Before I started this podcast, I listened to podcasts. But I had never really thought about all of the jobs that go into making those podcasts possible. In this episode, I speak with Elena Schwartz, a producer for Slate Magazine's daily news podcast "What Next." In college, Elena thought that she might want to go to law school. Much of what she did in college, both academically and extracurricularly, was geared towards examining the intersection of race, class, and the criminal justice system. B...
Nov 16, 2022•58 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, I speak with my former co-worker, Jessica, about her path to becoming a Project Manager at an energy storage start up. In college, Jessica majored in computer science and minored in ethics and philosophy. Like me, she worked as an analyst at a boutique financial litigation firm after college, but after two years decided that it was time to move on. In deciding what she wanted to do next, Jessica looked to find a job where she felt more mission-aligned and where she could achieve...
Nov 09, 2022•41 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, I speak with a fellow graduate of my high school, Ogechi Musa. Ogechi is now a full-time writer, director, actor, and producer. But that's not where she started. While a student at Boston College, Ogechi thought that she would pursue a career in medicine. Initially she thought she would be a doctor, but she ultimately landed on healthcare IT consulting and training. She was always passionate about acting and filmmaking, though, and pursued that, as well. After years of balancing...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast As an English major at UC Berkeley, Carrie felt like the expectation was that she would immediately continue on to get a PhD. But instead she decided she wanted to take some time off and consider a career in publishing. In this episode, we talk about how she explored the publishing field through internships, what the different roles are within the publishing space, and how different publishing companies function differently. Carrie now works as a marketing coordinator for children's books at an ...
Oct 26, 2022•41 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast After growing up in a small town in Indiana and after attending Bowdoin College, Jordan Daniel knew that he wanted to move to a bigger city. He knew he was interested in public health and health care, but wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to pursue. Hoping to develop his analytical skills, as well as to prepare himself for a graduate degree, Jordan Daniel took a job as a fundraiser for a Chicago-based non-profit in the public health space. After a while, though, he felt he had learned everythin...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, I speak with Eshani. Eshani initially started college thinking that she wanted to become a doctor, but ended up switching to a pre-dental major and then went dental school. Throughout her life, Eshani spent a lot of time dancing, but found that, during dental school, she fell out of practice. Once she finished up her residency at a VA hospital, Eshani picked up dancing again as she waited for her exam results. After spending several months dancing and building an online presence...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, I speak with Kristen Fulmer about how she has built a career at the intersection of sustainability, buildings, and sports. She knew coming out of college that she wanted to work to make buildings more sustainable, but how exactly she wanted to approach that evolved over time. Tune in to hear more about why she chose each role along the way, how she navigated tough situations (including age differences in the workplace, gender-based biases, and getting laid off), and how she mana...
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode, I speak with Andrew, a MD/PhD student at the University of Washington. After initially pursuing environmental biology in college, Andrew took some post-baccalaureate classes to apply to medical school. While taking those classes, he also worked as an EMT. Then, while applying to medical school, he started working in a cancer biology lab, which caused him to realize that he wanted to continue to pursue research in tandem with his medical degree. Luckily, the medical school...
Sep 28, 2022•53 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast When Stephany was a sophomore in college, she was a chemistry major and had never heard of Goldman Sachs before. Now, she's working as a Global Sustainability and Impact Associate at Goldman Sachs. But how did she get from point A to point B? In this episode, we talk about her path from being a chemistry major to becoming a finance major, from interning as a Summer Securities Analyst to working as a Global Markets Analyst to now working in the ESG sphere within Goldman. This episode is best for:...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast In the first episode of the season, learn about the ins and outs of applying to a PhD program, what it's like being a PhD student, and how to balance school work with other pursuits. In this episode, I speak with Garima about her path to becoming an Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD candidate. We talk about the time she took off before starting her PhD program (including working at a botanical garden), how she conducted informational interviews to help narrow down which PhD programs to apply ...
Sep 14, 2022•57 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome (or welcome back!) to Season 2 of What Do People Do All Day?! This is a podcast geared towards helping college students and those a few years out of college figure out what they want to do professionally through a series of informational interviews. But for those of you who want to conduct some informational interviews of your own, I thought I'd kick off this season by giving everyone a quick how-to guide on what an informational interview is, how, when, and why to conduct them, as well ...
Sep 07, 2022•7 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast That's a wrap on Season 1 of What Do People Do All Day?! The show will be picking back up for Season 2 on Wednesdays in September after Labor Day. In the meantime, please reach out to whatdopeopledoallday2022@gmail.com with any comments or suggestions. Happy summer!
May 25, 2022•35 sec•Transcript available on Metacast When Michael graduated college, he wanted to get an MFA. He spent a few years working at a boarding school while building his portfolio to apply to an MFA program. During that time his art evolved from strictly photography to a more diverse set of media. He applied to MFA programs, got in, and matriculated, but two weeks in he realized that completing an MFA program wasn't for him. So he moved home and began applying to internships. Eventually, he began working at an art gallery as an inter...
