Ethics in the Job or Internship Search

Barbara Hewitt

We all know that the job and internship market is competitive, and as an applicant you want to make yourself stand out from the scores of other job seekers our there. You strive to put your best foot forward to increase the odds that an employer will select you for an interview. This competitive environment is heightened even more during on-campus recruiting, when lots of students, all in one place, are vying for the same interview slots. The pressure can be intense and it can be tempting to step over the ethical line and do things you shouldn’t to give yourself an edge.

Don’t do it! You are only as good as your reputation, and if you do things that are unethical in the job search you will come to regret it. The professional world is very small – people in the same industry often know one other (and talk to each other!), so burning bridges with one employer can ultimately have more far-reaching effects than you could ever imagine. (A couple of years ago, I spoke with a student who had a job offer withdrawn from an employer in London who found out that he was still interviewing with a different employer in New York, even though the student had indicated he had withdrawn all his applications. Even on different continents, things you might think an employer would never learn about can come back to haunt you!)

Here are just a few of the ethical issues that might arise in your job or internship search:

Honesty:

While you want to present yourself as positively as possible on your resume and in interviews, it is imperative that you are honest. Sometimes this is very clear cut. Flat out lying about your GPA, positions you’ve held, or specific accomplishments is clearly wrong. While such lies may not be caught by every employer you send your resume to, sooner or later someone will follow-up, asking for an official transcript, reference, or simply probing questions that you won’t be able to adequately answer. Keep in mind that the Career Services Office spot-checks transcripts and resumes, and if we find that a student has lied on his or her resume or altered a transcript, we immediately refer the case to the Student Conduct Office at Penn. Academic integrity is expected at Penn, and violations of it are treated very seriously. The consequences of such actions can be severe, including possible suspension or expulsion from the University.

While most students do not outright lie on their resumes, it is tempting to overstate accomplishments or your role in activities. Perhaps you were a contributing member of a team (but not really the “leader”), but state on your resume that you did indeed lead the team. Perhaps you overstated the size of a budget you handled for a student club, or the responsibilities you were given as a summer intern. As the recruiter questions you about the things listed on your resume, it will quickly become apparent that you did not, in fact, do all the things claimed. Once doubts are raised about one area of your resume, doubts will surface about all your other stated accomplishments. I once talked to a recruiter (an alum of Penn) who removed a student from consideration for a position because the student indicated that she was the president of an organization at Penn, while in fact the alum knew that the organization had co-presidents. Don’t let a similar situation occur because you have exaggerated something on your resume or in an interview.

Accepting an Offer

It is wrong to accept a job or internship offer, and then continue to interview for other opportunities in the hopes that something “better” (in your eyes) might come along. You would be outraged if you accepted an offer from an employer and then received a call a few weeks later to rescind it because the employer had “found a better candidate.” It is no different for employers. If you accept a position, you are expected to show up on the first day. Reneging on an offer seriously damages not only your personal reputation, but that of Penn as an institution. We have had employers in the past who have stopped recruiting at Penn because of students reneging on offers.

In an ideal world, you would have as much time as you need to consider an offer and finish all other interviews of interest to you. However, in the real world, things don’t always work out as smoothly as you would like. Most employers won’t wait indefinitely for you to respond to an offer and often will pressure you to respond quickly. (Please see our employer offer policy for on-campus recruiting.) Some employers may even ask if you would accept an offer before they officially extend it to you. In such circumstances, you may be tempted to accept the offer quickly due to the pressure, but you should ONLY do so if you are indeed committed to working at the organization. If not, politely ask if they could extend the deadline for you for a reasonable amount of time. If they won’t, you may be forced to make a decision before you would like….but you should not accept with the idea of reneging later if you receive another offer. Think carefully about what is at stake and whether you really want to work for such an aggressive employer. (When I received my very first job offer out of graduate school, the employer asked me to make a decision on the spot. I didn’t feel that I would want to work for such a manager and, although difficult, turned down the opportunity. Fortunately, a few days later, I received another offer from a place where I was much more enthusiastic about working.)

Holding Multiple Offers

As a job seeker, you may find yourself in a situation in which you have received offers from several employers. In this case, you should decline the offers you don’t plan to accept as soon as possible. The employers will appreciate your quick response so that they can move forward with their search and extend the offer to another candidate (perhaps even another Penn student!).

