Welcome to The Love What You Do podcast. I'm Kelly Dugan, former HR executive Turn Career coach, and I'm here each week sta sharing stories and strategies to help you love what you do.
Welcome to the podcast, everyone. I am so excited. We have our guest here with us today, Kristen McQuillan. She is the Director of Creator Creative Careers at the College of William and Mary. Kristen, welcome to the podcast.
Cristen McQuillan: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
Kelly Duggan: I cannot wait to talk with you. So Chris and I actually went to grad school at the same time, different years, but we were going at, at the same time. That's where we were able to connect. Um, and I just get it, love getting to talk to people about all things higher ed [00:01:00] because it has one of my first career loves obviously.
So. Before we get into all of that good stuff, take us through what you do now and how you got to where you are now in your own career.
Cristen McQuillan: Sure. Uh, so I have been in higher ed now about 15 years. Um, crazy enough. And I am the Director of Creative Careers at our, uh, career center, which we call the Office of Career Development and Professional Engagement. So basically what that means is I meet with. Students. So I have a lot of individual student advising appointments.
So I do career advising and I also do career programming. So that includes alumni meetups or career treks, or panels or, um, I do actually an art student, uh, headshot event, which is really cool. Um, just things that help them in their career development, either to engage with people in the field. To learn about careers that are in the creative space, which is my space. Um, or to just kinda gain skills in that space. So that's pretty much [00:02:00] what I do right now. winding Road to get here. Never plan on being in higher ed like most people. Who are in higher ed. So, um, my undergrad degree was in advertising and pr. Um, and I kind of thought about doing that, but really out wanting to be an event planner.
Um, I was originally a hospitality and tourism management major and switched that. Uh, so basically. actually started in corporate marketing. I got an internship at a corporate marketing agency in Michigan, which is where I'm from, and I kept, I moved that internship into a full-time role, which was great.
So I spent about a year. In corporate marketing, insurance is not a super snazzy industry, as you may imagine. And so it wasn't my passion. Uh, so actually my husband and I moved to the East coast. Uh, we wanted to be somewhere warmer and with less winter. That's not panning out this winter, but, you know, usually it's better. Uh, so we moved here and that's when I [00:03:00] started looking for a job in event planning. Uh, and then I happened upon a job at William and Mary. Um, and it was for, um, an assistant director to, for it to plan special events in athletics. So it's basically athletics, fundraising events. and I did that for a little less than a year. It was. Terribly paid and long hours, but I learned a lot. I learned a lot about event events. I did probably 20 plus events in one year. I did, uh, LGPA Pro-Am I did a, a Hall of Fame induction, um, a huge silent and live auction, a a half marathon. Uh, I didn't run one. I plan one. Um, so a lot of really cool stuff.
So I really hit the ground running. And then after that I moved into, um. of the backend of events. So I went into the alumni association here at William Mary, um, which at the time was separate from the university. Now they're, it's combined and a little bit different. Um, but, so I actually worked with renting out [00:04:00] our alumni house.
So for a lot of college campuses, you know, they have an alumni house and as a student you're like, what is this for? You have no idea. And then as an alum, you know, there's a lot of events held there. We did a lot of weddings, receptions, all that sort of stuff. And from there I managed a student team who kind of ran the backend of events, um, and a couple of part-time people as well.
Um, and then I started working more in that alumni engagement space. I took over auction again somehow, and so that
Kelly Duggan: Can't get away from those events.
Cristen McQuillan: Once they, once people have learned you've planned an auction, they'll be like, oh yes. And I tell you what, that's like the hardest event to do in my, in my opinion, just 'cause there's so many moving pieces.
But it was a really cool experience. So I planned an alumni auction, which was a fundraising event for the alumni association at the college. Um, one in DC at the Ronald Reagan Building and one in New York at the UN building.
Kelly Duggan: Wow.
Cristen McQuillan: were really great learning experiences, [00:05:00] lots of cool things. Um, but during this time when I was at the Alumni Association, started to think maybe higher ed could be for me.
Obviously I'd been working in it, but when I first started, I just didn't know I'd had one corporate experience. I had like a year in higher ed and I was like, I just don't know. Where I fit. the more I started working with that student team, the more I realized I really liked that part. And I liked the part where I felt like there was kind of a greater mission
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: it all, you know?
