Madeleine Laupheimer ’10

Madeleine Laupheimer ’10, an honors chemistry major, first visited Career Services in the fall of her senior year. Unsure of anything except that she didn’t want to attend graduate school, she was attracted to careers in forensic chemistry, movie special effects, and theater stage management, for which she knew she was qualified.

“Marissa Deitch, my career counselor, and I discussed finding stage managing jobs. We also talked about what I liked about stage managing. Marissa showed me how to use some of CS’s resources, like finding lists of all the theaters in the Boston area and also looking up other Swat chemistry majors to see what they were doing,” Laupheimer says.

During the year, Laupheimer focused on her job search intermittently, giving priority to her honors courses and thesis. “I applied for six stage management internships in theaters across the country, a couple of science editing jobs, and a government lab job. After hearing from two theaters, I did phone interviews, where I learned that both jobs had far more applicants than ever before. Neither resulted in a job offer. Then, looking for a job in forensic chemistry, I got in touch with a couple forensics labs, via one of my dad’s friends, who is a police officer, but nobody was hiring.

“But the story has a happy ending. I found a job with the technology development company TIAX through Career Services. A chemistry alumnus Ted Chan ’02 contacted the office, saying his company was looking for chemists and engineers, and Marissa forwarded me his note. I wasn’t sure what a ‘technology development’ company was, but it was in Lexington (close to Boston), and all I needed to do was send in a resume. I interviewed when I got home and started in July!” Laupheimer says. She’s been learning how to construct test cells and perform data analysis for the development of a new cathode material for lithium ion batteries and is, she says, “Over the moon.”