Alumni Perspective – Page 18

A Day in the Life: Commercial Real Estate

Real Estate is more than buying and selling houses, it’s about living and working environments. There are a wide range of opportunities available to those interested in pursuing a career in real estate, one of those is in commercial real estate. Morgan Hill (WH ’09) will contribute to @PennCareerDay on Twitter on Wednesday, April 6th and discuss her life in this area. To learn more about Morgan, read below and don’t forget to follow her next week!

Morgan Hill, Associate, joined Retail Sites in January 2010 to focus on leasing and tenant representation services. Ms. Hill is a 2009 graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in Real Estate. Prior to graduating, Morgan held internships at Interstate Commercial assisting in site selection activities and Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust where she supported the leasing department. While at Wharton, Ms. Hill served as Research Assistant in the Wharton Real Estate Department.

Location, Location, Location

by Pat Rose, Director of Career Services

Everyone who has ever done any house or apartment hunting knows the old saw that the most important three things to consider are location, location, and location. The same is true for job hunters.

For example, you may need to stay in a particular city or town because you want to be near family, or because you are part of a dual career couple, or because you couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Fair enough.

But some of you may be a little more flexible. You may want to focus on your career, and will go where the jobs are. If you are in this category, I urge you to read a recent Forbes article, “The Easiest and Hardest Cities for Finding a Job. “

This article presents a study that compared jobs posted in the 4th quarter of 2010 with a salary of $50,000 or more in different U.S. metropolitan areas. While the methodology might be a little flawed, the comparative results are telling. The easiest place to find a job is San Jose, CA, which had a whopping 126 job postings per 1000 of population. Second was Washington, D.C., with 116 openings per 1000 citizens. At the other extreme, New Orleans had just 10 postings. Tied for second lowest were Buffalo and Rochester, with 11 per 1000.

Of course there are explanations. Washington, D.C. has the job engine of the federal government. San Jose is in the heart of Silicon Valley, where tech firms are hiring. In fact, a recent Wall Street Journal article names the top 50 start ups. Eight of the top 10 and 35 of the 50 were based in California, most in the Bay area.

Our economic recovery is uneven geographically. Don’t lose sight of this as you look for your first, or your next, job. Remember, it’s all about location, location and location.

A Day in the Life: College Instructor

Read Ceceilia Berkowitz’s archived tweet feed here: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/CeceiliaBerkowitz_Feed.pdf

Teaching isn’t just for the K-12 level, many colleges and universities offer teaching positions for individuals with graduate degrees – and you don’t need to have a Ph.D. necessarily either. Next week on Wednesday, March 30th @PennCareerDay on Twitter welcomes Ceceilia Berkowitz who teaches higher education courses in New Jersey. Follow her to learn about this great career path and how she’s managed to transition from a private sector career into one in education. To learn more about Ceceilia, read below and don’t forget to follow her on the 30th!

Ceceilia Berkowitz (C ’00, W ’00) is a College Mathematics, Statistics, and Business Mathematics Instructor at several Northern NJ Colleges. She currently is teaching 18 developmental math credits this Spring semester at William Paterson University and Union County College. In recent years, she has also been tutoring high potential minority and international low-income undergraduate students in math and business subjects for the Educational Opportunity Fund Program at Seton Hall University. She has also taught Business Calculus and Developmental Math at other schools including Seton Hall University and Felician College.

As a Class of 2000 graduate of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business at Penn, Ceceilia is also considering teaching College Business courses or even French courses as her schedule permits at the nearby colleges. She has been working for Medows CPA, PLLC, a boutique New York City accounting firm as a Training Manager, with Senior Accountant and Marketing Assistant responsibilities.

In addition to her Penn undergraduate degrees, Ceceilia has an MBA in Professional Accounting from Rutgers Business School, where she was a Dean’s Scholarship Recipient. She has over four years of work experience in telephone and E-commerce sales and customer service at Tiffany & Co, Weichert Realtors, and MetLife, mostly before she entered the 2007-2008 MBA program. She also has worked in jobs and internships, mainly in accounting and finance at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, Merrill Lynch, Prudential’s 1999 IPO Team in the Controller’s Office, a medium-sized NJ CPA firm, and HotJobs.com (now part of Yahoo!).

At Penn, Ceceilia was involved as Treasurer of the Women’s Club Tennis Team, participated in Wharton Women, visited nursing homes with Penn students in Bridges Community Service group, played French Horn her Freshman year in the Penn Wind Ensemble and also in the Penn Law School production of Guys & Dolls, lived in the Maison Francaise French House on-campus residence her Senior year, and studied abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France, during the second semester of her Junior year. She also enjoyed Penn’s campus social life at the local restaurants and coffee shops, and parties of all kinds at frat houses, friends’ apartments, and at the Huntsman Program office, as well as occasionally attending Penn Football and Basketball games. She mainly studied in the main Penn library on various floors, though also occasionally at Center City Xando Cosi locations and Bucks County Coffee, both Wharton buildings at the time, as well as some solitary studying in the upstairs very heated mathematics library in DRL. She frequently explored Center City restaurants and shops including her favorite restaurant Monks Cafe, and the Liberty Place JCrew.

