“If you wait for things to happen to you, they aren’t going to happen. You have to know what you want, and go for it, and take it because it’s yours,” said David Dacres ’18 on his successful Hamilton career. A well-known student on campus, Dacres will be transitioning into his role as a search coordinator at Isaacson Miller, an executive search firm, shortly after graduation. Dacres first came in contact with Isaacson Miller in his junior year, while serving as a student representative on the committee that brought Dean of Students Terry Martinez to campus.
In the fall of his senior year, a serendipitous reunion led to a job offer for Dacres. One afternoon, he was sitting in the Kirner-Johnson atrium reviewing his resume when he ran into two associates from the Isaacson Miller search committee he had served on the year prior.
After sending the associates his resume, they asked Dacres if he had ever considered a career with the search firm. “To be honest, I had not. But, they put me in contact with people at the DC office that is in charge of the search coordinator positions,” said Dacres. From there, he had a phone interview, and a follow-up meeting in Boston. Shortly after, he was offered the job. It was “all because of Hamilton,” he said.
As a chemistry major, Dacres, a chemistry major just recently became interested in project management as a career. He came to Hamilton aspiring to enter the field of chemical engineering. But, he explains, by the beginning of senior year, he realized that he was not excited about pursuing his old career goal. On the shakeup, Dacres said, “I got more perspective about how to approach life. If you think this is the end goal and you’d made it, then you’re not awake. There’s so much to learn all the time. Speaking of ‘know thyself,’ what I’ve learned is that I’m constantly changing.”
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
High School: North Miami Beach Senior High School
In addition to spending countless hours conducting computational chemistry research, his extracurricular activities span from manning the counter at Cafe Opus to serving as creative director of on-campus fashion magazine Signature Style. Dacres predicts that his problem-solving skills from his chemistry experience, matched with his extroverted personality will lead to success in project management.
The Miami native expresses excitement in moving to Boston to start his new position. He said his time on the Hill has allowed him to grow accustomed to the New England mindset. Dacres shares thanks for the Hamilton-based network of “good friends who look out for me in the [Boston] area so that I feel really comfortable to go out there and work hard.”
Dacres shared a piece of wisdom with Hamilton students by summarizing his personal drive and ambition. “You have to be hungry. You have to want to eat.”
