Decisions, Decisions!

By carefully considering the information you have and asking yourself some hard questions, you might find that you already have a very satisfactory answer in your grasp.

Sometimes you need to make an important job decision in a short period of time.  That phone call offering you a job comes in, but with a fairly short deadline for accepting or declining the offer.  Your first inclination is to focus on the deadline, frantically trying to figure out how to evaluate this offer.  You think you should call all the organizations you’ve applied to, asking them to rush their decision-making process for you, because you want to see all of your options laid out on the table.  However, if you take a moment to calmly review the information you already have, you might be able to come to an intelligent, well thought out determination without bothering the very people upon whom you want to make the best impression.

Our son (let’s call him “Chris”) applied for summer internships related to his field of study.  One Friday morning Chris called to say he’d just received an offer from University X , but they needed him to let them know his decision by Monday at noon.  The other organizations which had expressed an interest in his application had given the following Friday as the date they would let him know.  Chris excitedly said he was going to call the other employers.  He was going to ask them if he was in the running, and then call the friend who had forwarded his resume with a good referral to one of these organization to see if he could do anything to help Chris with this endeavor.

First, we congratulated him on having a concrete offer on the table.  It sounded fabulous, and the first offer is always a relief to receive, even if you end up doing something else.  We wanted him to realize this was a good thing to savor and be proud of, as the panic of making a quick decision seemed to be overwhelming him.  We advised him to stop a minute and go through the information he already had which included start and end date, living arrangements, compensation, scope of the research project and duties.

The following questions came to our minds:

  • If he received more than one offer, how would he rank this one in comparison;
  • would he be happy spending his summer at this unique location to which he’d have to travel and where he would know no one else;
  • would the compensation let him live away from home for the summer and still have money left for the school year;
  • was it a good match for his interests;
  • what were the things that bothered him about this opportunity?

Then we asked him:

  • what he would gain from calling the other employers;
  • what was the specific information he wished he had before he could make an informed decision;
  • would he be causing the friend some embarrassment if he pushed on Chris’s behalf and then Chris didn’t accept that position;
  • could he ask his advisor for some guidance?  After all, he worked in this field and had originally brought this opportunity to Chris’s attention.

At the end of this conversation, our son was able to focus on the comfort of having a good, solid offer for summer employment.  He was in control of himself with some concrete things to think about and went off to find his advisor.

We spoke with Chris again later in the day.  His advisor helped him realize that this offer was a wonderful opportunity, an experience out of the ordinary he would like to try.  It would only be ten weeks, after all, not a lifetime.  Even if it turned out to be less than the ideal summer, he would meet new people and be part of a team working on an interesting project within his field.  He’d experience working within a large southern state university in contrast to the small eastern college he attended.  This could be valuable information to help guide him toward his potential goal of becoming a professor himself.

After accepting the offer with University X, he called the other employers to thank them for their consideration of his application and to advise them that they should take his name out of the applicant pool.  They congratulated him and thanked him for letting them know.  He also called the friend to tell him about the offer, telling him how much he appreciated his support, and explaining why this was a unique opportunity.  Proactively following up with the other organizations and taking his name out of their pool of candidates was the right thing to do.  It added to their positive impression of him, leaving the door open for future contact.

Chris was glad he had taken the advice to first of all enjoy the good feeling of receiving a nice internship offer.  It gave him confidence that spring weekend as he geared up to take final exams.  He was relieved to have his summer plans in order so he could finish the year focusing completely on his schoolwork.  Chris also learned some valuable tools for making decisions: even with a deadline looming, take time to gather your thoughts and the information you already have; calmly weigh the pros and cons.  In an ideal world you would have all your offers on the table at the same time to really compare and contrast them.  By carefully considering the information you have and asking yourself some hard questions, you might find, like Chris did, that you already have a very satisfactory answer in your grasp.

You might, of course, find that you still need more information, or that the first offer is not a good fit for you.  If so, organize the specific questions you will ask when you contact the employers; be polite and professional with everyone you speak with, from the receptionist to the recruiter.  Be prepared for the possibility that the employer might not be available or willing to speak with you, or give you the information you seek.

