Many Switchboard users learn quickly to make the most of their community’s connections. These serial succeeders find places to stay on cross-country road trips and share their backyard bounties. They’re some of our favorite people.
Stephanie on the Reed Switchboard is one of them. In the one and a half years Stephanie’s been using Switchboard, she’s logged three successes—all about internships and jobs she’s found through the Reed community.
Stephanie started using Switchboard soon after she graduated to find opportunities to freelance as a web and graphic designer. “It’s well-paying work, and sometimes the medical products being written about are just hilarious. Especially when they come with lots of illustrations,” she says about freelancing for an alumnus’s company as a proofreader. Some of Stephanie’s short-term gigs have turned into long-term jobs. “Andrew ‘94 wrote for some Prezi and Wordpress help, and what originally started as a redesign of the interior of his company's site turned into a continuing gig with a really awesome company doing great work. I’m now on their staff page as the visual communicator, and there are some really exciting things going on.”
Stephanie developed the habit of checking Switchboard regularly for opportunities. One day toward the end of a six month stint farming in Thailand, she noticed an Offer for a paid magazine internship in Washington, D.C. and thought, “This is the dream! What a unicorn of an opportunity!”
Long story short, Stephanie flew back to D.C. for an interview, got the internship, and drove from D.C. to Portland, Oregon—and back again—to retrieve her belongings, all in the span of three weeks. “It was totally worth it, and I can say that after only two weeks on the job,” Stephanie says. “Thanks, Steve.”
Successes like this one have made Stephanie a loyal contributor to the Reed Switchboard and an active member of the Reed alumni community. “It’s such an easy way to give back–all it takes is ten minutes to send along an email connection, or write some advice that you personally have,” she says. “There’s no reason not to join Switchboard.”
“Also,” Stephanie adds, “fifty percent of the money I make now is directly correlated to my successes on Switchboard. It works.”