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Defining Your Own Career

Alumni discuss ways to navigate self-made career paths.

Saturday of , �����ջ�ies of many generations flocked—or rather, in classic �����ջ� conference fashion, trickled—into the panel A Different Drummer: �����ջ�ies Navigating Self-Made Career Paths. By the end of the panel’s two-hour time slot, the classroom was standing-room only, and the wide-ranging discussion was still going strong. 

The panel consisted of five �����ջ�ies of diverse backgrounds:

• John Ullman ’65 is retired from a career in molecular genetics, consumer and environmental activism, and representing storytellers and folk musicians.
• is a musician, actor, composer, and teacher who currently teaches voice lessons at �����ջ�.
• is the head of research analysis and reporting for New York City’s Medicaid system, following a long career as a dancer, waiter, salesman, emergency management specialist, and aerospace engineer.
• is an “adventure cartoonist,” creator of comics that explore wooden whaling ships, social dance, sensory deprivation, and other delights.
• Lillian Karabaic ’13 teaches personal finance to young people and creative entrepreneurs (among her clients: a cat interpretive dancer, which is exactly what it sounds like).

As one might expect from such an eclectic group, the conversation covered a multitude of topics. One common theme was the importance of learning to run a freelance career as a business. As a financial advisor, Karabaic has a unique perspective on this: “A lot of my clients are terrified of business,” she said. “They end up nannying and they don’t file because they think taxes are, like, oppressive. But in reality the government would have been paying them.”

Another thread was learning to leverage the �����ջ� community for support. “What,” Ullman asked the group, “are you getting out of this incredible group of people who are going to come into your life over and over?”

You can strengthen the �����ջ� network—and take advantage of it—by joining the through the . Other great resources include the and (�����ջ�ies in journalism, �����ջ� librarians, �����ջ�ies in tech, etc.)

Tags: Alumni, Life Beyond �����ջ