July 7, 2025
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Michael Li. I currently reside in the downtown New Haven area. I am a big foodie so it’s very convenient to be able to walk around and try out the various cuisines in the area or new restaurants. If I’m not at work or stuffing myself with food, you could find me playing tennis, taking photos, or gaming. I used to work at the Haas Art Library as a temp/casual as a Library Services Assistant and am now a senior administrative assistant at Yale School of Management which I started on April 1st, 2024. I enjoy learning new things or finding more hobbies.
Tell us about your job search experience.
New Haven Works was a big help during the entire job hunting, searching, and interviewing process. They helped me with networking and connecting with managers. I was able to fix up my resume and tailor them to certain positions with their feedback. And lastly there was lots of help with practicing for interview questions. Things like practicing cutting down filler words, coming up with stronger examples/stories for typical interview questions, working on the elevator pitches, and overall getting over the interview nervousness. Which for someone like me was a huge deal.
Tell us about your current roles at Yale.
For my current position, my team and I support the entire Yale School of Management (SOM) in the IT department which consists of the faculty, students, and the other staff members. Throughout the day I provide level 1 IT support. These tasks could range anywhere from something simple like a monitor not displaying to helping someone with setting up and the multifactorial authentication app (DUO) on their new phones. This is about half of my responsibilities, the other half is purchasing. I make sure that data sets, hardware, and software are renewed, purchased, or acquired in a timely fashion to keep up with growing demands at SOM. As I have been in this position for well over a year, I feel like there is still so much to learn. My favorite part of my job is that every day is never the same. Being in the client services department, interacting with the various individuals and being able to help them with their technological needs is what our department is about. Providing the school with outstanding customer services to ensure the faculty, students and staff all have the best experiences at SOM.
You participated in a temporary assignment before you secured your staff position. What was the experience like?
How does the culture of learning and development at Yale impact you?
During my time at the library as a Library Services Assistant I worked in the special collections area. This means that I was handling lots of older and more sensitive materials. I helped patrons that came to visit with viewing the materials they placed on hold and sometimes assisting with finding new materials for them to look at. At the library I had to learn a system called Voyager, which is a software used for tracking all the inventory of books in the library. This system was later moved to Alma, which I had to learn to use as well. Part of using the system is understanding the call numbers of the books/materials and understanding how to locate them in the library as well. This is very important because materials that get reshelved in the wrong location will become harder to find later and other patrons will not be able to check it out. Being a numbers and math person, I never really got the chance to sit down and look at art or literature. And being in that previous position I was exposed to new things. I really enjoy learning and working at Yale as everyone is very nice and supportive in your professional and personal journey.
What advice do you have for other job-seekers?
I understand the feelings of getting rejected or waiting for a response after you’ve sent in your resume and applications. Some of the positions I have applied to, I never even got a response. I understand the work and efforts that you put in to tailor the resumes to each position. I have applied to many positions where when I look at the job description, I would think to myself that this is the perfect job for me and still never even got the job. What I would like to give is that you should not let the rejections or the lack of communication discourage you from thinking less of yourself or your worth. Every networking event attended, application submitted, and interview completed is another step closer to getting that goal.
What is next for you?
As for professional goals I am looking to migrate all the purchasing data that I have compiled since I started into a database. This will ensure that we have a central hub for old or new information on purchase orders, data sets, service terms, renewal dates. This will help immensely when pulling reports of the purchases and comparing them to the budget for things like hardware, data, and infrastructure. As for my life and personal goals, I am looking to save up and hopefully take advantage of the Yale Homebuyers program. As well as getting a new tennis bag, traveling more, taking more photos, and getting through the backlog of my gaming library.