September 2010 – Page 4

Does my Penn Degree Mean I Deserve an Emmy?

By Peggy Curchack and Claire Klieger

In the recent blog post, What Am I Worth?, we offered our take on what constitutes reasonable monetary worth. Here we address “worth” from another angle. Now and again, we’ll get a question like this from a student:

“Shouldn’t I make more as a Marketing Assistant at BulgeBracket, Inc. than someone graduating from East Cupcake State? It was tougher for me to get in here and my classes are more difficult.”

Over the years we’ve heard from Penn students who believe that their Ivy League education should automatically confer access to higher titles and/or higher starting salaries than graduates from less prestigious institutions. This would be like Emmy Nominees with degrees from Ivy League schools (Tony Shalhoub – Monk, Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock, Matthew Fox – Lost, Connie Britton – Friday Night Lights, and Michael C. Hall – Dexter) assuming that they were a shoe-in for the award because, “Hey, I went to _________!” Can you imagine Matthew Fox (Columbia) interrupting Bryan Cranston’s acceptance speech with an outburst of “This is an outrage! Didn’t anyone look at my transcript?”

This mentality is likely to actually work against everything else you have going for you. Your Penn degree is worth a huge amount: it confers a lifelong identity in a select and highly-regarded community; it gives you access to options and opportunities for the rest of your life (including lifetime use of Career Services J); it opens doors that you probably haven’t even imagined yet.

But why should it mean that for the same work, at the same employer, you should be paid more?

Sure your Penn classes were really demanding – but were they all equally hard? The graduate of East Cupcake probably thinks that s/he worked really really hard for a 3.9 GPA, and s/he probably did! Throughout your career you’ll work side by side with — and probably report to — very smart, very hard-working people who did not graduate from schools with the prestige of Penn. Let’s take the Emmy’s again. One of the big winners of the night was Eddie Falco, a SUNY Purchase grad. It behooves us to respect everyone with whom we work, regardless of academic background.

There are so many things that your Penn education gives you that grads from the East Cupcake States of the world can’t count on. Just by seeing the Penn name on your resume, people will presume you’re well educated, have important critical skills, and can conduct yourself appropriately in professional situations. You also have access to alumni/ae networks of amazingly interesting people (most of whom will also get nostalgic about evenings at Smokey Joes, toast throwing at football games or late night debauchery in the Quad). The Penn degree will always confer status, but which of us likes having that flaunted? (Think about how you would feel if you every time you went to a party or sat next to someone on a plane they said, “Hi my name is ______ and I went to Harvard”).

And, from the ridiculous to the sublime, we leave you with Emily Dickinson’s take on this issue:

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—

Career Fairs for People Not Seeking Jobs

Dr. Joseph Barber

Six things you can do at career fairs even if you aren’t actively looking for a job

1) Hand people your well-formatted, mistake-free, Career Services’ critiqued resume. OK, if you are not looking for a job, this is one that you might be able to skip. But…, what happens if you are chatting with employers (see below), and someone asks about your experience, and then says, “do you have a resume I can take away with me?”. As you don’t want to miss this opportunity to network, which is the better answer:

“Errr…., no, but I can write my name and email on this napkin”
“Yes, this reflects my experience to date, and obviously I am going to be gaining more experience over the next few months/years. If I were interested in this type of opportunity, can you see any areas where additional experience might help me in this career field?”
“What’s a resume?”

2) Network. People with effective networks build them continuously over time, and may not seek anything from their contacts for many months or years. They spend their time developing and maintaining their network so that when they do need help, the network is already there for them, and the people within the network know and trust them. The best time to network from a career perspective is when you are not actively looking for a job. You have more time, and you come across as less desperate. If you work hard to help people remember you by staying in contact, then you increase the likelihood that they’ll be thinking of you when future job opportunities arise. So, take time at career fairs to share your information with people in different career fields, think of creative ways to maintain contact with them over time to establish an effective relationship, and ask the most important question of all to gain access to their network: “Do you anyone you think I should talk with to find out more information?“

3) Think about Plan B. You may have your heart set on one type of job, or working at one specific organization, and it is important that you work hard to achieve what you want. However, it never hurts to have a back-up plan, your career Plan B. If you are a graduate student, then you may be planning on following the tenure track, and seeking only academic teaching or research positions. The academic job market is hard to predict, and will always be changeable, but it will always be highly competitive, and there will always be someone who does not get the job they interviewed for. We hope that person is not you, and we’ll work hard with you to help you be the successful one, but it never hurts to be thinking about Plan B. If you need to switch tracks at a future date, will you have enough transferable skills and experiences to make you a competitive candidate in a completely different career field? At the career fair you can ask recruiters what they are looking for in resumes for the types of jobs they have available now. They might be able to help identify the kind of experiences you can gain in the present, and over the next few months/years, that might make you competitive for other types of jobs in the future.

