Summer Jobs

In November of 2018, I started applying to any job I could find that were looking for sophomores. Turns out pretty much every company has no use for a sophomore with a half-complete degree and no real-world job experience. It was difficult going with job rejection after rejection. Obviously, my rejections were more than just the fact I had no skills. It also had to do with the fact that my resume was in multiple colors (Turns out red and blue are not companies favorites) and my cover letter was the same one paragraph about how I was really interested in this position and how I could offer x and y and of course z. By the time April rolled around I had applied to over 80 jobs with little end in sight. I was applying on Indeed to every position available and I was getting either no responses or bad leads. I truly thought the more applications I sent in the better chance I had. Which to be fair is partly true, but not the only way to go about applying for jobs. One piece of advice... quality over quantity.

Around mid-April, I secured my two jobs. One tip came from a friend at Tufts who had worked as a summer tour guide in the past and the other one from Indeed.Com. I was so excited to have gotten two job leads in the same week. So, I quickly accepted both positions as a Tour Guide and as a Real Estate Operations Intern. I wanted to work and make money, so I didn't think too much of the fact that these two jobs would mean I would be working for 7 days a week. I had worked long hours in the past and thought this would be simple. It would also be okay because I would be able to live in Medford with some college friends.

Long story short is that it was not simple. I worked two very different jobs and had little to no time for myself. I was exhausted all the time and missed countless beach days with my friends on the weekend. I would work the week giving around 2 tours a day to what is thousands of prospective students. I learned what they were interested in studying and where they came from. I also was asked countless times by parents what my ACT's were and what they could do to get their kid into Tufts. Not surprisingly the college process is never a given. I would always tell students at the end of my tour that I was the one who would read applications and to make sure to write Michael Wrede down on their essays. It was only a light hearted joke that some of them took that to heart and even sent me letters thanking me.

On the weekends, I worked at RCG, a real estate trust. RCG owns nearly 1,000 properties in the Somerville and Medford areas. Summer is the busy season of trying to get rented all their apartments. I was a Business Operations Intern which may sound very fancy, but my job was to get those apartments rented. That included showing apartments to prospective tenants, helping get keys to realtors, and responding to emails and phone calls. At times it was an incredibly hectic environment, responding to calls, doing the showing and office work, and at other times incredibly slow. I got to be an expert when showing apartments. They looked to me for info about the apartment and frankly, as a 20-year-old college student I loved it. It was nice to be a helpful source in what for many can be a daunting and scary process.

I loved both these jobs and learned a significant amount about customer service and hard work. I was constantly engaging with people learning to provide a service and trying to make each person's experience pleasant with both the companies I worked for. I met Realtors, scientists, bankers, parents, consultants, business owners, and everyone in between. I loved being able to meet all these different people and just having that small interaction meant the world to me. I can't wait to see where this job process will take me and hopefully I can continue to meet some pretty cool people along the way.