know, I lived in this dorm and I studied in this building. And it was cool to hear that. But also, you know, that was in the 80s and this is 2020. So I wanted to have my own experience. So that was kind of something that I had to kind of work through a little bit. But in terms of ultimately choosing Wesleyan, as I mentioned, it was one of the few schools I got to visit in person. So that was a big factor in sort of me applying there. I did early decision one to Wesleyan ultimately. But it was one of the few schools I got to visit in person. So that was a big factor in sort of between Brown or Wesleyan. And really what it came down to was actually a conversation I had with two professors, one at Brown and one at Wesleyan. And at Brown, I spoke to the orchestra professor because I played the trombone. And one of the things I really wanted to do in college was continue my musical education and play in the orchestra. That was something I wasn’t really able to do at Hackley. The orchestra at Hackley was exclusively string. So I wanted to kind of have a strings, brass, and percussion mixed groups. So that was something I was really looking forward to. And when I spoke to the professor, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do that.’ And then when I spoke to the professor at Brown, I’m not sure if it’s the same one, but he was very monotone with me. He seemed very disinterested and unwelcoming, which was a little bit concerning as, you know, I was very interested at the school at the time. And then when I spoke with the Wesleyan orchestra professor, she was the total opposite. She was great, super friendly. She actually even managed to set up a Zoom for me so I could actually watch one of the rehearsals. And obviously, keep in mind, this was during peak COVID. So people were masked, they were, you know, 10 feet apart, and the audio quality wasn’t great. So I was like, ‘oh, I’m going to do that.’ It wasn’t very good. But the fact that she made that effort was sort of a big green flag to me saying, ‘okay, if she’s willing to do this for someone who hasn’t even applied yet and is really interested in the school, this just shows, you know, the quality of what people are like at Wesleyan, which was really one of the motivating factors that pushed me to early decision there, as opposed to a number of the other schools on my list. And luck would have it, I managed to get in and that was sort of the end of my college search. So I hope that helps.

Interviewer: Incredible. And not everything’s a competition, that’s probably one of the most thorough intros that I’ve had in one of these conversations. So I have so many questions, and I usually just kind of filter them based on the direction of the conversation, but you’re just like hitting my initial questions on your own, which is incredible. So amazing kind of rundown of the COVID situation, but also what you looked for in a school. So size, location, those are really common. Another thing that you mentioned is family influence. And it’s kind of in this weird scenario you talk about where you don’t have access to a lot of schools, at least physically. And so those, even those virtual connections are so important. But really quick, random question.

Did you get accepted to Brown or did you decide not to apply based on the interaction?

William: So I chose not to apply. I was going to early decision either one to either Brown or Wesleyan. And my college counselor at Hackley also told me that for legacy at the time, also at this point, it’s important to clarify Wesleyan doesn’t do legacy bias or sort of help anymore. Officially, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s true, but they had a post about that maybe in the spring of last year where they discontinued legacy influence. But at the time, legacy was still a factor. So my college counselor told me, you know, if you don’t apply early decision one as a double legacy, that could potentially hurt you going down the line. So that was another factor. Definitely not as big as the orchestra conversations I mentioned, but that was definitely something that was in the back of my mind as well. So I only applied to three schools. I early actioned to Union. I was also admitted there, but I couldn’t go.

Interviewer: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. The legacy piece is very interesting from just looking at higher ed from an industry standpoint where kind of just that human nature of like, okay, well, his parents went here and maybe in certain scenarios, other schools and other students, they even know admissions teams or admissions officers at the school. And so, yeah, it’s hard to say there’s that gray area of like, does it help? Does it not help? It’s a pretty turbulent time for college admissions and Wesleyan, and I had no idea just from knowing you previously or even just in general that you had the orchestra background too, which is awesome. You might remember I went to University of Rochester, which is home to Eastman School of Music, and I went to those shows all the time. So I didn’t play myself, but having access to that, I think it’s a very unique thing to draw you to a campus. So that’s quite the journey. My next question, you commit, you get accepted, you have that early decision, which is incredible.

