Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Center for Career Exploration at Brown University

68% of you answered correctly!

TRUE or FALSE: You need a reference from a former boss.

A. True
B. False

A: FALSE Professors, research advisors, club leaders, and coaches all count, especially early on. What matters is that they can speak to how you actually work.

Just ask before you list them, and give them a heads up when you’re actively interviewing.

Napintakorn Kasemsri '28 (International and Public Affairs) was a Student Generated (LINK, Advanced Undergraduate Research) Research Assistant Intern with the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) during the summer of 2025.

Napintakorn shares her experience:

"My responsibilities included synthesizing trade data into insights, highlighting key risks and opportunities for the private sector in the second half of 2025. Through data from the Ministry of Commerce, integrated tariff databases, policy reports, and state updates, I analyzed over 4 years of standardized 6-digit harmonized system (HS6) codes to create data visualizations and provide supporting comments.

In this process, I learned to utilize Microsoft Excel, a goal of mine due to its integral nature in nearly every profession involving quantitative analysis. I then produced presentation materials that would be compiled with those of other researchers to formulate the final briefing material for July's seminar: 'Macroeconomic Update: Thai Economy amid Mounting Threats'.

I gained wide exposure to international trade dynamics and Thailand's economic positioning. I began my internship during a period of heightened geopolitical tensions and the second Trump administration's aggressive trade policies, which made the work especially fast-paced and relevant.

I found this experience to be incredibly enriching, as I gained deep insights into the global economy and where and how I ought to look for 'leads' in hypothesizing how trading partners may engage and shape policy. From this, I was able to streamline the process of analyzing trade data to generate insights, immensely improving my ability to produce a compelling narrative around imports of NVIDIA's AI chips.

Overall, this internship sparked my interest in international work and provided me with a clearer understanding of Thailand's economic position in global affairs."

It is inspiring to learn and hear about Napintakorn's experience. To learn more about career opportunities, click on the link in our bio. 🐻

45% of you answered correctly! But let’s clear up this misconception.

TRUE or FALSE: It’s okay to ask a recruiter about salary in the first interview.

A. True
B. False

A: TRUE (if they bring it up first) Most recruiters ask about your expectations in the screening call anyway, so have a range ready. If they don’t mention it, it’s fine to ask about the posted range near the end.

What to avoid is leading with it before you’ve shown any interest in the actual work.

Morgan A. Boonshaft '28 (Undeclared) was a Brown Generated (UTRA, Signature Internships) Lab Supervisor with Dr. Kimberly Turner during the summer of 2025.

Morgan shares her experience:

"As a Lab Supervisor with the CRSS Lab, I oversaw a team of research assistants, each assigned to a specific non-violent, anti-government protest. I reviewed their coding for accuracy, conducted intercoder reliability checks, and provided feedback to ensure consistency across the project. I also led weekly small-group meetings with my RAs and collaborated with the other lab supervisors in weekly leadership meetings.

This summer, being a lab supervisor with the CRSS Lab pushed me to grow in ways I didn't expect. I worked closely with Dr. Kimberly Turner, who not only guided our research on international responses to state repression of protest but also gave me a lot of freedom to figure out my own leadership style. Having my own group of research assistants was both exciting and a little intimidating at first. Over time, I started to really enjoy the process of giving feedback and seeing them improve week by week.

Holding weekly meetings with my small group taught me how important it is to create space where people feel comfortable asking questions and making mistakes. I also met with the two other lab supervisors every week, and hearing how they managed their teams gave me new ideas for my own. One of the biggest takeaways for me was learning how to balance being detail-oriented with keeping the bigger picture in mind.

Another highlight of my summer was realizing how much I enjoyed the mentorship side of the role. Watching the RAs build confidence and independence reminded me of how much I value working with a team and helping others out. Overall, the summer gave me more confidence in my ability to lead, problem-solve, and contribute to a team, and I'm excited to carry those skills into whatever comes next."

It is inspiring to learn and hear about Morgan's experience. To learn more about career opportunities, click on the link in our bio. 🐻

96% of you answered correctly!

TRUE or FALSE: You should follow up after a networking event.

A. True
B. False

A: TRUE Send a LinkedIn request or short email within a day or two, while you’re still fresh in their mind. Mention something specific you talked about so it doesn’t read as generic.

No follow-up and the conversation basically never happened to them.

Owen J. Inkster '28 (Undeclared) was a Student Generated (LINK, Advanced Undergraduate Research) Investment Intern with Blueleaf Energy during the summer of 2025.

Owen shares his experience:

"As an investment intern this summer I assisted Blueleaf's investment screening in both greenfield and brownfield solar investments across South East Asia and particularly India. I worked directly under the CIO conducting risk analysis, valuation models, and currency hedging.

