February 2016 – Penn & Beyond

CS Radio Episode 017 – “Spring Break!!”

It’s almost spring break!! What better way to start of your week of wild adventures and all night parties than with the All Ivy Environmental Career Fair? A. Mylène Kerschner and J. Michael DeAngelis bring in Associate Director Jamie Grant to make the case. Plus, we offer up some easy ways to be productive over the break, including taking a look at LinkedIn. All that, plus the usual round up of this week’s events. We’ll be taking next week off while the students are enjoying spring break, so look for episode 18 coming on March 7th.

Enjoy!

Are You Being Strategic in Your Job Search?

by Tiffany Franklin, Associate Director

Everywhere you turn, you hear people talking about the need to think strategically and the value of this skill in the business world, but have you stopped to apply this principle to your job search? Taking the time to devise a flexible plan and map out mini goals for yourself can lead to a more efficient job or internship search. With all the competing priorities in your life between academics, activities, friends, family, work, etc. it can be challenging to find time for everything, so you want your efforts on the job search front to be as productive as possible.

You have a syllabus for each of your classes, so why not develop one for your job search customized to your needs? Start by creating a job search To Do list and then breaking this down into mini goals to achieve each week. That way, you are giving yourself direction and making progress in your search. If you feel overwhelmed keep in mind, you don’t have to secure your job tomorrow, but you can work on mini goals that will help you get one step closer to your big goal of finding a job. This will also prevent you from trying to cram all your job search tasks into a brief period of time, which is not productive in a search. You are giving yourself time to devote your best efforts to your resume and to your networking endeavors.

To get started, think about the types of jobs/internships you are seeking. Are they all similar and related to your major or are you conducting a concurrent search and seeking positions in two separate fields? If you answered yes to separate fields, then you will create a resume tailored to each field. Career Services is here to help you learn how to develop these resumes which emphasize different aspects of your experience. You want your marketing documents to reflect your job search goals. The same holds true for your cover letters and then you will further tailor them to each position to which you apply. By organizing your search efforts, you can also evaluate your progress along the way and make adjustments as needed. For example, if you’ve sent out many resumes and have not heard back from any employers, then it’s an indication you need to work on your resume and cover letter some more. If you’re securing first round interviews and not proceeding to subsequent rounds, then a mock interview would be valuable for you.

Other items to include on your To Do list include identify opportunities through a number of sources (PennLink, LinkedIn Jobs Tab, Indeed, and sites tailored to each industry), research industries, prepare for interviewing, create a list of networking contacts, find new contacts in QuakerNet and LinkedIn, attend career fairs and information sessions, and of course, apply to open positions.

When devising your job search calendar, first look at the Career Services calendar to identify when the major events are coming up (Career Fairs) and times of career workshops and employer information sessions. There are too many to attend them all, so think about which ones interest you the most and include those on your calendar. Then break down the other steps and give yourself a goal of identifying and applying to a certain number of jobs a week. Be flexible with this plan since an interview invitation may mean you will focus your efforts on that during a given week. Keep in mind the first few applications take the longest to complete as you get used to the process.

At first glance, searching for a job or internship can be overwhelming with the sheer volume of resources available, but Career Services is here to help you break the process into manageable steps and support you through each one.

CS Radio Episode 16 – “Power Down Challenge/PennDesign Fair”

Greetings, podcast lovers! This week, Mylène and Michael take a look at two big events being held on campus. First, Mylène discusses Penn’s month long Power Down Challenge and the Careers in Sustainability panel that Career Services is hosting as part of the program. Then, we welcome Lauren Kemp into the studio to talk about what to expect at Friday’s PennDesign Career Connection Day. All that, plus the usual rundown of the week in Career Services.

Enjoy!

CS Radio Episode 15: “Start Me Up”

It’s career fair time! Penn is hosting three big career fairs this week: the Creative Career Fair (covered in Episode 13), the Start Up fair and the Spring Career Fair. This week, Mylène and Michael focus on the Start Up fair and welcome one of the fair’s organizers, Tiffany Franklin, to the studio. Tiffany will discuss what to expect at the fair as well as give our listeners an overview of how start up recruiting is potentially different from what you’re used to. All that, plus the usual rundown of this week’s programs and much witty repartee!

Enjoy!

Practical Learning At Its Best

Josh Oppenheimer – COL’13, MPA ’13, L’16

It’s usually hard waking up at 4:30 in the morning. But, not when you have to catch a train from Philly for a meeting in Washington . . . at The White House.

During the fall semester of my 3L year at Penn Law, I enrolled in an administrative law class that examined how the various federal agencies in our government operate, and what – if anything – could be done to make them more efficient. My class had previously spent a day in Philadelphia, meeting with Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) from the Social Security Administration and counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 3. Now, we were off to meet with policy leaders in our nation’s capital.

While I knew that the administrative state was large and bureaucratic – cue the presidential candidates listing which agencies they would eliminate if they were elected President – I never knew how large it really was. Our first stop was on Capitol Hill, where we met with staffers working on administrative reform bills. Sometimes, sweeping change needs to come from the top, which is why Congress is currently debating how best to reign-in what some call “rouge” agencies.

Sometimes, though, effective change must arise from within.

After our meetings on Capitol Hill, we traversed Pennsylvania Avenue and – once passing through the black gates at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – met with an official in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. OIRA – as it’s more commonly known in the “alphabet soup” that makes up the D.C. lingo – is itself an agency that oversees and keeps in line the countless other federal agencies. That’s right, there’s an agency for the agencies! Like a coxswain on a crew boat, OIRA is tasked with making sure agencies’ policies line-up with one another and that the federal bureaucracy stays in-sync with itself.

As we finished up our day and headed back to Union Station to catch our train, I (almost literally) ran into a man whose old office we had just left. Peter Orszag, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), used to supervise OIRA’s day-to-day activities. An agency overseeing an agency overseeing lots of agencies…Oh, Washington.

Though it looks like it will take more than a simple nudge to reform our administrative state, I am so fortunate that Penn Law appreciates not only the need for theoretical-based classes where we learn through textbooks, but also practical, hands-on experiences that come when we get outside the classroom, whether that be through scheduled meetings or serendipitous occurrences waiting for our train.