And now you’re transitioning to campus. The school fits a lot of the things you were looking at, precise location. Your family is very familiar with it, obviously, but still a big transition. So what was that like moving to campus for the first year?

William: Yeah, that’s a great question. Just before I address that, the Eastman School of Music, my current band professor actually studied at the Eastman School of Music. So that’s a connection. But in terms of that connection, sort of transition, rather, coming from a small private school in my hometown to a place that was an hour and a half away in Connecticut. That was a really hard transition for me. I remember my first semester and really my first year was maybe like one of the hardest experiences I’ve had in my life. It was just sort of awkward in many ways. I went to the school in the Hackley School for pretty much 12 straight years. So the prospect of like making new friends at such a large scale was really unfamiliar to me. But my parents gave me some great advice, which I will offer to all of your listeners, which is try and put yourself out there, but not in a bad way, obviously. Just do something new that you might have been interested in or might seem interesting. So I tried to do that. I remember my first semester, I joined the outing club and I went on a camping trip in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I’ve never gone camping in my life before since, but it was something that I’d never done. And I thought, you know what, I might as well try it. And I ended up doing it. And I did it. And I did it. And I did it. And I did it. And I did it. And I did it. And I became even better friends with someone from my Spanish class who was also on the trip at the same time. So if I hadn’t gone on that trip, you know, I would have never had that experience. But sort of experiences, rather sort of choices like that are very beneficial in meeting new people and trying to acclimate yourself with the people that you already know. At the end of my first semester, I also walked onto the crew team. That was a really big choice. As a two-sport athlete in high school, I kind of missed being on a team and also felt as a freshman, it was kind of awkward or difficult to interact with people who are older than me. And a team setting like that is a very natural place to interact with people who are significantly or in some cases, just a little bit older than you. And I stayed on the team until actually this past fall when I when I left to kind of pursue a job and also my thesis. So crew was really helpful for me. Wesleyan, it opened up a number of opportunities, which I never would have really imagined or had access to had I not joined the team, as well as just been able to exercise, be in great shape and just have a blast with a group of guys who are really friendly and I’m friends with them to this day. So things like that, just joining different clubs or organizations or teams, if that’s available to you is a great recommendation. And then also just trying to kind of do new things as a freshman. So just like, you know, studying in different places. In the case of Wesleyan, we have the open curriculum. So you’re allowed to kind of take courses that are outside of your traditional major. So taking some courses that you might otherwise not be able to or might not necessarily think of as your top choice. I tried to sort of have one course a semester, that would be something a little bit unique. So I remember my first semester sophomore year, I took a religion class. The start of my senior year, I started taking Italian. So I’m just trying to kind of do different things that seem interesting to me as well as fun. So just making use of all of the resources that are around me and at the school is a great way to get the best out of your four years here.

Interviewer: Yeah, I think I think that’s the number one general bit of advice that I hear from students is try things outside your comfort zone or things you’re interested in because you’ll meet people naturally. And I can share the same sentiment. I got to campus and thankfully I had the team I was on to connect with right away from day one, which was great. But outside of that, I basically just knew my team and my roommates because that’s who I was with every day. And yeah, it took clubs and different student organizations to meet other students and upperclassmen and whatnot. But kind of on that theme. So you touched on a little bit about the community itself. So you’ve surrounded yourself at this point. You’ve got the outing club trip, which sounds like an amazing experience. I’m familiar with the Adirondacks. I was there last weekend because I’m an hour and a half away, which is great. So that’s amazing to have in your backyard, especially in undergrad.

You’ve got the crew example, which is great. So what’s the community like from a student standpoint, admins, faculty, the town itself? What’s it like living at Wesleyan?