It would be unrealistic to expect all ethical dilemmas in the job search to be clear cut or easily resolved. The fact is, many situations are complex. The Career Services staff is here to discuss issues that might arise in the search with you. Come in and talk with us.

Let the Internship Search Begin…..

By Barbara Hewitt

Last year was the most challenging year to find internships that I have witnessed in my nearly 12 years at Penn. As the economy rapidly declined in the spring, many employers pulled back on their internship programs in an effort to save dwindling resources and an uncertainty about future hiring needs.

Fast forward to today….Happily, the economy seems to be on the rebound and the hope is that intern hiring will spring back with it as employers feel more comfortable in committing resources to their summer programs. However, even with the improvement, it is unlikely that intern hiring will return to the 2006 and 2007 levels.

We’ve just recently completed our summer employment report for the Wharton Undergraduate Class of 2010 which examines the activities they pursued last summer. You can see the complete survey by click on this link!

We can draw a few conclusions from the experiences of the Class of 2010 which will likely be relevant to the Class of 2011.  Among them:

There are a broad array of internship options to consider…even in a tight economy…
Sure, lots of Wharton students pursued financial internships last summer (even with the meltdown on Wall Street). Investment banking was still the most popular industry (with 36% interning there), but lots of students worked in other industries including consulting (12%), nonprofit/education/government (9%), investment management (9%), communications (4%), real estate (3%), manufacturing/consumer products (3%) and retail (2%). The take away? Think broadly about possibilities and don’t narrow your consideration prematurely to a small subset of opportunities.

There are lots of ways to find internships…
Less than half (45.6%) of current Wharton seniors landed their summer internships last year through on-campus recruiting. OCR is a great avenue to interview with a variety of interesting employers, but it is by no means the only way to find an internship. Nearly 11% of students reported obtaining their internships through other Career Services leads (such as non-OCR internship listings on PennLink, iNet, or career fairs), while 17% found an internship through contacts (family, friends, alumni and faculty). Nearly 10% applied directly to employers and over 3% applied through an online site. Cleary there are many ways to land an internship, and you should take advantage of all of them to increase the number of opportunities available to you.

There are many places to go…
New York remained the most popular destination for Wharton interns last summer, with 43% working there. However, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey were also popular choices, and nearly 12% of the class worked outside the US. (The most popular international destination was Hong Kong.) Don’t assume all the good jobs are in the Big Apple!

Internship offers come at many different times…
Most students reported receiving their internship offers between January and March, but almost a third received their offer between April and June. It’s not too late to be looking for an opportunity towards the end of the semester…in fact, that is when some of the most interesting opportunities arise, and the competition tends to be lighter since many students have already accepted offers.

So, in brief, consider a wide array of internships in a variety of industries and locations. Use different search methods in your quest, and don’t give up if you haven’t landed something by May. The perfect opportunity might be just around the corner.

As you begin (or continue) your internship search, here are some resources to help you get started:

PennLink: On-campus recruiting for internships is well underway and an excellent resource for juniors (mainly) thinking about business and technical opportunities. However, don’t ignore the non-OCR job listings on PennLink. These opportunities are posted by organizations who will not visit Penn to conduct the interviews but still want applications from Penn students. The job listings tend to be more varied in terms of geographic location, industry and preferred qualifications than the OCR listings.

iNet: This is an internship consortium created and shared by the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Northwestern University, Rice University, Stanford University, University of Southern California, and Yale University. Employers interested in reaching students at all of these schools are encouraged to post their internships to iNet, resulting in a diverse set of opportunities for you.

Career Services On-line Subscriptions: Career Services subscribes to a number of resources that can help you with your job and internship search. To access them, click on Online Subscriptions Link from the Career Services library page. You will need to sign in with your PennKey and PennKey password to view the login information for each site. Some of the resources specifically useful for internships include Internships.com, Internships-usa.com, ArtSearch and EcoJobs.com which is focused on environmental opportunities. (Don’t forget that we also have loads of old-fashioned printed materials in our library as well, including quite a few internship directories!) Of course, the Vault and WetFeet Guides also available from the online subscriptions link can be extremely helpful with industry and employer research, as well as interview preparation.

Spring Career Fair: Save the date – February 19th! This is your chance to meet with a variety of employers interested in speaking with Penn students about internship and full-time opportunities. Check PennLink for details.

