You’re hired: Northeastern students graduate with jobs lined up
From jobs at Tesla, Apple and even a self-created position that involves hiring others, Northeastern grads prepare to enter the workforce.
Talk about the supply chain, particularly when it was throttled by the COVID-19 pandemic, caught Thomas Brulay’s attention.
Learning about the intricate, fast-paced process to create and distribute items, coupled with the sheer global scale at which the chain needed to work, fascinated the Northeastern University international affairs and international business major.
But what really confirmed Brulay’s desire to work in the supply chain field was getting a firsthand tour of the LG global headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, through Northeastern’s Dialogues of Civilization program.
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Exploring and pursuing his interests has paid off. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, 21-year-old Brulay will head to Austin, Texas, to work for Tesla’s electromechanical supply chain team.
“Being at Northeastern, you really put yourself ahead,” he said, emphasizing his excitement over leaving the university not only with a degree, but with a job. “It sets you apart and really prepares you for the real world.”
In Northeastern University’s class of 2024, 96% of graduates were employed or in graduate school within nine months after commencement, according to the latest data available from University Decision Support. Among this group, 93% had jobs related to their major.
This year, 6,200 students will earn undergraduate degrees after studying on Northeastern’s Boston campus. More than 7,600 students will earn graduate degrees.
Trepidation about the current volatile and often stagnant job market was top of mind for the Northeastern students who spoke with Northeastern Global News, but many graduates said gaining hands-on experience through co-ops helped them stand out from other new job seekers.
That was the case for Abby Binaday. The 23-year-old international business major grew up in New Jersey and went to high school in the Phillipines, where she took business and science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, classes. She knew she wanted to return to the U.S. for her undergraduate studies and chose Northeastern for its undergraduate offerings in business and its co-op program.
Initially at Northeastern, she was interested in accounting, but her second co-op with a finance focus at Evercore, a global independent investment bank, “changed my entire trajectory for what I wanted to pursue,” Binaday said.
“I didn’t think I would pursue finance unless I was thrown into it and found that I really liked it,” she said. Working with people who wanted to help her grow and succeed “really gave me the confidence to keep pursuing finance,” she added.
Her third co-op at the financial consulting company Morgan Stanley turned into a full-time position as a global capital markets analyst, which also meant a smooth transition into the workforce by working with the same team she did during her co-op.
“I definitely feel very, very grateful and lucky. I know it’s rough out there,” Binaday said. “Northeastern really, really helped me navigate this career process.”
Denzel Alib, 28, was among the crowd of students gathered outside of Gate B at Fenway Park ahead of Wednesday morning’s graduate commencement ceremony. The graduates braved the foggy, sometimes drizzly morning to celebrate their academic achievements.
Alib graduated with an MBA and will continue to work in product development at Dr. Scholl’s, a wellness company known for its shoe inserts and orthotics.
“Surreal. I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones,” he said, when asked about being employed after college commencement. “I’m fortunate enough that I was able to work through my entire degree, while still maintaining my full-time job.”
Math was Priyanka Adhikari’s favorite subject growing up. So pairing that interest with data science was a perfect match.
“My main goal for college as a whole was to end up with a job in something that I love,” the 22-year-old data science and mathematics major said. “Having experience in the tech industry was more important than anything else.”
Through internships and two co-ops, Adhikari was able to learn, among other skills, how to build data science solutions and create machine-learning algorithms to spot fraudulent sales. But she learned so much more about building her interview skills, sharpening her resume and standing confident in her abilities.
Starting in the fall, Adhikari will be employed full-time as a machine learning engineer for Apple, working in fraud detection and retail decision automation.
While many Northeastern graduates will come away from commencement with jobs, at least one will be hiring.
Elijah Muraoka, 22, studied computer science and business at Northeastern and spent a semester in Silicon Valley generating countless ideas for ideas for apps. Muraoka said that AI automation is being used a lot in coding and development, so why couldn’t it be applied to boost social media engagement?
On a whim, Muraoka, a friend and other collaborators took this idea to a San Francisco-based AI hackathon – a timed, collaborative computer programming competition.
And they won.
While the original idea has since morphed and been reshaped, the startup that Muraoka co-founded in January, called Tomoji, offers clients “brand growth on autopilot.” In other words, the startup allows clients to automate the process of posting about their brand on platforms including X and LinkedIn. The program that Muraoka uses learns the clients voice based on what they’ve already posted to generate new posts, and also offers new ways to grow the companies’ audience.
While he paused his studies at Northeastern to focus on the startup, he ultimately completed his degree and is now hiring to increase the company’s capacity.
“You can learn a lot from an internship. You can learn if you do or don’t like that career path because the internship is a couple of months,” he said. “College is figuring out what you even want to do for the next 30 years of your life.”
