Students can be feel a lot of pressure to know exactly what they want to do in the future or what they want to pursue as their career. However, most professionals tend to switch jobs fairly often, with good reason. Whether it’s because they have found a position that better fits their background, are pursuing a diverse set of skills, or are simply switching to a career that fits better for them, professionals tend to switch companies every 2 to 3 years. QUEST professionals are no different, as is the case with Navin Sarma from Cohort 11.

Now a project manager at Google, Navin has a wide range of experiences under his belt. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from the Robert H. School of Business, Navin became a Business and IT consultant for PwC. “I had no real plans to become a consultant out of college.” When asked what drew him to the firm, he said that his decision to join PwC was “based more-so on practical need to get a good paying job at a reputable firm” and that “there was a huge market for consultants in the IT audit space.”

Although Navin did not have a ‘dream job’ as a student, he did enjoy the cross-functional nature of QUEST and wanted to pursue a career where he could work with a wide range of professionals. “The good thing about consulting is that it is project-based like QUEST and can involve people from all walks of life. From that perspective, consulting was a great profession for me.” However, Navin wanted to eventually become more technical, as well as “weave some personal interests (photography) into [his] position.” Because of his passion for photography, Navin founded his company, Navin Sarma Photography, in 2006. “It quickly became an outlet for me, cultivating artistic ambitions I never knew I had. As I got more into photography, I considered it more seriously to become my full-time job. For a few years, I was regularly teaching photography, presenting at shows, and selling my work to move towards photography as being my full-time gig.”

The prospect of turning his passion into his primary source of income was appealing, but Navin found that he would have to make concessions. “My ideal set up would be that I would independently shoot a given subject, edit to my own personal taste, and display the work for sale for those who aligned with my vision. Often times, this worked, but it was not enough to create a steady stream of income.” Navin enjoyed teaching, but found that he would have to teach much more often to support himself if it were his main source of income. He also mentioned that when income is in play, he would “capture more commercially viable photographic subjects or edit in more ‘popular’ ways vs. [his] own tastes.” Because of these reasons, Navin decided to keep photography “pure and just for [his] enjoyment.” “I shoot for myself, and if people like my images they purchase them. Win win.”

After quickly gaining a wide range of IT audit and consulting skills during his 4 years with PwC, Navin spent 5 years with Booz Allen Hamilton as a program manager while continuing to pursue his photography company. He then moved up to become a director in management consulting with a government consulting company, Management Strategies. Not too soon after, Navin became a client executive for Hewlett Packard, where he was the point of contact for government agency CIOs and head of strategic sales solutions. When asked what the main reasons he would join another company were, he said, “The most important would be the opportunity itself and the nature of the problem set. If I am jazzed about it, it would get me interested. Beyond that, team culture, location/travel, and benefits are important, but being totally enthusiastic about the gig would be key.”

Navin is now a product manager at Google and says that it is close to his ideal profession at the moment as it weaves together his passion and his interests. “I took my experience as a management consultant and career strategist and photographer and am now a Product Manager at Google driving computational photography research and production.” Navin still has his photography company, but it is “totally self-guided and independent of the desire to make income.” His current position is a great fit for him since he “[loves] the business and impact that photography and imaging has on the world,” and that he is “responsible for bringing cutting-edge, nascent tech to market in a way that scales globally.”

When asked what advice he would give the QUEST community, Navin said, “Don’t hesitate to try something new, personally or professionally, especially if it stretches you out of your comfort zone. Then after you have done this new thing, take some time to think back on your experience and how you feel about it.” He mentioned that new experiences can be risky, since there’s always the opportunity cost of what else you could have been doing, but that “every step in your career will teach you something – how to deal with conflict, how to rise from your own poor performance, and how to operate in different work environments. Consciously and subconsciously, these experiences shape you and will lead you into being well-rounded, experienced, and ready to tackle what’s next.”

For this month’s edition of the Alumni Corner, QUESTPress is featuring Chris Coraggio of Cohort 16! Chris is currently attending IESE Business School in Barcelona where he plans to earn an MBA.

After graduating from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, Chris was recruited by Teach for America to become a middle school math teacher, which provided him the opportunity to have a real impact on people. Although his career was fulfilling, Chris realized that his true passion was for sustainability and fighting climate change. So, he decided to pursue an MBA to keep his career and career path moving forward.

So why IESE?

