College Experiences That Helped An Enterprise Customer Success Manager At Groove Succeed
Attending NYU provided Michael with invaluable experience navigating a drastically different environment than their previous schooling, developing adaptability—"a massive kind of thing to realize"—which proved crucial for their career. This adaptability, honed through living in New York City and studying abroad, enabled Michael to thrive in diverse settings, including living in Thailand, and ultimately contributed to their success as an Enterprise Customer Success Manager.
Adaptability, Communication, Community Building, Cross-Cultural Experience, Problem-Solving
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Michael Gigante
Enterprise Customer Success Manager
Groove
New York University, 2017
None
Film, Media Arts, Visual Arts
Technology
Sales and Client Management
Honors Student, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Stepping outside your comfort zone and adapting to new environments is crucial. Michael's experience at NYU, a large university in a major city, taught him valuable adaptability skills applicable to any career, especially one that involves diverse teams and situations.
2. Embrace diverse experiences. Michael's experience studying abroad broadened his worldview and improved his ability to connect with people from different backgrounds—a valuable skill for any professional career, including Customer Success Management.
3. Living independently and navigating a large city helped develop crucial life skills. The challenges of managing life in New York City equipped Michael with essential skills including problem-solving, resourcefulness, and self-reliance, vital assets for any professional role
Transcript
Mike, taking you back to your time at NYU, what did you do in undergrad that set you up for success in your career?
Before I went to NYU, I had a pretty confined high school and middle school experience. I went to a really small school of about 300 kids, sixth through twelfth grade. It was an all-boys school, so it was very confined, and probably too confined in that sense.
Making the decision to go to NYU was really intentional to broaden the people I would meet and get different life views, and just get out of my comfort zone. I would say when I was thrust into the middle of New York City, and you have to navigate living in that city and also living on your own, it was a massive thing for me to realize.
It's a good skill to learn how to adapt to new environments. When I got to NYU, I was definitely thrown into somewhat of the deep end. You're living in a major city, navigating how to live on your own.
But it was so key to everything I did there and important for the rest of my life. I think it makes you more adaptable to different places. Since traveling and living there, I've been able to travel to a lot of different places.
Living in Thailand is easier when you know that you can survive in an environment that's so different from where you came from. At NYU, I was able to study abroad in a couple of different places and adapt to different environments, and make new communities.
That's probably really important for the rest of my career and the rest of my life: knowing that wherever you move, wherever you change, you can adapt to whatever environment you're in. That was probably the biggest thing I learned and enjoyed about living in New York and going to school there.