A Conversation With a Millennial Who is Privileged Sure But Also a Hard Worker and Delightful

Molly Mills is a name I’ve made up for a 24-year-old college grad living with her parents and interning in Boston. We talked about her career so far, including stints working on campaigns; a program called the Startup Institute that turned things around (and sounds better than college); and how to negotiate. She’s a young person to feel good about.

LS: Okay! So to start, what is your current life status — do you have a job? Do you have debt? Savings?

MM: I have been very, very, fortunate to have parents and grandparents who have contributed to my education, so I have no debt, and right now I’m lucky enough to be living at home with my parents. I have an internship that pays, which is great, so for the first time, I really feel like I am able to save.

LS: How old are you/how long have you been out of school?

MM: I turned 24 in April, and I finished college in December of 2011. I went to a liberal arts college and studied political science — which I love — but basically since sophomore year I been wondering what I will do with my life.

LS: What happened right after you graduated?

MM: Right after college I was pretty convinced I was going to go to law school. I started studying for the LSAT, etc, etc. Then I did my research and realized that THERE ARE NO JOBS, and that law schools would say their grads were employed in a legal position but really they were working in the university’s law library for three months. And $150,000 of intense studying for a degree which everyone else in the world seemed to have suddenly seemed like a very foolish idea. I wasn’t sure I could get into a top 10 law school, which was really the only way to guarantee the cost/benefit analysis would come out in my favor. Or be from a family of lawyers, but I’m not.

LS: Would you have had to take out loans?

MM: I didn’t even get that far into it. I think my parents would have paid for some, but only if I got into a good school and only if they saw me excited about it. And I was getting less and less excited. Around the time I was freaking out about that, a friend of mine told me he was managing a congressional race across the country, and asked if I would like to come and join him! This seemed to be the one of the only other practical application for political science: law school, campaigns, lobbying, think tanks, The Hill.

So I talked about it with my parents, and we decided that I could probably figure out what I wanted to do with my life in three years for less than $150,000. The idea being that very very few people with a B.A. are ready for full-time, career-track employment. Or rather, employers aren’t ready for them. So I set out dividing my life up into segments and not freaking out (too much) that I didn’t know where I would be in four months.

LS: That’s really smart. I like your mom.

MM: I do too! And so it began. So the first segment was California, for my friend’s campaign. I got the title “deputy campaign manager,” which was crazy. We lost in the primary, so I moved back home again. And then in a freak totally serendipitous proves-you-should-get-out-of-the-house event, I found myself volunteering for a local state representative race a week before their primary. A week after I started volunteering I was offered the job as a campaign manager. I was overwhelmed but took it, and was able to make some great local connections, people who helped me in the fall but also good people to know now. The only downside was that I worked 60–80 hours a week and got $200/week for it.

LS: Oh shit. Is that normal???

MM: For that kind of a race, I think it is. Sometimes it’s $1,000/month, plus a bonus if you win. But my candidate took out loans to run (most do), so it felt really weird to say, “Hey, give me more of your money.” I think the longer you do this kind of stuff, and the bigger your race is, the more you get paid. But nobody does it for the money.

Fortunately, we won that race. (Winning feels better than losing, in case you were wondering.)

LS: Does this interview end with you working in the White House?

MM: Hahah, I WISH, do you know anyone??

No, what it ends up with is me realizing I didn’t want to work for $200 per week for the rest of my life, moving from state to state wherever the next campaign was. I did this whole analysis of what I liked about campaigns and what I didn’t. Did I want to go work in the state house? They get paid $32,000 and what do you do after that? So, probably not. Then what did I want to do? So thus began my next “four month” stage of my life.

Then I heard of this program called Startup Institute. I don’t remember where. Twitter? A blog? Somewhere on the internet. It’s an eight-week program where they teach you SKILLS! There are four tracks: sales, marketing, software dev, and ux/ui design. They aim to help people who may be going through a professional crisis to switch gears, learn about startups, or just buff up on their product design skills, for example. That sounded like me, and I liked the idea of a startup — people passionate about their work, working hard, etc. — kind of like a political campaign. So I applied, and then I interviewed, and then I got in!

It was great, because all of our teachers — we had classes every day — were individuals from startups in Boston. They would come in and teach us about something they were an expert in, PLUS we got to quiz them/network with them. Half of it was learning skills, and half was the networking.

LS: That sounds amazing. How much did this cost?

