Category: Career Decisions

Identify ways to avoid job search stress

by Jamie Grant C’98 GEd’99, Associate Director

I meet with many students seeking internships and full-time positions who are at times incredibly busy with their coursework – and on top of their studies, trying to balance a comprehensive and effective job search.  This can understandably be a very stressful combination of activities, and so Career Services is always working to identify resources and tools to help our students not only strike a balance but succeed in both arenas. 

To that end, a partnership between Career Services and CAPS has generated an upcoming workshop series designed to help students excel in the career planning and application process – with sessions on different kinds of personality and strengths assessments as well as the aptly titled “Managing Anxiety Related to your Job Search,” participating students will have several opportunities throughout the upcoming year to bring their concerns and identify solutions and strategies to enhance their application process.  At the start of the semester, please be sure to check the Career Services calendar and/or the CAPS website for details on specific programs and their scheduled dates/times.

Beyond workshops, Career Services is also always working to identify and provide the latest tools to help students manage their career development.  A really neat resource, free for our current students and discounted for alumni, is Jobtreks – your Jobtreks account will allow you to: 
     – Access a proprietary database of 9,000+ companies
     – Create your target list of companies
     – Browse 30+ job boards and other job search resources
     – Manage your companies, contacts, & job applications
     – Create to-do lists, notes, & alerts, and
     – Prep for interviews and networking

so that you can keep all of your thoughts, research, contacts and networking resources and more in your own private database!
Jobtreks logins are by academic status, so please see the list below for your appropriate link to register:

So, with these upcoming workshops and tools like Jobtreks, you have a few special resources to help your job or internship search to be a manageable and interesting journey of self-discovery and possibilities.  And, if ever you feel the least bit overwhelmed or stressed about career-related issues, please reach out to one of your career advisors to discuss your individual concerns.

Finding just the right “fit”

I was recently talking with a family member about her fairly new job – she’s been there 8 months, and had been with her prior organization for 8 years.   We discussed the many ways in which her two experiences have been different – in her previous company, she had made deep friendships and many partnerships, she felt that she was a valued part of a team, she was allowed to innovate, her suggestions were heard and contributions recognized both privately and publicly.  She changed jobs to help advance her career…but it turns out that this new position is lacking so many of the things that felt so important to her before.     

As we finished talking, we focused on developing an action plan – determining what she could do to adjust her job and find new opportunities that helped her to contribute, feel valued and make partnerships.  After talking with her boss, with whom she has developed a great relationship by clarifying his expectations and exceeding them, she will be taking the lead on a new project and developing an affinity group amongst her peers to forge relationships across the company. 

It is so hard, when interviewing for a job, to figure out if you’re the right “fit” for the organization, and so easy to get frustrated – or immediately start looking for a new job – when you begin to realize that perfect “fit” isn’t there.   Now, I am not one to advocate for making yourself miserable if you’re truly unhappy and unfulfilled in your work – by all means, use your energy to begin planning your next move.  But, it is so important to have these conversations with someone you trust – a mentor, a friend, your sister – so that you can begin to figure out what you like, what you dislike, what your values are and how you can find a position that plays to your strengths, helps you to grow and “fits” you.  I think of career paths as an accumulation of knowledge, experiences and decisions, as well as something unique to a person.  What do you like about your current role?  What do you dislike?  What are you able to change?  How can you find your best fit?  If a Career Services advisor can help you in thinking about this, by all means please contact us!

 

The Post-college Juggling Act

Sarah Hastings, Career Adviser

During a recent move, I was reminded of the stressors and challenges associated with the process. It’s true multi-tasking – planning ahead while tying up loose ends. This move got me thinking of my first summer out of college. I was not only moving, but starting a new job, managing significant expenses, and taking on many new responsibilities. Talk about juggling multiple life events at once! For new graduates, the post college adventure is likely both exciting and stressful. There are many life changes occurring in a very short period of time.

It’s important to continue the self-care you practiced during your college years and find balance as you navigate this transition. Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind:

1 – Take advantage of the support and advice from friends and family. Sure, thanks to social media it’s never been easier to stay in touch. However, when you are managing multiple stressors it can feel overwhelming to stop and connect with others. Consider asking a close friend or relative to check in with you periodically. Knowing someone is there as a constant presence can make a big difference as you find your ground and troubleshoot new situations.

