Month: October 2012

Forbidden Foods

When was the last time you spilled something on your shirt? Picture the shirt. Picture the stain. What were you eating? Had it ever happened before? Same food? Different food?

Now, where were you? With your friends? With your family? In a dining hall? At a restaurant? Let’s hope it wasn’t during a job interview!

There are many opportunities to spill something during an interview—especially during a meal. So whether you’re simply accepting a cup of coffee in the office or having lunch together with the interviewer, be careful. Your behavior is part of the interview and is being observed. The interviewer wants to see how you conduct yourself in a business and social setting and, if hired, if you will be able to represent your company in a professional manner.

So, plan ahead to avoid making a poor impression. There are many resources on dining etiquette on our website and elsewhere, even including videos. Check out some of this information to test your knowledge of manners and etiquette. Do you know which silverware to use? Which glass is yours? What to do when you drop your fork? (Don’t pick it up. Ask your server for another fork.) How to eat your bread? (Don’t fold it over and make a butter sandwich.) How to cut your food? (Don’t cut it all at once after you’ve been served). What to order? (Follow the lead of the interviewer.) How much to eat? (Don’t feel like you have to finish everything on your plate, but don’t order too much.) How to order dessert? (Don’t.)

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ExploreHealthCareers

Occasionally it seems to a pre-health advisor that medical school is regarded as a prize for being really good in science classes. It isn’t; it’s a big commitment that nobody should make without having carefully explored what a career in medicine involves, including the sacrifices made by physicians and some of the frustrations they might face, in addition to what makes the profession rewarding.

And it’s a good idea to remember that there are many different roles in health care; being a physician is just one of them. An excellent resource that helps you see what other possibilities exist in health care is the web site www.ExploreHealthCareers.org which lists every health profession under the sun, and gives you information about them, as well as an excellent list of resources related to each one.

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Postgraduate Career Surveys

By Barbara Hewitt

This weekend Penn will welcome lots of families to campus. It’s a great time for Penn students to show what they’ve been up to since returning to campus last month. Career Services will host an open house for families on Friday afternoon (October 5th, 2:30 – 4:00 in Suite 20, McNeil). We hope to see you there!

During our open houses, we always gets lots of questions from parents about the outcomes of Penn graduates. Do they find jobs? What sorts of graduate programs do they attend? When do most students receive offers? How much will they make? (In other words…. “Can they afford to move out of the house and live on their own?”.)

Fortunately, the Career Services staff devotes extensive time and energy to surveying our students about both internship and post-graduate outcomes, so we can answer these questions accurately and with very specific data. You can find information about Penn undergraduate students and undergraduate alumni here.  Information on graduate students can be found from the main graduate student landing page:

  Where in the world do Penn graduates wind up?

We’ve recently completed the Career Plans Survey from the Wharton Undergraduate Class of 2012. You can see the complete survey here, but following are a few highlights:

• 88.1% of graduates entered the workforce, while 5.3% pursued further education and 1.1% indicated they were pursuing “other” activities such as travel. 5.5% indicated they were still seeking employment as of our last follow-up in August.
• The average base salary was $66,916 and the range was $19,200 – $100,000. Most students also received a signing bonus and expected to receive an annual bonus.
• 38.8% of those accepting full-time jobs interned with their postgraduate employer before graduation.
• 8.5% of respondents accepted jobs outside of the United States, with China (Hong Kong), Singapore, and the United Kingdom being the most popular destinations.
• Employers who hired the largest number of Wharton graduates (at least 10) included Goldman Sachs, Boston Consulting Group, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, McKinsey, BlackRock, Citi, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bain & Co. Other employers who hired fewer graduates included Teach for America, the U. S. Congress, the National Football League, Macys, Carnival Cruise Lines, Caesars, and foursquare. Check out the survey for a complete list!

Day in the Life: Biomedical Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Penn

To follow up our Biomedical Career Fair held on October 3rd, we welcomed Dr. Caleph Wilson to @PennCareerDay on Twitter for two days, Tuesday, October 9th and Wednesday, October 10th.  Dr. Wilson, also known as @HeyDrWilson, talked about his work as a Biomedical Postdoctoral Research Fellow here at Penn.  It was a great opportunity to learn about this path, whether you’re a current PhD candidate, a postdoc or an undergrad interested in biomedical research.   To learn more about Dr. Wilson, read his bio below, and check out his tweets on our Storify page.

Dr.CalephWilson Dr. Caleph B. Wilson is a postdoctoral scholar in the Abramson Cancer Research Institute and the Department of Microbiology of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Wilson investigates immunological therapies to develop treatments for cancer and HIV infections.  Specifically, his work seeks to genetically modify patient T cells, and transform the T cells to more effectively kill HIV infected cells and malignant tumors.

Before coming to Penn, Dr. Wilson earned his doctorate in Pathobiology at the University Park Campus of the Pennsylvania State University and his undergraduate degree in Biology from Alcorn State University.  Through engaging in investigative research as an undergraduate, graduate student and postdoc, Dr. Wilson has fully immersed himself in the biological sciences, fulfilling his lifelong goal to investigate and eliminate human diseases.  In addition to his laboratory studies, Dr. Wilson is also a co-chair of the Biomedical Postdoctoral Council.  As co-chair he seeks to represent University of Pennsylvania postdocs on campus, in the local community and nationally.

Receiving great mentoring has been a major cornerstone of Dr. Wilson’s progression from a small southern town to producing scholarly work at the University of Pennsylvania.  As a result, he has prioritized mentoring undergraduates, graduate students and fellow postdocs.  He envisions that the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields will lead all future industries in the U.S. and globally.  This interest in the development of the future of STEM drew Dr. Wilson to follow policy developments in the scientific world. He took this interest one step further and last year served as a Public Policy Fellow for the American Association of Immunologists.

Overall, Dr. Wilson hopes to impact society by developing successful therapies to eradicate cancers and HIV infections.  Further, he seeks to cultivate and support talented students into STEM fields and assist them in becoming lifelong scientists.

Biomedical Career Fair Today (Select Graduate Students & Postdocs)

The Biomedical Career Fair will be held today from 1pm-4pm in BRB II\III.

  • Current postdocs within Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs (BPP) from:
    1. School of Medicine
    2. School of Veterinary Medicine
    3. School of Dental Medicine
    4. School of Nursing
    5. Monell Chemical Senses Center
    6. Howard Hughes Medical Institute
    7. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Students in Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS)
  • SEAS PhD students & postdocs
  • SAS PhD students & postdocs in related disciplines (e.g., Biology, Chemistry, Physics)
  • Graduates of SEAS/SAS PhD programs
  • Fox Chase Cancer Center postdocs

You don’t need to register in advance. Please bring your PennCard with you on the day, and we will register you on-site.

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