MM: So, I paid $2,500, which was the early fee, and my parents helped with that. But they have payment plans and whatnot, too. BUT: If you get a real, salaried job with one of their sponsors, the sponsor pays your tuition back. So there is clearly an incentive to network and get a job at any of the partner companies.

The way it works at the end, is that all 55 of us give a big pitch. We stand up in a room and anyone who wants to hire comes and listens. So we have one minute to explain who we are and what we’re looking for. And we were outnumbered last time, with more employers than students, obviously there is a heavy demand for developers, but if you give a good pitch, people come and talk to you.

LS: And how did that work out for you?

MM: I got my internship through the program, and then beyond that, I got taught how to negotiate, which my mom pointed out was worth the money.

LS: Tell me about it.

MM: The internship offered me $12 per hour, and I was kind of disappointed, because I’ve made more than that ($12.50 at a summer job!) and one of the startup employees was like, no, you need to ask for more. And I was petrified! I’d never done that before, and what if they think I’m pushy, or what if they rescind the offer? But he was like, “No, you need to do this. This is what companies do.” And he basically handheld me through the process and read my email and made sure it looked good. And I got the pay raise, PLUS the free subway pass I asked for. They didn’t even try to talk me down.

LS: Hand hold me through the proces.

MM: So, it was an email, which was easier. So here is my initial response to the offer:

Hi FUTURE BOSS PERSON,
Thanks for the offer! I’m honored. I’ll need until the end of the week before giving you a final answer (our instructors are keeping us very busy!).

Hope your weekend was good

Thank you,
MOLLY

And then the follow-up to that:

Hi FUTURE BOSS PERSON,

Thank you for the offer for a summer internship, and I am anxious to accept. I wanted to work through a couple points, though.

I have spent the past eight weeks immersed in learning marketing skills and techniques at Startup Institute and I am driven to succeed in all aspects of life; for this position I would feel more comfortable earning $16/hr for my work. Finally, would it be possible for COMPANY to pay for my monthly T pass?

Looking forward to working with you and the team!

MOLLY

LS: I just got so excited reading that. LEANING IN!!!!!!

MM: I know! I was so happy! I was giddy for a week. I was thinking they’d say, well, $14 per hour and no T pass. Which I would have taken. But I cannot tell you HOW NERVOUS I was. But I learned: that’s what’s expected. Play up your strengths, commitment, and express excitement to start. And make sure you proofread it a million times.

Really the whole email is like a Mad Libs: Insert [previous job] and [level of commitment] and [how anxious you are to start], but you’ll need [x dollars].

LS: It sounds like this program is better than college. What were the other people there like? Were most of them young?

MM: Most of us were under 30. There was one woman who was re-entering the workforce, she had three kids and was a software engineer, but had been home for seven years or something. There was one 17-year-old. Most everyone else was fresh out of college and not loving their jobs.

LS: Did you have, uh, computer experience before?

MM: No. I hadn’t done any web development or learned Java or Python or anything. Obviously, the marketing track is going to learn different skills than the software track, so I’m not going to do all the back-end work for your site, but (especially with a little more practice) I can do some very basic stuff. I learned things, but I also learned what I *could* know. And where I can turn for help (professionally).

LS: So whats next for you?

MM: I prefer the research and analytical aspects of my job, and I am trying to buff up my r/sql/python skills (i.e., learn them) this summer so I can position myself as someone with SKILLS and be hired.

LS: What would be your number 1 dream, right now?

MM: Knowing very little about this actual job description, I think it would be some sort of analyst. Like, here’s all this information and please sort through it and make sense of it. And that information could be any sort of thing: companies, data, political stuff. It’s super vague, I know. But I have definitely narrowed it down in the last 18 months.

LS: Do you have a due date you’ve set for getting a job, moving out?

MM: I don’t have a due date. I probably should, but my parents are totally fine having me here, and I work hard to let them know I appreciate it. It’s silly, but most of the time being home isn’t too bad. We’re near public transit, so I take that every day, and I can see friends without any more trouble than I would otherwise. Plus rent in Boston is EXPENSIVE.

LS: I lived at home for a year two years ago and really liked it. Theres so much food. Clean towels.

MM: I know! And a kitchen. It’s not my long-term goal to stay here, obviously. I will reassess in the fall when my internship is over and when I know what my future employment status is looking like. I’m looking forward to being financially independent.

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.