O.C.R. = Overly Confusing Recruiting?!?

It’s that time of year again, when Career Services welcomes recruiters to campus to conduct exclusive interviews with Penn students.

We understand that On Campus Recruiting can be a difficult process.  The anticipation of  getting an interview, figuring out the best things to say during an interview, wondering about second rounds and offers – these things can all be stressful, but what we sincerely hope is that OCR itself is not confusing.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the basics of On Campus Recruiting, so now seems like a good time to point out that almost all the information you need can be found on our website.

First and foremost, you should watch the On Campus Recruiting Orientation video. This narrated Power Point will take you step by step through the process of OCR, from logging in to uploading your resume to accepting and scheduling interviews.  This is a NOT TO BE MISSED video!  Think of it as the must see movie of the season!

If you have a very specific questions, the first place to check is the On Campus Recruiting FAQ page, where you can also search for questions by topic.

The OCR section of our website should be a “one stop shop” for your all of your recruiting needs.  Besides the orientation and FAQ, you’ll find printable forms from Add-Ons, our Cancellation Policy, Recruiting and Offer Policies and more.

You can also check out this video where graduating students offer advice on navigating the OCR process:

On Campus Recruiting Advice from Graduating Students from Penn Career Services on Vimeo.

Still have questions?  Stop by and see one of the career counselors for your school during walk-ins or call us to make an appointment!  Good luck!

All the World’s a Stage…(And there’s jobs there to be had!)

Tomorrow, Career Services will be hosting a special Careers in Theater Panel from 12pm-1pm in Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall. A networking hour with refreshments will follow the panel. The details are as follows:

In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of The Underground Shakespeare Company, Career Services is presenting a “Careers in Theater” panel featuring alumni from Penn’s only Shakespearean performance group. Featured on the panel will be:


Akiva Fox (CAS ’02) –
Literary Associate (Dramaturg and Literary Manager), Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.

Akiva, an English major at Penn, completed his MFA in Dramaturgy from American Repertory Theater Institute and previously held a position at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. As part of his MFA program, he spent time studying theater in Russia. At the Shakespeare Theater Company, he writes and edits most of the publications that the theatre puts out (newsletter, the program, etc.). He researches the historical and literary background of the plays, and makes sure that the directors, actors, and designers have all the information they need. It his duty to read as many classic plays as possible and recommend the good ones to artistic director Michael Kahn for future seasons. He also works with living playwrights who are adapting classic plays for new productions and he coordinates and leads our audience discussions about the plays.

Dan Fishback (CAS ’03)Writer and Performance Artist, New York, NY

Dan Fishback has been writing and performing in New York City since 2003. His most recent play, You Will Experience Silence (Stephen Brackett, dir.) debuted to critical acclaim in April 2009 at Dixon Place, where Fishback was an Artist-in-Residence. Fishback has performed and developed previous work at Performance Space 122, Joe’s Pub, Galapagos Art Space and various of other venues in New York and abroad. He is currently developing two new theater pieces: The Material World, a pop musical about socialist Jews in the 1920s, and thirtynothing, a solo performance about growing up in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic.

Dan received the Franklin Furnace Fund grant for performance art in 2010 and the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists in 2007. He is an Artist-in-Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and has enjoyed previous residencies at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony.

Maura Krause (CAS ’10) Literary Fellow, Wooly Mammoth Theater Company, Washington, D.C.

Maura was a dual English and East Asian Languages and Cultures major at Penn, with concentrations in Creative Writing and Japanese. Aside from her work at Wooly Mammoth, Maura works with the EMP Collective, a nonprofit organization uniting artists across the country to create provocative, social, multi-media events and previously was a Literary Intern with Samuel French, Inc., the world’s oldest publisher of plays.

J. Michael DeAngelis (Career Services staff) – Playwright and Managing Director, The Porch Room Film & Theater Company, Philadelphia, PA

Moderating the panel will be Michael DeAngelis, Information Resources Manager at Career Services. Michael is a professional actor, director and playwright, who has been twice published by Samuel French, Inc. His plays have been seen at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The BRUNCH One Act Festival in New York City, Circle Players Theater and Playwrights Horizons. With his co-writer, Pete Barry, his works have won the 2009 Samuel French Short Play Festival and the 2009 NJACT Perry Award for Outstanding Original Play.

Additional Theaters/Performing Arts related resources be found here:

Career Services Resources by Field: Theater & Performing Arts

In David’s “Humble Opinion”

Our very own David Ross, Associate Director for Wharton Undergraduate career counseling, was recently invited to be a guest blogger of the IMHO: In My Humble Opinion column at the Eye of the Intern blog, part of Internships.com.

Head over there today and enjoy David’s thoughts about using your summer internship to explore alternative career paths.

Read David’s blog at Eye of the Intern.

Winter Break

Happy Holidays from the Career Services staff!

The Career Services office will be closed from 12 noon on Thursday, December 23rd until 9am on Monday, January 3rd, 2011.

Starting on the 3rd, you can give us a call or drop us an e-mail with any career related questions you might have over the break.  Take full advantage of all the resources we have on the Career Services website and, if you’ll be doing OCR in the spring, be sure to look through PennLink and watch our narrated OCR orientation!

Have a warm and wonderful holiday season and a safe and relaxing winter break!  Posts will resume on this blog on January 3rd on a limited basis and then return to daily entries when classes resume.

Happy Thanksgiving

Penn Career Services will be closed from 2pm on Wednesday, November 24 until 9am on Monday, November 29th in observance of the Thanksgiving break.

We look forward to seeing you all again after the break.  In the meantime, let Penn & Beyond help with these helpful Thanksgiving-related entries:

Plus our original Thanksgiving classic from 2009:

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here at Career Services!