{"id":11874,"date":"2017-06-13T23:24:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T23:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/ellisoncenter\/?p=11874"},"modified":"2017-06-15T23:28:03","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T23:28:03","slug":"alaska-based-consultant-ellison-center-alumnus-john-simeone-discusses-russian-work-outside-academia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/ellisoncenter\/news\/alaska-based-consultant-ellison-center-alumnus-john-simeone-discusses-russian-work-outside-academia\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska-Based Consultant and Ellison Center Alumnus John Simeone Discusses Russian and Work after Grad School"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Simeone<\/a>, who received an M.A. in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies<\/a> at the Jackson School of International Studies<\/a>, as well as an M.S. from the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, has been busy working with clients from across the world on issues related to international trade, ecology, and resource management. Now based in Alaska, Simeone has taken the research skills he learned at the University of Washington and used them for consulting work with organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund<\/a> and as a researcher for various publications.\u00a0<\/em>Simeone sat down with the Ellison Center to talk about what drove him to pursue a dual degree in International Studies and Sustainable Resource Management and how he transitioned to his current career as a consultant.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat drove me to grad school was the fact that until up this point, I had never focused my studies on Russia \u2014 Russian language, Russian literature, Russian events, or area studies broadly,\u201d Simeone said. \u201cI studied natural resources and development sociologies as an undergrad. I was always drawn to how societies develop and what that means for natural resource extraction. So in graduate school I tried to marry my interests in Russian area studies and understanding of natural resource consumption and ecology. This program for me was a way to bring those things together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The UW Jackson School offers the option of pursuing a concurrent degree<\/a> in another department. Doing so typically takes students three years, after which they receive two master\u2019s degrees. Simeone said the concurrent degree program fit both his academic interests and his career goals. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve found that doing a concurrent degree \u2014 whether it\u2019s an Master’s\u00a0of\u00a0Public Administration<\/a>\u00a0or natural resources \u2014 is really enjoyable for people who want some time to really invest in their research. That was certainly the case for me. <\/span><\/p>\n

Like many graduate students, Simeone said making the transition from graduate studies to the professional world was not always straightforward. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I graduated, like everyone, I was looking for work that was interesting,\u201d Simeone said. \u201cThere is lateral work and there is work that is diagonal or forward. Ideally, you find work that isn\u2019t lateral \u2014 you don\u2019t take a step back but continue to move forward. I was heavily in debt, so I needed to find something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Simeone, it was his UW connections and his willingness to think outside the classroom that helped him find his first consulting jobs following graduation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that really helped me is that during my last year here, I went to a conference at the Monterey Institute of International Studies,\u201d he said. \u201cThey had a conference on Asia-Pacific area studies. I spoke on a panel at the encouragement of my advisor, <\/span>Judy Thornton<\/span><\/a> from the Department of Economics. It turned out that a man on my panel was a senior research fellow at Foreign Policy Research Institute. He had written about all kinds of global issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We started chatting after the panel, and he told me that he liked my work,\u201d Simeone continued. \u201cHe told me he might have a research project or a book deal coming down up and that he was looking for a research assistant. If there is one thing we are good at coming out of grad school, it\u2019s research. So that was my first contract. I was only working for him five or so hours a week, but I was looking at Russian news, and pouring over data sets, and doing research.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Simeone went on to do consulting work for the World Wildlife Fund, researching how crab meat makes its way to the US market from Russia and identifying places where it is being caught and processed illegally. He said he never thought about working on projects related to the seafood industry during his studies, but his background in Russian language and area studies, as well as his research into trade economics, helped him dive right in. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience researching how crab is processed and shipped helped me understand how the supply chain is structured. I learned a new skill that could be applied to trade.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

When asked what advice he had for current students considering a career outside academia, Simeone suggested thinking about ways the skills learned in graduate school can be applied in the real world. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hate so say it, but nobody really cares about your research,\u201d he said. \u201cThey won\u2019t really want to hear about your thesis \u2014 maybe a quick line about what you did, but that\u2019s it. What they want to hear is how you can apply the structure and the research skills you have. Think about about how you can use those skills to help them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Simeone also encouraged students to consider requesting informational interviews to get to know <\/span>people from different industries and to get a foot in the door.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cEven if you are submitting applications [for jobs], try to do some informational interviews,\u201d he said. \u00a0After some time doing job interviews and informational interviews I started getting calls asking if I would be willing to work as a contractor and take some work related to Russia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Simeone cautioned that working as an independent contractor can be difficult to manage financially, especially when just starting out. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I will say is that there is no way I could do what I do without my wife \u2014 without someone I\u2019m attached to with a stable job,\u201d he said. \u201cI get health insurance through her job. Living in Alaska now, it would cost us so much more for us to be on the open healthcare market there now. It\u2019s kind of the same way in grad school \u2014 you need connections. So I would say it\u2019s really important for people to aware of the hands that have been extended to them. There are some practicalities of being an independent contractor that can be difficult.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Simeone, who received an M.A. in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies, as well as an M.S. from the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, has been busy working with clients from across the world on issues related to international trade, ecology, and resource management.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":504,"featured_media":11904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlaska-Based Consultant and Ellison Center Alumnus John Simeone Discusses Russian and Work after Grad School - The Ellison Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/ellisoncenter\/news\/alaska-based-consultant-ellison-center-alumnus-john-simeone-discusses-russian-work-outside-academia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alaska-Based Consultant and Ellison Center Alumnus John Simeone Discusses Russian and Work after Grad School - 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