Josh Mesnik

What were some Career Center services you used or events you attended?

I have been through a few resume reviews at The Career Center.

How did these help you in landing a full-time position?

Going through my resume to bring out the fullness of who I thought I was and wanted to be as a professional helped me see a lot of stuff I was doing with my time that I knew I did not want to do in the future. The “better” my resume became, the more it disconcerted me and the more I realized I wanted to make a career shift.

Have you participated in any experiential learning opportunities? How have these prepared you for moving into a full-time role?

I participated in service learning at Grace Mission and tutored underprivileged elementary school children. This experience brought me to a realization that a collection of adults produces many of the same conflicts that a collection of children produces. And I found ways that are effective in dealing with conflicts between both of the groups: 1) hold true to your values and take sides only if you are acting authentically, 2) be firm and honest while holding an intention to serve and love, 3) help both sides see the humor/silliness in what they are fighting about, 4) don’t be afraid to hug someone who is crying.

I volunteered with my now employer Open Future Institute during my senior and super-senior year. My initial involvement in this organization really helped to dissolve and dismantle my pre-conceived notions of what it meant to be a leader. I realized that being a leader was not about me; it was about those that I am serving and about the purpose for which I am working.

I have had three internships with Radioface NYC, Beasely Broadcasting Inc., and Clean Energy Technology Center. The value of these internships are massive in my life. What I learned about writing, media, and the function of non-profit organizations have helped me gain confidence in forming my career around these themes, and yet one of the greatest roles these internships have played in my life was exposing to myself the very things that I didn’t want, which propelled me to pursue what I care most about in life.

Describe your job search process. What were some challenges you faced or things you learned from the experience?

My job search process has been at times effortlessly successful and at other times effortlessly disastrous. Entering my senior year of college, I applied to over 8 internship positions at various advertising agencies that had space for an intern in the creative department. Once I had been declined by all of them, which quite frankly surprised me due to my experience and portfolio that I had built up to that point, I sensed that there was a greater reason for my failure. So I saw it as an opportunity to take a chance and walk in a direction I had never taken before. That summer I studied abroad in Ecuador, living with an indigenous community and studying their amazing culture. The experience changed me forever, and since then I have had much less hesitation to follow my highest excitement, even if the activity doesn’t at the time make practical sense to my career path or to goals I have set for myself. When I made the leap to spend my summer in Ecuador exploring who I am and what I want to do with my life, I forged a new path that had not previously existed for me and I made the single most important decision in my life to date.

What advice do you have for current students?

Strike a balance between listening to advice from others who share valuable experience and insights with you, and listening to the voice or feeling in your mind and body that tells you which direction to take. We can surround ourselves with the most intelligent people and mentors who have our best interests at heart, but I think that many of our most important decisions we have to make are ones that are best not to be informed by other people. No matter how “safe” a career path might seem, if you feel the undeniable sensation that something is missing or that you are in the wrong place, investigate that feeling, and make a decision that aligns with your authentic self.

What are your future goals?

My future goal is to act on my highest excitement, taking it as far as I can, to the best of my ability, with no unnecessary expectations of what the outcome of my actions might be. I also have a vision to travel the world, taking my educational program to schools where self-reflective activities and questions have never been introduced and basking in the shining genius that is awakened within the students.

Josh Mesnik

Josh Mesnik

"Strike a balance between listening to advice from others who share valuable experience and insights with you, and listening to the voice or feeling in your mind and body that tells you which direction to take."


Major: Bachelor of Science in Communication & Advertising, Class of 2015
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