A Passion for Her Profession

28 November 2018

Hiyanthi Peiris ’15 Although many of her classmates were headed straight to graduate school after Carleton, Hiyanthi Peiris ’15 wanted to head into the workforce. But her Carleton education had given her such diverse skills that her choices seemed overwhelming.

Her instinct was to apply to everything, which she now admits was a rookie mistake. Luckily she visited the Career Center for help with her résumé. She got that and more: counselors there helped her think about her strengths and interests so she could find the right jobs for her and tailor her cover letters, résumé, and interview strategies to better fit them.

“I knew I loved talking to people and writing,” says Peiris. And through her psychology comps project she’d discovered a passion for data analysis. So she used Career Center databases to research jobs where she could use those skills and to contact alumni who worked in companies she was considering joining. “Whenever I wrote to alumni at a company to ask questions, at least a couple of them always wrote back,” she says.

When she landed a job interview in Washington, D.C., the Career Center was there to help her again. Thanks to their travel fund for students on financial aid, she got help paying for her flight. Then she used the Career Center’s Couches for Carls service to find an alumnus in D.C. willing to let her sleep over. “I couldn’t afford to go without their help,” Peiris says. “That assistance helped me get my first job out of Carleton.” Peiris has put the Career Center’s investments in her future to good use, propelling herself through that first job and a master’s program in educational studies at the University of Pennsylvania and into her current job as a data and policy analyst at Acumen, a think tank that researches social and health policy.

Carleton instilled in Peiris the drive to make a difference and continue learning in her professional life. “I’ve found that at Acumen,” she says. “I’m working with clients who can hopefully use my work to make the world a better place. And I’m pretty sure I’ll never get bored — I’m constantly learning new things, about policy and about new ways doing computer coding and data analysis.”

She’s started giving back, by participating in Careers After Carleton, a program the Career Center hosts on Facebook to show students what a typical workday is like in different fields.

“The Career Center plays such a crucial role in supporting the bond between established alumni and students and young alumni,” Peiris says. “This isn’t something that my friends at other liberal arts schools have had. It’s been wonderful to know I have a community that’s there for me.”