September 2015 – Page 3

Did Not Receive a Full-Time Return Offer from Summer Employer – What Should I Do Now?

By: S. David Ross, Associate Director

As another Fall semester is well underway, some December 2015, May 2016 and August 2016 graduating students have begun the process of planning for life after Penn. Some may have interned this past summer with hopes of securing a full-time offer by the end of the summer. If you did not receive the return offer you hoped for, do not panic – now is a great time to devise a strategy for how you will approach your job search this year.

Reflect on your summer experience. With the hustle and bustle of the start of the semester, it can be very easy to simply jump back into the recruiting process as you prepare for next year. If you have not already, take some time to think about your experience this past summer. What did you enjoy? What was unpleasant? What did you learn about yourself? The answers to these three questions may help you better target your efforts this year and focus on employment opportunities that are a good fit for you.

Schedule an appointment with a Career Services advisor. Once you have taken the time to reflect and focus on your interests and goals, schedule a meeting with an advisor in Career Services. Talking through your plan with someone may reaffirm that you are taking the necessary steps and advantage of all of the resources available to you. You may come up with some new ideas or decide to adjust your strategy a bit. For those who have not visited Career Services during your tenure, that’s fine – but please do not feel if you have not used our services in the past that you cannot use them this year. Whatever you think would be helpful for you is great – so please utilize Career Services while you are here on campus.

Actively participate in relevant recruiting events. As much as some employers have already actively begun recruiting Penn students on-campus, do not underestimate the importance of demonstrating your interest. Simply applying for positions that you believe you are qualified for may not be enough – if you discover that employers you are interested are recruiting on-campus, make every effort possible to attend recruiting events unless you have a class conflict or other obligations.

Consider all of your options. Consider how the experience you have gained this past summer has opened up new employment opportunities to explore. Try not to focus solely on position title or industry – but also identify transferable skills that you can apply in different positions and sectors. Now that you have additional experience, you may be able to more effectively pivot into new roles. If you prefer to consider opportunities with different employers within the same industry as your summer employer, that’s great – but cast a wide net and try not to narrow your options too soon.

For advice on how to answer questions about why you did not receive a return offer from your summer employer, please read this previous post: https://ulife.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/blog/2014/10/02/tough-interview-questions-why-did-you-not-receive-a-full-time-job-offer-from-your-summer-internship-employer/

Not Invited? Try an Add-on!

by Marlene L. Cohen, Recruiting Manager, Career Services/On Campus Recruiting

There is an employer on PennLink that you have submitted your resume for consideration. You really want to be selected as an invite. You wait – you check PennLink – you’re “Not Invited.” Don’t be discouraged, submit an “Add On” request. Over 150 Add On interviews were held in OCR last season. Most employers will look at and even schedule last minute interviews with students who have submitted an add-on request. Of course there is no guarantee of acceptance, but you never know! Sometimes employers will experience a late cancellation or even a dreaded no show and would like to fill those empty slots. If your resume is in their packet, you may be selected.

The process is very simple. Go on the Career Services website and under the main OCR page, select Recruiter Add-on Interview Request Form. Fill out the form or print several copies to have on hand. Once the form is filled out, attach your resume and bring them to the Career Services office in the basement level of the McNeil Building, Suite 20. There you will find the Recruiter Add-On Interview Request Box. The box will be available to you between the hours of 9:15 am until 2:00 pm. Now please keep in mind that you’re submitting add-on requests for the next working day’s interviews. For instance, submit on Monday for Tuesday interviews; submit on Friday for Monday interviews. The add-on requests will be given to the recruiters when they check into OCR the following morning. The recruiter will review the resumes at their convenience and will ask the OCR receptionist to call the students they wish to interview. There is no need to call and check on the status of your add-on request. The OCR receptionist will contact you by telephone if you are selected for an add-on interview. If you are not selected, you will not be contacted.

Many students who have received add-on interviews have also received offers from those employers. So try it! You might get an interview with the employer you really want!

UM VERÃO EM LISBOA

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 Isabella Roa, COL ’16

I didn’t know what to expect of my summer and at some moments before arriving in Lisbon, Portugal I felt as though I was entering the experience completely blindfolded. I had been accepted to the State Department’s Summer Internship Program in December of 2014 and had anxiously awaited my security clearance for the following five months, giving me enough time to prepare for what would be an extremely rewarding three months. However, when I arrived at Lisbon’s Portela Airport, I realized my experience abroad would not only be an opportunity for professional development, but also an incredible chance for personal growth.

I had only been to Lisbon once before and it was for a mere twenty-four hours. Although I have been studying Portuguese for the past two years, I was not sure I would be able to adjust to the language difference while at the same time integrating into the working environment at the US Embassy. At first, I found myself a bit embarrassed to practice my Portuguese, forcing me to speak in a mix of Spanish and English to find my apartment and manage my way through the city. Soon, however, I soon realized how much people appreciated my attempts, even if sometimes wrong, to speak Portuguese.

