Tag: career decision making

By the Book: New Titles Across the Board

by J. Michael DeAngelis, Information Resources Manager

September marked the start of a new school year, which is always a booming time in the Career Services library.  We’ve been adding titles to our collection every week this month, on subjects ranging from cover letter writing to graduate studies in Europe.  Here’s a look at just three of the most interesting new additions.

Life is What You Make of It by Peter Buffet.  Buffett, son of the much-in-the-news Warren Buffett, and an accomplished composer, penned this New York Times Best Seller about forging your own path in life.

This is a good, quick read for students who are at the start of their career decision making journey.   Without pretension, the author suggests ways of determining your purpose and seizing oppertunities.

Endorsed by such luminaries as Bono, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton, the book focuses on staying true to yourself and holding on to your values over economic prosperity – specifically making money just for money’s sake.

Alumni thinking about making career path changes will also find this, and other titles we have on the subject, helpful.  You can find it in the Career Decision Making section of our library.

The 12th Guide to German Biotech Companies compiled by BIO Deutschland and the Eurpopean Biotechnology Foundation. This extremely unique (and extremely specific) book was recently donated to the Career Services Library by a student who interned in Germany this past summer.  This beautifully put together edition is a directory of every major biotech firm in Germany, complete with contact information and in-depth company profiles.  If you are interested in working in either biotech or pharmaceuticals on the international level, this guide is a great jumping off point.  Written in English, with the American job-seeker in mind.  Located in the International section of our library, with other books on working in Europe.

 

Cracking the New GRE 2012 by The Princeton Review.  This guide is just one of four new GRE study guides we have purchased for the 2011-2012 school year.  As recently noted by our own Peter Stokes in his blog, the GRE completely changed its format starting in August of this year.  All of the guides in the library contain tips and practice tests to help you prepare for the new exam.  The Princeton Review edition also came with an informative DVD, which you can watch in our library on your laptop or at our video computer station.  Students interested in watching the DVD much make arrangements by sending an e-mail to Carol Hagan.  This book, as well all of our GRE study guides and practice tests, can be found in the Graduate Study section of the Career Services library.

Remember, the Career Services library is for reference only.  Books may not be checked out, but we invite you to spend time in our comfortable reading room. Photocopying is available.  The Career Services library has extended hours during the school year: Monday-Wednesday, 9am-6pm and Thursday-Friday, 9am-5pm.

Plumbing 101 – some thoughts on branching career pipelines

Dr. Joseph Barber

The following paper was recently published in the journal “CBE – Life Sciences Education”:

“Improving Graduate Education to Support a Branching Career Pipeline: Recommendations based on a survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences” (find the article here)

The authors summarized the key results from this study:

  • Students’ career preferences change strikingly during the first 2-3 years of graduate school (when students join a lab full-time), and the primary change is a decrease in interest for becoming a PI at a research-intensive institution.
  • By the 3rd year of graduate school, 33% of UCSF graduate students would choose a non-research career path.
  • Students list a variety of reasons for deciding against becoming a PI in an academic setting.

And they list the following implications of the data:

  • We as a national scientific community need to refine our definition of a “successful” doctoral student to explicitly value those who pursue non-academic, and non-research, career paths.
  • The timing of students’ career decisions (and their low confidence in these decisions) suggests that universities should place greater emphasis on career education within the curriculum, and target students earlier in their graduate training.
  • Career education would optimally assist doctoral students in understanding their career options, identifying career paths that provide a best fit, and developing the professional skills needed to succeed in these diverse careers.

Read the full paper to get a better sense of what this research revealed. If you have questions about your own career pipeline, and whether it will branch or not, and when it might do so, then stop by Career Services to set up an appointment to meet with an advisor. You can ask us about career alternatives, and attend the Biomedical & Life Sciences Career Fair to see what opportunities exist for yourself. For more on “leaky pipes” in the sciences, see this blog post.

