Life after graduation can settle Elizabethtown College alumni near or far, but in some fortunate circumstances the alums are willing to stop back and share their hard earned information from the working world.

Alexandra Doran graduated as an environmental science major with a minor in political science in 2015. Feb. 4 she returned to speak as a part of the Biology Seminar Series.

At present, Doran works as an associate scientist and office sustainability lead at the Philadelphia office of ERM – Environmental Resources Management (ERM). ERM is a consulting firm, and according to their website is “a leading provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, social consulting services and sustainability related services.”

ERM has more than 160 offices in over 40 countries and territories where they aim to assist clients in various industries to make decisions and meet requirements regarding the environment and safety.

Doran did not initially intend to work in the field of environmental consulting. She “took a job because [she] needed a job” and ended up in consulting. Before transitioning into her current position at ERM she worked for another environmental consulting company, J&J Environmental, Inc. in Blue Bell, PA.

Her job at J&J primarily involved writing reports and interacting with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) although the company’s focus was largely on underground oil tank removal, testing for soil pollution, oil tank services and emergency oil spill cleanup.

Doran did not feel that she fit as well with J&J due to the monotony of her work there. Even so, she learned valuable information about regulations and about hot to interact with clients. It was after speaking with other friends working in the area of consulting that she saw a job posting at ERM and decided to apply. Since then, Doran has enjoyed working in environmental consulting more.

She compared consulting to a “Choose Your Own Adventure” because consultants can work with any industry, client, type of project, work remotely or in an office and can choose a local or global focus.

“[Consulting is] fun. You meet a lot of really interesting people. I really like learning a lot of new things and meeting new clients,” Doran said.

She discussed the benefits and drawbacks of working in the consulting field. The benefits include exposure to various industries, a variety of assignments in different subject matters, the opportunity to travel to different locations, the continuous opportunity for learning and growth and the lack of monotony.

Drawbacks to working in consulting include the long hours, potentially being forced to travel, the fast-paced and potentially disorienting nature of the work and being constantly forced to figure out how to do new tasks.

Even though Doran did not intend to work in the field of environmental consulting, she felt well prepared for the job by her time at the College. The experience that she found most valuable was the two and a half years of research she did with associate professor of biology Dr. David Bowne.

She aided Bowne in a research project involving the monitoring of turtle populations around Lake Placida and presented twice on the data found during the research.

She is also a co-author on the article “Effects of urbanization on the population structure of freshwater turtles across the United States” published in the peer-reviewed journal “Conservation Biology.”

Doran was also benefited by the largely comprehensive education across subjects that Etown requires as a liberal arts college, though she did say she would have been glad for a few more writing courses while she had attended.

As a student Doran participated in the Environmental Group at the College. She was also the Student Senate Class Secretary for several years and the Vice President of her class during her senior year. She worked closely with clubs as a senator which likely contributed to her skills in interacting with clients at ERM.

At present, Doran is closely involved with a large project connected to a major client at ERM. The goal is to ensure that this client is compliant with any environmental regulations their work falls under. For ERM this could look like auditing, filing reports and just anything in the environmental realm the company needs to do.

Moving forward, Doran wants to be promoted within ERM and would like to transfer to the Manhattan office.

“I like… to interact with so many people and help people figure out how to do things,” Doran said.

Consulting, like many careers, is largely about interpersonal relationships and Doran is looking forward to continuing to forge new bonds.