Careers that Make an Impact: Co-Op Panel
On January 29th, NUImpact’s Event Director as well as our moderator Nimmy Arun Prasad held a Co-Op Panel. We sat down comfortably in our chairs and enjoyed the delicious pizzas that Nimmy brought for us while listening to the three ambitious and driven Northeastern upperclassmen: Noelle Gilster who worked as an investment analyst for Harvard Management Company in their Natural Resources department, James DeCunzo who is a part-time prime fellow of the Prime Impact Fund and Nina Rossiter who recently worked as a research intern focusing on the water industry at Bluefield Research. Throughout the 1-hour session, we were all amazed by how talented these three upperclassmen were and we all appreciated the helpful tips for us students who are actively looking for Co-Ops in the Fall.
Noelle Gilster had worked at both the Blackstone Group and State Street before coming to Harvard Management Company to focus on potential investments on natural resources which she emphasized that “It really has driven my impact interests”. When she was asked about what she liked the most from her Co-Op, she responded: “My Co-Op at Harvard Management Company broadened my mind to the world of economics”. Particularly, she was curious about why Vietnam suddenly imported so many Fuji apples from the U.S. and later discovered that the tension from the trade war between China and the U.S. as well as the imbalance of trade between Vietnam and the U.S. have led to this. Otherwise, Vietnam would have been the next victim of the trade war. Nevertheless, her lesson extends far beyond this and she was happy to share some of those lessons openly to the audience. For her, being in a small team did not prevent her from being unrecognized. In fact, according to Noelle, “Being in a small team helps you to make a bigger impact on the team”. One of the things she suggested doing was creating a mentorship program in the workplace which can potentially help newcomers to fit in and catch up on the work better.
James DeCunzo is an adventurous young man who devotes his career to Impact. He had worked at MassCEC which is a Clean Energy Centre and Advantage Capital which is an Impact Fund that aims to empower businesses and support communities in underserved markets before working part-time at Prime Impact Fund. The reason why we call this young man adventurous or audacious even is because of his willingness to send out more than a hundred emails to employers so that he could continue pursuing his career in Impact. When the question comes to his challenges when applying for Co-Ops, he was not shy to share his story and emphasized these three words: “Impress your employer”. During an interview with a real estate company based in New York, he was asked whether he could build complicated models and the only thing he could reply was “I can’t … but I can learn things quickly”. Nonetheless, when the same company invited him to the second interview, he was ready to give it all out. His story truly reminds us to do our homework and be ready to impress the employer with all we have got!
Our final panelist for the night was Nina Rossiter. Her latest Co-Op was at the Bluefield Research. However, this is not a company that you can easily find on NUCareers as it was a self-developed Co-Op from Nina. During her study abroad in Australia, she attended a conference that had Bluefield Research as one of its attendees and she became so fascinated that she came up to the representative and asked her for an internship at the company. Her courageousness and proactiveness did pay off and she had a wonderful time as a research intern at Bluefield Research. As aforementioned, Nina is indeed different from others and she is indeed different with how she sends a thank you note after any phone interview. “One of the biggest drawbacks of a phone interview is that the employer cannot clearly see who you really are and what your personality is like” — she said. “That is why I sent out my “thank you note” in the form of a video!”. Nina surely knew the biggest drawback of a phone interview is that it hinders her personality. In this fashion, her video had helped her employers to understand her better as well as to recognize that she is indeed special.
Hopefully, the tips and tricks that these amazing upperclassmen are giving out to you will be somewhat helpful in your Co-Op search and your future career. If you would like to learn more about how to successfully ace your interviews or to find out the career paths for Impact please join NUImpact in our upcoming events as they might just be the clues you are looking for.