And I could see what that was every day on campus. So that's when I actually went and got my master's at William Mary. So I started that. I think in 2012 or something. And I finished it in 2015, which is a long time ago, and that's when we crossed paths.
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: Um, and so I did that while working, but it was a really great, um, opportunity to be able to do that.
And after that, or right at the tail end of that is when I moved into career services. So career services I've been in now over 10 years, and it is, I've been in a few different [00:06:00] roles. Um, some on the employer engagement side, some on the career advising side. And I think it's been a great culmination of a lot of the things that I've done. There's an event planning component, which I have good experience in. There's a lot of that alumni engagement or student engagement pieces, the relationship building, just like the kind of a career and self-development piece. So I think it's all of worked out pretty well in how I got here.
But of course, I would've never laid that path, right.
Kelly Duggan: Of course not, which is, I always say careers only makes sense in reverse. You know, you, when you're doing it, you're like, I have no idea where this is going, until all of a sudden you're like, wow, this wouldn't happen if this didn't happen and this and this and this. Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: It is so true. It's so very true. And now it's kind of funny because the alumni association moved into advancement and in 2021, the career center, uh, moved into advancement. And so now I'm like back
Kelly Duggan: Oh my gosh. Full circle.
Cristen McQuillan: For those who don't know, advancement is kind of like the, [00:07:00] the fundraising arm and, and that for the, for a university.
So we actually are housed underneath Advancement, which is becoming a trend in career services nationally, but still not a lot of offices structured like that. So that was kind of a fun full circle.
Kelly Duggan: It's so funny. So when you first were applying into that, um, athletics events position,
Cristen McQuillan: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Duggan: were some of the thoughts and feelings you were having because that was a real industry. Switch for you to break into higher ed? Like, did you feel like you were, that this was kind of a long shot position to be applying for?
Like what was going through your head at that time?
Cristen McQuillan: Oh my gosh, so long ago. Let me
Kelly Duggan: I know.
Cristen McQuillan: at the time, of all, we had moved here and my, we moved here for my husband to take a teaching job. I think the thing to keep in mind with like careers and career decisions is there's just so many reasons that people make different decisions and everyone has a different. situation, a different financial situation, all those things are important, right?
Kelly Duggan: [00:08:00] Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: I'm thinking I just need a job because we
Kelly Duggan: Right.
Cristen McQuillan: and I've, I've not had a job for like two months, which is not a long time, but still, um, the place I was working, they do have other, the insurance agency, they have other offices, but they didn't have one in Virginia.
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: an option. so really I was, I wanted to do event planning. I'd actually reached out to a bunch of like wedding planners locally
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: to say, Hey, I was interested. And they were like, well, I don't have any staff, but you know, you could come and volunteer. And that wasn't quite what I needed at the time. So this job I found, and like I said, the pay was listed pretty low, so I wasn't sure. Um, but I did get a call. I thought, you know what? I'm, you know, I think this would be a really cool opportunity and maybe it'll be flexible, like, who
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: And um, so I really thought, Hey, let's just try it because it would get me some event experience and maybe something different.
It wasn't really the fact that it was at the university,
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: just that it was an event planning job.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: I remember I went in [00:09:00] um, I met and she had me like do a bunch of like mock. Test, which I thought was smart. She had me make an Excel spreadsheet. She had me like design a flyer really quick because I actually got to do a lot of design work in that job too.
And so that was kind of fun and I think just was a chance to show that off. Um, so I did think like it was a long shot, but I also was just kind of like, it was new to the area, right? I
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: what was around. And it's so funny now just to think back like. I didn't know what I was doing, but it was like probably the perfect thing
Kelly Duggan: It sounds so per, and it sounds so perfectly aligned to the transferable skills that you were bringing to the table. And I know that's one thing, I don't know if you can relate to this with students, but I know for me, when I am talking with a lot of clients who are kinda at that midway point through their career, um, it can feel like this big chasm jump to go into a different world, [00:10:00] right?
Like, okay, I've only ever worked in. Insurance, or I've already only ever worked in the financial industry. And, um, to try to, even though you're qualified for that position to try to make that jump can be a, a little intimidating. Um, and so that's why I, I love that about your story, that you were able to kind of break into this new space, um, because it was something that you were so perfectly qualified for in that role.