Career Services Counselors: We are here to help you with your search. Stop in during walk-ins or call the office to schedule an appointment to discuss your search and how we can assist you.

Unhappy Workers

By Barbara Hewitt

The Conference Board recently released the results of their latest survey on job satisfaction for US employees. The report was rather disheartening, in that employees showed the lowest level of satisfaction in their jobs since the survey was launched back in 1987. In the most recent survey, only 45% of respondents said they were satisfied with their jobs, down from 61% in 1987. In many ways this lackluster response is not surprising given the travails many employees have faced during the last year – 1 in 10 out of work, and those lucky enough to still have jobs frantically trying to manage the work from their laid-off colleagues, not receiving raises, and worried about losing their own jobs.

College students beware…even the youngest employees were not immune from this trend. While the increase in dissatisfaction spanned all age groups, those under 25 expressed the highest level of dissatisfaction in the survey’s history for the age range. You can find out more about the survey here:
http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressDetail.cfm?press_ID=3820

Over half of all workers report being dissatisfied with their jobs.

The survey results prompted me to think about steps employees can take to increase their work life satisfaction. Of course, the first step for many would be to assess what is lacking in their work, and perhaps launch a job search for a new opportunity that will better meet their needs. However, in the current environment with high unemployment, finding a new job is not likely to be quick or easy for most, so individuals may need to make the best of their current positions until something better comes along. As such, following are some steps people can take to feel more satisfied with their current jobs:

Set Realistic Expectations
I am a firm believer that that how you think about a situation plays a huge role in how you feel about it. Therefore, it is important to set realistic expectations about your job. No position is going to be 100% perfect, and expecting it to be so will only result in disappointment. Focus your energy on those areas of your work life that you find rewarding and you enjoy, and realize that there will be parts of your job that are less appealing. Dwelling on the negative will only make you that much less satisfied at work.

Refrain from Office Politics and Negativity

In most offices there are underlying politics and pockets of negativity that can really bring down the morale of employees. You know the routine – a group of workers who spend 90% of their time around the coffee pot complaining about their unreasonable boss, the low pay, or the fact that their vacation requests were not approved. Backstabbing and gossiping can be prime activities for these employees. Don’t give in to the temptation to join them…in the end it will increase the toxic office environment and make work an even less attractive place for you to be.

Seek Out New Assignments

Are you feeling bored and unchallenged at work? Do your daily tasks seem so routine that you could easily do them in your sleep? Maybe it’s time you sought out some new responsibilities. Volunteer for an assignment. Think about and suggest improvements that could be made to your current work. Join an office committee. Approach your supervisor with some ideas of new projects you would like to take on. Not only will you be reinvigorated by the work, but most managers will appreciate your proactive and positive nature.

Build Your Network

Plan for the future and develop your network both within your current organization and outside of it. Join a relevant professional association. Attending the meetings and conferences will help you to keep current on the industry, and also allow you to meet professionals at other organizations….which could lead to your next (hopefully more satisfying!) job. Working on cross-departmental teams within your existing organization can help you learn more about how the organization functions as a whole, and perhaps by meeting the right people pave the way for a lateral move or a promotion with your current employer.

Seek Satisfying Activities Outside of Work

Just because you may be unhappy and frustrated at work doesn’t mean that you can’t take steps to improve your life in other areas which could increase your general level of happiness. In fact, dissatisfaction in one area of your life is a prime reason to improve other areas. Have you always wanted to be a gourmet cook? Take a class on French cooking. Love to read? Join a book club. Need to relieve some work tension? Sign up for that spinning class at the gym. Want to make a difference? Become a volunteer and make a child’s life better. In the end it might be you who benefits.

Hopefully when the Conference Board conducts its next study on work satisfaction, the results will be more heartening. In the meantime, take control of your life and the necessary steps to make work a place where you want to be…. And for the 55% of you out there who are not happy with your current job, let me leave you with a happy final thought. It’s Friday- have a great weekend!

Return the Call

by Barbara Hewitt

Phone

During the last month I’ve received calls from three different employers complaining that they have not been able to get Penn students to return their phone calls. One wanted to invite a student for a second round interview. One only learned that two students no longer planned to actually attend their previously scheduled second round interviews when the employer took the time to reach out to reconfirm the date and time.  The last complaint came for an employer who had extended an offer to a student, but could not get the student to return follow-up phone calls from either recruiters or a relatively high level senior executive who had taken time out of his busy day to call the candidate.

