Career Path of a Director at SPMB
Ross's career path began with dropping out of high school to attend community college, including a year abroad in Jordan, before transferring to UC Berkeley to study political science. Although the initial plan was to attend law school after gaining work experience, Ross "landed at SPMV" (Schweichler, Price, Mullarkey, and Barry), where they discovered a fulfilling career and ultimately abandoned their law school aspirations.
Career Path, Internship Experience, Political Science, Community College, Career Change
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Ross Kim
Director
Schweichler, Price, Mullarkey, and Barry (SPMB)
UC Berkeley
Political Science, American Studies
Recruitment, HR & Related Professional Services
Consulting
Video Highlights
1. Community College and Studying Abroad: Ross initially struggled in high school and chose to attend community college. He used this as an opportunity to study abroad in Jordan, demonstrating an unconventional path to higher education and a willingness to explore international experiences early on.
2. Internship at a Tech Startup: During his time at UC Berkeley, Ross interned at a tech startup (Duco) that connected political and economic experts with business leaders. This experience exposed him to the intersection of business, politics, and technology, which might be relevant to students interested in similar fields.
3. Unexpected Career Shift: Ross initially planned to attend law school after gaining work experience, but he ultimately found a fulfilling career at SPMB (Schweichler, Price, Mullarkey, and Barry). This highlights the possibility of career paths evolving in unexpected ways and the importance of being open to new opportunities.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Please include any internships or jobs you had before your current role.
I'll start with high school. I went to high school for three and a half years, and then I didn't really do all that well. I ended up not taking the SAT or the ACT or anything.
My plan eventually became to go to community college. So three and a half years into high school, I dropped out and enrolled at community college. I did one year there, and then I did a year abroad in Amman, Jordan, which is in the Middle East.
I came back and finished my final year of community college, got all my transfer credits done, and then transferred to UC Berkeley. There, I majored in political science. I did one internship there, I think it was for a tech startup called Duco.
It was kind of like this marketplace that would map political and economic experts to business leaders. Imagine you were a firm that wanted to drill oil in Venezuela, but you wanted to get a better understanding of the political and economic dynamics before committing a certain amount of money to it.
The idea was that you could go onto this platform and find experts who could give you advice on how to proceed or things you should be aware of before putting in an investment. I don't actually know what's come of it or how well they've done over the years, but I did do some internship work for them.
Really, the goal in college was to go to law school. So I did political science, but after all that time in school, I wanted to take a little bit of time away. I applied to some jobs, thinking I might work for two or three years, get some work experience, save up some money, and then apply to law school.
What ended up happening was that I landed at SPMV, where I've been till this day. I just really enjoyed it there, and frankly, it's a much better career path for me. So, the law school plans are no more. I don't think I'll ever do law school; I think I'm much happier doing this.