What’s Your Daily Digital Routine?

Check Facebook. Update Status. Like. Check Twitter. RT. Check Blackberry. BBM. Check NYTimes.com. Check WSJ.com. Shake Head (or smile). Check Email. Reply. Check Blog Feed Reader. Post Comment.

This is a daily digital routine that may not be a far cry from your own.  Sit back for one moment and ask yourself: What do I do every day that involves checking something online?

A large part of our daily lives have gone digital.  Times Magazine author, Lev Grossman, observed this in an interview with Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher for The Social Network, when the movie was coming out. He wrote, “Doing things on Facebook, friending people, checking your news feed — these are so much a part of our daily routines now.” (Click here for the interview.)

I read that article and knew he was right.  Frankly, it’s becoming hard to disagree. I have a daily digital routine, so do the majority of people I know.  This is a shift in society that the film drew attention to – not just Facebook, but how we’ve gone digital. The question becomes, for a career services professional like myself, how can you move your daily digital routine in a direction that will help your career? That is, if you are not already.

This might seem overwhelming at first.  You may think, “I already have so much to do, how can I add checking and interacting on LinkedIn to my routine?”  The answer is – do what works best for you.  There are so many platforms online today that you can leverage to build your network and help develop your career.  You just have to do some research to identify those platforms and see if they could benefit your professional development.  LinkedIn is not for everyone. Twitter isn’t for everyone. Facebook isn’t for everyone. But, are the companies you want to work for on there? Is a leader in your field on there? If so, then think about when and how you can incorporate those platforms into your daily digital routine.

For example, every Sunday will be professional digital day.  Write a blog post. Check LinkedIn. Make a comment (or not). Check the company’s Facebook page.

These are tools to help you and you have control over them. You determine how frequently you log-on and what information you provide. Try incorporating more career building into your daily digital routine. If you don’t like it or it’s not worth it – then stop.

For resources to get started with platforms, go to our homepage http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/ and select the icons on the right for Vimeo, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Career Services’ Top 10 of 2010

With almost 15 days left in 2010, the top ten lists of the year are starting to pop up online and in print.  I’m dedicating this blog entry to the top ten highlights from Career Services in 2010 – these are in no rank-order because they’re all great achievements from the last 12 months.

1. Penn & Beyond Blog.  As of today (December 14, 2010), we have had over 70,000 hits (72, 921 technically)! Some of the top posts are:

Beware the Hippo: Choosing Where to Apply to Medical School

How to Become the Next Intern Idol

Responding Sincerely is Very Professional

It’s not too late! (Good) Internships are still out there.

Why Reneging on an Offer is Bad for Your Career Mojo

FrankenFood for thought! How lunch can help you find a career.

2. @PennCareerDay. We launched a new Twitter account, @PennCareerDay, that features alumni who post about a day in their life.  Alumni in consulting, venture capital, education, publishing and international healthcare recruitment all contributed.  A record of their posts can be found on our Twitter resource page.

3. PennLink. Since January 1st, 2010 we have had over 2,000 new employers, as well as over 8,000 job and internships posted in PennLink.

4. Video Conferencing. We had 17 international companies speak with students through our video conferencing equipment this past year.  Companies were in the UK, Germany, Dubai, Israel, India, China, Hong Kong and Japan.

5. Career Fairs. We held 10 career fairs here on campus, 2 were virtual fairs, with 500 employers in total.

6. Make an Impact.  We had another successful line up of programs on careers with the federal government.  Speakers visited campus from NASA and the CIA at the Science & Engineering Jobs in Government, the State Department  at the presentation on the Foreign Service Oral Exam, as well as from UNICEF and USAID at the Careers in International Development panel, to name a few. Stay tuned for more programs like this in 2011!

7. Website Re-Design. We re-organized our website to help you find resources more easily and feature new content. One of the biggest changes were updates to the undergraduate resources – if you haven’t seen them yet, visit the undergraduate page here.

8.  On-Campus Recruiting (OCR). There were 7,708 interviews on campus this fall, up over 10% from Fall 2009.

9. Interview Stream. We added Interview Stream to our list of partners in PennLink. This resource lets students practice interviewing and watch themselves through the playback feature.

10. Vimeo Video Channel. As part of our growing use of social media to provide you with a variety of content and resources, we have grown our video collection on Vimeo to include over 50 videos with 7 specific channels. Whether you seek advice about law school, what to do while you’re abroad or to get advice from alumni first hand – there is a video for you.  Check out our channel today at http://vimeo.com/penncareerserv.

Here are two other Top 10 Lists I came across recently:

Top 10 Job Hunting Tips of 2010 from Lindsey Pollak

Time Magazine’s Top 10 of Everything 2010

To Tweet or Not to Tweet? That is the question. (And the answer is “To tweet.”)

By Lin Yuan

Chances are you check Facebook at least once a day, but refuse to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. Or maybe you’ve signed up for a Twitter, but don’t use it very much at all. Surveys show that while Twitter may be exploding for many demographics, it hasn’t taken off for college students, young adults, or teens. In fact, according to one study, the majority of Twitter users (or “Tweeps” in Twitter lingo) are over 35.  

Why exactly are we, the generation of so-called “Digital Natives,” so reluctant to embrace Twitter? It makes more sense that we’re the ones who make a site like Twitter popular, then our parents and grandparents join, not the other way around. There even seems to be a stigma attached to Twitter among people our age. The following conversation is pretty common among my friends when someone is outed as a Twitter user.

