Category: Social Media

Day in the Life: Adviser in Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr and the Martin Luther King Day of Service, we’re kicking off our 2013 edition of @PennCareerDay with a focus on public service careers.  On Thursday, January 24th we welcome, Lex Ruby Howe, who will tweet about her career with the Australian government.  To learn more about Lex, read below, and don’t forget to follow her on the 24th!

alumpictureLex Ruby Howe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Gender Studies with the Class of 2007. As a student, Lex won recognition for her undergraduate leadership, receiving the R. Jean Brownlee Award of Leadership, and the PennGALA Student Leadership Award, both senior honour awards. After graduation, Lex took a role in Penn’s Alumni Relations Office, and went on to become the Assistant Director of the Penn Traditions & Young Alumni Program for Alumni Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on class unity, leadership cultivation, and strategic planning for continued engagement.

As an alumna, Lex has stayed involved and served as the Co-Chair of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Alumni Association (PennGALA), as well as a member of the Alumni Board of Governors for the Sphinx Senior Society, and now serves as the Penn Alumni Australia Co-Chair.

Lex recently returned “home” to Canberra, Australia to take up a role as an Adviser in the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet in the Cabinet Secretariat Division.

I’m Here to Get You Linked-In.

We’re 10 days into 2013.  Yay! You may have some New Year resolutions related to your career, and if you do, I hope one of them involves LinkedIn.

linkedinlogo

As the social media manager here at Career Services, my personal mission is to help any student or alum become comfortable with this amazing tool.  Why? It is powerful.  Let’s review the facts on just why it’s so powerful from LinkedIn’s website:

1)      There are more than 187 million members in over 200 countries and territories.  That is a LOT of people.  Odds are, if you want to learn about an organization or a career trajectory, you can find someone on LinkedIn and see what they did. For example, do you want to be a consultant? I would recommend looking for someone who is currently an associate at a consulting firm you are interested in and see where were they before? This is one way to get an idea of how you can follow a similar path.

2)      As of the school year ending May 2012, there are over 20 million students and recent college graduates on LinkedIn. They are LinkedIn’s fastest-growing demographic. Part of on-going professional development and one’s ability to find positions after college (whether that is the day after you graduate or 5 years after you graduate), it is important to stay connected to your peers.

3)      Over 39 million members in Europe as of June 30, 2012 and more than 34 million members in Asia and the Pacific as of September 30, 2012. Want to work in Europe? Want to find a job back home in China? One way to do that is to connect with those who are working there right now, especially if they are Penn alums, and ask them for advice.

So you see, LinkedIn can be useful/powerful/helpful/awesome (in my eyes). Now you’re wondering, how do I get started? How can I take my LinkedIn profile to the next level?  This semester we’re offering a variety of programs to help undergraduate and graduate students.  Here is a list of hand-on workshops offered in the Weigle Information Commons at Van Pelt:

Jan 14, 2013, 12:00 PM-01:00 PM
Jan 24, 2013, 12:00 PM-01:00 PM
Feb 28, 2013, 12:00 PM-01:00 PM
Mar 13, 2013, 12:00 PM-01:00 PM

To sign up for these workshops offered, visit the registration page.

We’ll also offer custom programs for different populations throughout the semester. Information on those workshops can be found on the Spring 2013 program and event pages for undergraduate and SEAS master’s students and for graduate students and postdocs. And, of course, if you can’t make one of these programs, utilize our LinkedIn resource page or come in and meet with a counselor.

The Pope has joined Twitter

Social media has forged new patterns of consumption that change how we connect to the world around us.  For better or for worse, this is our reality.  Technology is changing quickly and it can feel overwhelming and difficult to keep up, but that is not an excuse to simply throw up your hands and stay out of the game. Employers expect social media skills from recent graduates, and even the skills you have learned in an informal, personal context can become valuable in the workplace.  There are also major personal benefits to joining social media networks.  They offer unique ways to build and enhance professional networks that could eventually provide you with internships, job offers, and mentorship opportunities.  Moreover, as you build your network, social media can immediately serve as an incredible tool to stay up-to-date with the trends in your field.

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Let’s Go Social

by Anubha Kapur (SEAS ’13)

The weekend begins on a lazy Saturday morning at 11 o’clock. With all the troubles of college life hanging over you, the heart flutters to have a no-agenda moment. Like the leaves of fall strewn over, and amid the gentle Philly drizzle, the weather plays the same ambivalent tune like the one strumming your life.

A cream cheese bagel, a cup of steaming Dunkin, the DP in one hand….and that’s the kick start to the day we all have…Stereotypical, yet real!

Amidst all the randomness of life, there is another crucial factor that links all of us together. Yes, checking out what’s new on our Facebook page, or skimming through the tweets of last night’s party… Social media: that little flicker that makes the clockwork of mundane life come alive!

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Tayler Sorensen (C’11) shares her story

My day

I work in Corporate Communications at Bayer Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pa. It still amazes me every day how such a small department does so much work for such a large company. I work in an open office space with four other people and my boss has an office a few feet away. The lack of cubicles encourages us to talk and share ideas often, and I love hearing what everyone else is working on.

First thing in the morning, I read my emails and check for mentions of Bayer in the U.S. media. I run the media archive for the department, keeping a record of all the mentions of Bayer in outlets such as newspapers, television, and radio shows. I use this data to compile quarterly media reports so we can measure how much coverage we receive and whether it’s positive or negative.

Most of my work revolves around social media. I write campaigns for our Twitter and Facebook pages, post videos to YouTube, and I recently started working on campaigns for Pinterest. That’s probably my favorite thing about this internship – Bayer encourages interns to come up with their own ideas and then they help make them a reality. I pitched a plan for adding content on our Pinterest page, my boss thought it was a great idea, and then I actually got to implement it.

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