In celebration of Women’s History Month, Her Campus Carleton decided to take a look back and celebrate the women who ran our chapter before us.
Our second Campus Correspondent spotlight is Harsimar Singh, who launched Carleton’s Her Campus chapter alongside her co-CC, Jasmine Williams, in 2012. She is now an investment manager with Allianz Investment Management in Luxembourg, where she focuses on global infrastructure and renewable energy investments.
Here, Harsimar gives us some insight into her life now as well as some reflections from her time as Her Campus Carleton’s first co-CC.
What year did you become CC? How long did you hold this position?
Jasmine and I were the founders of Her Campus Carleton back in 2012! Jasmine had been following Her Campus as an idea for a long time and thought the Carleton community could really benefit form a platform like HCC, where young university-going women could have access to concrete, relatable content. We got to talking and decided, “Why not? Let’s set it up!” and the rest was history. We managed the position for two years.
Can you provide a brief summary of what you’ve done since graduating? (Where you’ve travelled, worked, howyou got where you are)
I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in commerce from Carleton in 2014. After this, I moved back to India and worked in corporate finance at KPMG for about two years. I then moved into debt infrastructure investments in India, primarily renewable energy, where I was for another two years.
While working, I also completed two certifications in graphic design — just to keep some of those creative juices flowing. I’ve always wanted to work in a field where I could see the tangible impact of what I’m doing, and it doesn’t get more tangible than infrastructure. It’s really an indispensable industry that forms the backbone of any nation. It’s so amazing to see assets I’ve funded come to life, like going to my very first water treatment plant or watching literal sparks fly when the first solar plant that I ever worked on went online.
I’ve been living in Europe since 2019. I graduated from HEC Paris in June 2021, with an MBA specializing in Sustainable and Disruptive Innovation, and now I’m living and working in Luxembourg. I’ve also helped launch an artisanal business — The Haru Collective — a vintage fine jewellery brand based out of India.
What benefit do you think Her Campus provides for college/university women?
I think the best thing that Her Campus does for university women is create access to an ecosystem of women helping each other. It’s a platform built for university women by university women, so it’s representation at its finest. You have access to this community of colleagues — of women — all from different walks of life and still going through almost the exact same thing.
Given how transformative any university program can be and the physical and emotional toll it can have, it’s so important to have a community and be around a group that knows or at least understands you. It allows you to know that you’re not alone, and your doubts, be they about the coffee at Rooster’s or a straight-up existential crisis, are not just yours alone. They’re a shared experience and something like HCC can really help transform a potentially isolating existence into a unifying one.
What are some reflections you have from your time as CC? What was your biggest challenge/learning curve?
My favourite thing about being CC was the time that I got to spend with Jasmine and all the wonderful ladies that I had the opportunity to work with during that time. It was so brilliant to build connections with people I wouldn’t ordinarily have gotten a chance to even speak to!
Carleton’s a big university with a big campus, and that can make it tough to really interact with people from outside of your program. It was rare for me to be regularly interacting with anyone outside of the business program for my first couple of years, but being part of Her Campus really changed that for me. It exposed me to a new set of people who saw things so differently and approached situations in a newfangled manner, which was absolutely fantastic. Learning to amalgamate so many different ideas and learning how to navigate diversity stemming not only from cultures and backgrounds, but also interests and education was invaluable.
What advice would you have for Carleton women hoping to break into the work industry?
The most important piece of advice that I can give any Carleton woman is to build relationships and network. Network, network, network! Interact with professors, speakers on campus, TAs, anyone you admire online or in-person, and most of all, with your fellow classmates.
Focus most on learning from other people’s experiences. What led them to where they are? Why was it that they chose this field? What’s driving them despite being in the industry for so many years? Gain as much knowledge from people as possible — experiences will always teach you more than books.
Try to find peers or professionals in fields that you want to be in and understand their journeys. Reach out through LinkedIn, alumni networks, etc. and have conversations with the sole purpose of getting to know people who are where you want to be. The connections that you build when you’re looking to understand people better, and not just conversing to get a job, are the ones that will eventually land you that job.
In my experience, people love to talk about themselves and like you more when you get them to do just that. I usually tend to think of it as the Cotton Eye Joe method — just ask people “Where did you come from? Where did you go?” Show genuine interest and you’ll instantly be so much closer to getting that recommendation or job offer.