If you thought HerCampus was a regular-degular extracurricular to mention on your resume, you thought wrong! One of our favorite girl bosses, Aubree Brabham used her experiences with HerCampus HamptonU as stepping stones to her dream job– working for HerCampus Headquarters. Keep reading to find out more about Aubree!
HC: What is your position and where is your job located?
AB: As of October 21st, I am the newest Assistant Culture Editor at Her Campus in Boston, MA. I oversee three verticals: sex and relationships, culture, which includes news (politics, current events, timely news), and entertainment.
HC: Describe your average workday. What kinds of tasks do you face on a daily basis?
AB: So, on a typical Monday, I get to my desk around 9-ish and my day starts with opening my Google Calendar emails, and Slacks, which are basically just chat rooms for business. [I do it] literally in that exact order to make sure I know what the day is going to hit me with. Usually, my manager Gina is there. She’s amazing by the way. She’s the Beauty and Culture editor for HC as well (check her out @GinaEscandon) and we chat a bit about our weekends and our daily goals for the upcoming week. Almost every day, I have at least 2 meetings surrounding editorial content and the day pretty much speeds by! Did I forget to mention my very necessary morning cup of coffee and then tea?
HC: How do you feel like being of member HerCampus HamptonU prepared you to work professionally with HerCampus?
AB: I definitely can say HUHC taught me how to be more prepared editorially, i.e following deadlines, communicating with other writers and editors and just the timeline of how content gets posted to the website. I’m familiar with it all because HUHC equipped me with those tools.
HC: Do you ever face any challenges as a minority in the workforce?
AB: Listen, there’s always going to be challenges while being a black woman, that’s inevitable. But I just started there so I’m trying to see it less as “there are so many hurdles I have to get over” and more as “I’m using this platform to expand the diversity in-office.” If I can expand the perspective, expand the conversation and transform some of the old practices/content, then I’ve done my job!
HC: As an HBCU graduate, have you been able to apply any skills from your experiences at Hampton to your job with HerCampus?
AB: In my opinion, Hampton was very big on developing your professionalism as an individual. That really spanned into how I communicate in office, with clients, and with my colleagues as well. Hampton University really equipped me with a strong work ethic. We all know the saying, “we have to work twice as hard to get half of what the world already has.”
HC: What do you like most about working for HerCampus?
AB: First of all, HerCampus HQ is AMAZING! I’m going to encourage all my little sisters at the HUHC chapter right now to look into career opportunities post-grad because it’s a great place to work. I think the best part is the flexibility of the job itself. I knew that I never wanted to have a desk job where I had to wear a suit and heels to work – I literally wore my chapter sweatshirt to work last week and everyone loved it, no joke! Coming out of school, this is a position I needed where I can grow my journalism skills, gain the connections I need and create content that other girls can benefit from. Did I mention that I work from home almost every Friday and there are always cool products to test out?
HC: Do you believe your degree holds as much value today as it would have 10 years ago?
AB: Absolutely not! I feel like this is becoming more and more apparent to us Gen-Zer’s who are graduating from school right now. To make a decent amount of money, the industry wants you to have more than one degree and more professional skills than most – it’s just not realistic. But what I’m learning is that industry connections can open more doors than a degree can (in some instances). I wish I was born 10 years earlier so that my education in 2009 could’ve been cheaper.
HC: What advice do you have for graduating seniors who are in the process of doing job-searches, preparing for grad school, and getting ready to take on the “real world”?
AB: If you’re graduating soon please listen closely because this is important: Practice patience. It took me 3 and a half months to land this job post-grad and it’s basically a dream job of mine. I graduated with literally no offers. It was scary for a while. I watched as my classmates took on moving into new cities, new job positions, and continuing on with school. I became so discouraged that I deleted my Instagram because I was so ashamed of my lack of accomplishment. My rationale was that I didn’t want people to witness my “fall from grace” since I was working at two different retail jobs over the summer instead of going straight into the professional workforce. It’s so funny because the position that I’m working in now was retweeted onto my timeline. My current manager had tweeted it out to advertise and I applied to it while on-shift at Sunglass Hut. I went through 8 rounds of interviews and a week after I moved back home, I received my offer. So like I said, please please please be patient. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else and don’t be discouraged by your family either as they continue to question whether you should just settle in the meantime.