Category: From the Director

Taking Stock

The end of an academic year is a natural time to take stock and evaluate. As a student, you are probably thinking about all that you have accomplished this year such as completing degree requirements, learning all kinds of new information, achieving successes with student or volunteer activities, or simply reflecting on how you’ve grown and changed as an individual. You are likely looking forward to new endeavors this summer including perhaps completing an internship, taking classes, traveling, preparing for graduate school, or starting a new post-graduate job.

Some of you may still be finalizing your next steps and that’s okay! Industries have a wide range of hiring timelines and some simply don’t hire far in advance of when they need an individual to start working. Career Services will remain open all summer and we are happy to schedule appointments with students and alumni either in person or via phone if you have questions about your next steps. You can easily schedule these appointments in Handshake. While you are logged into Handshake, don’t forget to take a look at the job listings! We have had almost 80,000 opportunities posted this year for Penn students and alumni on Handshake and new ones are added every day.

The Career Services staff has also been busy taking stock of how we can most effectively serve Penn students and alumni moving forward. As our long-standing Director retired last summer, it was the perfect time to assess our programs and services. To that end, we invited three external reviewers to campus in January who met with nearly 100 individuals including faculty, staff and students across Penn. Thank you to everyone who took part in these important discussions. The visit culminated with some excellent recommendations for us to consider. As we move into the summer, we will be drafting a strategic plan that will draw on these recommendations and align our priorities over the coming three years. We already have various initiatives planned for this summer and the next academic year including finding new ways to connect with students earlier during their time at Penn, implementing new career exploration tools and services, starting a Peer Career Advisor program, enhancing our website and other communication channels, and continuing to conduct outreach to a diverse set of employers. Stay tuned for more! Even though this academic year is drawing to a close, we are excited for the new things to come in 2019-2020.

Good luck on finals and best wishes for a wonderful summer from all of us in Career Services.

Spring 2019 in Career Services Starts With YOU!

We hope that you had a wonderful, relaxing, and restorative winter break. There is nothing like a new semester and a new year to get one thinking of all the possibilities that lie ahead. We also hope that you will include Career Services in your plans as you think about your future. We have lots in store for the Spring 2019 semester including a variety of career fairs which start next week! Check out our Creative Career Fair, Common Good Fair, a new Research Fair, the Spring Career + Internship Fair which spans a variety of industries, our Startup, VC and Data Analytics Fair, or the Penn Design Career Connection Day. Penn students are also invited to participate in several off-campus collaborative career fairs including the All Ivy Environmental & Sustainable Development Career Fair at Columbia and the Greater Philadelphia Teacher Job Fair held in Oaks, PA. Of course, while the volume tends to be lighter in the spring than in the fall, we still welcome employers to schedule on campus interviews in the spring as well as hold employer information sessions, all of which are listed on Handshake.

Do you have questions about how to prepare for career fairs? Create a resume? Wondering how to find a job in the entertainment industry or apply for a faculty position at a university? Apply to medical school? These are just some of the many topics covered in the workshops Career Services advisors will offer over the course of the semester. Explore the events calendar on our website to learn about all of our workshops or RSVP for them by logging into Handshake and clicking on the Events tab at the top.  While you are in Handshake don’t forget to sign up for our specialized industry-based CareerMail e-newsletters so that you will be sure to stay updated about information and events throughout the semester. (To sign up for CareerMail, click on your name in the top right corner of your Handshake homepage and fill out the career interests section.)  With the thousands of job and internship listings in Handshake, you are sure to find something of interest to apply to if you are seeking opportunities!

Finally, if you are just not quite sure where to start, that’s okay! Start by making an appointment to meet with a Career Services advisor. You can request appointments in Handshake by clicking on the Career Center tab at the top of the page. Appointments tend to fill up quickly at the beginning of the semester, but appointment times are added weekly so if you don’t see anything available when you first log in check back in a few days or stop by during our walk-in hours.

Here’s to a great spring semester!