William: So living at Wesleyan is, you know, it’s a lot of fun. I’ll say it’s great, but there’s also some elements that I wish could be different. I’ll sort of start with my perspective as a younger person, like a freshman or a sophomore, because I think once I came back from studying abroad, my opinion really changed radically. But that’s something that I couldn’t have anticipated coming in as a freshman. But in terms of living initially, as a freshman, the dorms are nice. I think they’re satisfactory. I had sort of an awkward experience in my particular building because we had one of the few places that had central air. So during the fall, it was nice and cool. But for some reason, they never turned it back on in the spring. So when it was 88 degrees, they had the heat on. So there was a couple of weeks there where it was a little bit airy in terms of how warm it was inside that in my dorm. So that wasn’t great. But I don’t know if that’s really something that a lot of other students can speak to here. But in terms of the living in general, all students are required for all four years to live on campus. So that really kind of builds a sense of community. And you kind of get to sort of hang out with everybody. One thing I will say, I don’t know if this is still true in undergrad dorms, but my floor wasn’t very close. The people on my floor, I never really interacted with them, strangely. All my friends pretty much lived in other dorms, which was sort of the common experience I heard from many other people. Again, I don’t know if that’s still true. I am not an RA. I never was. So I can’t really speak to that. But that is just something that was a little bit strange and my parents found kind of weird about sort of my experience when I told them. But in terms of other things, like the town of Middletown, or I guess I should say city, it feels like a town. But Middletown itself is pretty nice. There’s a lot of great restaurants there. It’s walkable from campus. So you can pretty much take a 10-minute walk down into town and go out to eat or go out at night. The one thing I will say, though, is there’s a little bit of a crime issue in Middletown. There are certain areas of the city that aren’t really like, I don’t want to say safe, but just you should be on your guard when you’re kind of walking through there. The public safety at Wesleyan is really great about notifying students about incidents. So, there were a couple incidents earlier this semester where there were some break-ins, and they were saying lock your doors and where the break-ins were happening so people could be aware of that. They ended up arresting the individual who was breaking in, so that’s good. But just being aware that, you know, it’s not like rural Montana where there’s three people and, you know, you can leave your doors unlocked and things like that. So just being a little bit, I don’t want to say super street smart, but just being aware that Middletown is a place where there are some people who may not have the best intentions out for you. In terms of the town or the city itself, it’s on the small side. I keep saying ‘city’ because that’s the official designation, but to me, like I said, it really feels like a town. Like where I’m from, Tarrytown, it’s probably like that size in terms of the downtown area. But the town itself, like I said, the downtown really, it’s nice. I wish it could be a city. Like I said, having come back from studying abroad now and really liking sort of the city and urban environment when I was in Madrid, which is where I studied, it sort of made me kind of wish for a larger place. But again, like I said, when I was coming out of high school, I didn’t really want that at all. So I can’t sort of blame Wesleyan for not having that available to me. So those are just some of the things that I would say to be aware of and that you might not necessarily see or hear from a Wesleyan tour that you go on.

Interviewer: Yeah, for sure. I think, again, it’s super honest, which is great. And that’s the kind of insight that we’re looking for. And I think students appreciate that where, I don’t know how I figured that out, but similar reputation in Rochester, New York, where I was, where you have so many amazing places, amazing people, but it’s good to just be aware of where you just need to pay a little more attention or be safe, that kind of thing. And yeah, it’s the reality of certain cities, certain towns. And it doesn’t mean there’s not a really good restaurant in that section and you still have to go and risk it or whatever you want to say. So no, I think it’s a good kind of rundown.

But kind of focusing on the campus itself, are there areas that are most popular or are there restaurants on campus? What’s going on around campus most times?

