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Position: Editor at Top-Ten-Apps.com,  an iPhone app discovery email newsletter

Short description of what you do: I work on web development, app discovery and review, social network integration, analytics, email marketing, creative direction, art direction, and copywriting.

Degree at Dartmouth: Visual studies

1. Did you pursue any further education or training?

I took night classes from a San Francisco-based advertising school. All other training was done on the job.

2. Describe the path from your time at Dartmouth to your current activity.

I went from working in advertising in New York to advertising in Boston, and then I moved on to San Francisco. Eventually I moved from advertising to online marketing.

3. What activities/groups/events did you participate in while on campus?

I was a member of the squash team and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. I also skiied, worked on the snow sculpture design for Winter Carnival in 1980, designed Dartmouth Film Society posters, participated in the New England Art Show, and designed the Winter Carnival poster for four years. 

4. How do you translate your Dartmouth education and/or major to your career?

All my coworkers went to art school and had a four to six-year head start on me…. That was a sobering realization. However, in the field of creative advertising, the ability to call on my liberal arts background, and to reference pieces of societal and historical information that my colleagues did not have, helped a great deal. I also found it far easier to present ideas to business leaders because I was relating to them on a level playing field.

5. Do you have any advice for current students who are interested in the arts, both academically and personally? 

As I see it, there are three directions to take after Dartmouth as an artist:

1) You have the means, or a benefactor, with which to follow your creativity unencumbered by the necessity of income,

2) You choose a second career, and creating visual art becomes a second career or hobby, or

3) You go into marketing or advertising.

I chose the third path. As a piece of advice to artists in today’s digital world: Today it is so easy for non-artists to create beautiful things, that the fruits of our labor have become commodities. Photographers know this best. While the few truly great in the industry welcome the competition and claim that it will just “up the game,” for those just entering the field, the competition to just get a start is daunting. Why pay a professional photographer when I can just use my iPhone? Why hire an artist to create the art for a billboard when I can use Photoshop and stock photography at a fraction of the cost?

The smart way forward for today’s graduate is to find a way to use digital capabilities to expand the touch of your creativity — printmakers learned this. Make an engraving once, make a hundred prints, number them and sell them. One piece of art and a hundred copies = greater income and greater exposure. Today’s graduate has to look to multipliers in order to make an impact.

Continue reading »]]> Position: Principal, Gold Star Studios/Independent Graphic Design Professional 

What do you do to keep your practice/perspective fresh and evolving?

Continue reading »]]> Soralee Ayvar is the Operations Director of Art Studio Inc.,

Art Studio Miami is an Non-Profit Organization (NPO) with the mission of empowering young minds through creative-holistic arts integration  by providing a safe location where youth are inspired and guided by artists, teachers, professionals and mentors who support the student’s education and career development through the integration of creative holistic arts. Soralee joined Art Studio as a volunteer in 2009 and became Operations Director in 2010 with 15+ years of experience in youth development, volunteer management, training and life skills.

After studying music in middle school and theater (with a specialty in Mime and Costume/Makeup Design) in high school, Soralee received her B.A in Sociology from Dartmouth College and an M.S. in Business Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Soralee’s current role continues her long-time personal vision to empower the next generation of leaders with the creative tools, knowledge and motivation to innovate and create positive change for themselves and their local and global community. (Bio kindly provided by Ms. Ayvar)

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Empowering Young Minds | Healing Systemic Poverty

Continue reading »]]> Position: Product Operations Fellow at PharmaSecure

Location: New Delhi, India

Short description of what you do: As PharmaSecure is still a young company, I’ve been helping out with a variety of things. My main responsibilities are supporting the product development team by defining requirements for new products and overseeing their development, data analysis, and monitoring of current products.

Degree at Dartmouth: Bachelor’s of Engineering focusing in Mechanical Engineering

1. What is most satisfying about your current work?

The general work environment and the people I work with — the organization is very flat, and I’ve gained some great friends and mentors during my time here.

2. What’s the best way to enter your field? Any essential elements of preparation? 

Networking — I audited a Tuck class my senior year, Intro to Entrepreneurship, and met the CEO (Nathan Sigworth ’07) after a class in which he gave a guest lecture. Ten months later I Facebook messaged him out of the blue during a week of intense job searching, asking him if there were any internships or fellowships available and luckily there were!

3. What advice would you give to others seeking opportunities in this field?

Reach out to and network with alumni. There are so many amazing people, and they will want to help you.  There are some useful job sites/lists that are more geared toward social enterprise as well, like social-enterprise-jobs@googlegroups.com.

5. How has Dartmouth supported you in your career development?

Dartmouth’s Network is truly amazing.  I’ve only just started out on my career more or less, with just a handful of internships under my belt, but all of my gainful employment post-graduation has been the direct result of networking with Dartmouth alumni.  As I’m starting to look for my next step, classmates a few years older than me have given great advice on how to frame my job search in a way that will help me clarify my career goals.

