Terriers InBiz is a series that highlights Boston University alumni who have been innovative leaders in their field and have played a significant role in businesses, locally or globally.
MTV was a staple in many current college students’ childhoods. It was a time when Britney Spears music videos reigned and video jockeys became personalities. It became an iconic symbol of the media in our generation, with MTV’s monumental Moonman trophy symbolically representing the station’s prominence in television history.
But MTV wouldn’t be MTV without the people behind the screen.
Mariana Agathoklis, a 2003 graduate from Boston University’s College of Communication, is the vice president of communications at MTV, working with colossal projects including the MTV Movie Awards, the Woodie Awards and the Video Music Awards.
And after all these years, Agathoklis still credits BU with helping her rise to her dream job.
“BU was my top choice, mainly as I fell in love with Boston when I was 12 years old,” Agathoklis said.
Agathoklis said classes in COM were particularly useful to her career, but she also enjoyed taking non-required classes — classes that made her college career memorable — just out of pure enjoyment.
Her entire education was about discerning the practical skills from the theoretical, she said.
“I took a computers and communications class, where we learned how to shoot video, edit it, work in Excel, do sound editing and use Photoshop,” Agathoklis said. “This was important in the early 2000s, but today means so much more. We are truly living in a visually based society now, and being able to go into Photoshop is valuable to me.”
The rise from student to young professional was a tumultuous leap. Agathoklis said there was an anxiety that came with graduating, but also an excitement and right of passage that comes with entering the working world.
“There are things about the real world that you can’t prepare yourself for,” she said. “When you land your first job and you’re so excited, the world is there for the taking. I was anxious about the future, about leaving Boston, about leaving my friends and my support group and the people I had almost become an adult with. I was nervous about taking a job, but I was fortunate that public relations was what I wanted to do, and remains so.”
Agathoklis moved to Washington immediately following her college graduation. She accepted a paid internship, which soon turned into a full-time job.
After her first stint, she made connections with the communications department at MTV in New York and shortly after, she was offered a position there.
Though the job as an executive assistant at MTV was technically a demotion in title for Agathoklis, she was willing to start small and build her career at the trailblazing company, she said.
“It’s MTV,” she said. “Why not?”
Ten years later, Agathoklis has no regrets.
Agathoklis worked for MTV Games and worked on the public relations for the video game Rock Band for four years. She also worked with Green Day, the Beatles and other artists involved with the game.
“I started working on our digital business,” she said. “It was so cool to be on the cutting edge of where that was going. That’s the heart of MTV. It’s our mission and drive to be at the cutting edge, pushing boundaries and doing it first.”
Agathoklis looks back fondly on her time at BU, but she said even after graduation, she never stopped learning. She said the best thing a recent graduate can do to succeed in a competitive industry is to take hold of their opportunities to push themselves forward.
“You have to be open to any possibility out there. Don’t assume you know what you want,” she said. “A lot of your early career is figuring out what you don’t want. For example, I was super passionate about moving to D.C. and getting into politics. But what I thought that meant wasn’t actually the reality.”
For this year’s graduating class, Agathoklis encourages them to reach out to those who can help them succeed and utilize the extensive BU alumni network.
“Whatever connections you have in this world really make a difference,” Agathoklis said. “I 100 percent pay more attention to a resume on my desk that says Boston University on it. I stop and I say, ‘Oh they went to BU COM. I have something in common with them.’”