Person A: (accusingly) “You have a Twitter?!”

Person B: (sheepishly) “Yes…” (quickly) “But I barely use it!”

In any case, people seem to have a hard time figuring out why 18 to 20-somethings aren’t on Twitter as much as one would think. Maybe that’s because there’s no good reason for it in the first place. In my opinion, misconceptions of twitter are the reasons we aren’t on it. Here are the top reasons I’ve heard for not being on Twitter. (And seeing how this is a career blog, I promise, Twitter is relevant to your career aspirations. Skip ahead to Misconception #3 if you don’t believe me.)

Misconception 1: Twitter is for narcissistic losers I have heard so many of my friends say that Twitter is for obnoxious people who think everyone wants to know where they are and what they’re doing at all times. Before I signed up for Twitter, I thought so too. Checking Facebook, if I saw someone had posted a bunch of mundane status updates, I would quip that he/she needed to get a Twitter. After getting more acquainted with Twitter though, I’ve seen that sure there are plenty of bad Twitter users out there, but even more good Twitter users. The upside to a more mature user base is that people have more mature things to say. The twitterverse as a whole is very concerned with what differentiates bad tweeting from good tweeting. People see crafting 140 character tweets as a skill, even an art and they try their best to make their tweets as interesting, informative, funny, and non-narcissistic loser-y as possible. Tweeters want to be worth following, so they are conscientious about writing good tweets.

Misconception 2: Twitter is ruled by Justin Beliebers Yes, there are tweeters out there that love them some JBiebs, but believe it or not, Justin Bieber is not the only thing people talk about on Twitter. Celebrities on Twitter do attract a huge follower base (Lady Gaga has more than 5 million followers!) but they’re not the only users with a significant Twitter presence. National newspapers, large corporations, and other organizations are all on Twitter because it’s a great way to share information. Influential people like politicians and esteemed professors are on Twitter for the same reason. For example, the President has a twitter account for sharing the latest policy developments…though he does have half a million fewer followers than Gaga. Still, bottom line: legitimately important people are on Twitter tweeting about legitimately important topics.

Misconception 3: Twitter is just one more site to waste time on This is probably the biggest misconception of all and the most unfortunate. Twitter is worth spending time on because it really isn’t just an alternative to Facebook or just another way to stay in touch with your friends. Twitter is useful for this purpose but it is even more useful for another purpose: furthering your career. Twitter can be an incredibly powerful career tool if used correctly. You can follow companies you’re interested in working for to stay up-to-date on the latest news in the industry. You can conduct a job search using Twitter since many recruiters and organizations tweet information about job openings. You can even make Twitter itself your career as social media marketing becomes more popular and in demand.  Most importantly though, you can use Twitter to show employers exactly how thoughtful, passionate, and well-spoken you can be. Your tweets can be a way to share your ideas and put your best foot forward.

Even though I was a skeptic at first too, this is one millennial who is definitely a Twitter convert.

For more articles about Gen Y and Twitter, click on the links below. Also, go to our twitter resource page for tips on how to start tweeting.

Why is Generation Y Not Into Twitter?

To the Gen Y Twitter Haters

A Day in the Life: Urban Public School Reformer

Read Janel Forde’s archived tweet feeds here: Day 1 and Day 2

In the next two weeks, we welcome alumna Janel Forde who will post about another career path in education – urban public school administration. Follow @PennCareerDay on Twitter on November 8th, and then again the week of November 15th. Don’t miss out on what Janel’s days are like!

Janel Forde, W '01

Janel works for Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest school district in America with over 400,000 students, almost 700 schools and a $6bn operating budget. For the past year, Janel has worked in the CEO’s Office as the Director of Stimulus Programs. In that role she served as the district’s single point of contact for all stimulus related initiatives and helped to develop the state’s Race to the Top application ($400M) as well as the district’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant which was the district’s largest competitive grant award to date, $34M. She has also led several strategic projects for the office. Prior to joining the district, Janel was a consultant in the Boston Consulting Group’s Chicago office. She specialized in the financial services sector and functionally in process management and strategy development.

Originally, from the east coast, Janel has worked in marketing and business development at American Express and in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, all in New York. Janel earned her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and her undergraduate degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

A Day in the Life: Publishing

Read Jamie Cheng’s archived tweet feed here: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/JaimeCheng_Feed.pdf
If you have a love for the written word, then a career in publishing has likely crossed your mind.  There is more than meets the eye in the publishing sector, you can publish books, magazines or industry specific journals.  Furthermore, the sector has a wide range of opportunities beyond editing and writing – spreading the word.  Jaime Cheng (SAS ’99) posts for @PennCareerDay on Wednesday, December 8th and will highlight a day in her life at Elsevier.  Read more about Jaime below, and follow her next Wednesday!
Jaime Cheng

Jaime Cheng is a Product Marketing Manager at Elsevier, the world’s leading publisher of science and health information. Jaime’s team provides hospitals with electronic reference solutions that meet the training, education, and reference needs of the nursing staff and leadership to optimize patient outcomes.

Prior to joining Elsevier, Jaime was a Database Marketing Manager with the Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia 76ers professional sports teams. There, she managed the database marketing and research strategy and operations. She also worked at a startup company in San Francisco for three years.

Jaime has a BA in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.