Category: Nursing

Did Not Receive a Full-Time Return Offer from Summer Employer – What Should I Do Now?

By: S. David Ross, Associate Director

As another Fall semester is well underway, some December 2015, May 2016 and August 2016 graduating students have begun the process of planning for life after Penn. Some may have interned this past summer with hopes of securing a full-time offer by the end of the summer. If you did not receive the return offer you hoped for, do not panic – now is a great time to devise a strategy for how you will approach your job search this year.

Reflect on your summer experience. With the hustle and bustle of the start of the semester, it can be very easy to simply jump back into the recruiting process as you prepare for next year. If you have not already, take some time to think about your experience this past summer. What did you enjoy? What was unpleasant? What did you learn about yourself? The answers to these three questions may help you better target your efforts this year and focus on employment opportunities that are a good fit for you.

Schedule an appointment with a Career Services advisor. Once you have taken the time to reflect and focus on your interests and goals, schedule a meeting with an advisor in Career Services. Talking through your plan with someone may reaffirm that you are taking the necessary steps and advantage of all of the resources available to you. You may come up with some new ideas or decide to adjust your strategy a bit. For those who have not visited Career Services during your tenure, that’s fine – but please do not feel if you have not used our services in the past that you cannot use them this year. Whatever you think would be helpful for you is great – so please utilize Career Services while you are here on campus.

Actively participate in relevant recruiting events. As much as some employers have already actively begun recruiting Penn students on-campus, do not underestimate the importance of demonstrating your interest. Simply applying for positions that you believe you are qualified for may not be enough – if you discover that employers you are interested are recruiting on-campus, make every effort possible to attend recruiting events unless you have a class conflict or other obligations.

Consider all of your options. Consider how the experience you have gained this past summer has opened up new employment opportunities to explore. Try not to focus solely on position title or industry – but also identify transferable skills that you can apply in different positions and sectors. Now that you have additional experience, you may be able to more effectively pivot into new roles. If you prefer to consider opportunities with different employers within the same industry as your summer employer, that’s great – but cast a wide net and try not to narrow your options too soon.

For advice on how to answer questions about why you did not receive a return offer from your summer employer, please read this previous post: https://ulife.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/blog/2014/10/02/tough-interview-questions-why-did-you-not-receive-a-full-time-job-offer-from-your-summer-internship-employer/

Consider the Value of Joining and Participating in LinkedIn Groups

By: David Ross, Associate Director

A very popular tool that some candidates use in their internship and job searches is LinkedIn. Perhaps you have created a personal account or utilized the “Find Alumni” feature. While both are great starting points, consider joining and participating in LinkedIn groups to discover additional advantages of the system.

Identify a network of individuals with a shared interest.
One approach to search for networking contacts with professional experience within an industry is to input search criteria or use filters to generate a list of individuals. Another approach would be joining a group that may have dozens or hundreds of members with a shared interest, educational background or work experience. Depending on what type of individuals you are trying to identify, joining a group may be a faster or more efficient way to identify a network of individuals you are looking for.

Demonstrate your expertise in an area.
Once you have joined a group, you may notice individuals pose questions on occasion in search of feedback from group members. Responding to questions on topics you have insight can signal your expertise. It can also build goodwill and possibly open the lines of communications with others you may not have connected with in the past, expanding your network.

Uncover job and internship leads – before they are posted on job sites.
Sometimes individuals will post job or internship leads within a group with the idea that a targeted forum with individuals that may work within a field can be a source of referrals for strong candidates. Occasionally, these job and internship leads are mentioned in groups before they are published publicly elsewhere. Thus, being a member of a relevant group can lead to insights on additional job and internship leads.

Receive insight, advice or assistance from other professionals.
There may be a topic or question you would like perspective on from other professionals. Or perhaps you are working on an event or program and are searching for volunteers that have a certain background. Leveraging group forums in some instances may be very helpful in these instances.

