Month: August 2015

What graduate students/postdocs need to do at career fairs

Dr. Joseph Barber

It is time to revisit a post I wrote about making use of career fairs even when (and especially when) you are not actively looking for a job right now. We are about to enter the peak Career Fair season at Penn, and now is a good time to start thinking about how to make the most of these great opportunities. After all, these employers are coming to campus for the sole reason to talk with students and postdocs like you! If you have never attended a career fair before, then now is a great time to do so. Just showing up can be the beginning of the professional journey that helps you to achieve your career goals – or at least that helps you to figure out what your goals are. If you are nervous about career fairs, then set up an appointment with an advisor at Career Services and we can provide great suggestions and advice.

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.

For Rising Seniors, Who Just Got a Full-time Offer

Congratulations, you completed your internship with flying colors. They want you back full-time next summer, after you graduate. Well done!

That is the good news. It certainly beats the alternative. You may be breathing a huge sigh of relief. You are starting senior year with your job search all done. You are in a good position.

What if you want to explore other opportunities? You can certainly do so, and if you are not sure you want to accept this first offer, you should do so. Career Services will host three large career fairs in September, and then OCR will begin. You might even arrange interviews on your own. You can talk to other employers of interest and then make an informed decision. Remember: if you accept a job, you should honor that commitment.

Here is the Penn offer policy, which we have sent out to OCR employers: If you make full-time offers at the end of the summer to interns returning for their final year, we ask that you give them until Tuesday, October 27, 2015 so that these students may participate in on-campus recruiting. Please note that this policy pertains to other students whom you may have interviewed over the summer as well.

Employers are anxious to sign you up and wrap up full-time recruiting as soon as possible. They will try to get you to say yes, but you do not have to get back to them before October 27.

What if you have an exploding offer? First, what is an exploding offer?

• We’d like to hear back from you in a week. No, this is not an exploding offer.
• We’d like to know what you’re thinking by September 8. No, this is not an exploding offer.
• We must know your answer by September 8. If we haven’t heard from you by that date we will offer this job to someone else. Yes, this is an exploding offer (and counter to Penn policy).

If you are under any pressure from an employer, politely push for more time. If you only need until October 1, ask for October 1. If you know you don’t want the job, decline now and open up the spot for someone else. If you are unsure how to proceed, touch base with a career advisor in Career Services, who can help you figure out how to ask for the time you need. Note: Career Services will not contact an employer without your permission.

Handling an offer you may want to accept while pursuing other opportunities is a tricky business. You are not alone – let us help you with the process.

Interning in Foreign Policy

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Courtney Bliler, COL ’16

bililer

Over the course of my internship, I have conducted research on a wide variety of issues in the Middle East and North Africa Region—from recent shifts in Turkish foreign policy and the history of identity construction in Syria, to the impacts of the Iranian nuclear agreement on the Gulf and the U.S.’s non-Gulf allies and the rapidly evolving conflict in Yemen.  I usually have a different topic of research every day, which has made my work relevant, insightful, and exciting. The sheer variety of tasks I have been given during the internship has provided me with a broad-based yet in-depth understanding of major social, political, and security issues in the Middle East and of U.S. global and regional strategy and policy.  All of this will be undoubtedly helpful in writing my senior thesis and then preparing for a future career in U.S.-Middle East Policy, inside or outside of government.  I was also given the chance to author and publish articles during my internship.  Besides its résumé value, the experience improved my writing skills and honed my ability to analyze emerging trends and to apply scholarly theories of international relations and political science to recent events.

Some of the most memorable experiences from my D.C. internship, however, have come from events I have attended.  The Center where I was working, for example, hosted U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affair Anne Patterson, who, with a rare display of candidness for a diplomat, spoke about the current and future states of U.S. policy in the Middle East.  I also had the unique opportunity to attend the State Department’s Generation Prague Conference on nuclear non-proliferation and arms control, which coincidentally took place the same week the Iranian nuclear agreement was announced.  By surprise, an exhausted Wendy Sherman, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and one of the key American negotiators at the P5+1 and Iran nuclear talks in Vienna, gave an improvised but emotional speech at the conference just hours after she helped complete the Iranian nuclear deal and returned to the U.S. after long weeks of negotiations.  At times, these experiences left me with the perception that I was a direct witness to history-making and political change, however miniscule my part.

One especially rewarding aspect of working in a D.C. think tank is seeing firsthand the revolving door between the government, private enterprise and think tank sectors.  No one in D.C. is a one-trick pony—people are constantly shuffling jobs every few years, constantly trying their hands at new things.  D.C. may not be Silicon Valley, but is nonetheless a vibrant, youthful metropolis with an experimental and entrepreneurial spirit.  Above all, I have learned through my experience in D.C. that there is no unilinear career path, no single formula, no clear trajectory for a successful career in D.C.—something I have found simultaneously encouraging and daunting. On one hand, my experience this summer has reassured me that there are an infinite number of ways by which I can achieve my long-term career objectives.  On the other hand, it seems that the diversity of opportunities and possible next moves has left me more uncertain than ever about what should be my first step.