4) Tell people about yourself. The question “tell me about yourself” will come up whenever you meet new people (whether spoken or inferred), but can also be asked during phone and in-person interviews. You need to have an interesting, succinct, and confident answer. You are the expert in the subject of you, and so it is the one topic that you should have no hesitation talking about. Career fairs are a great place to practice talking about yourself, as you need to summarize who you are, what skills you have, where you want to be going in the future, and how the person you are talking with might be able to help, all within about 30-60 seconds. When you are networking, people need to know what your network goals are so that they know how they can help you. For example, are you looking for information, opportunities, or future contacts?

5) Talk about your research. Graduate students have two types of tricky questions to answer in terms of what they have been doing with themselves. When telling people about yourself, you will of course mention the research you do, but research is not the only topic you should talk about. The “tell me about yourself” answer needs to be slightly broader (e.g., what brought you to Penn, what are some of the key skills you have, how have your experiences changed the way you think about aspects of the world, and how do you see yourself using your knowledge and skills in the future). When talking more specifically about your research, you will need to summarize what you do in a way that makes your subject understandable to a range of different people with differing degrees of expertise in your specific area. Can you tailor a summary about your research on ancient Aramaic texts or Tribble genes to experts in the field and to HR representatives? Can you make your research interesting and relevant to them? Again, career fairs are a great way to practice talking about your research, and it does take practice.

6) See how it is done. You don’t want your first career fair to be the one where you need to find a job. You want to work out all of your career fair nerves beforehand. Even if you don’t talk to any employers (and you really should – they won’t bite), you can still watch how your peers handle themselves at career fairs? You can see how they are dressed, and whether they are keeping their right hand free to shake hands with people they meet, without having to juggle paperwork and drinks (and that means thinking about which shoulder to hang your bag on, so it doesn’t slip off when extending your hand). Small things can sometimes count when you are trying to make a good first impression. You can listen to the types of questions they ask, and you can learn to emulate or avoid the good or bad approaches they use.

Here is a list of the career fairs coming your way this semester:

Career Link, September 14-15, 2010, 10am-3pm
Engineering Career Day, September 16, 2010, 10am-3pm
Biomedical & Life Sciences Career Fair (PhDs/postdocs only), September 29, 2010, 1-4pm
Policy and Government Career Fair, October 1, 2010, 11am-3pm
International Opportunities Fair, November 5th, 2010, 10:30am-2:30pm
Nursing Career Day, December 3, 2010, 12-2pm

Parents, This One’s For You

The summer is over! Your son or daughter has already moved into his or her dorm or apartment. Is this your first child’s freshman year and the family’s maiden voyage to college? Or perhaps it is your youngest child’s senior year and this is old hat. No matter what your exact scenario is, you are probably feeling nostalgic as you breath in this dryer, cooler September air and think about all the “Kodak moments” along the road that has led your young person to Penn.

Now that your son or daughter is off to school, take a moment to focus on how you will fit into the decisions he or she will need to make in the next few years. Your child (yes, they’ll always be our “children”, no matter how old they are) has stepped up to the next phase of their development, and their entrance to adulthood. Having two sons of my own who are in their late twenties, I know the thoughts running through your heads. Who is checking that they are getting enough sleep, making good friends and behaving responsibly? You’re wondering about their classes. Are they keeping up with the work load and connecting with their professors? At the same time, especially in light of the current economic times, are they setting themselves up to find internships or jobs in a lucrative industry or getting into the right graduate or professional school? Things are not as they were when WE were in college, and there is so much more information available to help with these decisions.

Besides being a parent, I have worked in Career Services for fourteen years and have watched this process from both sides. I sympathize with the concerned parents who call Career Services to see what we do for their son or daughter and also what they can do to help. Some parents just want general information on the current job market and the process. Others ask for more specific information such as passwords for our job posting system so they can look for jobs or internships that will be “right” for their son or daughter.

Wearing my parent’s hat, I empathize with you being tempted to do the leg work for your busy children so you can give them a list of things they should do next in their job search. It’s what you’ve probably done up to this point with respect to important decisions they have had to make. Wearing my Career Services hat, I see young, independent people wanting to make their own way and looking for jobs of their own choosing which aren’t necessarily what you think they want. From these combined experiences I am respectfully asking you to give them space to conduct their internship, job and/or graduate school searches themselves. They want (and need) to begin to do things for themselves and learn to use their time wisely. Isn’t this the ultimate goal of parenthood — guiding our sons and daughters to become self-confident, capable young adults? This is the time in our children’s lives when they first feel independent and able to try something new on their own. You may be in for some surprises of the directions they choose, but that’s good. It means they are spreading their wings and trying new things.

When I think back, I wonder why I was surprised when my older son moved to Wyoming to become a chef where he’d be using his creativity and ability to interact with people. And a few years later, our second son moved to Alaska to use his geology background and technical skills. Both of them moved to places where they could pursue jobs of their dreams and have the ability to ski, hike, and canoe whenever they wanted to with people around them who also loved those activities. Not surprising at all, these were the things we did with them on family vacations as they were growing up. They took jobs where they would work hard and play hard, and be self supporting and happy. Actually, once the initial shock wore off, we were proud of each of them for being self-assured enough to leave their friends and family for places unknown and new adventures. I will not deny that you will feel a bit of loneliness during this transition, because you will. Your relationship with your child is changing; he or she doesn’t need you in the same ways they have before. Take heart knowing they’re doing what they should be doing, which will help you adjust. Focusing on our sons’ happiness and successes, (and biting our tongue a lot!) helped us survive. How happy were we when our younger son, after three years in Alaska, announced he was moving back to the East Coast to pursue a graduate degree as we had hoped he would. We patted ourselves on the back, then, as that was his own decision and on his own time table, as well.