Ultimately, when you search for Groups in LinkedIn, you may notice an overwhelming number of possibilities. You may want to start by joining a small number of groups first. Try to become actively involved as you never know when your participation can lead to unexpected benefits.

My Summer Internship Search – How to Begin?

By: S. David Ross, Associate Director

Each year, I meet with students wondering about their summer internship search. A frequent question that surfaces during many of these conversations is how to begin. While there is no blueprint or magic formula, here are some ideas to consider when you decide to start the process:

Consider the types of internships you want to pursue. Sometimes students will begin looking for internships and applying for opportunities before giving careful thought to what they ideally want to do for the summer.  Beginning your search knowing the industries and functions you want to work in can be very helpful. If you are unsure or open to a few different areas, that’s fine – just take some time to really think about what you are looking for in an internship and what you hope to gain out of the experience before you proceed.

Update your resume. You never know when you will need it to pass along to any contacts you meet or to apply for any early application deadlines. Be sure to include new entries from the Fall semester and, of course, proofread carefully before sending out.

Identify individuals in your personal network you can contact. Creating a list of people that you know beyond individuals working directly at companies of interest to you can be a great starting point. Think about any connections you have developed since your last search and those who you know best and have the strongest relationships with you. These are potential contacts that you may want to reach out to and discuss your interests for next summer, which ultimately may generate leads for your internship search and a group of individuals who may be willing to assist you in some capacity as the process unfolds.

Create your own calendar of recruiting events happening at Penn and off-campus. As a Penn student, you have access to a wonderful array of career-related events on campus throughout the year. Given the vast number of events and programs, it may be helpful to add them to your calendar and keep track of events with representatives from companies that interest you.

Develop an internship search spreadsheet to document your progress. On your spreadsheet, include information on the company name, position title, recruiter name and contact information, application date and application status to keep organized once you start submitting internship applications.

Schedule an appointment or stop by during walk-in hours to meet with a Career Services advisor. We are happy to meet with you to help you create a strategy based on your individual interests.

How Was Africa?

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  You can read the entire series here.

This blog is by Victoria Duttweiler, Nursing ’15

Have you ever been asked a question that you have no idea how to even begin answering? Coming back to Penn after this summer, I have experienced this over and over. I was given the incredible privilege to complete my community clinical rotation in Gaborone, Botswana during the second half of this summer and just about everyone who knew about my summer plans has approached me with an excited “How was Africa?!?!” upon reunion. While I’m certain every query came from a place of genuine interest and desire to hear about my experiences, I was often left fumbling for words. I struggled to compress the entire rotation into a few simple words and was caught off guard when asked to report on the status of an entire continent. Responding with a quick, “It was amazing! How was your summer?” just didn’t seem to cut it. I was often tempted to glamorize my trip or use it to make myself seem more “exotic” or “cultured” than I actually am.   In reality, my summer included far more than my excursion to far off lands and the part in Botswana was more disappointing and challenging than I expected or wanted.

This summer didn’t shape up to be quite like my normal or expected break from school. Past summers have trained me to return home to my close-knit family, find a mediocre job, and spend time off catching up with friends, playing with our dog, and starting (and sometimes finishing) random art projects I stumble across on Pinterest. Although I’ve always wanted to use my nursing degree to live with, care for, and equip people in developing nations, I’d never set foot outside US soil. This summer seemed to be my last chance to make my way off the east coast and see if international healthcare was really for me before entering the “real world” after graduation. After getting accepted into the Botswana study abroad program, my plans for the summer started to take a different form than I expected. I would live in Fishtown with my roommate from school and a family from church while taking my community clinical lecture and lab before heading to Gaborone to complete the clinical portion of the course. While I dearly love Philadelphia and immensely enjoyed spending more focused time with friends from the area, it wasn’t quite home. My “normal summer” had been disrupted by lectures with intimidating strangers, a 45 minute SEPTA commute to campus, baked asphalt that makes the humid heat seem ten times worse, and continuing to develop a new definition for “home” – in short, I was placed firmly outside my comfort zone.