Cristen McQuillan: Yeah, it was, um, I think one of the things that helped is when I worked at the marketing, in the marketing job, I did a bunch of like expos a lot. You know, when you go to those big, like home expos and there's
Kelly Duggan: Oh yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: so I like manned a bunch of those, and I had worked with our staff to do that. And I had done like a lot of design work 'cause we did some advertising and local like publications. And so those skills I think really helped
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: get me the first job here, the events job. Um, and I think that's, you absolutely hit the nail on the head, like transferable skills. You just have to really highlight like, this is what I could bring to the table.
But either way [00:11:00] it's daunting, especially when you're jumping industries. And at that point too, when you're in that early part where you don't have a lot of experience, there's pros and cons. The pro is that you don't have a lot of baggage you're carrying to like have to, you know, explain why you're shifting. But the negative is you just don't have a lot of experience to show.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: can be tricky.
Kelly Duggan: It can be totally tricky. So the other thing I love about your story, um, and it is something that when I was doing my graduate assistantship in career services, this is a conversation that came up a lot because when you're it, you're a student in college, your major is everything. Right. Like, you're like, these are the decisions that are going to affect the whole rest of my life.
Um, but in your story and in my story, uh, we ended up doing things very different than what we went to school for initially. Um, so how do you advise on that today when students are in kind of the very beginning of their career search, um, and are all of these decisions feel really heavy? [00:12:00] Uh, how has, how do you talk to students about that?
Cristen McQuillan: Yes, that's an everyday conversation, especially now we're in the spring semester, so a lot of seniors coming in and I think you have to focus on what you can control a little bit. And so out with the major kind of question I talk a lot about, okay, let's say you're majoring in. English. Let's talk about the skills that you're gonna get from that.
So reading comprehension and analysis. You know, maybe copy editing, you know, obviously critical thinking, those sorts of things. But maybe you wanna do marketing. So what can you do to gain some real tangible skills that would help you in marketing? Is that through? Um, a club on campus where you could get kind of a marketing role where you could help promote things.
We have a Alma Mater Productions is the name of a student org, where they do a lot of events and bring in a lot of speakers, and there's like a TEDx, um, that happens at the university that students plan. So there's so many ways to get experience, and that's what I talk to [00:13:00] people about is like, it's a whole package. So yes, it's what you studied and your skills you bring to the table from that, but that's one piece of the puzzle. It's not the whole piece. You have to make sure that you're also providing other avenues to gain skills that would be useful to you later. And that
Kelly Duggan: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: a server in college. I worked as beverage cart driver at a golf course, and I mean customer service. At least I could bring those to the table. And multitasking.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah, you're not kidding at all. And just the having to balance all of those things at one time, like that in and of itself is a skill. Um,
Cristen McQuillan: Oh,
Kelly Duggan: that. I know, I feel like I, that's a piece of advice that I give as well to anybody who's looking to kind of make that shift and jump of like. Stop waiting for permission to do it and find a way to do it, even if you're doing it for free, for a little bit, and for volunteering, whether it's for a faith community or a [00:14:00] nonprofit or like something that you can do, um, to be able to just build that skill so you can say you've done it rather than waiting to ask if you can do it.
Cristen McQuillan: That's very true. And even like if it's design, maybe you wanna do design work, go make something,
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: make something, make a portfolio, you know, put it out there. Ask if people like that own small businesses need you to do work, you know, need some work or something. I mean, absolutely. If you have to build your portfolio, you have to figure out ways to do that.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: think I like that what you said about don't kind of wait for someone to give you permission to do it. Just go try to do it. I know that's daunting. It can be hard to figure out like. how do I do that? And I don't have time, and I
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: that. But at the same time, you know, I think you get out what you put in and I think it could be worth it in some instances to take a little bit of your time and effort to do those things, to gain those skills. You gotta decide what makes sense for you in the moment and at the life stage that you're at. But if you can, absolutely. Because [00:15:00] one, the piece of paper, your resume, can't translate everything you can do, but it can give a good, you know, idea of all the skills that you bring to the table. And it's varied.
It's not just work, it's also other things.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah, it, it really is. There's so much that you can convey outside of your major, your day-to-day position, like you're such a multifaceted person. Um, and you know, that's the, the kind of the art behind creating a resume is how do you bring all of those pieces in, um, so that you can depict that so that people can pick up on it.
Um,
Cristen McQuillan: exactly.