My message is this… Parents, listen to your children and give them room to grow. Harry S. Truman said: “I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” Don’t back out of your son or daughter’s life, just back up a bit. Encourage them to try something new. Be open to discussions about the breadth of options in front of them. Take note of what makes your child’s eyes light up and respect his or her need to pursue these things; they might choose a specific job that they love, or they might choose to live in a place that lets them enjoy certain activities outside of their work. Give them the freedom and support to try something different and come to their own conclusions about what is right for them. Remember that “success” means different things to different people, even our own children. My son doesn’t make a lot of money, but he thrives on being able to walk his dog in the Teton National Forest and go skiing before work or floating down the Snake River in his canoe any day he wants.

By all means, browse the Career Services website and learn what you can about the opportunities available to our students. Visit us during Family Weekend. Be aware of all the programs and workshops, career fairs and counseling sessions we offer our students. If you think your son or daughter needs a bit more guidance as they go forward, remind them that we are here to help. Guide them gently in ways to ask for help, but let them be the ones to do the asking.
In the end you know that your sons and daughters will make appropriate decisions, find good jobs and have great lives. Give them the gift of letting them make these decisions for themselves. Even if it means they’ll pursue an industry or move to a location you might not have chosen for them, or on the exact time table you would have suggested.
I’ll tell you, though we’d love to see our sons more often, we’ve had some fabulous vacations visiting them in the places they have chosen to live.

What’s in a name?

by J. Michael DeAngelis

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
– Romeo & Juliet, Act II, Scene ii.

When I first left college and moved out on my own, I shared a house with four other people just outside New York City’s Lincoln Tunnel. Though it wasn’t that long ago – these were the days before everyone had a cellphone and we still relied on a land line house phone for the majority of our calls.

We had several phones – one downstairs, one in the hall and one in my bedroom. Only one person had a room downstairs, so that phone went mostly unused. The phone in the hall had a terrible habit of puling the jack out of the wall every time you picked it up, so that phone mostly went unused. That meant almost everyone used the phone in my room all the time…and the phone rang a lot.

One morning, I was enjoying a rare day off of work and trying to take full advantage of sleeping in. The house was empty and I was in slumberland when…RING. RING. RING. RING. Ugh. I groggily reached for the phone. A very chipper woman was on the other end.

Voice: Hello! May I speak with Pete please?

Me: I don’t think he’s home at the moment. Can I take a message?

Voice: This is his boss, I just wanted to run some new assignments by him. It’s rather lengthy. Maybe I’ll just e-mail him…do you have his e-mail address?

Ooooh. This was a tougher question than it seemed. I DID have Pete’s e-mail address, but I dared not say it. You see, Pete had a fairly unusual e-mail address, which was taken from the lyric of a song he wrote – a sort of in joke between his friends and fans of his band. I wanted to make sure Pete got his assignment, but I also didn’t want to cost him his job if his boss took offense at his e-mail address. I decided to take a chance.

Me: Well, I do have it, but it’s odd. His e-mail is SATANandTHEBOY@hotmai…”

I was cut off by riotous laughter.

Voice: That’s hysterical. And that’s so Pete.

satan — Image courtesy of Frankieb via Flickr

Crisis adverted. Pete got his assignment and his boss got a good laugh. Still, it was close. What if his boss had been a very religious person? Or just didn’t understand why someone would have the word Satan in their e-mail address – after all, it’s probably not the most professional sounding. That night, Pete informed me that he did, in fact, have a business e-mail that was just his name – simple, clear and no room for misinterpretation. I promised him I would only give that one out to potential employers in the future.

Flashforward to the present and my job in Career Services. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve retold the story of Pete and his e-mail to students who use their personal e-mail accounts on their resumes and job correspondents.

Imagine yourself as an employer. How would you feel if you got job applications from email handles such as “LAXGurl86,” “QTPie,” “PennDrinker”, “Partytime” or “KittenLover89”? Exaggerations, obviously, but not that far off from actual addresses that I’ve seen on resumes, cover letters or electronic correspondence.

Think before you send. Remember how much time you’ve put into making your job application look professional. Think about how hard you’ve proof read your resume and cover letter. An employer is going to take EVERYTHING you submit to them into account – including your e-mail address. The same goes for what you name any documents you attach. Don’t apply to Coca-Cola with an attachment called “Pepsi Resume.doc”!

Keep things simple. Use your Penn e-mail address or, if you’re using a personal account, a simple, professional account such that uses your name (eg. firstname.lastname@email.com). Be remembered by your name and for your outstanding resume – not your novelty e-mail address. Though Pete’s story has a happy ending – it was a lucky one. Not every employer is going to have a sense of humor.

Sincerely,
Satan and the Boy