Students often think they are simply “cogs in the machine” of the recruiting process – one of many individuals traipsing through the halls of organizations across America to interview in an attempt to land an offer.  They may not think that returning a phone call or answering an email promptly matters much in the big scheme of things.  Let me assure you it does.  Employers spend a tremendous amount of energy, time and money on college recruiting.  They work hard to find individuals who will be the right fit for their organizations.  They want to know that the students to whom they extend offers will be passionate about working for them and committed to the organization once they come on board.

If a candidate doesn’t have the common courtesy to return a phone call, it sends the message that he or she either does not know how to be professional, or really doesn’t care about the kind of impression s/he is making on the firm.  Employers in this situation may very well begin to think that they made the wrong decision in extending an offer. Real concerns about the candidate’s ability to work with colleagues and clients may arise.  I have seen employers withdraw offers after such negative experiences with candidates.

I understand why students sometimes hesitate to return employers’ calls.  Often they are very busy.  Perhaps they are worried that they will receive undue pressure to accept an offer before they are ready to do so.  They may feel they have had all their questions answered and won’t know what to say when the inevitable “What questions can I answer for you?” comes up. Never-the-less, in order to be perceived as professional and courteous, it is important to respond and respond quickly to employers when they reach out.  You don’t want to come across as disinterested in a position when in fact you might be.

On the other hand, if you have decided an opportunity is not the right fit for you, or if you have accepted another offer, let any employers with whom you have outstanding applications or offers know as soon as possible. They will appreciate your honesty and it will help them move forward to find alternate candidates for the position.  You never know – a few years down the road you might again be considering opportunities with the same employer, and you certainly want to leave a positive lingering impression.

Thoughts on Black Friday

by Barbara Hewitt

Unfortunately, my five-year old daughter made it to the mailbox before I did and quickly claimed the American Girl catalog which had arrived that day.  (Don’t ask me how we got on their mailing list…I have no idea why the publication mysteriously appeared in our box.)  Jordan and her seven-year old sister Sierra were absolutely thrilled with the many options presented to them in the catalog and spent over an hour deciding which would be the best choice for them. They then interrupted my bath to formally present their choices to me. (As any mother knows, this is the ONLY time a mom gets a few minutes to herself, so the interruption wasn’t entirely welcome to begin with!)

May have been fun in 1909, but in 2009 there are so many fancy alternatives!
This doll may have been fun in 1909, but in 2009 there are so many fancy alternatives!

American Girl dolls seem wonderful. Each comes with a historical back story explained in an accompanying book about the doll.  The downside is that they cost almost $100 each, and of course there are loads of additional items which you can purchase for each doll.  While I already had some other things in mind for Christmas for the girls, I hadn’t planned on spending $200 for the dolls, and I explained this to them, much to their disappointment.  (It prompted them to search the house for change to contribute, resulting in a grand total of $1.73…only $198.27 to go!)

On this “Black Friday”, a day when every retailer in America is pushing for us to go out and single-handedly save the US economy,  I’ve thought a lot about the various values each of us gives preference to as we consider career options. Face it – with most careers we rarely “get it all.”  While the massive amount of  Black Friday advertising may seem innocuous, it can send the underlying message that to be successful and happy we need to own it all.   Whether it be a big house in a swanky neighborhood, luxury clothes that will make a statement at work, or even an American Girl doll….as the amount of perceived “needs” goes up so does the requirement to find a job that will support the desired lifestyle.  As our financial demands increase, our career options decrease, as the number of positions that will pay a high enough salary to cover all of our “needs” is reduced.

Maybe we could reconsider what we really "need" and instead think more about the things we value.
Maybe we could reconsider what we really "need" and instead think more about the things we value.

I love working at Penn.  The atmosphere is vibrant, the students are smart and motivated, my colleagues are indeed “collegial” and the benefits are wonderful.  However, an impressive signing bonus, hefty annual bonus, and huge paycheck are simply not part of the equation when working for a nonprofit organization. (Yes, Penn is a nonprofit!) That being said, my job provides the work life balance I need right now in my life, so that I can eat dinner most nights with my kids and take them to their swim lessons on the weekends.  To me, that’s worth more any day of the week than being able to buy every new toy that comes on the market.