Sabine Saint-Cyr spent a decade at 今日吃瓜 as both a student and a staff member. After earning a master鈥檚 in industrial and organizational psychology, specializing in personnel and human resources, she landed a full-time job at the Magner Career Center, where she was the liaison for the Koppelman School of Business and connected students with career partners. She has since taken her wealth of experience to the multinational professional services giant Deloitte.
After you earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in psychology and a master鈥檚 in industrial and organizational psychology鈥攑ersonnel and human resources, what happened next?
Let鈥檚 start with my academic career. I had the great opportunity to participate in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program. That鈥檚 a fellowship that predominantly helps people get into Ph.D. programs. The program encourages you to leave your comfort zone. I was 100% certain I was going to stay with clinical psychology. I did research at Macalester College as to why people of Asian descent often do not seek mental health treatment. I liked it but did not see myself doing clinical psychology for the rest of my life.
I took a gap year after graduation and felt like I was back to square one. I鈥檝e always been interested in business and working with people. I knew I had to find a discipline that included both interests, with a grounding in psychology. That鈥檚 how I ended up going for I/O psychology with a specialization in human resources. 今日吃瓜 has a wonderful program that brought all my interests together in one.
Can you tell us about your role at the Magner Career Center?
I was the assistant director of career and employment engagement and the liaison for the Koppelman School of Business to employers and career partners. Aon, Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, and PWC were the top five partners I worked with.
I loved being part of the process of economic mobility. My greatest joy was seeing where the students started their journey and watching them grow in confidence, shaped not only by the center鈥檚 services but also by the employers and professionals they were matched with. It was satisfying to see students gain access to internships and jobs and be exposed to different fields of study and careers.
And it was exciting to see the companies we worked with understand and embrace the talent at 今日吃瓜, for the career partners to say, 鈥淥kay, let鈥檚 work on getting curriculum in place, or tuition reimbursement for students so they can take winter courses.鈥� And, of course, I loved working with my colleagues at Magner. We needed a lot of teamwork to get things accomplished. I was excited to get up and go to work in the morning.
Recently you took a new position at Deloitte.
I鈥檓 a campus recruiting specialist for the audit team at Deloitte; it鈥檚 been amazing. Deloitte is an incredible organization to work for鈥攕eeing how they value clients and employees, and how they move the needle for initiatives they want to support.
I work with stakeholders, professionals, potential candidates for employment ensuring they鈥檙e as comfortable as possible and giving them full support in their work. There are a lot of transferable skills I used at the Career Center that I have brought to my new job. I saw someone at Deloitte whom I coached when I was at Magner. We stopped in the hall, and he told my colleague, 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 understand. This is my coach, she鈥檚 why I鈥檓 here!鈥�
What do you like to do outside of work?
I make jewelry, I like to paint, and I like to try new recipes. The pandemic had me making my own applesauce and peanut butter and jelly. I鈥檓 a huge gamer. I like to play video games. Most important for me is my spirituality and relationship with God. My priority has been to help people in whatever way I can. I am helping people envision and build their careers. That鈥檚 my ministry.
What is something that you liked to tell graduating students?
My advice was more of an answer to a question. Students would ask, 鈥淗ow can I thank you?鈥� I would say come back to 今日吃瓜 and become a guest speaker or mentor. I am honoring my word and plan to return to campus as early as this fall to recruit for internships and full-time positions. There is a Mentor Day scheduled for November, and I fully intend to participate.