Exploring Careers? Check the Obituaries…

One exercise I have seen suggested in career counseling books and workshops is that to learn what really matters to you, you should try writing your own epitaph.  The idea is that you can see what you want to be remembered for, and as a result become more focused in your career exploration and job search.

I know it sounds creepy, perhaps this blog might have been better timed in a month for Halloween, when talk of the dead and the undead is more socially acceptable. But I will venture forth in sharing a Sunday ritual I have had for years (not eating eye-of-newt, I promise):  I sit down in the morning and pore through the Sunday New York Times Obituaries.   As a career counselor, I have always found the profiles of people in their long career spans to be very compelling.  I can’t think of a better place to learn about the variety of careers available, nor to really illustrate the varying roles of fate, of ambition, of goals achieved and how unanticipated experiences have changed the course of people’s lives. When you read obituaries you also see how a personality, for example a style of leadership or capacity for empathy, can play a huge role in the nature of someone’s achievements.

While reading the obit articles can be sad because the lives described are at their ends, it is also thrilling to be reminded how much people can accomplish for society in how many ways.  If you are currently exploring your options, this is an unconventional, but inspiring approach to learn about the world of work.  These are some of the people profiled this week:

Entertainment/Communications Careers

Founding Force of the Big East Conference

Gavitt harnessed the burgeoning power of televised sports coverage with his nascent league to produce a powerful conference.

Man Who Shaped Miniature Golf

Mr. Lomma and his brother Alphonse are widely credited with having shaped the game’s familiar postwar incarnation

Painter and a Creator of Pop Art

Mr. Hamilton, whose sly, trenchant take on consumer culture and advertising made him a pioneering figure in Pop Art, was known for his cover design of the Beatles’ “White Album.”

Political Careers

Leader in Gay Rights Fight

Mr. Evans helped form and lead the movement that coalesced after gay people and their supporters protested a 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar.

Antiwar Leader in 1960s

Mr. Oglesby led Students for a Democratic Society as it publicly opposed the Vietnam War, and his speech “Let Us Shape the Future” is considered a landmark of American political rhetoric.

Charles Percy, Former Ill. Senator

Mr. Percy was a moderate Republican who clashed with President Richard M. Nixon over the Watergate scandal.

Education Careers

Man Who Fought Standardized Tests

Dr. Perrone’s ideas on flexible teaching methods led to a loose network of public alternative schools in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Cultural Musicologist

Christopher Small, a New Zealand-born writer and musicologist who argued that music is above all an active ritual involving those who play and listen to it

Judge and a Scholar

Mr. Asch, a judge with a Ph.D. in sociology, wrote scholarly works about civil liberties and made notable decisions about landlord-tenant law and gay employment.

Hi Tech Careers

Early Chronicler of Video Games

Mr. Kunkel helped start the first published gaming column in 1978, and later the first video game magazine.

Pioneer of E-Books

Mr. Hart began the digital library Project Gutenberg after a July 4 fireworks display, when he typed up the Declaration of Independence and made it available for download.

Builder of Cargo Container

Mr. Tantlinger is credited with creating, in the 1950s, the first commercially viable modern shipping container, which changed the way nations do business.

And, for the thrillseekers…

Daring Italian Mountaineer

Mr. Bonatti was a member of the Italian team that conquered K2 in northern Pakistan

Air and Land Daredevil

Ms. Skelton was a three-time national aerobatic women’s flight champion when she turned to race-car driving, then went on to exceed 300 m.p.h. in a jet-powered car.

What do you want to be remembered for?  I’ll close with a quote from my colleague John Tuton: “…our society focuses so much on the outward trappings of success like salary and possessions when folks are alive, but I’ve never seen a dollar sign on a tombstone.”

Summertime: Feelin’ Groovy

by Anne Lucas

Ah—summertime!  For many of us school is out, and it’s time for fun.  That said, I realize that we’re all pursuing different paths this summer.  What does summertime mean to you?  Perhaps you are working practically 24/7, aiming to succeed in an internship that might result in an attractive job offer.  Or maybe you finance a substantial part of your educational expenses so you are working two or three jobs, stashing away money to pay your tuition bill.

