Category: Etiquette

Post-thanksgiving Pep Talk

So, you’ve followed your career counselor’s advice to do some networking while at home for thanksgiving break and perhaps got a contact – a relative’s next door neighbor, let’s say – who works at the magazine that you’d like to intern at next summer.  Nice job! But now, what do you do with this information?

Even though it seems early to be asking for internships right now, I’d encourage you to connect with this contact and follow up with your referrer this week.  Connecting early gives you more time to learn more from this person about opportunities at this company. Besides, it’s good manners – if you don’t use this contact and follow up, the referrer might be more reluctant to offer you a contact or do other favors in the future.  Remember that at least half of the jobs out there are never advertised. If you’re the first to ask about it, you might just get it and in the process you save the company the hassle of recruiting.

As the resident shy career counselor here, I understand that networking can feel unnatural at first.  The trick for me is to think of these lukewarm contacts as your friends of friends and you’re merely asking for a bit of advice from them. It’s like when you were in high school and you asked your buddy’s cousin who is a Penn alumna about what Penn is like and how fast you have to run to get on the Penn track team.

With that mentality, craft a short introductory email to the contact that includes:

1)   Name drop: “My aunt so-and-so suggested that I give you a call because I’ve been researching design careers in the magazine industry…”

2)   Who you are: “I’m a sophomore at Penn with a Health and Societies major…” Include information about your background and interests but don’t overwhelm with your qualifications

3)   The “Ask”: “Would you have a few moments to talk with me by phone about …? I have some questions about …”

4)   Next steps: “I’ll call your office next week to see if we can find a time convenient to chat.”

5)   Thank you

After you’ve emailed your contact, also send your referrer a thank you note, which could be via email or snail mail. This takes only a few minutes and she will appreciate the feedback that she has been helpful to you. Then next week, call the contact to follow up on the email as you promised. For what to do next, especially once you get an informational interview or face-to-face meeting with the contact, I refer you to the  articles on the Career Services website about networking and information interviewing.

Professionalism and the Pre-health Student: Beyond “Please” and “Thank you.”

by Carol Hagen

We talk a lot about “professionalism” at Career Services and, on the whole, people seem to listen.  The email I receive is invariably gracious and thoughtful and I routinely conduct mock interviews with well tailored and poised applicants.  But what about outside the boundaries of “sincerely” and a clean white shirt?  The qualities of professionalism beyond the reach of Emily Post are also important, particularly for pre-health students.

"I'm a professional." http://my.aegean.gr/gallery

While working or volunteering in a clinical environment or research setting, it is vital that you conduct yourself in a professional manner.  Lapses in professionalism make a strong impression on faculty and staff, not only in terms of your personal relationship with supervisors and colleagues, but in maintaining clinical and research opportunities for other pre-health students. How eager is Professor X going to be to offer a lab position to an undergraduate after two people have quit when mid-terms came up?  Does the hospital need to give access to volunteers who bring their friends along with them to a shift or disregard other rules, all of them important?

Know that health professions schools take professionalism amongst their students very seriously.  Students are routinely written up by faculty when areas of concern emerge and studies have shown that medical students who demonstrate unprofessional behavior are more likely to receive disciplinary action from state medical boards down the road.  Unite for Sight has a super (and free) online guide to volunteer ethics and professionalism — read it!  Here are some important points to keep in mind:

  • Consider in advance whether the opportunity is a good fit.  It’s unfortunate when volunteers do not fulfill their commitment to serve because they find their time unsatisfying.
  • Show up on time, be polite, and ask questions when uncertain.  Follow all rules and procedures.
  • Be humble and open to all opportunities to learn.
  • Respect boundaries and your work environment.  Patients are not friends.  Flip-flops, for example, (and I do love them) are not appropriate or safe in the hospital or lab.
  • If you make a mistake, tell somebody.  It won’t be easy, but communicating errors is seen as a sign of maturity and professionalism.

Access to a professional research or clinical environment is a privilege.  Maintaining a positive attitude and open communication with your supervisors will help you make the most of your opportunity and ensure that others will do so in the future.

It Won’t Even Cost You a Trip to the Cleaners: How to Have Phone Interview Success

By Erica Marks

It’s me again, the office Teach for America (TFA) alum. And I’ve got more advice to share from my experience. To fulfill my duty as good alumna who continues to work toward our mission of educational equity, I conduct phone interviews. Yes, the awkward, first round phone screen – that’s me on the other end (well not necessarily in your case, there are many us).

Phone interviews have some inherent challenges, namely, the loss of nonverbal cues. Yikes. I can’t see your smiling face or notice your body language. All I have is your voice and my rubric to fill out based on it. As the next round of phone interviews begin and recruiting continues all around campus, I am offering some words of wisdom.

Choose a quiet place. Nothing is worse than the interviewer over hearing your roommate play Wii bowling or your mom calling down the hall to see if your underwear needs washed. Find a quiet place and notify everyone in advance. I even recommend a good ol’ “do not disturb” sign on the door.

Check your reception. Do you have all your bars? Only one? This is a huge problem that is easily preventable. Choose a location that is not only quiet, but that ensures you’ll both be able to clearly hear each other (public phone booths are not recommended).

Turn off call-waiting. The beeps in your ear can be distracting and frustrating. Before your call time, disable the function. If you’re receiving the call, use the options in your phone to turn it off. If you are the caller, you can type *70 into your phone to temporarily turn it off.

Take pre-interview precautions. Getting up and moving around during the interview can be distracting for you and cause noise on the other end. Before the interview starts, set yourself up for success. Use the bathroom. Get a glass of water; you will be talking your face off, potentially resulting in a dry throat. And set up any materials you may need.