My grip on the edges of my comfort zone continued to slip as the summer clock ticked away. As I boarded the plane that would take me to a country in the southern region of Africa, I was surprisingly calm. But in the days after arrival and getting settled, I realized that I had gotten myself in way over my head in a country I had no frame of reference for, with people I could barely say were acquaintances, in a clinical setting that I had very little working knowledge of. Needless to say, the first couple weeks were incredibly difficult – learning how to work past my stereotypes of what “Africa” was and letting Botswana define itself, how to live in close proximity with people who are incredibly different from my introverted alone-time-loving self, and coming to the conclusion that my presence in the clinic was not only unnecessary, but a burden. I entered the trip with what I now realize was a masked hero complex. From my vantage point as an American, international healthcare was all about us going in and saving struggling countries. While there are is a lot of brokenness in the Batswana healthcare system, I found a completely different and unexpected story at the women’s health clinic. The nurses and doctors were incredibly competent in their medical knowledge and skills, more caring towards their patients than many doctors and nurses in the US, and more innovative and resilient than would be required of most American healthcare professionals as they dealt with supply shortages and challenging circumstances. I quickly realized that I had very little to offer other than an eagerness to learn, time and hands to input data and pass instruments, and a body to get in the way. Despite the inconvenience of our ignorance, they not only instructed us on the logistics of the clinic and patiently explain procedures a million times over, but went out of their way to smother us with kindness and welcome us as family. I can confidently say that the women of the clinic are some of the most passionate, kind and joyful people I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting and working with.

I went to Botswana expecting to be a hero and use my elite Ivy league education to change lives, but left having met the real heroes and with my own life changed. I was incredibly humbled to see my own arrogant attitude towards countries that seem worse off than the US and realized that although we may have incredible technology and training, sometimes genuine kindness and a make-it-work attitude are more crucial than all the technology in the world. I learned that the simplest things are often the most profound, and that God is still present (maybe more present) way outside my comfort zone. So if you ask “How was Africa?,” be prepared for stories of crushed expectations, undeserved kindness, and hope in the face of difficulty from the beautiful country of Botswana.

Things to Do at the “Midpoint” of Your Summer Internship

By: S. David Ross, Associate Director

Now that the 4th of July (the unofficial “midpoint” of summer) has passed, it’s a great time to assess what has transpired in your summer internship thus far and create a plan to finish strong. Here are a few ideas to consider:

Obtain feedback on your performance. If you haven’t already, now may be a good time to get feedback on your performance thus far. Although it may seem reasonable to think that no feedback is always a good sign, try not to assume this – if nothing else, hearing positive words of encouragement regarding your performance can reassure you that you are indeed on the right track. If you have already received some constructive feedback on your performance, be sure that you are making the necessary adjustments for improvement.

Reflect on your internship experience. Have you enjoyed your internship? Are you developing skills and learning new things? Or are you not being challenged as much as anticipated? Whatever the case may be, taking time to reflect on what has transpired now may be helpful. You may want to propose or suggest additional projects or areas of interest that you can pursue during the second half of your summer to gain additional experience or further enhance your skill set.

Note your contributions and projects. While you may be busy with existing internship duties and tasks, be sure to make note of your contributions and projects. This can be especially handy for updating your resume and any end of the summer performance review discussions.

Cultivate relationships and expand your network. Depending on the type of office you work in and the number of staff, you may have opportunities to strengthen professional relationships and enhance your network. Take advantage of opportunities to build camaraderie – through participation in formal company-sponsored events or informal opportunities to interact with your colleagues (perhaps through lunch). You never know when these relationships may be useful in the future.

Consider reference possibilities. Now that you have spent some time in your internship and hopefully interacted with some of your colleagues, you may want to begin thinking about individuals you want to ask for references before you leave at the end of the summer. No need to rush on this now, but having a few individuals in mind that can speak to your skills and performance in your internship will be valuable when you apply for future employment opportunities. In some instances, it can be easier to ask for references at the end of your summer just before you leave your internship – having one or more individuals in mind already may make the process a bit easier.