Some of you are seeing the world–vacationing, studying, or doing good works. Others of you still wish that you had found a summer job that provides good experience and/or decent wages.  (It may not be too late!) Whatever your circumstances, I hope you’ll devote some time to some important activities that I believe summer is intended for—rejuvenation and reflection.

We all have our preferred methods for recharging our batteries and making some space in our brains to daydream.  For me, there’s nothing like a long, solitary walk—preferably on a beach—to help me reflect on where I’ve been and plan where I’d like to be going.  Letting our minds wander a bit is not a waste of time—quite the contrary.  I believe that electronics-free, mind-wandering time is essential to helping us discover where our passions and dreams lie—and possibly begin to brainstorm as to how to achieve those dreams.

How many times do we hear employers insist that they seek candidates with a passion for their particular field?  How often do we hear that dreaded interview question, “Tell me about yourself?”  Yet how can we identify our passions or know ourselves well enough to share our insights with others unless we make and take the time for quiet self-discovery?  I submit that in order to get to know ourselves better—and thus be able to communicate our interests and strengths and reasoning to prospective employers—we need to slow down and give ourselves time to ponder.

What could be a better time for this slow down than summer!?!  There’s still time in the Summer of 2011 to prepare for your upcoming job or internship search during the next academic year.  July is almost over, but August lies ahead of us.  I hope you’ll carve out some time from whatever you’re doing to find a place that soothes your soul where you can breathe deeply, open your heart and mind to the possibilities, and dream.  When you’re back on campus this fall, make an appointment to meet with a career counselor at Penn, and let us help you translate your passions, skills, and dreams into a fulfilling career.

Happy R & R!  See you in September!

Embrace Your Strengths

By Claire Klieger

It sounds pretty obvious—understanding and being able to articulate your strengths will make you stand out to employers.  Regardless of your experiences, demonstrating how your abilities are central to the position make the case that you are qualified. But I often see students who, because of cultural reasons, low self-esteem, or lack of self-reflection, have trouble doing this. If you don’t feel comfortable talking about your strengths or even if you’re not sure what they may be, it’s a good time to do a little self-assessment.

You all have skills, many of them, in fact. You had to be amazing to be admitted to a place like Penn, and the fact that you are now surrounded by other extremely bright and talented individuals doesn’t lessen the strengths and abilities you possess. This is not like America’s Got Talent.  You don’t need to have a talent as overt as swallowing swords while juggling fire on a unicycle  (and thank goodness most of us don’t have to face interviewers with buzzers and buttons that display big red “X”s). Because many strengths are innate and come naturally to us, they may be easy for us to forgot or overlook.

Reacquaint yourself with the attributes that make you special by doing some introspection. Ask yourself, “what am I good at?” and “what comes easily to me?” Often times we also enjoy tasks in areas where we are naturally strong so you might also ask yourself what you seem to really enjoy. Another good way to do this and get some fresh perspective is to ask people you trust who know you well (parents, friends, mentors, etc.). Have them tell you in what areas they think you excel and what skills they see you practice almost effortlessly. The answers may surprise you and will certainly give you a boost in confidence.

Being aware of your strengths is not just essential to effectively present yourself to an employer; it also important in identifying jobs that might be a good fit.  In fact, there is evidence that picking a job or internship that allows you to use our talents on a regular basis impacts job satisfaction and productivity. A 2010 Gallup study found that only 28% of the working population is “engaged” (defined as “loyal and productive”) in their jobs. However, at organizations where the leadership was focused on employee’s strengths, 73% were engaged in the workplace. What does all of this mean? In short, you’re more likely to be successful and happy in your job if you are able to find something where your strengths and talents are utilized. So, before you start your next job or internship search, first, embrace your strengths!