Continue reading »]]> “I’ve never met a bored journalist,” Medill School of Journalism professor and former Wall Street Journal reporter Joe Mathewson ’55 often tells students, noting that there are “no dull jobs and no dull days” in the field of journalism. While some people like to claim that journalism is a dying field, Mathewson rightly believes that it is simply evolving, and he wants students to know that journalism needs talented graduates with a passion for writing and a strong liberal arts background.

With a number of grandchildren at the College, Mathewson is a regular visitor to Career Services and a mentor to students currently considering a career in journalism. Here, we’ve compiled Mathewson’s top five tips for students who have a passion for the written word and investigating the world around them.

1. Journalism needs intellectually curious young graduates from a variety of academic backgrounds — sell your experience, no matter what it is! Whether you are a history or neuroscience or economics major, journalism needs you.
2. Have a blog and credentials you can show people. Nothing speaks to your skills better than a thorough, well-organized set of clips. Make sure you can speak to why your previous experience, regardless of its direct relation to journalism, will help you succeed as a journalist.
3. Don’t confine yourself to print. In this day and age, you need to have multiple skills — learn to shoot and edit video, take photographs, blog and manage social media. Wire services in particular are booming.
4. Learn how to write about economics. The economy is the number one story around the world right now, and you will be a highly marketable employee if you know how to write about business, employment and interest rates.
5. Familiarize yourself with the tricks of the trade — AP style, interview skills, journalistic ethics, etc. Do research for specific job and internship opportunities. If you’re applying for a job with the Associated Press, Bloomberg or Reuters, learn the verbs of attribution in business journalism.

Interested in pursuing job or internship opportunities in journalism? Make sure you’ve signed up on Dartboard to receive our regular blitzes about communications jobs! There are stories out there waiting to be told — are you going to be the one to tell them?

Continue reading »]]> EF Education First, commonly referred to as EF, is a leading private education company, offering “every imaginable way to learn a language, travel abroad, experience another culture, or earn an academic degree.”

EF recruits at Dartmouth for the EF360 Global Management Trainee program, a hands-on program that provides one-on-one mentoring with senior leaders, the opportunity to learn the company’s unique entrepreneurial style, and the chance to oversee a major project central to EF’s business.

We sat down with economics major Charles Li ’12, an EF360 Global Management Trainee, to learn about his work and get advice on best practices to prepare for this type of unconventional management track program.

1. Tell me about the EF360 program.

For the 360 global management training program, you work with a senior executive who serves as your mentor and guide, and you begin by rotating through departments such as sales, marketing, finance and operations.   Trainees then work with their mentors to identify a challenging project or projects to lead which will have a tangible impact on EF’s business, and you spend the remainder of your first year as a 360 implementing those projects.

2. Describe your job.

Everyone’s career path is unique. I’m fascinated by mobile technology and did a great team project on mobile application development while at Dartmouth. I now work as a Manager of Mobile Strategy, and my 360 project within EF is focused on recruiting mobile developers and other “digital natives” to help drive our mobile business objectives.

Many management training programs at other corporations hire a large number of people to work in specific positions and weed out based on performance. The EF360 program works in reverse.  They hire a small number of people, identify their strengths, and groom them to fit a position that capitalizes on their interests and the company’s needs. Because we travel to each of EF’s global headquarters for training, we have an opportunity to work closely with a small group of management trainees who share a passion for education and the company cause. Yet at the same time, each EF360 is working on his or her own unique project.

3. What’s most surprised you about the position?

The level of responsibility. After four months, I am already hiring a team. I’m grateful for the responsibility.  It demonstrates a level of trust that EF has in its recruits, and that trust naturally supports creativity and collaboration both within teams and across product lines. 

4. Is it necessary to have advanced coursework in Economics, Education, or any particular subject area to join the EF360 program?

Absolutely not. We don’t hire skills, we hire people. We recruit at Dartmouth because graduates have the leadership skills, problem solving ability, and a can-do attitude.  The recruiters here would rather find someone with a passion for education, travel, and learning languages, and the ability to problem solve, than someone who is an expert at one skill and only one skill.

5. EF is known for having a really unique interviewing process? Can you describe this, and share a few tips on how to best prepare?

EF is looking for creative thinkers. I was asked “what is the best business to create using the items in this hypothetical box?”  I created a business plan.

Once you make the interview round, you begin a series of meetings with key leaders across EF business units.  You do not receive a schedule of meetings before you arrive at EF.  The first few interviews focus on identifying your strengths and specific areas of interest.  Then you meet with executives within several specific products with whom they think you will have the greatest synergy.

The best advice I have is to simply be yourself.  Hopefully you’ll bring a love of learning and a passion for education and travel to the interview too.