Every year, alumni are invited to return to King School for Career Day to share their professions and life experiences with upper school students. This year’s featured alumni reflected an array of career paths, including marketing, sales, finance, theater, and medicine. The panelists offered advice to the students as they consider life after King. 

“The framework of education is to produce the skills you need to be a part of any environment,” said Jesse Freedman KLHT’00, a Magic and Illusions Associate for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway and the Founding Artistic Director of the Meta-Phys Ed. Performance Group.

“Most of those skills are hard skills,” he continued. “But if you want to be an interesting person that people want to work with, you’ve got to have soft skills too. Have a worldview that’s going to allow you to have intriguing conversations. That’s how you’ll be able to solve life’s problems in a meaningful way.” 

Clare Drebitko KLHT’92 encouraged the students to travel and find internship opportunities. “There are some really great service trips where you can participate in the types of hands-on experiences that would look great on a resume but would also expose you to some really fascinating medicine,” said Drebitko, a practicing pediatrician and medical doctor. 

“I would start networking now. Create a LinkedIn profile and connect with your parents and friends of your family, and start networking. I’ve kept my network as tight as I could, and I'm still in contact with people from my first job 25 years ago,” said Rob Kligman KLHT’92, Vice President of Marketing Operations and Talent Management for G-Fuel. Kligman has also previously worked for notable organizations such as MTV and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

“It’s who you know, how you develop your network, and how you remain a part of it. It’s not about just reaching out when you need a job,” he said.  

The students had an opportunity to ask questions. “I can tell you all love your careers,” said Hannah Carter ’22. “Do you think loving your job is a rarity? Do you think there was something you had to sacrifice?” 

Ruthie Hubbard KLHT’08 fielded the question. “I still have to go through some hard training, which is a reality of life, so I don’t want to sugarcoat that. I didn’t love everything I did, but I recognize that I needed those experiences to get to where I am now,” she said. Hubbard is a YouTube Strategy and Insights Manager for Google.  

Olivia McGrath ’22 followed up with the next question. “How much did your major factor into what you decided to do, and how did it affect your success in your career?” 

Charlie Keating ’17, a Financial Reporting Analyst for Mirador LLC, went into college undecided about his major. “Focus on what your skills are and what you enjoy doing. I was never the best English student; I loved Math. That led me to major in Economics,” he said. “If you translate what you love into what you want as a career, it’ll lead you to a path you can be happy with.”