Getting your foot in the door
Common courtesy lands St. Michael's alumnus a job

Jon Ketchum | tech editor
jketchum2@smcvt.edu

Unemployed and living with his girlfriend’s parents, Alex deLaricheliere, a 1994 St. Michael’s College alumnus had trouble finding work after he graduated from college. For five months, deLaricheliere rode the Long Island Rail Road into New York City with the aspirations of getting an interview with one of Wall Street’s financial institutions. It wasn’t until a chance encounter with Brian Mohor, a senior executive for AIG that deLaricheliere landed his first job.

New York City subway underground. Public domain image

Doorway to success

On a cold December evening in 1995, deLaricheliere boarded the number 23 train out of NYC to go home to his girlfriend’s parent’s house on Long Island. Upset after a failed interview with Salomon Brothers earlier that day, deLaricheliere undid his tie and stood next to the subway door in the crowded train, he says.

“It was a trying, trying time,” deLaricheliere says. “I’m not the type of guy who likes being unemployed.”

The subway continued north to Pennsylvania Station stopping first at Wall
Street. People getting off exchanged seats with those getting on, and a loud voice came from the station’s stairwell, deLaricheliere says.

“Some guy with bags all over the place was yelling at the top of his lungs ‘hold the door, hold the door,’” deLaricheliere says. “The door was chiming and I was kind of afraid to put my arm in the way, but for some reason I did.” 

As soon as the man walked through the door he shook deLaricheliere’s hand and thanked him. He told deLaricheliere that he was late getting home to his wife and kids and couldn’t afford to miss the subway, deLaricheliere says.

“People are usually very guarded in the city,” he says. “I was surprised that the guy wanted to talk on the subway.”

They continued exchanging small talk until the man asked deLaricheliere where he worked. deLaricheliere explained that he was currently unemployed and that he had just come from an interview. The man then reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, deLaricheliere says. He introduced himself as Brian Mohor, senior executive for the human resource department at AIG and offered deLaricheliere a chance to come in and interview with the company.

“The whole process of trying to find a job throughout those five months was so painful and miserable that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” deLaricheliere says. “As soon as I woke up the next day, I called him to schedule an interview.”

Within 30 days of the interview deLaricheliere started working at his first job. He was a reassurance broker assistant for AIG, and he was working on Wall Street, he says.

A helping hand

Upon graduating in ’94, deLaricheliere worked and lived in Burlington for nine months. But after realizing that he needed a change of scenery from Vermont, deLaricheliere walked back on to the St. Michael’s campus and into the Student Resource Center to research jobs in New York City.

Alex deLaricheliere now works for Goldman Sachs in NYC. Courtesy of Aline deLaricheliere

The first door that deLaricheliere knocked on was Ingrid Peterson’s, the career development coordinator at St. Michael’s. Peterson says that she has never turned down an alumni’s request to refine their resume or work on their interviewing skills.

“We will work with any student both past and present,” Peterson says. “The way I see it you never have a finished resume, it’s always a work in progress, one that we are willing to help with.”

The Student Resource Center strongly advises that both juniors and seniors attend interview workshops offered on campus. The best way to sharpen your career skills is to “come early and come often,” Peterson says.

“You have to look at an interview like taking a test,” she says. “If you don’t study for your test, you are not going to do well”

Kyle Putnam, a senior at St. Michael’s says he plans on going to the career center this year to refine his resume and interviewing skills before he graduates. As an environmental science major, Putnam hopes that the career center can connect him with a water quality plant in the Burlington area.

“I would really like to stay in Vermont after I graduate,” Putnam says. “Hopefully the career center can help me find some sort of laboratory job in the local area.”

According to Peterson, the best candidate for a job is someone who is personable, adaptable and flexible. St. Michael’s students are often times at an advantage upon graduating, she says.

“You don’t have to know everything about a job going into it, you can learn that,” Peterson says. “That to me is the value of the liberal arts education here; you aren’t just specializing in one field you are learning how to learn, something that employers love.”          

Movin’ on up 
           
deLaricheliere currently works for Goldman Sachs in NYC. It is the third job that he has had since working for AIG but since ’95 he has never been unemployed, he says.

“Once you are employed you’ll never be unemployed again,” deLaricheliere says. “You never leave a job unless you get a better offer to work somewhere else.”

Street level entrance to the subway. Public domain image

Looking back, deLaricheliere says the most important thing a student can do when looking for a job is to be persistent. Facing rejection is a large part of finding your first job, you just have to keep trying and keep applying, he says.

“You create your own luck in a way,” deLaricheliere says. “If you don’t continue to put yourself out to others, there’s no way that you’ll ever have a chance to be lucky.”

However, Peterson says you always have to be prepared for a chance encounter with a potential employer. In those rare instances like deLaricheliere’s, she says she feels that eye contact and a firm handshake can go a long way.

“It wasn’t just that he [deLaricheliere] held the door,” Peterson says. “It’s probably that he shook hands well and most of all was engaging on a New York City subway.”