In the end, Chris had a wonderful summer.  This opportunity had not been his first choice when he submitted applications, but it turned out to be a good choice.  He has stayed in touch with the professor, who was happy to write a letter of recommendation when Chris was applying to graduate school a few years later.  As with many fields of study, he has found it to be a very small world.  People he works with now in his graduate studies know the professor at University X and have told him they are impressed he had the opportunity and training afforded by that internship.

Carefulling considering the information he already had and taking a chance at this unique offer worked well for him.  He is also very glad that he left good impressions with the other organizations along the way.

More than just “Small” Talk

…as you engage in your first job search or if you’ve been in the world of work for some time, chances are you’ve found yourself in a professionally related situation that required “small talk.”

by Jamie Grant, C’98, GEd ’99

Recently, I met with a student who was traveling for a job interview; the organization’s offices were an hour from the airport and he would be picked up and driven back by the person overseeing the interview process.  Overshadowing the candidate’s preparation for the interview was concern about what he could possibly talk about during the long car ride with a stranger-slash-potential boss. The weather?  Sports?   Politics?  Music?  While this was an extreme situation, as you engage in your first job search or if you’ve been in the world of work for some time, chances are you’ve found yourself in a professionally related situation that required “small talk.”

Like the business etiquette lessons you will find so useful throughout life, the ability to make small talk is an important skill to practice and develop, and one that will be more beneficial than you might think.  Small talk can put you at ease during the job interviewing process, while meeting new colleagues or clients or at social events.  It is a large component of successful networking; developing rapport with another through conversation and interest in a shared topic is an ideal way to create affiliation and forge strong and longstanding relationships.

So, how might you develop or improve your small talk skills?  One strategy I have found very helpful is to read widely.  In just a few moments, you can be well prepared for any situation that may involve small talk by reviewing the latest headlines of the New York Times or Washington Post, easily accessible online.  Another fantastic resource I use often is National Public Radio, or NPR.  Broadcast across the country and designed for an eclectic listener base, NPR frequently plays interesting short stories or interviews that cover everything from current events to art and lifestyle topics as well as entertainment and music of many genres.  I have had several interesting discussions with new acquaintances on brief excerpts from StoryCorps on NPR (a famed oral history project preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress).  The above mentioned sites are just a few of many widely available resources to aid you in developing a repertoire of topics to discuss.

Another key to effective small talk is to be observant as well as a careful listener.  As you speak with someone new to you or who has been a colleague for some time, pay special attention to detail.  You may learn that someone enjoys food by an innocuous comment made over a catered business lunch, leading to a spirited conversation on the area’s best restaurants.  Or, a comment admiring someone’s jewelry or bag could inspire that person to share the story of where it was acquired and how much they enjoyed traveling to the country in which it was purchased.  But, you say, what if the other person doesn’t respond or engage with my attempt? Remember that small talk is not formulaic, nor can it be forced.  You may be surprised, though, how pleased others are to engage in conversation with you when you have an interesting way to start.

A Year On, Not a Year Off

by Lindsay Mapes

My academic motivation in high school did not follow me to college.  Freshman and sophomore year I struggled through classes, or it’d be more accurate to say I struggled to make it to any class.  I didn’t know why I was in college other than my parents (and most everyone else) told me I was supposed to go.   Of course I knew eventually I would head to college, either in Elle Woods or Will Hunting fashion, but after graduating high school I just didn’t feel ready.  Still, I went because that’s what kids  in my town did.  The first two years I practically failed out.  It was comical that such a smart girl was wasting an expensive academic experience (Right dad?  We’ll look back and laugh after the student loans are paid off.)

During the middle of my sophomore year of college I realized before I tried to pass my biology requirement for a third time I needed to take time off to get my priorities straight, to mature and recharge.  I didn’t want to go back to Central Jersey and live with my parents and work at the movie theater as I had done during high school, I really wanted to do something.  The only thing I still had remaining from high school was my dedication to community service.  With help from my mom I searched the internet for international service programs.  Unfortunately most programs required I pay them to serve, whereas I needed income, as meager as it might be.  I narrowed my search to the states and was fortunate to find out about City Year.

City Year is an AmeriCorps program that unites idealistic 17-24 year olds in a year of powerful service in 20 cities around the country.  Volunteers, or corps members as we were called, work at schools in underserved communities tutoring, mentoring, and teaching. Corps members also perform a significant amount of transformational service including working in community gardens or painting murals.  Sounds like your typical service program, right?