William: Sure. So I can start with the restaurant piece. So Wesleyan has a couple of different dining options. There’s the main sort of campus dining facility, which is in Usdan, our student center. That’s really popular. I think the food is generally pretty good. There’s a smaller dining room in one of the dorms called Summerfields. All of the Wesleyan students call it Summys. That has pretty good food, although sometimes it has the reputation for giving people food poisoning. So I will say that. Just sometimes be aware of what you’re eating. So I have been lucky enough to not have had any serious ailments thanks to Summys, but I know several people who’ve had trouble in the past. So just being aware of that. I don’t know if it’s changed because I haven’t been this year. It’s typically a place where sort of younger people will go. But it’s generally a pretty good food. There are a couple other places on campus. There’s West Shop, which is kind of like a grocery store where you can pick up produce, but also some TV dinners and chips and things like that, snacks. There’s a downstairs cafe in Usdan, our student center, where you can get sandwiches and things like that. So if you’re on the go, you can just grab something and eat it at the tables down there. Just, you know, wherever you want. There are a couple other cafes on campus. The Pie Cafe, which is in our science library, again, similar to the Usdan Cafe. And then Espresso, which is just sort of a coffee bar in one of our science buildings. In the basement. So there’s a couple different options. But in terms of like, you know, a Chipotle or, I don’t know, a McDonald’s on campus like that doesn’t that doesn’t exist. So it’s all kind of sort of, I guess you could say run by the school. But again, I think that that’s fine because the food is of a pretty high quality. So I never would say that, you know, when people tell me, oh, I have a Chipotle or an In-N-Out on campus, it’s like, well, you know, that’s cool. But, you know, we’ve got some we’ve got good food ourselves. So that’s quite nice. But in terms of places where people hang out, depends on your friends or what you like to do. The Student Center is really popular during kind of meal hours or right before people will hang out downstairs until the dining room, dining room opens at 5 o’clock and talk or just work on homework and things like that. The Science Library, which people call SciLi, is another place where people will hang out, just kind of chatting, doing work, just, you know, doing stuff like that. There are other places. So if you want to do quiet work, our sort of humanities library, Olin, which is where I spend a lot of my time as a history major. Writing a thesis is definitely the place where people would go to just do work. I wouldn’t really say that’s sort of a social hangout area, but definitely a good work spot. But other than that, I would say just sort of various areas on campus, depending on the season, like we have a big hill sort of overlooking the center of campus called Foss Hill. When the weather’s nice, people like to kind of go out there with blankets and towels and just, you know, do work or talk or throw around a Frisbee, things like that. So there are just a number of areas on campus that are really pleasant. I would say the campus as a whole is a lot about the buildings on the outside. Some of them kind of look very blocky and sort of not appealing, but on the inside, they have a lot of character and sort of a lot greater spaces to offer than they otherwise would present. So I would say it really depends on your personal preferences, whether you’re sort of someone who really likes to focus and do work or is more social. There’s a multitude of spaces on campus that cater to both of those interests.

Interviewer: Yeah, it sounds like it’s an accessible, smaller campus, you have food spread all over the place, which is great. And so, again, great, great answer, great breakdown as you touched on different tastes people might have. And it’s nice to have that little shop, that little grocery store they mentioned, too.

And then I think I heard history, which is what hits close to home because I was a history major and love to hear that. But shifting to kind of curriculum and your education, how did you land on history? And then I know you mentioned Spanish and then you went to Madrid and you had religion, too. But why history?

William: So history was something that, I think, was really important to me. And I think that going into Wesleyan, I knew I was probably going to major in as sort of the pre-major form or whatever when you apply to the school. And then when you get in, they ask you, oh, what are you thinking of majoring in? And I put government, which is, I guess, our version of political science. We don’t have political science called government, but I put government in history. For, I would say, about a year, I was thinking of double majoring. That was dropped very quickly after taking a few government classes and realizing that it just wasn’t for me.I was doing well in the classes. I just really wasn’t enjoying a lot of the readings and things like that. I found them the little things. It was a little bit monotonous in terms of detail. But history major was great. In terms of my interest pre-Wesleyan, I loved history in middle school and high school. My grandfather was probably my biggest influence there. I remember when I was like five or six, he would be over at my house babysitting me with my grandma, and he would always have either the then military channel, now American Heroes channel, or the History Channel on, just watching various shows about Napoleonic Wars or King Tut’s tomb in Egypt. And there were all these sort of radical kind of crazy shows that he would watch.And my grandma would always be like, ‘Turn it off.’ He’s too young. He can’t be seeing this violence or whatever. But I was fascinated and I love to watch those. But I guess my interest sort of grew from there. And I really just love to learn and explore that passion. And when I came to Wesleyan, I took a couple history courses and I realized that this is definitely something I wanted to major in. So I sort of stuck through that and I’ve taken a number of history courses. Many of them I’ve been doing. And I don’t regret my choice majoring in history at all. My thesis is in history. It’s actually in Spanish history. So I’m kind of connecting my love of language as well.When I studied abroad, I did a little bit of research and sort of learned about the archive system there and was able to kind of access the history really directly, being on site, which was great. And yeah, I would say that those are some of the things that motivated me to be a history major. I hope that’s helpful.