Get your documents ready. Having your resume on hand is a great resource. Remember, we can’t see you, so you can refer back to it as necessary. For any interview you should practice answering questions and for this type of interview, you can have those answers in front of you! Warning: you will not have time to read a paragraph, but you can skim a list.

Interruptions happen. The important thing to remember is not to sweat them. Try not to giggle uncontrollably or apologize profusely. Try to prevent them by listening carefully, annunciating your words and not rambling on and on. The last one is tricky – it’s hard to gauge if you’ve gone too far because you can’t see the interviewers reaction.

You may not need the dry cleaners, but you will need clean clothes. Most people think that phone interviews are great because you get to sit around in your pajamas. The truth is that dressing up a little can help. When dressed for success, people tend to act and speak more professionally.

Happy Interviewing!

P.S. some wonderful colleague’s of mine wrote on a blog on this topic a while ago, you can check it out in the archives: http://ulife.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/blog/?m=200911

Trick or Treat

by J. Michael DeAngelis

When I was little, I had what I think was the greatest record collection a four year old could have. One of the crown jewels of my collection was a Walt Disney’s Trick or Treat, which retold one of the great Donald Duck cartoons of all time:

Oh, Donald, you irascible mallard!

“But Michael,” I can hear you say, “what does this have to do with Career Services?” Well, there’s a lot that we can learn from Donald, especially when it comes to attitude. Donald thinks pretty highly of himself. His refusal to give Huey, Dewey and Louie any candy stems not just from selfishness, but from a feeling of superiority. The unabashed glee that Donald has in outsmarting his nephews and Witch Hazel is comically evident throughout, but what’s funny in a cartoon is often destructive in real life.

Now, obviously, I don’t think that any of you are planning to stick firecrackers in your recruiter’s suitcase. Still, I have seen many people on the job hunt sabotage themselves because, consciously or un, they exude a Donald Duck like attitude. I see this not only here at Penn, but also in my second career in the theater arts.

There is a very fine but distinct line between having confidence and being smug. For example, I was recently looking to hire a small staff to work with me on a show for the Philly Fringe Festival. A young woman came to interview for a position and on paper, she seemed perfect. Her resume was good and she seemed enthusiastic about the project. Within in minutes, however, my feelings had changed. She spent the entire interview talking about how she and her friends had been “robbed” at a local awards ceremony. She began by saying that she was smarter than anyone on the awards committee and that her level of experience should have made her their top consultant. I was immediately turned off. Talk about overselling yourself. Worse, she continued by openly bad mouthing those who had won awards – including people I considered friends. If she hadn’t discounted herself yet, this sunk her. A real Donald Duck.

Be proud of what you’ve done. Feel free to speak of your talents and achievements. Wow potential employers with everything you bring to the table…but be mindful of ego and hubris. In the interview room, don’t be a Donald Duck or, as the song says, “your nightmares will come true.”

I Have an Offer! Now What?

By Barbara Hewitt

Many Penn students have begun to receive offers through the on-campus recruiting process. If you are one of these students, congratulations!  It is gratifying to see that your hard work has paid off and resulted in an offer.

Although receiving an employment offer is a happy experience for most students, it can also be stressful.  You may not be ready to accept the offer, but could be receiving pressure from the employer to quickly make up your mind. After all, recruiters usually want to wrap up their recruiting and finalize their hiring as quickly as possible. In a tight economy, employers don’t have the liberty of over-hiring, so need to manage their candidate numbers very carefully.  If they wait too long for a candidate to mull over an offer and then the candidate decides not to accept it’s likely the employer will have lost out on other potential new hires in the process.  Unfortunately, this is a case where the best path for the candidate and the best path for the employer are often not in alignment, which can make it a difficult negotiation for both parties.

Be sure to stay in contact with recruiters....

So….what’s the best way for a candidate to handle this situation? In two words, tactfully and with enthusiasm.  Given that you might ultimately end up working with the employer (either immediately after graduation or perhaps in the future) you don’t want to leave a bad impression by coming across as demanding or unreasonable.  However, the only way to get additional time to decide on an offer from an employer is to ask for it.  As most of you know, Career Services requests that on-campus recruiting employers give students until November 1 to decide on offers (if they were summer interns at the particular employer) or until December 1 if the offer was received during the fall on-campus recruiting process.  If you need the time, by all means tactfully bring up the subject with the employer.  By tactful, I mean that it is important to express gratitude and enthusiasm for the offer and try not to come across as demanding.  Indicate to the employer that you understand that they would like a response as soon as possible, but that you want to make sure that you are making the right choice and that you feel you need a little more time to finalize your plans. Give the employer a date that you think would work for you.  While you may ask for the December 1 deadline, it is unlikely that many of you will need that much time, so you might consider requesting a shorter timeframe.  Before accepting an offer, reach out to other employers with whom you have interviewed, if you have not yet heard from them.  They may still be considering you, and you should clarify your status with all your prospects before committing.  You should also check to see what their timeline is for conducting second round interviews and extending offers so that you will have a clear idea of how much time you will realistically need to finish up the process.

One of the worst things you can do is to simply stop communicating with the employer in the hopes of avoiding the discussion.  A frequent complaint we receive from recruiters is that students stop returning phone calls or replying to  emails, giving the employer very little insight into where the student is in the decision process. This is extremely frustrating for recruiters, and also demonstrates a lack of professionalism on the student’s part.

Please feel free to visit Career Services to speak with a counselor if you would like guidance on negotiating a timeline for deciding on an offer.  We are happy to discuss your specific situation with you.  While we generally suggest that students reach out to prospective employers for the initial conversation, if an OCR employer seems unwilling or unable to abide by our offer policies we are certainly happy to reach out to them to discuss the situation and negotiate on your behalf.