Life outside the bubble. The real world. Adulthood. Whatever you want to call it, many Brandeis students would agree that it's a mysterious place, terrifying and alluring at the same time. For those who are in need of reassurance that they will not be swallowed whole the minute they step off this campus, read on. In fact, everyone read on, because the story of Jessie Cohen '01, who stepped right into a successful career at Inflexxion in Newton, is an encouraging reminder that post-college life can be a wonderful thing.Cohen majored in sociology, but she jokingly said, "Originally, I was pre-med like everyone else at Brandeis." Even though she decided not to pursue a career in medicine, Cohen said she has remained interested in public health policy. Within the sociology department, she took classes that focused on issues of health and medicine.

Cohen's senior thesis was in many ways a predictor of her current position at Inflexxion, where she serves as a research coordinator. In her thesis, she researched Orthodox Jewish women and pregnancy. She studied the ways they reconcile their religion and spirituality with the demands of childbirth.
That type of interplay between social forces, emotional influences, and health needs is the driving force at Inflexxion. The company creates CD-ROMs, websites, and books to help people learn about and manage health and behavioral problems. Cohen sees her work at Inflexxion as "a really neat marriage between psychology and public health."

Sponsored mostly by grants, Inflexxion markets many products. Cohen described a CD-ROM video game used by juvenile treatment facilities to help teenagers quit smoking or drinking. Doctors' offices purchase Inflexxion programs to help their chronically ill patients learn to deal with their diseases. Parents can buy interactive tools to help educate their children about divorce.

When she first came to Inflexxion the fall after her graduation, Cohen was sure she would essentially be a secretary to the people who really designed the programs. "I came in thinking I was right out of college and it was great that I had a job in my field, but I would be doing a lot of shuffling and stapling and collating ... But, that's just not the case," she said.

Inflexxion employs a number of young people (including four Brandeis alumni), and everyone has the chance to play an integral role in creating each new program, which helps high school students explain the risks and hazards of tobacco. There are a variety of steps the employees must go through to produce a product. After conceiving an idea for a project, a team of researchers conducts studies to see what people would like to learn about coping with a particular illness or behavioral problem. Next, they design the program itself, writing a script for the CD ROM. Finally, after an outside multimedia company produces the disk or website, Inflexxion checks the product's usability through field-testing.

As a young employee, "you really have the ability to make it your project as well," she said.
While some graduating seniors are rather reluctant to leave Brandeis, Cohen said she felt ready to try something new. She laughingly said, "After the thesis, I was like, 'I never want to be in college again!'" Although she said she felt sad about "closing a chapter on one part of (her) life," she said she felt eager to take advantage of the skills she had acquired here and use them to begin earning some money.

Even though she said she was excited to finish up her thesis, Cohen said she actually thinks that writing and researching the paper was one of the best preparations for not only her career, but any job. "A lot of times in college you are given an assignment and you think about it for four weeks and then you turn it in and forget about it. In a job, you work on a long-term project, not a lot of little papers or assignments," she said. With a thesis, she learned to "have an idea, develop it, and carry it through to the end" just as she does now at Inflexxion.

Cohen said she believes a liberal arts education provides the basic tools for almost any career. "It wasn't so much specific skills - Other than writing and communication skills - so much as it was having my mind opened to new ideas and getting a sense of what was available in the world," she said.
As much as she values her experience at Brandeis, Cohen admits there are definite advantages to working life. Primarily, she said she enjoys the structure of the working day. Like most students in college, Cohen was pulled in many different directions by all her classes and extra-curricular activities while she was at Brandeis. Now, she is able to work on one project at a time. Also, she is able to separate home and work in a way that was impossible in college. "It's really nice to be able to go home and just go home," she said.

When asked what she considers the most important factors in a student's job search, Cohen quickly replied, "Environment! At Brandeis you can choose your friends and who you live with." In the workplace, however, a lousy set of co-workers can make even the most desirable job miserable. Describing the atmosphere at Inflexxion, she said, "It's the most special place." She said she sees her position there as a "trying-out job," and she said everyone at the company has been friendly and willing to make it a valuable learning experience.

After all, even though Cohen is so integrally involved with Inflexxion now, she has been there for less than a year. Sometimes she said she still surprises herself with how far she has come in such a short time. "You feel like you're playing office sometimes," she said.