Month: April 2010

Pronoun Abuse: An Interview Diagnosis

By Anne Guldin Lucas

Stuart Student was in the midst of a terrific interview.  He was in the zone, responding to even the most difficult questions with thoughtful, succinct responses.  Irma Interviewer was smiling and making comments that convinced Stuart he was about to clinch the job offer.  Then he was asked the question for which he had been hoping:  “What was your greatest accomplishment as a Penn student?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Stuart responded, “During our first term at Penn, me and my friend started a program in local homeless shelters to increase the rate of high school graduations and college matriculations among homeless students.  This year, our fourth year of the program, we achieved a 95% success rate.  The Mayor presented she and I with a Philadelphia Citizenship Award.”

A shadow fell across Irma Interviewer’s face, and she muttered something about remembering that they had filled this job opening last week.  As she was showing Stuart to the door, he wondered where he had gone wrong.  Could Ms. Interviewer possibly object to educating children or did his response lack the proper humility?  He didn’t even mention that their picture was on the front page of the DP!

What do you think, reader?  Can you diagnose Stuart Student’s fatal interviewing error?

Yes, it was pronoun abuse!  Whereas Stuart’s opening sentence required that he use a first person pronoun in the subjective (“my friend and I” vs. “me and my friend,”), his last sentence called for objective pronouns (“her and me” vs. “she and I”).  If those grammatical terms are too hard to remember, simply omit Stuart’s friend from the equation, and your ear should guide you to the proper pronouns.  Surely no one would say, “During my first term at Penn, me started a program….The Mayor presented I with…”

Contrast Stuart’s interview experience with that of Stella Student.  Ricky Recruiter asked challenging questions, and Stella was prepared with all the right responses—and proper pronouns.  When asked that fateful question, “What was your greatest accomplishment as a Penn student?” Stella quickly and expertly responded, “During our first year at Penn, my friend and I launched an initiative against Pronoun Abuse.  Having cleared the Penn campus of errant pronouns, the English Department awarded him and me with Distinguished Student Awards.”

Needless to say, Ricky Recruiter’s next words were, “You’re hired!”

P.S. If you are inspired to become Sammy Syntax after reading this blog, you can learn more about pronoun usage by consulting:

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0885483.html

Preparing For a Performance Review

By Barbara Hewitt

It is performance review time for University of Pennsylvania staff. There was a bit of a collective groan when our director announced the date in May when all reviews need to be completed. Between writing individual self-appraisals, meeting with supervisors to discuss them, and then formally writing up official performance reviews for each staff member, the process can be time and labor intensive. It is all too easy to think about all the other tasks you could be working on.

Let’s face it – it can also feel awkward and artificial to sit down formally to talk about “how the year went.” Hopefully your relationship with your supervisor is open enough that these sorts of conversations don’t need to be channeled into one hour-long conversation each year, but rather can take place over the course of 12 months on an as-needed basis. In many offices, however, this doesn’t happen. Most employees have a full-load on their plates (especially with the recent downsizing at many organizations), so it can be difficult to find a time when you and your supervisor are both available.

Even with the “downside” of performance reviews, however, I firmly believe they are a valuable and important tool. The self-appraisal process encourages employees to think about what has been accomplished throughout the year – what went well and what was less successful – and consider personal strengths and areas for improvement. In the day to day bustle of most jobs, it can be difficult to make the time to sit down and reflect about how things are going. Reviews also provide the incentive (and requirement!) of formulating goals for the coming year. Studies have shown that goals are much more likely to be achieved if they are written down. The appraisal process forces you to do this.

As students, many of you have probably not yet had the opportunity to participate in a formal review, but for those of you graduating in May and those of you entering a structured internship program over the summer, this is likely to change for you soon! Following are some suggestions to help you prepare for the process:

• Document Your Accomplishments. Throughout the course of the year (or summer, in the case of internships) document your achievements so that you can easily refer to them when it comes time for your review. It can be difficult to recall what you did in January when your review does not take place until December. The file can be a formal hard copy system or simply an e-mail folder where you store reminders about things you want to bring up during the review.

• Know the review format. Find out if there is a standard written evaluation that the organization uses. Try to obtain a copy of it so you will know how to prepare.

• Review yourself first. Think about how you’ve made a difference and contributed to the organization. If you can quantify your achievements, even better. Be able to articulate why the organization is better off because you are there. You should also be self-aware enough to be able to discuss where you need to develop and grow. Finally, you should be ready to discuss any new projects you would like to take on or new training that would help you to be even more successful at work.

• Focus on yourself. This is YOUR review. Don’t use it as an opportunity to comment on other employees’ performance or complain about your colleagues.

• Relax! Remember that the review is a conversation. View it as a valuable opportunity to receive feedback on your performance. It is a time when you will (hopefully!) have your supervisor’s undivided attention. Take advantage of this time to learn more about how you are perceived in the workplace and what steps you can take to perform at an even higher level. The review also provides a helpful opportunity to make sure that you and you are supervisor are on the same page. Are the things that you are placing a lot of emphasis on the same things that your supervisor values and wants you to focus on? Finally, try not to be defensive and to remain open to feedback. It can be difficult to have someone tell you what areas you need to improve on, but the feedback can be extremely valuable to help you excel within the organization and in your long-term career.

Keep in mind that the review process in most organizations is tied to salary increases. Taking the review seriously and thoroughly preparing for it will not only help you to better showcase your contributions to the organization, but hopefully result in more money in your paycheck.

