Thoughtful Career Advice for Penn Students and Alumni, written by the staff of the University of Pennsylvania Career Services office and selected special guests.
Continuing on from last week, Michael and Mylène take a look at the Myers-Briggs inventory. Our intrepid producer, Karen, took the inventory and now sits down with Senior Associate Director Claire Klieger to get her results. Claire walks us through what a basic MBTI counseling session is like and gives us an overview of each of the MBTI personality types. All that, plus the usual rundown of the week’s events!
Enjoy!
By: Fiona Tang, Graduate Assistant
It’s the time of the year again for professional conferences organized by different student groups. Selecting which conferences to attend and how to best maximize the value of each conference can be a challenge for students who are busy with school and recruiting.
Therefore, I will share some tips on how to successfully navigate various professional conferences organized by student groups.
Which conferences to attend?
Many conferences take an entire day, which is quite a time commitment. Therefore, carefully selecting which conferences to attend is important for your time management.
For freshmen and sophomores, conferences are some of the best boot camps to explore an industry and geographic location. If you are interested in learning about private equity and venture capital, then attending a private equity/venture capital conference is the best way to learn about the biggest funds, industry trends and network with potential future employers. If you are interested in an internship in China, then attending China Forum is the easiest way to connect with local employers and students. I would also recommend expanding your horizons by participating in conferences focused on industries you have not explored thus far – there are more job opportunities available beyond finance and consulting. Attending different conferences during freshman and sophomore years can potentially expand your career options.
For juniors and seniors, conferences can also be opportunities to learn about industries/geographic locations, but more importantly they are valuable for networking with future employers. By junior and senior year, it is helpful to have a sense of the industry/location that you would like to target. Given the busy schedules of recruiting and classes, being selective and targeted at which conferences to attend is important. Try your best to Identify you career interests first and attend relevant professional conferences is probably a better option than attending all of them.
How to maximize the value of the conference?
Being well-prepared in advance can save you time and maximize the value of the conference. Review the conference schedule prior to the event and identify specific workshops/forums that you would like to attend. Do your due diligence on the speakers/firms that you are interested in so that you can better understand the topics discussed and ask meaningful questions during the conference.
During the conference, network, network and network! Some students might believe attending conferences is just about listening to different talks. That might be true for freshmen and sophomores, it definitely should not be the case for juniors and seniors. Companies come to student organization conferences mostly for networking and recruiting purposes. It’s important to spend time networking after each talk and get contact information from the speakers, particularly for firms of great interest. Another way to get involved is participating in the conference planning team. For industries/geographic locations that you are interested in recruiting, getting involved in the conference planning team is a great opportunity for outreach and networking with different companies.
In conclusion, conferences are fun and great ways to network and learn about industries. Enjoy these experiences and make new friends while you are there!
It seems one day back to the grindstone after spring break was enough to merit more time off. I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy some winter activities—sledding, sipping hot cocoa, or building tiny snow-Quakers. For my first ever Penn snow day, I enjoyed sleeping in and making breakfast sandwiches around noon. Since I am new around here, I wanted to take a chance to quickly introduce myself:
My name’s Natty Leach and I just joined the Career Services team a few weeks ago. My primary role will be meeting with students from the College about all of their future career goals. I will also be managing our job database system to help make sure Penn students are receiving great job and internship opportunities.
My interest in higher education started when I became an RA at New York University where I majored in Media, Culture, and Communication (a real mouthful). While at NYU, my favorite part of college was being able to explore an array of disciplines and subjects which I took advantage of by minoring in English and Web Design. After college, I advised pre-health students at Temple University for several years. Here at Penn, I’m excited to talk with you about all of your various interests and passions.
A few fun facts about me:
Thanks for hearing a little bit about me – I look forward to getting to know more of you all in the future!
The first in a two-part CS Radio saga! Michael and Mylène explore the many career/personality inventory tests offered by Career Services, starting with the STRONG Career Inventory. Learn what these inventories can tell you about yourself and your possible career paths. All that, plus the usual run down of this week’s events. Enjoy!
Learn more about our inventory tests here.
Get the full calendar of events here.