Lauren Carey ’25

Recruitment Consultant at Phaidon International

New York, New York

Not everyone wants to return to their hometown after graduation. But Manhattan native Lauren Carey ’25 was thrilled to land a full-time position as a recruitment consultant for Phaidon International in its Midtown office, a 30-minute subway ride from her house. As part of the worldwide company’s Glocomms brand, Carey helps both Fortune 500 and start-up tech companies fill cyber security roles in the U.S.

“The role is very heavily people-facing, and I always knew that was something I wanted,” she says. “My sister is a recruiter, and I was interested in that, and Phaidon International found me and reached out to me on LinkedIn, which was a pleasant surprise.” 

As a psychology major, sociology minor and scholar in the Creativity Pathway at Conn, Lauren built a solid foundation for a career working with people. Her campus positions included interviewing potential Camels as a senior admission fellow, managing social media for The College Voice, training as a student support specialist, acting as a student adviser, and offering caffeine and casual conversation as a barista at Coffee Grounds, where she was also the public relations manager. She was also a setter on the Women’s Volleyball team for two years. All these roles helped positioned her for success, she says.

Still, the job market can be intimidating. Carey credits her career adviser at Conn, Director of Career Development and Curricular Management Dot Wang, with calming her nerves and helping through the interview process at Phaidon International. 

“When I visited the office in person, the people were awesome, and I fell in love with the atmosphere,” she says. “It was nice to find a company that I felt like I could see myself at. I think a lot of people have a really hard time transitioning after graduation, and our company has done a really good job of integrating us.”

That welcoming and inclusive atmosphere felt familiar to Lauren after four years of engaging with Conn’s faculty. 

“[Professor of Human Development] Sunil Bhatia’s ‘Media, Self and Society’ class was one of my favorite classes I've ever taken. It made me rethink how our society is structured. I also really enjoyed [Professor of Sociology] Robert Gay’s courses. [Associate Teaching Professor of Psychology] Jillian Marshall was my major adviser, and she's just an amazing person. I had ‘Introduction to Psychology’ with her and then I made sure I was always in her classes," Lauren says.

“The professors at Conn encourage you to participate and ask for help. In a recruiting role it’s important to ask for help if you need it, especially early on. I love talking to people, and it made me realize I could be very good at this job. It's hard sometimes to keep picking up the phone to call leads, but my background in psychology and sociology made it easier to read people over the phone and sense how they're responding to you.”

Meanwhile, Conn’s career workshops through the Hale Center for Career Development taught Carey practical skills in marketing herself. Once she landed at Phaidon International, she was easily able to pivot those skills to help other people looking for work. And the career prep Conn started continues on the job. Every day of Carey’s first month in Glocomms has been broken into halves—training and then applying that training.

“We learn how to talk to a candidate, what questions to ask them and how to get them to open up a little bit. Then I call candidates, learn a little bit about them, what they want in their next career and where their trajectory is heading,” she says. “At the end of the day, if you help someone get their dream job or hook up a client with a great candidate, it’s exciting. It’s a rewarding job.”