I loved my summer at Blueleaf Energy. The 150 employee organization that is targeting Asia's first 4GW renewable pipeline, I felt this experience was a great way to develop my career while also trying to improve the world. It was my first time really learning professional skills. I conducted financial models, risk analysis, reported my findings in presentations, scanned CIM's, and more. But the experience was so much more than that. It taught me how to keep things concise in meetings (there's a reason executive summaries exist) and to navigate the biggest challenge of all, people. I watched as the CIO would direct and delegate and pose questions, challenging each person to justify their claims. Not only did that make me think about my own work, but I now have a better sense for what it takes to be a manager, to be successful.

No single memory sticks out to me as my favorite. But if I had to say my favorite things about the summer internship it would be that the positive environment spurred my desire to be ever learning. I was told to "be like a sponge" and absorb as much as possible. Each employee at Blueleaf was always happy to talk, to answer my questions, to give me advice.

Thinking towards the future and how this impacted my career, I learned that I really do like when my work has meaning. Battling climate change, even just as a small company, gave me inspiration to work harder on my modeling, to put in more hours. In short, the experience taught me that people and purpose are what makes a career satisfying."

It is inspiring to learn and hear about Owen's experience. To learn more about career opportunities, click on the link in our bio. 🐻

95% of you answered correctly!

TRUE or FALSE: Personal projects belong on your resume.

A. True
B. False

A: TRUE (especially early on) Side projects show initiative and real interest in your field, and recruiters often find them more impressive than coursework. Give them their own section with a short description and a link.

Brown NYC Student-Alumni Coffee Networking Event!

This morning, students and alumni got together over coffee to chat about their futures and career paths.

Conversations like these are how people find mentors, figure out their next step and get real advice from someone who’s already done it.

Want in on the next one? Link in our bio for more opportunities like this! 🐻

Kahrie T. Langham ’26 (Political Science, Biology) was a Student Generated (LINK, Advanced Undergraduate Research) Undergraduate Research Assistant with Robert Sobol during the summer of 2025.

Kahrie shares his experience:

“This summer I worked on a combination treatment for DNA repair deficient cancers. I tested and characterized the PARP inhibitors to understand which one is the best. I did this using wet lab research such as conducting killing curve assays and western blots.

My research experience was really fun because of the autonomy and independence that I received from my mentor. I think that this allowed me to prepare for the next steps in my career like graduate school and doing independent research. I was able to conduct experiments and analyze data, after this I had to determine what was the next steps in my research. It allowed me to explore the things that I am interested in and answer my own questions while also gaining the trust of my mentors to work on other projects.

I also had to present weekly at lab meetings which helped me explain my research so that other people could understand it. Before I had a very scientific explaination that was not easily digestable but now I have one that many people can understand.

The biggest breakthrough for the project came towards the end when I was able to test the different PARP inhibitors. We were able to find out which one was the best but also the ones that needed optimization. This allowed us to further our combination treatments to see if USP1 inhibitors synergized with PARP inhibitors to make it a more effective cancer treatment. We were able to submit some of these findings in a manuscript.

My summer confirmed my interest and love for research. I was finally able to contribute to a long term research project that keeps evolving and changing from what we origionally intended for it. I really enjoyed the work that I did which made me excited to be applying for MD/PhD.”

It is inspiring to learn and hear about Kahrie’s experience.

To learn more about career opportunities, click on the link in our bio. 🐻

Muyu Ye '27 (Geophysics and Climate Physics) was a Student Generated (LINK, Advanced Undergraduate Research) researcher with Prof. Jung-Eun Lee, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, during the summer of 2025.

Muyu shares his experience:

"This past summer my role was to conduct my climate modelling research on the orographic impact on South Atlantic and Southern Ocean. While working on my research project, I learned how to run various climate models, including data ocean (fixed SST), slab ocean, and fully coupled models. I was also responsible in designing my own experiment to obtain data for future analysis.

I examined multiple variables—such as surface temperature, precipitation, low-level cloud cover, Q-flux, wind, and sea ice fraction—and was able to attribute the resulting surface temperature anomalies to several possible mechanisms... Jung-Eun also helped me a lot personally by giving me career advices, what the academia feels like and what I should do to become a researcher or a scholar in the academia...

In the end, I was able to produce some results, even though not perfect, but still some interesting findings that I would rate as successful for my first research project. This experience will definitely influence my future decisions, I like doing research especially when I am working on topics that I am interested in, but I also felt like that I need to explore more possibilities than doing research for the rest of my life."

It is inspiring to learn and hear about Muyu's experience. To learn more about career opportunities, click on the link in our bio. 🐻