Kelly Duggan: You mentioned portfolios, which kind of brought my mind to your specialty, which is around creative careers. So
Cristen McQuillan: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Duggan: what do you love about getting to work specifically with that student population? Because I think, like I, I've done a lot of work in the entertainment industry space and gotten to work with a lot of creatives.
I find it to be so much fun. Um, I'd love to know like, what do you love about [00:16:00] working with that population?
Cristen McQuillan: Oh, absolutely. It's so much fun. It's definitely my preferred population. Um, I find, well, first of all, I just really like meeting with students and building. Relationships. I, I had two different students in here today who I've worked with multiple times and I just love building that comradery and kind of, you know, getting to that point of sort of trusting, you know, that they trust what I say and that's just really fun.
And I love when they wanna give me updates. That's just so fun. Um, and the creative careers in particular, it's just fun things to talk about. It's about creating things or making things or thinking outside of the box or putting yourself out there, and I just think that's fun to talk about.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: so I think, and I think the industries are really cool. Um, I've gotten to lead a few different career tracks and I've gotten to go some really cool places. the fall, we went to National Geographics headquarters in DC hosted by a fabulous alum and [00:17:00] like I was soaking it all in as well along with the students because it's like you get to see how your favorite things that you like to watch are made, how they
Kelly Duggan: That's so cool.
Cristen McQuillan: How they cut the video. I mean, this is like footage taken out like in the
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: they have to be like, okay, now we're making this digestible. And that's obviously one example, but I just feel like it's really interesting and I also think that they bring a lot of energy to the table for the most part, and, and in some ways. There's a difference between me and a lot of the students I meet with, not all the time, but like as in, they tend to be sometimes more okay with risk because the creative population, you know,
Kelly Duggan: That's very true.
Cristen McQuillan: a little less straightforward. It
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: less linear, and I, I really appreciate that and admire that about them, that they're willing to kind of put it out there a little bit and take that kind of risk.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah, that's. There's so much stereotype out there around creative careers, and I think people who are [00:18:00] kind of knowing the stereotype that's out there and are still choosing to go for it have this like inherent flexibility about them, which is really fun. And I find one of the things that make people, it's like one of the common denominators of success of like people who are able to accept.
That failure might be part of it, end up being more successful in the long run. And it's just, it's one of those things that's like frustrating and scary when you're a type A rule following person. Um, but if you have that in you, it usually pays off.
Cristen McQuillan: This is so true. It's very true, and I mean, you must fall in that boat since you're a business owner, um, which is. You know, obviously risky and wonderful in a lot of aspects, but yeah, I really appreciate that about the students I work with. And it's also a lot of real conversations I have to have. You know, like, is this something you're okay with?
You know, that this is not gonna be, you know, there's a lot of watching. There are peers who are doing things that are a little more straightforward or a little things are a little bit more at a earlier timeline,
Kelly Duggan: [00:19:00] Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: lot of concern sometimes about, you know, my friend has a job and I don't have a job yet, and it's totally valid concern, you also have to remember you're in a different industry.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: is different, and that doesn't mean that something great isn't out there for you too, but those are a lot of the conversations that I have, and I really appreciate that about people who are willing to just say, Hey, this is what I love and this is what I'm good at, and this is what I'm gonna pursue.
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: know, kind of come heck or high water. So I
Kelly Duggan: Yeah. Yeah. So what are you seeing in the creative space right now where like that's the most opportunity area or where you're seeing the most students kind of gravitating towards right now?
Cristen McQuillan: It always kind of changes year to year when students gravitate. I do think that we have, so we're a smaller liberal arts. University. Um, we have not as many majors as some of your major universities, but we still have a lot of students who are interested in things like journalism, even though we don't have a journalism major. Um, and we actually have a center on campus, the [00:20:00] Charles Center that's doing. Amazing work in the journalism space where they're bringing in all these speakers and opportunities to do journalism, master classes and things like that where they can learn about the craft and also be able to work on a story throughout the year and get that published. So I don't, I think that's growing here. Um, I don't think that career field is growing, so maybe that's the, the negative sector of that. I definitely think it's hurting, especially at a local and state level. Um, and a national level is not so bad. But yeah, that, that is a, you know, a little bit of a difference.
But there's always students interested in media and um, entertainment and that definitely has exploded in the last few years. Um. I think it's tricky because creative, well, you know, a lot of careers have ebbs and flows and a lot of industries have ebbs and flows, and we've seen a lot of that happen lately with, you know, writer strikes and, um, a lot of the upending in LA and, and Hollywood and with, you know, [00:21:00] media and things like that.
