Tufts Career Center hosts #Adulting series, expands on skills needed beyond college life

On Wednesday, April 3, Tufts seniors headed to Orleans Restaurant in Davis Square to enjoy hot appetizers, two free drinks (for those 21 and over) and the company of their recently graduated peers. The occasion was Jumbo2Jumbo, an evening dedicated to open networking and conversations between current Tufts students and young alumni. Jumbo2Jumbo marked the conclusion of the #Adulting series, a string of events put on by the Tufts Career Center over the course of the year with the intent of preparing soon-to-be graduates for the world that lies beyond the rolling green crests of the President’s Lawn.

The #Adulting series was started with support and funding from sponsor Mathieu Gaulin (LA '05). The 2018–2019 #Adulting series began back in October with a panel of recent graduates. Since then, according to event descriptions, the series has included sessions on contract negotiation, personal branding, employee rights, financial literacy and more. Shannon Seaver, assistant director at the Tufts Career Center who coordinates the series, said the purpose of the #Adulting series is to give students the skills they will need after graduation, beyond just landing the dream job.

“It's one thing to get the job,” Seaver said, “and it's one thing for us to help you to land that position. But things can happen on the job, and how can you, as the employee, prepare to be your own advocate?”

Senior Lauren Kim, who works as a Career Fellow in the Tufts Career Center and who has attended all of the #Adulting sessions so far, said the topics covered new ground about which students did not have much background knowledge.

“I had learned no financial literacy [in other classes],” Kim said, “Which is why I feel like these are so valuable, because I learned so much more applicable advice than I did in honestly a lot of academic classes.”

Each session has featured speakers from the Tufts community and beyond who spoke to different forms of preparation for post-grad life. Jennifer Magrone, associate director of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) at Tufts, presented on understanding employee rights. Magrone, who investigates employment related claims at the OEO, advised students to research the anti-discrimination and harassment policies of their potential employers.

“It’s important for graduating students to understand their employment rights so they can advocate for themselves if they encounter any difficulties in the workplace that appear to fall within the realm of discrimination or harassment," Magrone told the Daily in an email.

Other sessions focused on topics like negotiating a salary, understanding a benefits package and forming good financial habits. Senior Kate Zheng, who attended the session on finances, appreciated speaker and financial advisor Stuart Paap’s direct advice.

“He went more in-depth about what you should be doing rather than just saying what everything means,” Zheng said. “He said you should always invest a certain amount, you should always keep a certain amount in your bank account and you should always take what the company is offering in terms of an investment plan.”

Senior Michelle Luo, who attended the #Adulting session on negotiation, appreciated that the event made her think about important topics before she otherwise would have.

“It’s nice having an idea of what these terms mean now, before I really need to know them," Luo said.

Beyond the informative nature of the sessions, Kim also found solace in the fact that the alumni didn’t have it all figured out when they were students which, to many soon-to-be graduates, is certainly a welcome reminder.

“It was just comforting to hear that a lot of them didn't know what they were doing upon graduation,” Kim said. “But they figured it out since.”

Though the #Adulting series has been running for several years, it ran under the name Senior Launch until this academic year. According to Seaver, she made the decision to change the name because she wanted underclassmen to feel more welcome.

“Underclassmen would see a session and ask, ‘Can I go?' and I would say, ‘Please.’ But I felt like they would hear me saying that, and they would still see the word seniors and not go,” Seaver said.

Seaver added that the process to this year's #Adulting line up has involved a lot of tweaking and editing from the programs of years past. She said that the addition of the session on understanding benefits was “kind of last-minute, based on students coming in this past fall semester more often than they had in the past in regards to their benefits packages."

Students had a few suggestions for new panels that could be included in the series for next year. Kim said she would like to see a panel catered toward being a person of color in the workplace, pointing out that “there are more specific challenges of being the only person of color in a certain workplace that no one is really prepared for ... so a workshop around that would be really helpful.”

Luo said she would like to see a panel more geared toward career paths outside of consulting and technology, such as non-profit work or graduate school.

Still, Luo ended with a pretty irrefutable argument for why Tufts students should make it to the panels and sessions hosted by the #Adulting series.

“I think it was good to get a head-start on this because I actually felt like an adult and it was kind of scary for a second,” she said, pausing a brief moment before adding, “And also there was a lot of free food.”