CareerCast: Interviewing Tips from Engineering Alumni

Career Services is pleased to announce the latest CareerCast video series.  This series focuses specifically on the engineering student with interviews from industry experts who attended our most recent Engineering Career Day fair in fall 2009.  The topics of these interviews range from what qualities companies look for in candidates to tips for making the most out of an interview.   The video below features Penn Engineering Alumni discussing tips for interviewing.
Special Thanks to Jim Silverstein (SEAS ‘11) for editing the videos.

To watch all the videos in the series, go to:

http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/seas/SEASalumnivideos.html

Want to watch on your mobile device? Click here!

It’s not too late! (Good) Internships are still out there.

By Claire Klieger

I’ve been seeing lots of students who are still looking for internships and worried that it may be too late. Fear not, there are still lots of great opportunities (Yes, really—no, not just “the bottom of the barrel” stuff) out there. In fact, last year 46% of college students did not secure their summer internships until April or May, according to the Summer 2009 Survey Report. For some industries like entertainment, summer internships often crop up very last minute (especially mid-late May) so don’t feel like if you haven’t got your summer plans set yet that you’re doomed to working at your local movie theatre or mall food court.

Your internship hunt doesn't have to feel like looking for a needle in a hay stack

SEARCH STRATEGIES – GET INDUSTRY SPECIFIC

Part of the issue is being unsure of where to look. Certainly, iNet and PennLink are good places to start and new internship openings get posted there every day. Keep in mind that you can set up either system to email you when new things get posted that

meet your interests by doing an advanced search and saving it as a search agent, which you can then set to run however often you’d like.

However, when you’re looking for something specific, your internship search can sometimes feel like looking for a needle in a hay stack—it can become overwhelming sifting through hundreds of postings looking for what you want. So, it’s important to search smart (like using the search agents in PennLink). One of the best ways to do this is by looking for opportunities on industry specific websites. For example, if you’re interested in media, you should be looking on mediabistro ; if something at an international NGO is what you seek, Idealist is an excellent place to look; should you be really into rocks, getgeologyjobs.com is probably your slice of heaven. To learn more about industry specific resources, look on Career Services’ “Career Resources by Field” page and come talk to one of us.

SEEK ADVICE FROM THOSE WHO WORK IN YOUR FIELDS OF INTEREST and NETWORK

That said, some of the best advice both on where to look and how to market yourself comes from others who work in the field. So, take advantage of those Penn connections and start talking to Penn alums who have the kinds of jobs you think are interesting. Remember that everyone on PACNet, our alumni database, has volunteered to be contacted with questions (though, please, don’t make that question, “hey, can I have an internship where you work?”).

Talk to your peers as well. By searching the Penn Internship Network, you can connect with current students who have said they are willing to talk about their summer 2009 experiences which can be a great way to find out how someone found an internship and possibly to get an employer contact.

GENERAL & GEOGRAPHIC– SPECIFIC RESOURCES

Other good general internship search resources include simplyhired and indeed where you can put in a job title (e.g.“public relations intern”) and location (e.g. “Boston”). If you know you want to be in a specific area like say….New York (I know, shocking), you can look on ReferenceUSA for employers (and can target specific industries) in the New York Area and target your search on specific websites. GoinGlobal (accessible for free through our online subscriptions page) offers city specific resources for job or internship searching so even if your top choice for the summer is Austin, Texas, you’ll have some good ideas for how you can look. If you’re not really sure what you want, you might try subscribing to something like One Day, One Internship, a daily blog written by a recent (though not Penn) grad that highlights internships at a different company each day.

The point is…there are tons of great resources out there so don’t give up hope on your internship search–It’s just a matter of figuring out where to apply and continuing to send out applications. If you have questions about your individual search feel free to come talk to us.

Why Leadership and Involvement in Activities Matters to Hiring Managers…

By: David Ross

For anyone that’s gone through the internship or job search process as a student, you’ve probably encountered those infamous words: “leadership” and “activities.” During interviews, you may have been asked questions (directly or indirectly) focused on leadership and participation outside of the classroom at Penn. Ever wonder why leadership and activities are scrutinized by companies?

Each organization values and considers the extent of your leadership and involvement in activities in different ways. However, leadership and involvement in activities provide some interesting information about internship and job applicants. Fair or not, those with significant leadership experience are very desirable to some companies. Why? Because leaders typically have a certain drive and passion to achieve. Leaders also may showcase strong project management skills, people management skills or both. Sucessful leaders may also have strong interpersonal skills, ability to work effectively with teams and take ownership and responsibility for projects. Given that past experience may predict the future, anyone who has demonstrated leadership experience and can highlight accomplishments or successful outcomes instantly becomes a candidate with a track record of success.

So what if you are not in a position to lead an organization? Keep in mind that you can be a leader or demonstrate leadership experience in many ways within an organization or club. Perhaps you are destined to lead a committee working on a big event or new initiative. Or you may find yourself presented with the opportunity to lead your peers or fellow group members on a project. Either way, both are excellent situations for individuals to utilize and develop their talents and skills and hopefully generate postive, tangible outcomes. And while leadership can be important and valued, involvement in activities can be very important as well. Simply joining a club or organization and just going to weekly meetings does not reveal much to recruiters. What’s more significant is how you can impact an organization you are a part of – any tangible improvements you can make to the greater good of the organization are valued.

So remember – get involved outside of the classroom. Pursue your passions and dreams. Embrace leadership opportunities that present themselves. Not only will you find these experiences worthwhile, others will value them too.