Follow Ceceilia on Twitter for more information – @ceceilia

A Day in the Life: NPR Producer

Read Melody Kramer’s archived tweet feed here: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/MelodyKramer_Feed.pdf

Have you always wanted to produce your own radio show? Broadcast to thousands, even millions, of people with the flick of the “on air” switch? Not surprisingly, there’s more than just the flick of a switch to make it happen. Next Thursday, March 24th @PennCareerDay welcomes Melody Kramer. Melody will post live throughout her day and highlight life as an associate producer with NPR. To learn more about her, read below and check out her posts here.

Melody Kramer is an associate producer at Fresh Air with Terry Gross in Philadelphia. She previously was the director and associate producer of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me in Chicago and an NPR Kroc Fellow in Washington DC. She graduated from Penn in 2006 with a B.A. in English. At Penn, she was a member of the Penn Band and wrote for The Daily Pennsylvanian and The Punch Bowl.

To find Melody on Twitter, follow @mkramer.

Guest Perspective: Be Your Own Boss as an Independent Consultant

by David Goldstein

Independent consulting has been my career choice for entrepreneurial rewards without all the risks of offering products. As a “software guy” I couch this in terms of a software background, but everything mentioned can be applied to consulting in diverse fields, from finance to movie costuming. I compare this career to two others’ of mine: software engineer and entrepreneur. I discuss consulting in terms of expectations, realities and the skills needed. Because consulting requires specialized expertise, this career may be your second or third job out of school, instead of your first.

What does an independent consultant do ?

I provide contractual services to organizations independent of large consulting firms. Both independent consultants and consulting organizations charge a premium for their services – but independent consultants are their own boss, keep more of the fees they generate and “wear many hats.” One of the greatest advantages that I have found is your clients can be all over the country, from Richmond, VA to Oakland, CA. I have consulted for many organizations in the Fortune 500. The key is to be aware that engagements can end at any time; this is a high-risk, high reward career path.

What does it take to be an independent consultant?

The key elements are expertise, professionalism and business savvy. Your expertise determines what the client would pay, your professionalism keeps engagements going, and your business savvy affects the percentage of that amount you keep.

My expertise comes from a computer science Ph.D. Each client – as well as hobbies, volunteer work and other endeavors – also provide valuable expertise. For example, working at Freddie Mac provides credibility in the mortgage business. Expertise within a field can be as valuable technical skills.

Business skills are important for anyone but are essential for consultants. Everyone should be able communicate with executives, speak publicly, and write well. Consultant’s skills also include entrepreneurial skills to acquire and manage business, such as contract writing, accounting, marketing, and negotiating.

What are the rewards of independent consulting?

Consulting can offer a great salary, which should be a part of any high-risk career path. Robert Half’s “Salary Guide 2011” gives the median income for a software engineer at $92,750 per year. A staff consultant’s corresponding income is $75,500 and a senior consultant’s is $99,250. As a consultant with specialized skills in (1) Business Process Modeling and (2) Business Rules Management Systems I have always billed at several times these salaries.

All of these characteristics are applicable to consultants in other fields. For example, my friends in finance report that consulting rates as independent consultants range from $150/hr to $1000/hr.

Consulting also offers frequent change, which exposes you to a lot of people and businesses. I’ve met people from around the country. I understand many industries well; I could pursue a career in banking, insurance or other client fields if need be.

Independent consulting also hones many entrepreneurial skills. My small software firm sold its products in the U.S. and abroad, but being a consultant has taught me a lot about building software and businesses. Consultants see numerous firms create, sell and service products. Thousands of things can destroy a company: learning from other’s errors is important for building a company that makes products, instead of mistakes.

What challenges independent consultants?

An independent consultant trades many things for increased income. Some of these factors include:

Travel: Many students relish the thought of travel. However, most consultants would prefer to see their bedroom and spouses on weekends instead of hotel rooms and co-workers.
Stability: Independent consulting is very susceptible to economic trends. Consultants can find it difficult to get their desired rate. Most contracts are also “at will”, whereby either party can end an engagement at any time: bad corporate news, office politics, leadership changes, etc. can end an engagement. Traditional consulting firms allot overhead for non-contract time and independent consultants should have a “rainy day” fund.
Bureaucracy: Every company has policies and systems for accomplishing mundane tasks, such as time tracking and purchasing. While employees learn such policies and systems once, a consultant may need to learn many such systems each year. Similarly, when working through third parties consultants may have to deal with extra levels of paperwork. Even simply getting a client may involve dozens or hundreds of pages of documentation.

These three factors mean consultants need patience and self-confidence to overcome being on the road, worrying about engagements, and dealing with bureaucracy.

Independent consulting is a good high-risk, high-reward career path for many individuals. All consulting practices involve travel, flexibility, and workplace variety. Working independently offers more compensation at the cost of stability, bureaucracy and other factors. Bright, savvy professionals often choose independent consulting for its entrepreneurial feel and high income.

About the author:

David Goldstein received his M.S.E. from University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas – Arlington. He was a professor at several universities, most notably North Carolina A&T State University. He has run several small businesses and is currently an independent consultant. He specializes in building large financial systems using Business Rules Management Systems and Business Process Management tools. David serves as the associate director of Penn’s SEAS alumni board.