But the thing that I've seen really as a growth opportunity is there's so much more opportunity for freelance opportunities, for gig work, for creating your own thing. Um, that is huge. Uh, their digital landscape is really big and if you know how to do that well and you know how to create content and you know how to edit and you know how to video produce and all that, I mean, you're really gonna be in a better spot. So I do think those skills are growing and I still think. Even with the challenges of, know, AI and all that sort of stuff, as a challenge to, uh, the creative spirit a little bit,
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: that there is a big need for people who the strategy, understand how to communicate
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: and I don't think that's going away.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: think that our students are really good at like communications based careers and things like that.
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And I think on the topic of ai, I think [00:22:00] time will tell. How it really does integrate and be used as a creative tool instead of as a replacement. You know, I,
Cristen McQuillan: Yeah.
Kelly Duggan: um, I have a good friend who's actually going to be coming on the podcast who, his role is a creative technologist, which is.
Cristen McQuillan: Okay.
Kelly Duggan: A title that wouldn't even have existed a year ago, nonetheless, five years ago.
Um, but like really his whole job is how to create art with this hybrid of technology and just raw talent and bring that together, which is super cool. Um, so it is, it's interesting how there's like this disruption that's probably gonna happen in the creative space, but also these new opportunities that didn't even exist before.
So, we'll, we'll see what happens there.
Cristen McQuillan: true.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah,
Cristen McQuillan: would be exciting to learn about. I'll have to listen to that one.
Kelly Duggan: I know. Yeah. I, we're, we're, we're, we're working on timing. We'll, we'll, we'll get, we'll make that one happen soon. Um, so what are some of the unique challenges? We touched on [00:23:00] a few, kind of the, the lack of stability necessarily, or, or having that same timeline. Are there any other challenges that you're seeing for this population in particular?
Cristen McQuillan: Um, competition.
Kelly Duggan: Hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: Uh, just, you know, if there are you know, econ, it's been a tough, uh, landscape in general, especially for like entry-level talent, I think, and not just in creative, but in other spaces. We've seen a lot of changes in that and maybe hiring a little bit of less or being more hesitant to hire, things like that.
So competition is always a challenge and especially our students are. Very high achieving students. And so, you know, you're competing with a bunch of other people who are high achieving like you, and that's difficult. and I think the network and connection piece is really important in every career.
But you know, particularly areas like media and entertainment and things like that, it continues to be very, very important. Um, and so I think [00:24:00] that's a challenge and an opportunity. I mean, William and Mary does that really well and we have a huge alumni network, so that's really a positive. But you know, just doing that is a challenge.
And I think the other thing is physically in some spaces where things are happening, um, sometimes that's just cost prohibitive. So like. You know, if you wanna be in LA used to be able to kind of make that work and get a really terrible place and get a PA gig and get a Starbucks gig and kind of make that
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: And I'm not saying you can't do that now, but it's definitely harder.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: I think those things, you know, are challenges as well. Um, you don't have to be physically like in a space, but certainly it can be very helpful and particularly if you're trying to get on a film set. It's
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: to be where films are being made, so,
Kelly Duggan: exactly. Exactly. Yeah, we can. The, uh, digital connectivity only takes us so far, um, depending on what you're, what you're hoping, [00:25:00] hoping to do. Um, you mentioned networking and the alumni network, you know, how do you encourage students to connect with alumni to be able to grow their network in these early stages?
Cristen McQuillan: Um, yes, so I talk about this. Probably every day.
Kelly Duggan: I can imagine.
Cristen McQuillan: so we, yeah, so we have, um, a couple DA few different ways. So as I mentioned, I do a lot of programming that features alumni. And so that's one way where we try to make it really easy. Bring alumni to students. I'm doing an event this week in a couple of days with an alum who's a curator at a fine arts museum and trying to kind of help students make that connection. Um, like I said, we also do the career tracks, which are kind of offsite and going into places where we have alumni. We also have an alumni lunch that we host during those. But on a broader scale, I mean, you have to be on LinkedIn, you have to be on those sorts of platforms. We have. One in-house. A lot of universities are kind of [00:26:00] making their own platform now through products like People Grove or Graduate, and we have one that we call one network.
