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Exactly five years ago today, on Sep 30, 2013, I packed all of my life's belongings in two suitcases and left for school in Boston. I was going to embark on a new journey, and I was excited, yet worried at the same time. Attending graduate school would mean a lot of learning, experiences, and fun. But I also knew that I needed to be able to pay for the hefty school fees, living costs, and more. Therefore, I quickly spoke to my seniors from school, did some research, and started applying for hourly jobs throughout MIT and Harvard that would allow me to generate the income needed to pay for my school fees.
Reflecting back, the hourly jobs that I worked on in my first two years in the United States was instrumental in enforcing my understanding of hard work, grit, and paying back. At the same time, I was able to improve my personal skill sets, including public speaking, mentoring, language skills, and more. It was an enriching experience working hourly jobs.
I had an amazing time working hourly jobs to see myself through MIT and Harvard and I would love to share my experiences with you. Here are the different hourly jobs that I did while I was in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1. I worked as an hourly tour guide for Harvard Student Agencies
There are thousands of tourists that show up at the Harvard yard every week. They come from China, Korea, Japan, Europe, and more. I wanted to have an experience that would allow me to improve my public speaking skills, meet new people and introduce Harvard to potential future students (most tour guides came with parents, who wanted their children to one day attend Harvard, and the children themselves.)
In order to get up to speed, I needed to fill up a paper application form from Harvard Student Agencies (which took me 2 hours), trek all the way to the office to submit the form (wish Workstream existed then!), and do manual paper on-boarding. At the same time, I needed to memorize the three lies of John Harvard, the "founding father" for the university, learn about the different routes of the school, and shadow a few of the more experienced tour guides. After over 10 hours of in-person training, I was ready to go! I started working for $25 per hour for the job and had a range of fun experiences from showing high school students from Japan to bringing a group of professionals on a fun tour of Harvard.
2. I served as a resident advisor at MIT with one of the fraternity/living groups
This was one of the most memorable experiences of my time in Boston, where I served as a resident advisor for Epsilon Theta, or "ET", a fraternity of a co-living group within MIT. I was provided with a room and board, lived with 25 brilliant MIT undergraduates majoring in computer science, physics, and mathematics, and learned a bit more about engineering, American culture, and living with really smart people.
As a resident advisor, I needed to organize activities (of course I organized bi-weekly basketball sessions), mentor the students, and be a friend whenever they needed a listening ear. During my time at Epsilon Theta, I met many good friends. This includes living next to a student who came to MIT when he was just 15 years old (he's now doing his Ph.D. at Stanford at age 19), going for morning runs with the students, and talking about programming.
3. I worked as an hourly translator for Harvard Business School professors
At the same time, I signed up to be a translator at Harvard Business School for several professors who were hosting professionals from China. There is a huge interest in classes at Harvard Business School with regard to finance, law and economics. I conducted research online and found one of the school job boards which was looking for fluent Mandarin speakers. I then went through a 3-round interview process and got the job. The job was great as it had an hourly wage of $50 per hour due to the technical translation needed. I put in hours preparing for the various translation jobs in between my classes and was able to save money to cover my school fees.
4. I signed up as an advisor and mentor for Harvard college students
Finally, I also signed up as an advisor at Harvard’s Adams House - the house of many famous alumni including Henry Kissinger, Andy Borowitz, and more. As an advisor, I met many students whom I count as friends today, including Noah (who is an amazing engineer presently), Christina (who used to compete in the Olympics for the United States in figure skating), and Edward (an outstanding tech entrepreneur today). I worked office hours where I would provide career guidance, feedback on resumes, and set goals for these students.
Juggling 4 hourly jobs during the time that I attended graduate school and taking classes, while at the same time starting a logistics startup at Harvard Innovation Lab and figuring out the next steps in life was a challenge. But it was also fulfilling, exciting, and laid a strong foundation for me. Both of my parents were hourly workers and I grew up in my family learning about the different challenges an hourly worker faces. To be able to see myself through graduate school by taking on different hourly jobs and learning new skills was the very experience that inspired me to start Workstream, an automated hiring platform for companies hiring hourly workers.
I love to trade stories and hear about your hourly job workers. Was there a time that you, too, worked as an hourly worker?
