2016 2016: MPW alum uses flexible skills to transition into financial service industry

Paul Duarte graduated from Central Connecticut State University in 2012 with his Bachelor of Arts in English. After graduation, he tried finding a job but was unsuccessful.

While working part-time at a local grocery store, Duarte started searching for graduate school programs in technical writing, an area he was interested in since his undergraduate years. 

“Deep down, I knew I wanted to go to graduate school, but I wanted to make sure I took my time to find a program that fit my career goals,” he said. 

UMass Dartmouth's financial support helped make graduate school affordable

Duarte found the Master of Arts in Professional Writing (MPW) at UMass Dartmouth, and he was happy to discover they offered assistantships with tuition and fee waivers, plus a stipend.

The MPW program helped prepare Duarte for a career in technical communication and gave him the skills necessary to transition from his first job in the software development industry to his current job in the financial services industry. 

“The skills I learned gave me a toolkit that I can use to help solve problems in many fields,” Duarte said. “I took a web authoring course that gave me a foundation of HTML skills that I use every day in my current job as a Knowledge Coordinator for Boston Financial Data Services, Inc.”

Skills from the MPW program helped Paul succeed as Knowledge Coordinator

At Boston Financial Data Services, Inc., Duarte works on a team of six people — the Knowledge Management team — and his job is to update the information on client microsites that are hosted on the company's servers.

“The skills in the program gave me a great foundation for several different fields and helped me explore other ways to use writing to advance in my career,” Duarte said. 

The skills I learned gave me a toolkit that I can use to help solve problems in many fields.