Career Services Spotlight – Jesse Bennett, MIA ’21, New York Immigration Coalition

What is your new job? How did you obtain it?
I am currently the Senior Operations Associate at New York Immigration Coalition. I obtained the job after applying  after I saw the posting on their website back in April.

How long were you actively job seeking? I was actively job searching for around 6 months before I got the job offer at NYIC. This included applying to around 8-10 jobs every week. (and honestly rarely hearing back from 75% of them).

What was your job search strategy during this period? I had 2 spreadsheets: 1, with places that I knew I would want to work at, their job boards linked, relevant projects and teams that I was interested in; and 2, with jobs that I had applied to, the relevant details, timeline, and any potential contacts that I may know at the organization or that might be useful.

What do you think were the secrets to your success? I am not sure if I have any fancy or new secrets, job searching is hard and tedious. But I can say that a spreadsheet and a cover letter that you can reuse and personalize for each type of job and org you are applying to (i.e. an operations role at an NGO, a policy analyst job in government etc.) were incredibly helpful. And USE THE RESOURCES AROUND YOU. So many Baruch classmates, professors, and professionals work in the fields you want to get into. Letting anyone and everyone know what you are hoping to do after graduation will work in your favor.

What advice do you have for job seekers out there? Keep your head up and remember your worth! Job hunting can be demoralizing after receiving many no’s or no answers at all. But fighting for yourself and what you know you are capable of is worth it. I also adopted the philosophy of: what’s the worst they could say, no? and began reaching out to people on linkedin or via email. I wasn’t asking for jobs, I was asking for info about where they work and what they do. I leveraged the fact that I was a student at Baruch and many were willing to chat, if not also refer me to other people, organizations, and jobs! I walked away with a job at an organization I love, and around 15 other personal connections at organizations I may work with in the future.