Every day Emily Halley gets up, goes to her office in Southborough, Massachusetts, and makes a difference with marketing.
As a fellow for the Olympus Corporation of the Americas, she takes on a variety of projects — from social media marketing to catalog generation — that help to sell the company’s life-saving medical equipment.
While she calls working in the healthcare and medical field her “new dream job,” a year ago, Halley wouldn’t have been able to predict her success.
As a college senior, Halley was sure she wanted to work in the toy industry — specifically, at the American Girl Company, where she had been dreaming of working since receiving her first American Girl Doll at age 5.
In February 2017, Halley created a cardboard cutout doll, named Rowland, who would “carry” her résumé from Indiana to Wisconsin in an attempt to catch the company’s attention. Rowland had a travel blog, a social media campaign and a feature story in The Daily News.
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After sending the résumé, Halley waited. And waited. And waited some more. Until finally, after passing her self-imposed deadline, she put aside American Girl and accepted the offer for a fellowship with Olympus. While she did eventually hear back from the company, it was only with a quick, one-line email response.
“It was a little heartbreaking at first, but if I had worked at American Girl, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to move out of the Midwest. Olympus challenged me to try something new,” she said.
After graduation, she packed her bags and moved to Southborough, Massachusetts, still feeling unsure about whether she had a real passion for her new career. Now, after 8-and-a-half months with the company, Halley said she couldn’t be more pleased with her new path.
A fellowship with Olympus consists of three rotations through different departments at the company, with the idea that fellows will be able to find the team that best fits their skill set by the end of a 21-month period. Halley said the rotation has allowed her to expand her knowledge and try new things without having to commit to one set position.
She urges job-hunting graduates to think not about what company they want to work for, but what kind of work experience they want to gain.
“We think about entering an industry instead of thinking about the skills we can develop, and I think that’s what really matters when finding your first job,” she said. “Seniors put so much pressure on themselves to find a position that is either in their dream field or that they’re super passionate about, but perhaps they just don’t know what’s out there yet.”
While the transition from life in the Midwest to the East Coast has been challenging at times, Halley said having strong support from those around her, including coworkers, new friends and her parents and boyfriend, who both live out of state, has made the change much easier.
“When you move, it’s really easy to just come back to your apartment and binge watch Netflix and not really socialize, but if you’re able to explore your new area, it makes it so much easier to call some place home,” she said.
Next month, Halley will move to Hudson, Massachusetts, a smaller community 20 minutes away from Olympus that reminded her of her hometown of Goshen, IN. She will live in an apartment above New City Micro Creamery, her favorite ice cream shop.
“I’ve been able to find a little piece of home in Hudson, in their passion and the community that Hudson has fostered,” she said.
As Halley continues to settle into her new home and new job, she is excited about the new opportunities in front of her. She sees her job at Olympus as a blessing in disguise that has opened her up to new skills, interests and passions she might not have discovered in her original field of interest.
“In the movie ‘The Circle,’ Emma Watson’s character says she is most scared of unfulfilled potential, but I’m scared of unfulfilled passion,” Halley said. “I never would have found these other passions if I had stayed in the toy industry.”
She urges seniors to keep an open, positive mind if their first job isn’t what they’re expecting.
“Not getting a dream job doesn’t mean you’ve failed; you’re just going to take a different path.”
Contact Carli Scalf with comments at crscalf@bsu.edu or on Twitter @carliscalf18.
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