My first week of work in the Politics and Economics section of the US Embassy was overwhelming. I was amazed by how much trust was placed in me and by the variety of projects that my coworkers handled. On my first day, for exampled, I assisted in interviewing Portuguese students applying for the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and helped plan the upcoming Fourth of July celebration that would be attended by hundreds of diplomats.

While I would sometimes attend meetings with members of Portugal’s political parties, represent the US at public events, or assist the ambassador and other coworkers with important visits such as that of Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz, much of my daily routine was focused on political research and the duties of a reporting officer. Every day I would study Portugal’s newspapers for critical events that could affect US foreign policy, translate them, and report them back in a newsletter sent to other European offices and to Washington DC. I found myself immersed in the world of Portuguese politics and economic affairs. My daily research culminated in a thorough cable that offered an overview of Portugal’s political landscape – the position, strategy, and popularity of each of the country’s competing parties – published two months before this year’s decisive Parliamentary elections.

In reality, my time in Lisbon was one of multifaceted growth. While my internship gave me an in depth experience into the US State Department, a career option I had long been thinking about, it also forced me to reach out of my comfort zone. While I lived in an apartment with several other students who were welcoming and willing to show me around Lisbon, I found that if I wanted to truly explore the city, I would have to do it on my own. Stepping away from Penn, my family, and friends, I found myself with an abundant amount of time for self-reflection, something I have found to be critical in my own personal development.

I want to thank Penn Career Services for granting me the funding that made my summer internship at the US Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal possible. As a Diplomatic History Major, this was an incredible experience that opened my eyes to a career in the State Department and allowed me to truly immerse myself in the field of foreign affairs.

Why do you want this job?

Dr. Joseph Barber

Job interviews can be a little on the unpredictable side. After all, you don’t know that much about the people who will be interviewing you, you can only really guess at the type of person they are actually looking for, and you don’t know what questions they are going to ask you. Or do you? Well…, you certainly don’t know all of the questions they will ask, but I think you can be fairly certain that a handful of common questions will be coming your way. Surely the most obvious, and the most important, is a variation of “why do you want this job?”

At some point in the interview process, someone will ask you this question. You should never be surprised by this question, and never, ever be unprepared to answer it. It is a question that will usually come very early in the interview, and it is a question that can certainly make or break your interview. When I do mock interviews with students and postdocs, a common answer I hear sounds a little like this:

“I’m excited about working at this company because it is a great opportunity for me to work on projects that I really enjoy. I’m looking for a challenging and varied environment where I can grow and develop as a professional, and I see this a great place to use my skills and experiences”

In essence, this questions answers the question: “why do YOU want this job”. Look through the answer above and see how it is all about the candidate and what they would get out of the deal if they were offered the job. This type of answer usually misses the point of the question, because as the employer listening to the answer, you don’t learn much about whether the candidate would be able to offer anything. Employers need to figure out very quickly whether a candidate can actually do the job. So, I encourage people to think of the question a little differently, and to change its emphasis slightly:

Why do you want THIS JOB?

This means that talking about you and your goals can be part of the answer, but priority should be given to demonstrating to the employer what you bring to the position. In the previous answer you can see that “skills and experiences” are mentioned in passing, but there are poorly defined. What skills? What experiences? How can these be helpful to me the employer? Without some context, the listener might walk away with the sense that the person speaking doesn’t actually know what skills they have that will be most useful for the job. Or, even worse, that the person speaking doesn’t really understand the nature of the job itself. A better approach is to first speak about what you can contribute in terms of specific and relevant skills, and then to mention what you gain – this is still an important part of the answer. Here’s one approach you can take – by no means the only one:

“Why do you want this job?”

“Well, based on my research into this position, and having talked to a couple of contacts I have in similar roles, what I think you are looking for is someone who can find new ways to connect your technology with researchers in the field, and who can help clients troubleshoot when challenges arise. And this is exactly what I have spent the last few years doing in slightly different environments. The software my lab uses for analyzing proteins is used by several of the large labs at Penn, and I have become the go-to person whenever anyone has an issue. Over the last 3 months I have been contacted by 4 different researchers, and have already been able to help 3 of them solve the programming issue they were facing. The fourth issue is a tough one, but I am pretty sure I am close to fixing this one too. When I first started my PhD, I didn’t have any specific knowledge of this software, and I have gained most of my expertise by connecting with other experts in the field, speaking with vendors at conferences, and I even arranged for a tour of the headquarters for the company that developed it. This was really helpful as I was able to chat with their chief engineer. So, I’m comfortable reaching out to new people, and have been successful in establishing great working relationships over several years.

