Focus Series

Arts Focus

Connect with professionals at museums, art galleries, dance studies, theaters, and other cultural institutions to think about how to leverage your interest and/or background in the arts in the context of a career in a range of for- and non-profit organizations.

Consulting Focus

As an industry, consulting presents opportunities to dive directly into a huge range of industries and questions. Get insight into the recruitment processes and range of possibilities for careers in consulting.

Finance Focus

Financial services has become one of the top industry destinations for early-career Barnard students. Learn about everything from investment banking and wealth management, to operations, compliance, and financial markets—along with important topics confronting the industry now—in Finance Focus.

Tech Focus

From front-end, back-end, and fullstack, to UX and AI — and lots in between, there are tons of roles in development in the tech industry. But there are also a whole host of jobs in tech that are not necessarily technical: business development, communications, sales, and more. Get an introduction to the companies that have become house hold names in the last several decades, and get a sense of what "counts" as a tech career now.

Law Focus

How do you navigate your way from a first internship at a law firm or legal advocacy organization through the LSAT to law school? And how do you choose among the many options for defining a legal career along the way? Law Focus breaks down assumptions about law school and legal careers, and puts students in front of law students, lawyers, and other legal practitioners.

Helping students gain an understanding, not only of job descriptions and application processes, but also the important issues at the heart of industries that have attracted so many graduates in the past decade. 

Thinking Beyond the Job Application

The Focus Series began as a means of helping to demystify the kinds of roles that comprise complex (and often confusing) industries. Today, it has become a multi-industry event and workshop series that provides semester-long insights into a range of fields that are popular with Barnard students, welcoming employers and alums to help provide expert on-the-ground guidance and perspective (while connecting students to specific opportunities).

Students are often generally aware of law school, but don't have visibility on the many different ways to practice as an attorney — let alone the issues and decisions that individuals face when considering a career. The same goes for popular fields and destinations including the arts, finance, nonprofits, tech, and consulting. Concurrently, employers are enthusiastic to provide more than the typical/traditional information session. They're excited to bring to Barnard practitioners in their field to help students build skills and knowledge to make them better candidates.

The Focus Series represents some of Beyond Barnard's best collaborations with Corporate and Philanthropic Partners. It allows employers to connect with students they know are committed to their industry. And it expands and deepens recruiting conversations, helping students think about their motivation to pursue a particular field. Questions about the Focus Series? Ask beyondbarnard@lakeviewbungalow.com.

2025 FOCUS Series Keynote Discussion

Wednesday, January 29, 6:00PM - 7:15PM | LeFrak Theatre, Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being 

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Lareina Yee

Students are invited to join us to celebrate the kickoff of the Spring 2025 Focus Series with a conversation with Lareina Yee '95. Lareina is a McKinsey Global Institute director leading the technology agenda and the global head of Tech Alliances. Based in San Francisco, she is a senior partner whose client works focuses on technology and AI. She served as McKinsey's first Chief Diversity Officer and, in 2015, co-founded Women in the Workplace, an annual research study that has worked with more than 1,000 companies and surveyed nearly half a million employees to understand the barriers to women's advancement in corporate America.

Lareina Yee has been a member of the Barnard Lifelong Success Advisory Council since its inception. She is co-author of the forthcoming book The Broken Rung. Co-written with two fellow women Partners at McKinsey and Company, Kweilin Ellingrud María del Mar Martínez, the book examines why women — with higher graduation rates and GPA's than men — immediately lose their advantage when entering the workforce.

2025 FOCUS Series Industry Kick-Offs, Hosted by Beyond Barnard

On January 31, staff at Beyond Barnard will lead presentations that will orient students to the industries represented in the spring Focus series. Students will have the opportunity to learn about how industries are organized, common roles, prevalent pathways, and skills valued by employers. All events will take place at Beyond Barnard, and students can register for events in Handshake.

  • 10:00am -10:45am: Finance Focus
  • 11:00am - 11:45am: Nonprofit Focus 
  • 12:00pm -12:45pm: Tech Focus  
  • 1:00pm - 1:45pm: Arts Focus 
  • 2:00pm - 2:45pm: Consulting Focus

Questions about the Focus Series can be sent to beyondbarnard@lakeviewbungalow.com