But I have learned that having this uncertainty is perfectly okay.  My summer internship has afforded me the valuable chance to develop important and versatile skills and expertise in a way that has bolstered my confidence to chart unknown waters.  I see myself eventually settling into the D.C. orbit, but my summer internship experience has opened my eyes to career paths and opportunities I had never before considered.

Add our upcoming fall events to your calendar!

by Lauren Kemp, Administrative Assistant for the Graduate Student and Nursing/Education/Social Work Teams

The academic year will soon be underway, as will the fall programming season at Career Services.  Career Services hosts a number of workshops and events, as well as a full slate of career fairs, for students and alumni.

This fall, career days will spotlight opportunities in fields as diverse as communications, education, finance, engineering and nursing, among others.  To get the latest information on upcoming fairs, visit http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/careerfairs/.

You can see a full calendar of events by linking through the icon on our main webpage, or you can view programming tailored to your school or degree by visiting the specialized sections on the site.  Be sure to check back periodically, as events are still being added for the semester, and remember to sign up early for any events that require preregistration.  If you’re a graduate student, you can receive announcements of upcoming programs through one of our listservs: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/gradstud/grad_distribution_lists.php.

Curious about what you might see or learn during a Career Services presentation?  You can check out video recordings and Powerpoints of some of our popular offerings at http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/onlineworkshops.php and http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/phdspring14calendar.php.

As always, you can find supplemental information on interviewing, resumes and cover letters, preparing for career fairs and more through the website.

Good luck with the new semester, and remember to add us to your calendar!

“Are you sure there isn’t anything else you’d rather do?”

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Kevin Sweeney, COL ’16

The entertainment industry is a fickle beast, and the music industry is no exception. It’s the wild west, where there are no rules and the money follows the gunslingers with the strongest allies. It’s in an accelerating tailspin in the midst of a tech revolution with little hope for the future.

Talk to any manager, agent, or label rep and you’re likely to get some variation of these sentiments. A few will probably ask, “Are you sure there isn’t anything else you’d rather do?” And while youthful optimism will prompt an almost rhetorical “No way,” there’s plenty of truth to these prevailing themes.

And also plenty of untruth, as I learned this summer. Working as an intern in music management, I sat at the crossroads of the cogs of the industry. My firm, Mick Artists Management, represents a wide array of established acts including Childish Gambino, Leon Bridges, Passion Pit, WALK THE MOON, Frank Ocean and others. Watching these careers play out from behind the proverbial curtain, I got to test the advice I had received.

Fickle? Yes. Clients’ career arcs can be about as predictable as the weather. But more often, they follow carefully planned cycles, monitored through an endless stream of consumer data, and nurtured with a healthy dose of tactful pavement pounding.

While the relationship management with radio execs, label execs, and agents was left to the professionals, I had the pleasure of playing my own part. For WALK THE MOON, I assembled weekly reports detailing trends in album sales, radio spins, song streams, and social media engagement. I got to watch the rise and gentle decline of one of the summer’s hottest songs and provide some insights as we helped a client gracefully ride the wave of their success.

As for the “wild west” depiction, it’d be more accurate to say that the rules exist but they’re constantly changing. An artists’ union exists, as well as a whole number of fluid standards in copyright law, song royalties, and recording contracts. In reality, the business of a profitable recording artist is much less of a hectic money grab and more of a carefully divided pie. For my part, I did things as mundane as train uptown to retrieve royalties checks from ASCAP to more interesting projects like assembling archives and album metadata as an artist made a transition to full ownership over their recording catalog.

Last, the idea that the music industry is in irreversible decline is simply untrue. Live performance continues to enjoy some of the best revenue figures in music history, and the larger fish in the pond are frequently making strategic investments in music tech startups that seek to change the way we listen to, discover, and experience music.

I watched as a partner in my firm grew his own tech-influenced project – a rental marketplace for touring equipment – while others met with emerging tastemakers on services like Spotify and Soundcloud. I tried to help where I could, interfacing with various music tech companies that were looking to bring Mick on as a client, from concert streaming services to ticketing apps.

More than anything, this summer has taught me that the trenches of the music industry can be a confusing mess – one that entails talent reps from labels, agencies, and management firms, each with their own share of relatively unglamorous legwork to do. But together they deliver a profoundly unique product – one that can be as thrilling to sell as it is to experience. While it’s difficult to tell whether management is the right fit for me and my career, I can scarcely envision a future for myself without music business as a central component.