Before this summer, Lindsy Hoopingarner ’16 didn’t know what being a business analyst entailed.
Working as a business analyst at Collaborative Consulting in Waterville, she has been assigned different projects she has never heard of or learned about.
Hoopingarner says her Thomas College education prepared her for a job like this. “Thomas taught me to be open to new things and to be prepared for whatever is thrown your way,” said the recent grad.
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Hoopingarner had her first encounter with Collaborative Consulting at Thomas College’s Career Fair in March. She knew they were new to the area and were looking to hire 200 people in the next five years. Unfortunately, the fair representative said they were looking for technology- and computer science-related candidates.
A month after the career fair, Hoopingarner received an email from Collaborative offering her an interview the next day.
She ended up having three interviews at Collaborative that day, and on the next day, they called for a telephone interview. She even went in for an additional couple of interviews.
“And this was all in one week,” said Hoopingarner. “I have to give some kudos to Diane Anderson and Corey Pelletier in Career Services. They helped me through the whole process and answered all my questions – especially about what to wear.”
Hoopingarner said even though at the Career Fair they had said she wasn’t qualified, after the interview process, they said Hoopingarner had the personality they were looking for and offered her a job as a business analyst.
She graduated from Thomas College in May and began her new job at Collaborative Waterville on June 1.
Collaborative Consulting is one of the largest consulting firms in Boston, which works with business and technology companies. In December, they announced the opening of their first branch north of Massachusetts, with development and business analyst consulting out of Waterville, ME.
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A Richmond, ME native, Hoopingarner chose Thomas College because of its proximity to home and its small campus.
“I played soccer and softball all four years,” said Hoopingarner. “And it was close enough so my dad could come watch me play.”
Hoopingarner was also given a lot of development opportunities, such as a work-study position in the Career Services department on campus, a resident assistant job on campus, and an IT-related summer internship at L.L. Bean.
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Hoopingarner’s first project at Collaborative is as a consultant for a client, State Street Bank in Boston. She’s helping with one of their internal projects to integrate applications on a mutual platform. Hoopingarner says she isn’t sure how long she will work on this project. With consulting work, it varies, and it could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few years.
She recently got back from a business trip to Boston. As a consultant, she is an employee of Collaborative and an employee of State Street Bank.
“Consulting work is great because I don’t want to be doing the same thing for the next 20-something years,” said Hoopingarner. “I’ll get to work with a bunch of different clients on various projects.”