As someone who has had their Penn experience come full circle, I’ve been able to experience Career Services in two roles: as a student and a staff member.
As a student, I experienced Career Services in much the same way as most of my peers: the daily blast of emails on the Class of 2011 emailing list, the weekly workshops on every aspect and stage of the job search (from exploring career options to negotiating offers), the massive career fairs that pop up like mushrooms each semester, and, of course, the one-on-one advising appointments and walk-ins with advisors.
Now that I am a Career Services staff member, I am experiencing the full scope of what goes into all that Career Services does. I’ve experienced the early mornings and late evenings that go into setting up for the career fairs (not to mention all the prep work and details that have to be done such as catering, employer name tags, student handbooks, etc.), the hustle that comes with reserving rooms for workshops, the importance of coordinating advising appointments across multiple advisors, and the morning walks with recruiters to their OCR interviewing suites.
As a student, I took all of these for granted, and only saw them as fixtures of university life that just pop up automatically at the appointed time. But now that I am working behind the scenes, I see all the hard work that goes into each workshop, appointment, and event.