It took Chris a lot of research and many applications to both US and international graduate schools to realize that he wanted a global career that could also potentially allow him to consult and/or volunteer for Teach for All – Teach for America’s Global Organization. He then realized that IESE was the best fit for him – not only is his class comprised of over 60 nationalities, but also the network is the most global in the world! In addition to diversity, IESE has a stellar MBA program and a unique Business-Spanish program that will train him to receive a Dual-Language MBA.

So far, Chris has absolutely loved his first month in Barcelona! While he said moving to a completely new country has been a struggle, his ability to bond with the IESE diverse community has helped Barcelona to feel more and more like home. “The community is incredibly supportive, collaborative, generous, fun and talented.” While abroad, Chris has found time to not only explore Spain, but also to travel to a ton of new countries! He has absolutely loved the city and people of Barcelona – he says that both the art (Gaudi!) and culture are amazing. “People here value their personal life more than their career, so there are lots of holidays and less working hours. I appreciate the slower but higher quality of life here, although it can sometimes be challenging!” To me, that sounds amazing! I already want to retire and I have yet to start working!

Chris’ first day of school is this month – let’s wish him luck! If you ever have any questions about attending an MBA program, participating in a program abroad, working for Teach for America, or just want some travel tips, please reach out to Chris at chris.coraggio@gmail.com! He would be more than happy to talk with any QUESTees.

Catching up with QUEST alumni is always an interesting opportunity. Learning more about the path they’ve followed since they were in the same shoes as us current students is incredibly valuable, as they provide clear examples of what might be possible in the future. I was able to catch up with Andrew Jones from Q26 this month, who studied aerospace engineering at UMD and graduated last May. He was also the lead for QUESTPress during his time in the program. He now works at Appian and is approaching his one year anniversary at the company!

Andrew recently took part in the second annual professional services hackathon at Appian. Teams from around the world had the chance to participate and were tasked with creating an app (on the Appian platform) in a 21-hour time span that aligns with the Appian Guarantee. The Appian Guarantee states that anyone can gain knowledge of the Appian platform in 2 weeks and develop their first app in 8 weeks. Andrew and his team were able to come up with an application that allowed users to create their own ways of viewing any data they might have stored or access to. When asked about his experience, Andrew said, “21 hours, in reality, is not that much time, so our team basically used every second of those 21 hours to build our application.” Andrew’s team won the grand prize at the hackathon, which was an all expenses paid trip to the Appian World Conference in San Diego.

Andrew’s time with QUEST has had a great impact on him. Interestingly, his hackathon team was an all QUEST-team, as Ilan Gold (Q22) actually reached out to him to ask if he would be interested in teaming up with him and Savannah Vogel (Q19). They even named their team “The QUEST to Appian World.” It’s pretty easy to see why this team was able to work so cohesively to win the grand prize! Andrew also cites how QUEST helped him integrate more easily into the work culture at Appian, saying, “Appian is such an agile-focused company, as we pretty much apply it to all of the projects we work on. Learning about agile in 190H and applying it in 490H definitely helped with the transition to the workforce, as I (as well as anyone else here who was in QUEST) already had a relatively strong foundation in agile.”

Andrew loves working with Appian as an associate consultant within their professional services department. In this role, he delivers business applications to streamline clients’ business needs and processes, allowing him to learn about multiple industries and their processes in a relatively short amount of time. He says the caliber of people working at Appian is amazing. Everyone is really smart and driven, each with their own unique backgrounds, and he really enjoys working with them on projects and interacting with them at the office on a day-to-day basis.

All in all, it’s pretty incredible to hear how well Andrew’s doing with Appian, and his story serves as a testament to how QUEST helps students develop personally and professionally, while also making sure they win trips to San Diego! Congrats to Andrew and his teammates!

There is a certain comfort in planning, in mapping out your future in exquisite detail. However, it is impossible for such a plan to account for the surprises of reality, to incorporate the arbitrary procession of events and unexpected opportunities that lead to success in the most unique of places. Ori Zohar of Cohort 12 can attest to this. He graduated from UMD in 2007 with a degree in marketing and moved to New York to work at big advertising agencies. Zohar worked in account management, business development, and strategy to get a well-rounded experience in the industry. After several experiences with startup operations, he co-founded Burlap and Barrel, a company which sources and sells international spices, in early 2018. I had the opportunity to talk with him about Burlap and Barrel, as well as his other endeavors.

What inspired you to start Burlap & Barrel? How did you navigate this very specific industry to build up the company?