And so it's basically like an in-house, William and Mary, LinkedIn. If you're not
Kelly Duggan: Very cool.
Cristen McQuillan: should be
Kelly Duggan: I.
Cristen McQuillan: Uh, so we do encourage that for sure. Um, it's searchable. Just like LinkedIn is searchable. You can actually search the things they were involved with while they're at William and Mary, which is cool. So you can look for someone who is in your same acapella club or you know, your sorority or something. And I think what's helpful when you're trying to make connections is kind of leading with that thing that you have in common. Like a reason for someone to want to connect with you. And so I was like, hi, I'm a William and Mary student. I'm also was in Tridel, and I see you were in Tridel and I'm interested in blah. You do that. So I think making those connections is big. And I also think that LinkedIn cannot be ignored. We have to continue to use that as well.
So I would say it's like a, a both situation. Um, [00:27:00] and you know, obviously students from any university or. People from any university can use that. You can go through your, the find alumni tool. You can find people who are interested or who've worked in the industry you're interested in or who had the major that you had and all that's really helpful. There's a lot of, um, workarounds to like messaging and sending those notes out, but I talk about the importance of like making that first connection because many times that first connection will lead to another one.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah,
Cristen McQuillan: You might
Kelly Duggan: all the time.
Cristen McQuillan: say, this was so great. Can you recommend anybody else I might talk to?
And then that kind of goes from there.
Kelly Duggan: Oh, my favorite, favorite networking tool is use your network to expand your network. And just that very question you just mentioned. Do you have anyone you would like, you think I should meet? Opens up so many doors. Um, it, it's crazy. People love helping people.
Cristen McQuillan: And that's the thing is if you have an affinity for something or you know, even just [00:28:00] to be asked, sometimes it's flattering. I mean, yes, everyone doesn't always have time. are busy. We have things going on. But generally, if someone reaches out to you. And ask you a question that's reasonable, you know, for a small chat or for an for advice or something, like, you're probably pretty likely to answer that.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: I also say to students, you know, the worst they can do is not respond or say no. Like it's
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: know, it's not the end of the world. Yes, you've spent some time on it, but it's not the end of the world. It's not gonna hurt your feelings and it's worth a shot. So people, like you said, they like to help others, especially others that. You know, are from a university that they really love,
Kelly Duggan: Hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: you know, that have a common friend or something, so it's worth a shot.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah,
Cristen McQuillan: get is a no.
Kelly Duggan: exactly. A hundred percent. So. On the flip side of that, for people who are alumni of universities out in the world right now, what could they be doing to better leverage the alumni network, you know, [00:29:00] post Collegiate, how they can connect with other alumni or give back to their own universities? What are, what's some advice you have for them?
Cristen McQuillan: So, so many ways. Um, so we talked a little bit about that platform, so we have. One, we've branded one network. A lot of universities have those as well. And so if you don't know if a university has one, go to their like alumni site and see if you can find it. sign up. Most of the time they're absolutely free, and you can make yourself searchable in hours.
You could say. Kind of, there's a little raise hand feature that just says, I'm willing to help. And you can indicate what you're willing to help with. And so that might just be, I mean, might be connections, it might be referrals, it might be just a co a conversation. And that is a really easy way to help pay it forward.
And that would be, you know, to a student or maybe someone like me finds it, who plans programs and says, Hey, I saw you're willing to help, you know, with students in journalism. Would you be willing to kind of do a career chat or something? So [00:30:00] that's a really easy way. connect with your university as well on LinkedIn. Um, if there are regional networks, that's another really great way
Kelly Duggan: That is a great one.
Cristen McQuillan: We have a lot of regional networks and uh, as well. And so it's a way to get plugged in and kind of know what's going on. Um, so I think there's a lot of ways in that one could just be a conversation with a student. Another could just be sharing your story.
Kelly Duggan: Mm-hmm.
Cristen McQuillan: sometimes we just wanna know about alumni career stories that we can kind of share out there, because. If you are a student now and you can see someone who is in your shoes, who did the thing that you wanna do, that just helps give you that hope and motivation that maybe you could do it too. So that's something that potentially could be of interest.
We have an alumni magazine. We have like a newsletter that goes out that features some alumni stories, and so you never know.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: kind of, you know, send that out there. certainly we'd always take financial support. So many [00:31:00] universities are doing kind of a one day of giving. Now that's a very popular, easy entry point into university giving.