May 18, 2022•59 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast When Laura graduated, she wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to do, but she thought that she might want to try marketing or something in the sports industry. So she started at an ad agency and also worked as a fan cam director for the Rangers on the side. Laura found that marketing at an ad agency wasn't allowing her to exercise her creativity as much as she had hoped. So, through a connection from her job with the Rangers, she switched to a marketing role at FanDuel. But then she found out tha...
May 11, 2022•44 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast In college, Gabrielle participated in Naval ROTC and then became a Surface Warfare Officer stationed in Japan immediately after graduating. She did a tour with the Office of Naval Intelligence as a Collection Strategist and served as a Flag Aid for the Director and Commander at the Office of Naval Intelligence. She now serves as the Department Head and Deputy Director for Maritime Intelligence Operations Center. After six years with the Navy, Gabrielle is reflecting on her lessons learned as she...
May 04, 2022•45 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast This week I speak with Carter about his path to management consulting. Coming out of college, he took a year to do a fellowship in Taiwan. While he enjoyed the experience, it didn't exactly help him figure out what he wanted to do long-term. Going back to his political science roots, he took a few political consulting roles in Washington, D.C. Through those experiences he started to home in on what he liked and didn't like in a professional role. After building out a spreadsheet of every job he ...
Apr 27, 2022•56 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, I speak with Gilbert, an educational consultant. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do after he graduated and his parents encouraged him to try living in another country. He taught English in China for two years until the pandemic hit. After realizing how many of his students wanted to go to college in the United States, but didn't really know what they were looking for beyond the ranking of the school, Gilbert dove into helping high school students apply to college as an educatio...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast From the time she was in elementary school, Madeline wanted to be an intelligence analyst. Moved by the events on 9/11, she took every step to set herself up for that career. But then she found out that she couldn't pursue that dream. On this week's episode, hear about how Madeline took the skills that she had developed in hopes of pursuing a career as an intelligence analyst and pivoted to become the co-founder of a luxury travel group. Best for: picking up the pieces when things don't go the w...
Apr 13, 2022•38 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast This week I speak with Krysten about her journey into the health policy and legal world. When Krysten took a job in government affairs at a pharmaceutical company coming out of college, she didn't realize how much she would love health policy. But as her career has moved forward, she realizes that her interests go all the way back to when she was a Girl Scout. Hear about how Krysten has opened doors for herself by "being nice and working hard." Best for: balancing work and graduate school; being...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, I speak with Jeff Hartsough, a product manager at Cisco. Though he wasn't initially sure what he wanted to do when he graduated college, he knew he wanted to be able to use his Chinese language skills. From being an East Asian Studies major, to the first product manager hired at a start up, to being a product manager at a multinational technology company, we hear from Jeff about what it's like to be a product manager and how to leverage your network. This episode is best for: ho...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of What Do People Do All Day? we talk to my mentor, Staci. Staci loves learning and chemistry, so she thought she wanted to go into academia and higher education. She even got a Masters and then started a PhD in chemistry. But she began to realize that it might not be the right fit for her. So she moved across the country and started tutoring, which led her to join an educational startup called Polygence. Listen to learn more about her journey and startup life. This episode...
Mar 23, 2022•44 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast This week I speak with my friend from college, Topiltzin. After graduating Yale, he became a Venture for America Fellow and joined Honeycomb Credit instead of taking Google up on their return offer. Hear about how he thought about what he wanted out of his first job and how he navigates a job with no roadmap. This episode is best for: those thinking about taking the "risky" path; making it into the startup world with a liberal arts background Contents: 1:00 - Meet Topiltzin 03:18 - Venture...
Mar 16, 2022•49 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast This week I speak with my long time friend Genevieve about her path to working as an Associate Coach Program Manager at a healthcare startup. During her senior year (and even for a bit after she graduated), she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Then she took a certification course to become a health coach. She joined a start up and has been growing with the company ever since. Genevieve will walk us through how she followed her gut, but also slowed down before jumping in. This episode is best f...
Mar 09, 2022•50 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast This week on What Do People Do All Day, I speak with my long time friend Lydia about her path to becoming a software engineer. An avid reader who wanted to be a tabloid reporter when she grew up, Lydia attended a coding bootcamp when she was 25. Since then she’s worked at start ups and more established tech companies. She’ll walk us through a day in the life of a database software engineer and she’ll share some career insights that she’s learned along the way. This episode is best for: learning ...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Before you dive into the informational interviews, let me give you a bit of background on why I'm doing this podcast and what I think you can get out of it.
Mar 02, 2022•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast "What Do People Do All Day?" is a podcast for current college students and recent graduates who are figuring out what they want to do professionally. Sara Seymour, a recent graduate from Yale University, conducts a series of informational interviews with other recent college graduates across industries to help you figure out what it is you want to do professionally.
Mar 01, 2022•55 sec•Transcript available on Metacast 