Ethan and I have been friends for over 10 years, and Burlap & Barrel is our second business together. We always wanted to find an opportunity to work together again, and the timing was just right. Our skills complement each other’s: Ethan’s specialty is creating something from nothing – aka the subject matter expert. My specialty is building the structures and systems that enable that “something” to grow – aka the operator.

Ethan had previously been an international aid worker in Afghanistan and Jordan, and while he was living abroad, he would bring back a few pounds of spices from a few local spice farmers. I had been helping to get the business off the ground, but my previous startup was in the process of going through a rocky acquisition, so I wasn’t free to join quite yet. After taking a few months to wrap things up and a few months to recover, I joined full time.

It’s been really interesting to navigate this industry. As outsiders, we have a fresh perspective, but there’s so much that we’re still learning. Through lots of conversations with people in the industry, we got a handle on things like which certifications are important, how much margin grocery stores expect, and how to convince chefs, food makers, and home cooks to upgrade their spices. 

Our partnership is the most important part of the company. We try to be thoughtful in how to grow in an intentional, bootstrapped way – and constantly check in with each other to see if we’re on the right path.

What other startup endeavors have you been involved in? Which is/has been your favorite?

As an undergraduate, I had a cap and gown business. Since you weren’t allowed to rent your regalia, graduating students were forced to buy expensive caps and gowns that they would only wear once. I offered graduates $20, then sent the robes to the dry cleaners, and stored them until the next year, when I would sell it back to the next class for $50. It was a good first lesson in entrepreneurship.

Later, in 2010, Ethan and I started our activist ice cart business, Guerilla Ice Cream, where we sold ice cream flavors inspired by political movements and revolutions. We ran it for a summer and learned a lot about what it takes to run a food business.

A couple of years later, I connected with a few investors and started Sindeo, a mortgage startup that provided a transparent, unbiased, high-tech way to get a home loan. We raised $32 million and grew to over 100 employees before our Series C fundraise fell apart and we had to sell the company quickly. You can read more about that here.

Entrepreneurship is a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger you get. Each business helped me develop skills and gain knowledge critical to running Burlap & Barrel. Burlap & Barrel is a profitable, bootstrapped business – which makes it my favorite so far.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Ethan and I work remotely – he’s in New York and I’m in San Francisco, so we try to check in at least once a day by phone and are constantly chatting on WhatsApp. Most days, I have 1-2 sales meetings with chefs, grocery stores, or food makers. In between those meetings, I’m updating our site, responding to customer emails and chats, drafting our next newsletter, reaching out to new suppliers like packaging providers, and reviewing our sales performance to see what’s moving and forecasting the next few months.

If you could give two pieces of advice to current QUEST students, what would you say?

On any given day, there are may be 20 things that need to be done, but I only have time for three. As a QUEST student, you get to practice this type of prioritization on a regular basis (or maybe you’re one of those “I just do everything and sleep two hours a night” people – in which case, you especially need to practice prioritization. Get those eight hours.) Pay attention to how well you prioritize, when you get it wrong, and how you can improve. It’s one of the most critical skills for an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship is all about decision making with limited information. There are some data to support quantitative decision making, but understanding the qualitative, like putting yourself through the customer experience, getting feedback from early adopters, and quickly iterating on your business model, is a virtuous path. QUEST introduced me to the concept of fast decision making with limited information and that experience directly translated to the real world. Hone it, and it’ll support you throughout your career.

Thanks Ori for all of your insight, and best of luck with Burlap & Barrel!

With the variety of interests and majors represented in QUEST, alumni career paths go in an endless number of directions. After graduation, QUESTees have a wide range of possibilities. However, it can be daunting to find a career that’s truly right for them. Amanda Nachman (Q12) helps young professionals across the country achieve a career that aligns with their passions through her podcast: Find Your Passion Career.

Amanda is the Publisher of College Magazine, a publication she founded at UMD during her senior year. She was inspired to pursue her idea after working on a QUEST project with ExxonMobil. Helping them create brand loyalty among the 18 to 24 year old market for their On the Run convenience stores taught her about the importance of this age group as a target market. “I knew that students would benefit from a guide on how to be successful in college,” she says. “Getting the opportunity to work with a brand like ExxonMobil with QUEST made me realize that on the other side of it, advertisers would be very interested in reaching the 18 to 24 year old market.”