Interviewer: Very cool. Yeah, that’s great. It sounds very familiar. My dad was a history teacher. Which I think is the primary influence. And then grandfathers for me on both sides who served in the military. And that’s just rich with history, obviously. So no, it’s an amazing major. There’s no real direct path moving forward, which that’s going to be our next series of questions is kind of what you’re looking at.But yeah, it was just a lot of fun and kind of my skill set where I showed up to campus, like you were just talking about, I tried a math class and I was just like, there is no chance. So I withdrew. And it allowed me to focus on challenging myself academically but in an area that also allowed me to manage my extracurriculars. So the reason I bring that up,

I would love to hear about the things you’re doing outside the classroom on campus. And then after that, we’ll get into kind of like professional goals and whatnot. But any extracurriculars or things you’d like to highlight? I know you mentioned the orchestra. But yeah, anything else you’ve been involved with?

William: Absolutely. So over my four years, my extracurriculars have kind of ebbed and flowed. When I was younger, I was in two game clubs, I love to play video games and also board games. So as a freshman, I joined those to kind of meet people who had similar interests to me. And those were great. I met some really great people through those. And you know, I’m still in touch with a lot of them who’ve graduated at this point in time. But in addition to that, my sophomore year, so just a quick clarification, Wesleyan’s Greek life policy is kind of weird, in that a lot of the traditional like frat or sorority culture doesn’t really exist.Those are kind of put into one, so they’re referred to as technically like society societies. But we do have, I guess you could say Greek life. So I ended up joining one of those my sophomore year, the Alpha Delta Phi, which is a literary society. There is also technically a frat with the same name, but we’re separate, so there’s that important distinction. Yeah, so I joined that just because I was living in the house. That’s a long story that connects back to Crewe and a guy who was in Alpha Delta and sort of, I don’t want to say pressured, there was no pressure, but I joined or looking to join. You know, he thought it would be fun. And, you know, the people were great. And they were.And I ended up serving as treasurer there. So I was involved with that. That was about a year where I was the treasurer. So that was a big in-depth endeavor where I was constantly having to write people checks and things like that. And meeting you know dozens of people whether they were in the society or not. And I made some great friends through that as well. And in addition to that, obviously the Crew team that was a big time commitment. So that actually prevented me from doing a lot of things that I otherwise wouldn’t have done. I sort of realized that at the beginning of this year, I wanted to work in the career center, as my dad is sort of involved in that as well at Hackley. He’s the director for alumni affairs and development. And he helps mentor young alumni and with networking and sort of career options and things like that. So I was sort of interested in not necessarily following in his footsteps, but sort of pursuing something adjacent to what he does and doing sort of resume review and career advice. As someone who thankfully has since gotten a job in October, I can sort of help people who are a little bit younger than me kind of navigate that process because I feel like at Wesleyan, the resources are there, but they’re not necessarily well established or necessarily catered to helping people.Essentially, you really have to push to get what you want out of it. It’s not sort of given to you as it is in other settings. But in terms of sort of the commitments, as I was saying earlier, Crew was definitely a big, big time commitment. And I think that’s something that I’m really, really proud of. It was a big, big time commitment. It prevented me from engaging more with music, which is what I’m able to do now since I’m no longer part of the team. And to speak to that, I have finally, I always wanted to do this, but I’m playing in a pit band for a musical, which is going to be held in May. So I’m excited to do that. It’s a lot of music. It’s a lot of work.So we’ve got a weekly rehearsal and I’m trying to learn my part so that I can perform in May and help the singers and dancers on stage not mess up. So that’s sort of my goal right now, to just learn my part with that. But currently, like I said, I’m still involved with the society. I did leave the Crew team in sort of early October. So I’m not involved with that anymore, but I’m doing the pit band stuff, the alpha adult stuff, and I’m still in the game clubs. So definitely involved in a number of things. And yeah, it’s a great way to keep my time sort of used efficiently and socially.

