Name: Jessica Montoya

CFS Concentration & Year: Civic Engagement, Fall 2011 and Humanities, Winter 2012

Internship: Digitas and Congresswoman Schakowsky’s office

Major /Minor:  Psychology/Political Science

Graduation Year: 2012

Current Position: HR Coordinator at Doherty Employer Services

Describe your CFS internship and how it helped you either in interviews, job opportunities or graduate school applications.

My internship at Digitas was in the HR department. In my position there I conducted new hire orientation, processed new hire paperwork, and planned company-wide events, among other things. I do all of those duties in my current role, so I think it really made an impact when I was interviewing for the HR Assistant position at Doherty. I also had a better feel for what HR really was. I knew I was considering that as a field I might go into, but I didn’t know exactly what someone working in HR actually did on a day-to-day basis. I think that was what I valued the most from that internship- learning what I would actually be doing.

My internship at Congresswoman Schakowsky’s office gave me a lot of experience interacting with her constituents. I learned a lot about immigration laws and the kind of struggles immigrant populations face when writing letters to various organizations on the Congresswoman’s behalf. It was a very rewarding experience as it allowed me to help a large number of people in a very short amount of time. I think overall it taught me to be comfortable interacting with so many people on a daily basis. The position I first achieved out of college required me to answer the phone and respond to client inquiries about a vast array of HR-related questions. I think that learning how to answer specific policy or government-related questions at the Congresswoman’s office helped me do well in my first job out of college.

 Did you see it as a future career when you took the internship? 

I saw both internships as possible career paths for me as I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I graduated. I think it’s very important to get a good feel for as many types of jobs as you can while in college. It’s so much harder to try to figure it out while you’re also trying to make ends meet when you’re living on your own.

Please briefly explain what you are doing now.

I work as an HR Coordinator at Doherty Employer Services. Doherty provides HR administration to a large number of different sized companies. I have a small number of clients myself and also service all of my manager’s clients. I conduct new hire orientation, work with managers when employee issues occur, coordinate a company-wide training program called Doherty University, and many other projects as they come up with clients. Since Doherty works with a large variety of clients, I’ve been able to see what HR looks like in all different sorts of industries and company sizes.

 Is there a link between your CFS experience and what you are doing now? 

Not directly, though I do feel that I wouldn’t have been able to get my position at Doherty without the internship I did at Digitas. They wanted HR experience – because of CFS, I actually had some.

 What advice do you have for students at NU considering the program?

The best decision I made at NU was to enroll in the CFS program. I learned so much about what I wanted to do after college and I truly believe it gave me a leg up when interviewing. The classes themselves were also some of the best I took at NU. The instructors are so invested in getting students interested in the subjects they teach. The small class environment is also great for getting good discussions going. I think it helps prepare you for interdepartmental meetings you may have at future jobs – they feel pretty similar!

How can CFS students make the most of their experience?

Use the opportunity to get a good sense of what a job in that industry would truly be like. Go the extra mile at your internship and do all of your work to the best of your ability – all of my internship managers offered to serve as references for me in the future because I put in a ton of effort. I also had the opportunity to extend my internship at Congresswoman Schakowsky’s office for an additional quarter though I wasn’t able to take another CFS class. I decided to keep it up anyway and I’m glad I did – I learned so much more in that extra quarter than I would have had I stopped at the end of the quarter. It also makes for a good answer when an interviewer asks you, “Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond…”!