After this experience, she founded College Magazine with support from the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. She developed a minimal viable product and printed 5,000 copies of her first magazine. She printed this amount based on the number of advertisements she was able to sell and distributed the magazine across UMD’s campus. Since then, College Magazine has expanded to reach 9 million readers nationwide.

Amanda recently started a podcast, Find Your Passion Career, where she interviews career experts and professionals who are working in their passion career. Over the years, she has worked with hundreds of students through College Magazine. Through communicating with students about their goals after college, Amanda found that there is a lot of fear and pressure surrounding the career journey. The goal of her podcast is to help emerging professionals strategize a path toward a career they enjoy. Amanda says, “You work 40 hours a week, shouldn’t you be doing something that you love?”

For Amanda, the transition into creating podcasts and giving talks has been another step in her own passion career. “I love making this magazine, but I also want to be connecting with students and young professionals directly. Find Your Passion Career became that new outlet where I could connect with them through the podcast and through speaking events,” she says.

Amanda says the first step QUEST students should take when considering their passion career is to identify their interests and passions. “Ask yourself: when’s the last time you took a half-hour to yourself without your phone to ask yourself what it is that you love? What makes you light up inside? What drives you? What’s something you could do for hours on end? Write it down.”

Then Amanda says students should match their skills and preferences to their interests. “Think about your strengths. Think about your values, the principles you live your life by, the kind of work-life experience you want to have, the lifestyle you want to lead, and then start researching what’s out there that connects to your passion.” Finally, students should utilize their network, reaching out to professors and advisors. “Taking that time to explore those opportunities is going to really open up the possibilities of what you can be doing after graduation,” Amanda says.

Students can benefit from listening to Amanda’s podcast by learning from the experiences of the people she interviews. In the stories of how they arrived at their passion careers, none of them had a linear path, but they each pivoted and followed their passions. “The reason I created this podcast is I hope that it’s inspiring and it’s easy to listen to just one of the stories,” Amanda says. “Listen to one of these individuals who have lived their passion career and hear from them what it took. Know that you can do it too. A lot of times it’s just listening to yourself and your heart.”
You can listen to Find Your Passion Career on iTunes and Spotify!

QUEST has numerous alumni spread across the world, working in extremely interesting fields and industries. One such alum is Jenna Beglin (Cohen), who is the Senior Manager at the Design & Innovation team at Samsung. Jenna was able to provide me with some insight on what she does at Samsung and what has led her there. 

At UMD, Jenna was a member of Cohort 15 of QUEST. Upon graduation from UMD, Jenna started in technology strategy consulting at Accenture, got her MBA from Cornell, worked at a brand and innovation consulting agency called Sterling Brands (an Omnicom agency), and then transitioned to Samsung. 

At Samsung, Jenna’s team has a multitude of responsibilities. Her team develops the pipeline of innovation ideas for Samsung’s services group, usually including software and mobile phone apps. She helps design these concepts, prove the business case, manage the prototype build and test the concepts with consumers. She also conducts other primary consumer research to inform product growth and go-to-market strategy. Currently, Jenna works with Samsung’s software products, like Samsung Health, Samsung Pay, Bixby Voice, and Bixby Vision. She conducts consumer insights for these products to inform product road maps and growth strategies.

When talking about other products she’s worked on, Jenna says, “In my past life at Sterling, I conducted consumer insights work to inform the branding and design of a new “Keurig for Cocktails” called DrinkWorks – a collaboration between Anheuser Busch and Keurig.” She’s also developed a brand architecture to inform innovation and branding for Pepperidge Farm. 

When asked about her time at QUEST, Jenna says it impacted her in many ways. She says, “QUEST taught me how to think in a structured way, how to problem solve, and how to manage clients and stakeholders – important skills in ANY industry.”  Her favorite part of the QUEST experience was how  “QUEST, especially Dr. Suarez’s lectures, made me feel like I could and want to change the world.” Dr. Suarez was the director of QUEST for her first two years in the program. He taught Jenna her capstone class, and she considers him to be one of the most inspirational people she has ever learned from. 

Jenna recently got dual citizenship (US & Spain) and is hoping to move to the EU soon. She also got married three months ago. Congratulations are definitely in order and it’s definitely inspiring to be able to trace a path of a QUEST alum from where many of our students are right now to the juncture of life Jenna’s at currently. Kudos to her for having found her niche in an industry and position that sounds extremely interesting and rewarding. We look forward to staying in touch!