Interviewer: There are all kinds of interests and you’re probably busy schedule-wise, but is Crew like a season or is that just all throughout the semesters that you stay involved with that?

William: So Crew is an interesting sport because we have a fall and a spring season. And in between there’s a huge, it’s probably honestly one of our more intense periods. We refer to it as winter training, which basically starts, I want to say, maybe early November and goes all the way until pretty much late February. So that whole time we’re just indoors on the ERG or rowing machines, just killing ourselves. So having gone through two and a half of those, it was definitely a pretty rough experience, but it really helps you for the spring. And then obviously the spring and fall seasons are intense because you’re out on the water and you’re practicing 12 to 15 hours a week plus races. Obviously in the spring you race weekly, in the fall it’s only a couple of regattas, but it’s definitely a huge time commitment and you have to really be on top of your time. Otherwise you’re out in class, you’re going to get sick a lot if you don’t sleep. So it’s just a huge, you really have to be disciplined for that particular sport, I think.

Interviewer: Yeah, one hundred percent. And it’s known infamously for like 5 AM rowing out on the water. And I remember seeing that freshman year out of my window, I had the river view and yeah, we’d see the team out there. And the only reason we saw them is because I was on my way to practice too.

So I can definitely relate to that, which is great. So we have a countdown going now with our eight and a half minutes left. And you mentioned having a job offer, which amazing, congratulations. That’s the best feeling as a senior. So we’re just going to jump into that questions wise. I want to know what it is, how you got it, how that process worked. And again, just congratulations. That’s amazing.

William: Thanks. Before I, or rather just to get into that, because I know we don’t have a lot of time here. I am working in Boston. My start is sort of mid-July. I’m working for Fidelity, especially the Emerging Leaders Program, which is, I guess, sort of financial bootcamp sort of rotational program designed for liberal arts majors, which was perfect for me. Because as a history major, I sort of lack some of those business skills that otherwise I may have attained if I had been an econ or a business major. But in terms of how I arrived there, going into this summer, I knew I really wanted to ideally work in consulting or some kind of business-oriented role. So when I was at Tuck this summer at the Bridge Program, I was really interested in sort of learning skills that might help me with that, like Excel, presentation work, presenting skills. And then obviously accounting is really useful in all of those jobs as well. So just as much as I could get out of that. And I found the program to be really, really great in doing so. In addition, I really was able to use the network, the networking with the Tuck school. I emailed with Diana a lot about, hey, I’m looking at MasterCard or I’m looking at FIT or FTI rather. Do you know anyone at these particular places that I might be able to talk to, to learn a little bit more? And I was able to kind of get some of that information out there. Get some of those informational interviews and eventually get some of those referrals to get me interviews. In terms of consulting, I interviewed with BCG. I interviewed with Bain, a couple of other smaller places for a variety of reasons. Those didn’t work out, unfortunately. Partially, a couple of those were my own fault in making kind of silly mistakes during the interviews. Others, I thought I killed it and then got the worst news possible. Oh, you know, we were going to inform you. You haven’t been asked to the next round or whatever, which was disappointing, but I wasn’t deterred. My best advice for people in that situation is: the job market right now is terrible. So, I don’t know what it’s going to be like in a couple of years, but sort of pre-election, Kamala versus Trump, there was a ton of just craziness in terms of what the economy is going to be like, what the job market is going to be like. So, it was really rough. But don’t be discouraged because there’s always going to be that other position and something will come your way. And for me, it was Fidelity. I was able to speak to someone who was a Hackley alum and was working at Fidelity’s New York office. And I actually saw the Emerging Leaders program on Handshake. That’s how I learned about it originally. And I kind of talked to him and he was very helpful in sort of telling me sort of what the program was about, how I should apply, things like that. And he gave me a referral and the rest was history. I had a lot of great interviews. I met some great people, one of whom is going to be my manager in July. And yeah, I was offered the position. I was offered the position in, I want to say, mid-October. So I was really, really excited to have that chapter of my college life completed because it is extremely time-consuming. It can be stressful at times. Just the amount of time you have to spend writing emails, preparing for interviews, sort of networking. It’s just a lot. And the way I was told about it originally when I was sort of a sophomore and I was on some, I guess you could say, informational calls about the internship process and the job search process, a woman who worked at Goldman Sachs told me, ‘You have to almost treat it like an extra course.’ That the time you’re going to need to put into networking, prepare for interviews, learn key skills if you don’t have them otherwise, is almost the equivalent of extra course. So count that into your time management, your workload, your course selection for that particular semester or semesters, as well as according the time appropriately with your extracurriculars. And just being aware that it can be a long process, it can be hard, but obviously, it’s super important to just nail that so that when you kind of graduate, ideally, you have something to look forward to.