And a lot of people know that. Like if you give a dollar to that, it's still very helpful because many times it's about how many people give versus like the exact dollar amount. Right. Um, so that's something that you could definitely look for as well. And if you do that, you could earmark the gift or you could just give it. Of course, we love it when it's just unrestricted and you can use it for what you need to use it for. But if you loved a particular program, or let's say you had an internship and you really wanna give to the internship fund so other students can have, um, affordable internships, that's something you could earmark that for as well. Uh, and then I mentioned the kind of hosting and treks thing, but we love it when alumni host us and so many of them do this of their own free. Time and it like adds a little bit to their plate, but they enjoy it so much. When they host us at sites, they get to meet students, they get to show off what they do, and that's been really fun.
[00:32:00] I've done several of those over the years and it's always a great time and I think alumni honestly get as much out of it as students.
Kelly Duggan: Oh, I, I believe it. Hmm. It's, well, it's kind of like getting to show off in like the best way of like, look, I was where you are and now I am here and like, I'm so excited for you. I want you to be able to get here too. You know?
Cristen McQuillan: Exactly. Exactly. Um, so I mean, there's plenty of opportunities. You just have to either, connected maybe on socials or through that, um, kind of campus networking platform or even through LinkedIn. And just reach out, um, or just say you're willing to, to help. Um, we obviously can't engage every single person that wants to do that because there's only so many of us. But the, the ones that we do, um, we're so appreciative of just the time that they give. And that's, and most of you know, what we're talking about is not a financial commitment. It's just a time commitment to either [00:33:00] share their story or to talk with a student. And even if it's just one conversation with a student, that could be a really impactful conversation. You never know what that does to a student's trajectory, so
Kelly Duggan: Yeah, absolutely.
Cristen McQuillan: valuable.
Kelly Duggan: Wonderful. So I have one more question for you, Kristen.
Cristen McQuillan: Okay.
Kelly Duggan: If you had to give one piece of advice that you find yourself giving over and over that. People took action on it would give them kind of the, the biggest return on their investment. What would, what is that piece of advice that you find yourself giving?
Cristen McQuillan: Oh boy. okay. I have to think on that one. I mean, I would say the biggest advice I give in general is kind of stay in your zone of control. That's,
Kelly Duggan: Oh gosh, please.
Cristen McQuillan: hopeful, but it's this idea of you can worry about everything. The what ifs and the maybes and the, you know, who knows what will happen.
And it's like, you can control this. You can submit an [00:34:00] application. You can reach out to somebody and ask a question, you can't control what happens after that. try not to take that personally. Try not to take that, you know, there's a million reasons that maybe you don't get a job or that a thing doesn't work out. And we've already said you learn a lot from those things and from the, just taking the risk to put it out there and, and, and it's worth a shot. And the other thing that I would say that I've kind of embraced in this time in my life is like. Try to be in the room. It gets really hard to, you're just like in your own space and you're in your own work and you're just busy.
But like, if there's something going on where you can be in a room of professionals who are, um, talking about things that you care about or that you can learn something new, or that you can just put yourself out there and show your face, it's usually worth doing. So be in the room as much as you can.
Kelly Duggan: Oh my gosh. I love that. Can we put that on a bumper sticker like that is. Yeah, it's, [00:35:00] it's so important and especially in the era that we're in now of just technology is great. We're connecting right now virtually from Connecticut and Virginia. That's a wonderful thing. But there is something to be said from being able to show up and just talk with people and see people, and so much opportunity is created from relationships.
And in order for those relationships to grow, you have to nurture them and, and be in the room to be able to make that happen. Yeah.
Cristen McQuillan: absolutely true. That was my mantra the whole last year was like, be in the room, go to the thing. Like put like, you know, you can't always make it happen, but as much as you can. I think it's always been worth doing.
Kelly Duggan: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Kristen, thank you so much for joining us. I loved getting to catch up, and I think there's just so many amazing pieces of advice here for folks who are either early on in their career or even in at that, that midway point that can really take a lot out of this. So thank you so much for sharing.
Cristen McQuillan: Thank you so much. It was really [00:36:00] fun and I really appreciate you reaching out,
Kelly Duggan: Of course. Of course. All right, I'll talk to you soon.
Cristen McQuillan: All right. Bye.