2 – Be aware of resources available to you as you make your next move. Knowing where to look for helpful information can save you time and take some pressure offer during stressful transitions. You’ll be able to anticipate next steps and feel more confident that you are making well-informed decisions. The Career Services website is a great place to start. Whether it’s a salary or cost of living calculator or our list of relocation tips, you are sure to find valuable advice and resources.

3 – Stay connected to Penn. There are Penn Alumni Regional Clubs all over the world. While living and working in London after graduation, I connected with my own university’s alumni chapter there and built a network of great people while settling in far from home. In addition to building friendships, I learned great tips on living like a local, the healthcare system, you name it!

Best of luck as you begin this next stage. Wherever your journey takes you, there’s nothing more important than taking care of yourself and having someone, even just one person, be your “go to” as you make your way.

Career Resources for Students with Disabilities

Barbara Hewitt, Senior Associate Director 

Searching for a job or internship can be daunting for everyone – but can be even more so for individuals with disabilities.  Questions about when and if to disclose a disability or how to ask an employer for an accommodation are very personal and often have no simple answers, but happily there are many resources available to help you through the process. 

Lime Connect (http://www.limeconnect.com/) is one of the premier organizations working to assist students in this area and “rebrand disability through achievement”.  Check out their website (http://www.limeconnect.com/) to read their blog and also find specific opportunities from employers actively seeking to interview and hire students with disabilities. By the way, Lime reports that 90% of disabilities on campus are invisible – including ADD, dyslexia, depression, medical conditions and many others – and all individuals with disabilities are encouraged to take advantage of The Lime Network. 

There are also lots of resources closer to home! If you are a Penn student with a disability and have career-related questions, please schedule an appointment with a career services advisor (http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/staff.php) serving your particular school.  We are happy to help you with all the various steps which go in to the career development process (career exploration, career decision making, preparing resumes and cover letters, interviewing, etc.). Our services are of course confidential so feel free to share any concerns you might have related to a disability.  We also offer a variety of links on our Resources for Students with Disabilities webpage (http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/affinity/disability.php) and maintain a listserv to which we post career-related items particularly relevant to Penn students with disabilities.  If you would like to be added to this list, please send an email to Barbara Hewitt at hewittb@upenn.edu and she will be happy to add you!

 

Way Finding

Over the past two weeks I have been fortunate to attend two meetings of career center directors, where we talk shop, benchmark our services and get new ideas from each other. These meetings are invaluable, and I learn a lot.

The most interesting thing I learned about this year was a course offered at Stanford called “Designing Your Life.” Taught by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, two professors from their D-School, the course teaches seniors a new way of solving problems: design thinking. With a belief that the future is unknowable, design thinking teaches students to build their way forward, and to re-frame problems to find actionable solutions. Since you can’t know the future, you have to prototype your way into it.

Using design thinking to solve the problem, “what do I want to do with my life,” the professors work with students to learn tools that will help them navigate life. In this approach, career planning is a way finding; their method can be used at other important times of life transition as well, not just at college graduation. I am simplifying, probably over-simplifying, what design thinking and the course are here. We all will have the opportunity to learn more in the coming months, when Burnett and Evans publish their book, Designing Your Life (Knopf, September 2016).

But I write today because this approach resonates with what I have seen in working with new graduates here at Penn. The truth is, most seniors and new graduates find planning their lives a daunting proposition. They may have a goal (I want to be a physician), and they take the first step along the road by matriculating in a medical school. Or they may want to have a career in business, so they begin their careers in consulting. They are way finding. They are taking a logical next step, and will take a next step from there, and so on. If their end goal changes, they will then find a new way. But the future is ultimately unknowable.

Dealing with the unknowable is pretty scary for 20 somethings. Those at Penn or those recently graduated have been scripted, organized, and focused on clear goals. But the next set of goals is less clear. I am fond of quoting the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. Alice asks the cat, “What road do I take?” The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”

More students and recent graduates than you might think don’t know where they want to go. Those of us in Career Services work with students to help them gather information (about themselves and about different career fields) to make a decision about next steps. In the final analysis, a new graduate has to pick a path and try something. Seen in this way, a first job, or even graduate school, is a prototype, to be tested and built upon in some manner. But for many of us, the path becomes clear only in retrospect. We design our lives as we go.