Interviewer: So you leverage the network in multiple ways. And shout out my team, obviously at Bridge.

William: Yeah, you guys were awesome.

Interviewer: Oh, thanks, it was amazing to have you. Yeah, so much fun. So you start there, you get some interviews, some go really well, some don’t, some have the same outcome regardless. And I’ve been there, everyone I know has been there. So I think it’s great advice. You just, you establish who you can connect with, what the opportunities are, and you just try your best, and then you use it to learn and prepare. And yeah, back to that advice. I think it’s great in terms of, yeah, maybe it’s 120 credits to graduate and you have a four-credit class. Well, you need 124 to also get a job. So I’d never heard that before. So that’s really cool.

You’ve given great advice and insight this whole time. So I think I might know what your answer is, but I don’t want to strip you of the opportunity. I always end on offering your best tip for making the most of undergrad.

William: So I guess my best tip for undergrad, I know we touched on this earlier in our conversation with regards to putting yourself out there and trying new things, but I would also say, do what makes you happy. I think that’s a big one. In college, obviously it’s not sunshine and daisies all the time. There’s going to be some rough moments, whether it’s social, academic, something with your family, things like that. Stuff’s going to happen and you’re going to have to weather the storm, so to speak. But obviously putting yourself in a position to succeed academically and socially is critical. And if you’re ever in a situation where you feel like, you know, this isn’t really for me, or I’m not really enjoying this too much, don’t feel afraid to pivot. I know tons of people who completely changed their major, like sophomore year or junior year even, or added a major or added a minor, or ended up leaving a particular organization or team or whatever, because the social experience there wasn’t good or they had a bad relationship with someone. It’s college. I think people are sort of more willing to be open, but they also are sort of nervous in how they’re going to be perceived. And that’s one thing that, especially at Wesleyan, which is sort of a very open school in every sense of the word there, you can just be yourself and people aren’t going to necessarily sort of attack you for that. And if they do, then they’re not your people and you can just ignore them and not be around them. So I would say to that, like I said, simply just do what makes you happy and try and find things to fill your time that will give you fond memories, you know, decades from now, where you can say, oh, I remember my experience at XYZ institution, or in my case, you know, I loved being on the crew team and, you know, hanging out with the guys at dinner and going on our trip to Florida for training, or whether it’s, you know, class, I really remember this really great professor who always told these great stories and jokes or whatever. And just being able to have those moments is really awesome. And obviously, the best way to do that is to just, like I said, do what makes you happy and focus on your interests. So that’s probably the best advice I can give. In a more general sense.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s great advice. I think such a good note to end on. And just another huge thank you. We appreciate the time. And congratulations again on the job offer. That’s incredible.

William: Thank you so much. This was a pleasure. And good luck to everyone in their college search.

Interviewer: Awesome.