Overall, I am very excited about using my problem-solving and networking skills in this way, and I’m looking forward to learning more about your technologies. The broader range of products I’ll be working with in this role will certainly add the variety that I am hoping for, and I do see a great opportunity for me to grow professionally here – especially because I know that your company puts a strong emphasis on mentoring”

Different types of jobs need different narratives, but you can use a similar formula:

Demonstrate to them that you understand the nature of the job
Show them what you can contribute, and give examples
Talk about why the job will also be a good fit for you

If you are looking for more resources on interviewing, then click here.

Busy as a…

This entry is by Danica Fine, COL ’16

It’s mid-afternoon; the sun looms high in the sky, not yet blocked by the hints of rain clouds that linger in the distance. It’s hot. Almost unbearably hot. And, yet, just a few moments prior, I slipped into a heavy canvas jacket and donned a pair of thick leather gloves.

But I ignore the heat and the beads of sweat on my forehead, choosing, instead, to focus on the thousands of honey bees situated in the hive in front of me. Inspecting the frame of bees in my hands, I realize it’s not what I want and carefully place it back in the hive. The next frame is better – its cells are filled with eggs and young brood – so I set it aside and move on.

As I reach for the next frame, I notice something peculiar. The usual, gentle roar of the hive is being overtaken by a more intense buzzing from behind me.

I turn to face it, and, immediately, I’m frozen in place by the sight before me. Thousands of bees are pouring from the blue-green hive, zipping back and forth before heading out across the field. I easily recognize that the bees are swarming – their hive became too crowded and a portion of the bees decided to leave along with their queen to start a new hive elsewhere – but before this moment, I had only read or heard second-hand about the process.

Seeing it was an entirely different story.

I stand for a few minutes watching the mesmerizing frenzy unfold until the number of bees exiting the hive begins to dwindle. The hive is calming down, and, satisfied that I have witnessed this brilliant event, I turn to leave. Before I place my first step, I notice something strange: the traffic of bees in front of the hive starts to pick up and the frenzy begins once more. The bees are returning to the hive they just left! Instead of going inside, however, they cluster on the hive’s façade.

I’m baffled by the bees’ actions, unaware that such a thing ever happened.

In that moment, I realized that my years of acquiring knowledge on beekeeping could only prepare me for so much. The rest, of course, would have to come with experience. And seeing as this was my first day on the job, there was plenty of time for that.

——————–

This summer, with the help of a Career Services grant, I was given the opportunity to put my passion for beekeeping to work as I led my own research project under the guidance of Dr. David Tarpy at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Like most undergraduates, I was ecstatic simply to have received my summer research offer; I was even more thrilled to know that I would bring my research project down to NCSU’s Apiculture Program to work alongside professors renowned in the world of honey bees. Having come from a family of beekeepers, I saw this research opportunity as a dream come true.

The purpose of my research was to work toward finding an optimal level of potassium for honey bee consumption. I worked on a small scale, creating tiny colonies of only fifty honey bees (right) which I then fed sugar syrups mixed with varied potassium concentrations. By monitoring how quickly the colonies declined, I could determine which concentrations were best for the bees.

Unfortunately, this was more easily said than done.

Although I had an experimental design mapped out, certain issues arose at points during my research. I became well-acquainted with the notion that “Research is one step forward and two steps back.” For the most part, I was less than enthused when things didn’t always work out as planned, but I’m glad that I had my adviser’s encouragement and understanding to back me up as I worked to overcome the various experimental issues.

I may have had a great deal of my own work to focus on, but I didn’t let that stop me from experiencing as much as I could. From day one, I found myself seeing and learning about things that I had never before given a second thought about.

For example, during my first week at the lab, a fellow researcher asked me to help graft queens. Queen-grafting is a process where young, newly hatched larvae are carefully removed from their cells and placed in a larger, plastic cell along with a high-protein food supplement so that they will develop into queens (left). By doing this, our lab could create as many queens as was necessary for our research. I had never had the opportunity to graft queens, so being involved in the process was an amazing chance for me.

Even though my day-to-day tasks were often repetitive, I tried my best to stop and appreciate all of the moments I had this summer. On a particularly early morning at the lab, as I collected newly emerged honey bees for use in my experiment, I stopped for a few seconds to watch a few bees chew through the last bit of wax that kept them in their cells (right). It was a sublime moment for me, as it’s always been easy to overlook the tiny intricacies of the hive.

Not all of my experiences dealt directly with my research, however. Egged on by my colleagues, I started leaving my gloves behind when I went to work in the hives. Before coming to the lab, even the thought of working without gloves was terrifying to me. I gave it a chance, though, and found that working so closely with the bees made many of my afternoons that much more rewarding. It was definitely the best decision I made this summer.

Between my talented colleagues, the fantastic moments, and the success of my experiment, I could not have asked for a better research opportunity. I learned so much and accomplished more than I could have ever imagined going into the summer.

I would like to offer my most sincere thanks to Career Services for making this summer possible.