City Year Rhode Island Newport Young Heroes 2003

Well, City Year is a little different.  Unfortunately I have to compare it to joining a cult.  Instead of Nike Widerunners and a glass of Kool Aid, you received a uniform provided by Timberland consisting of boots, khakis, a team shirt with your sponsors’ names, and a bright red jacket (or yellow in Los Angeles or San Jose as red is a dangerous color to wear because of gang activity in the area).  When I served as a corps member in 2002-2003 in Rhode Island we had to meet requirements in order to earn a uniform.  Besides completing a certain amount of training and service with our team we had to demonstrate knowledge of City Year physical training exercises and recite various AmeriCorps and City Year creeds.

The physical training, or PT, was CY sanctioned exercises that all new corps members initially looked at as ridiculous (City Year Slap-Happies?  Just call them jumping jacks!).  PT is very low impact and barely makes you break a sweat (except those who are embarrassed about doing City Year Foot Fires in a public place…and it is always done in public), but is meant to demonstrate discipline, purpose, pride and power.  City Year culture is part of what makes the program so successful and so meaningful.  Standards were high (a fellow corps member was sent home for not having creased khakis, another written up for chewing gum, and you were required to cross at a crosswalk when the signal read walk even if you were running late), but for a reason.  We were a young organization providing critical service in at-risk communities. In order to be taken seriously we needed to present ourselves as disciplined, purposeful, prideful, and powerful young adults.

The culture strengthened our team relations and our ability to lead.  Though we were incredibly diverse, we had a common goal, to effectively serve a community in need.  City Year gave me so many opportunities to lead my fellow corps members and work with influential community members.  City Year also taught me how to communicate.  After a long day of working in schools and at after school programs all we wanted to do was go home. Despite that longing our team usually ended up spending another hour constructively and passionately discussing the day’s drama and successes with the children, children’s families, and team members.  Some days there was crying about disparities in the community, other days there was venting about corps members.  We always left with a resolution or a hug. My team became my family; we supported each other and pushed each other to succeed.

Taking a year off was a difficult decision, especially since my dad thought doing a year of service was tantamount to dropping out of school and joining the circus, but it was certainly one of the most difficult and gratifying experiences I’ve had.  My year of service was inspiring and motivating. When I returned to school I took biology for the third time and passed, and I even made the dean’s list numerous times!  I became more active in the community and more importantly I cared about what I was learning in school.

It’s summertime, maybe you’re on a beach vacation dreaming about your future or stuck at a boring office internship wondering where your youth went (thoughts can become pretty outrageous after 4 hours in front of Excel), whatever the scenario, if you’re wondering what to do with your life, consider dedicating a year to service. From creating curriculum for elementary school children to participating in round table discussions with political and community figures, my AmeriCorps experience provided me with so many skills that I wouldn’t have gained elsewhere.  If working with children doesn’t interest you, AmeriCorps offers many different programs.  One example is the National Civilian Conservation Corps, a program that primarily provides transformational service in different regions around the country, which is a great fit for someone who enjoys traveling and has a propensity for manual labor (you’re not going to get pecs pushin’ paper in an office).  AmeriCorps programs offer a meager salary (my team and I were on food stamps), but you do receive an education award of about $5000 after your year of service which some schools will even match!

This blog is pretty long and I hope that if you did not read the entire post you at least skipped to the end (though that means you missed the riveting rising action, very exciting climax, and the oh-so-dramatic falling action), where I tell you I loved my AmeriCorps experience and love to talk about it, so don’t hesitate to stop by the office or shoot me an email if you have any questions about AmeriCorps, City Year, or how to tell your parents making $120 a week doing community service is a good idea. However, if you’re looking for insight on biology courses, despite taking it 3 times I can’t help you.

