By Jacob Hallgren ‘27
Although Hallgren always takes her job very seriously, she makes time to hangout with her family and have a laugh.
“I used to think I was going to teach,” said Hallgren. “I like the school setting, and a lot of teachers made a huge difference in my life, so I really thought I was going to teach.”
Ultimately she decided to take another route in her career and pursued a medical career in college for 5 years. She ended up becoming a heart surgeon at first, with board certifications in sports medicine and invasive cardiology.
“I was recruited by a college friend to go into the industry,” said Hallgren when asked how she got to her current job.
She is now a sales representative at Johnson & Johnson. She covers emergency room cases and sells sutures and hemostats to doctors and hospitals looking for tools to stop bleeding during surgeries.
Hallgren explained her love for her job, but said, “I need to have balance.”
Balance was one of the biggest challenges for her. Dealing with her work and raising her family was hard, but balancing both so neither gets too much of her time was just as hard.
“I tend to be a little bit of a workaholic, and that’s not always the most healthy for me,” Hallgren confessed.
She tends to become enveloped in her work from time to time, but always tries to make time for her family and let them know they are her first priority.
“So I want to help provide for my family,” said Hallgren. “But I also want to give them the personal time and let them know that I’m present and available for them.”
One of the main reasons she gets overly engulfed in her work sometimes is because she feels obligated to give her kids a great childhood and make sure their needs and some of their wants are provided through the money from her job. She doesn’t want to spoil them and raise them to be snobby, but she wants to make sure they have fun and don’t have to struggle or worry.
“I plan on retiring at some point, but not before my boys get out of college,” Hallgren said. “I want to make sure that they have a good education to be able to make a living and support themselves decently, so my top financial priority is to get my boys through college and then I feel like I have a lot more options open to me.”
After she retires, she wants to travel around the world and explore new things. She loves to explore new places and learn about different cultures, but she still prioritizes her family’s needs before her own.
While most people might see Hallgren as serious and even intimidating, the more you get to know about her the more the more you will see how much she cares for her family and how nice she really is.