Don’t let your network be like my garden

Dr. Joseph Barber

I’m not a very good gardener, although I do have some skills. I can pull up weeds, for example. I usually go for the “if it looks different from everything else it is a weed” strategy, which has its drawbacks.  Some weed-like plants actually turn out to be beautiful flowers (or they would have done if I hadn’t pulled them up). I can mow the grass quite effectively, too. I guess slicing off the top half of the grass is similar to pulling out weeds – it is more destructive than nurturing. It seems as if the nurturing part of gardening is the problem for me. I tend to over-water houseplants. “Surely they must need a drink today” I tell myself as I slowly drown them. OK, the fact that my cats chew on them doesn’t help either. Just recently, I haven’t been watering my outside plants enough. I had hoped that my “let’s hope it rains a little each day so I don’t have to water my plants” strategy was going to work, until it stopped raining, and then got very, very hot. My plants now look like this. They are very sad. I started watering them again, but it may be too late.

The network of people you build around you also needs to be nurtured. They are like my houseplants: they need to hear from you every so often, but don’t need to be drowned by a deluge of not-so-relevant information. For example, you might have recently had an informational interview with a researcher at a pharmaceutical company you are interested in, just to find out a little about the company and the person’s role. It is a great idea to keep in contact with this new addition to your network, perhaps by letting them know you have spoken to someone they referred you to, or by forwarding a paper or article that touched on something you both have in common. But, you definitely don’t want to email them every day saying: “OK, now who should I speak with?”, or “I’ve just sent off yet another job application to X Company, just wanted to let you know”. You can slowly kill off your network with too much attention – just ask my houseplants. Most people know when to stop watering their plants or pestering people in their network, but they don’t often realize that too little attention can be just as devastating. You shouldn’t network only when you need something, like a job. You need to be networking all of the time so that when you do need something, people are already thinking about you, sending you leads, recommending you, giving you referrals, and so on. People know when you are just speaking with them to get something from them, and that is not ideal for your reputation.

Networking is about a mutual sharing of information and contacts. It will pay off in the future only if you invest in your network here in the present – before you are desperately seeking a job. If you haven’t spoken to an old PhD advisor for 5 years, and now need her help in writing a letter of recommendation for a job because your postdoc is ending, it is going to be much harder to get them write a positive, convincing letter that you are the right candidate for an editorial position – especially if they had no idea you were even interested in being a journal editor. If you had kept in better contact, she would have known about the various experiences you may have sought out to gain editorial experiences, and she may have even been able to give you the name of a contact at Nature Publishing Group who, quite coincidentally, happened to be her baby-sitter’s father.

The final piece to this whole gardening/networking analogy should be clear to you by now. Whatever you do, don’t let your cats chew on people in your network; it’s not good for the plants, your cats, or your reputation. So, if you don’t have a garden to worry about, then get out there and network today! I’ll join you as soon as I have pulled up some plants that may or may not be weeds, mown the lawn, drowned my houseplants (unlike these ones, mine are all plastic now, so I can water them as much as I like), and had a long conversation with my cats about why eating plastic plants is not such a bright idea.

You have a job. Now what?!

by Robert Gannone

Now that you have a job, you may be thinking of how to advance your career in the years to come. One of best opportunities to advance your career path is to connect with other people in your profession.  Joining a professional association is an ideal way to connect with professionals, who have shared interests. A professional association’s goal is to further a particular field and to enhance the careers and knowledge of individuals engaged in that profession.

As you have heard before, networking is one of the best ways to hear about new companies or open positions. More importantly, it’s simply a great way to expand your career horizons.  By being engaged in a professional association, you can meet with others in your field and share your ideas about your profession and its direction.  Some professional associations also offer certifications or licenses.  These can also help to advance your career because they are earned from a professional organization and given to a person who has been designated as qualified to perform a job or task.

There are many professional associations in industries as varied as healthcare, academia, public administration, and urban planning. Whatever your field or your area of interest, professional associations offer a way to keep in touch with policy developments and an opportunity to network with others who share your interests. They typically also offer annual expos and meetings. Professional associations can have a national, local, or state focus.  For example, associations ranging from local to national include such organizations as the Engineers’ Club of Philadelphia, the Texas Music Teachers Association, and the National Black MBA Association.

To find a listing of professional associations in your career or field of interest, visit one of the following sites:

http://www.weddles.com/associations/

http://www.associationsdirectory.org.

http://www.asaecenter.org/

You can also search for professional licenses by industry by going to the following website:

http://acinet.org/certifications_new/cert_search_industry.aspx