Tag: career goals

Achieving Career Goals with a Personal Board of Advisors

Many of you have successfully identified either short-term or long-term career goals but can still struggle with how to “get from here to there” with your plans. If you stop to think about it, you can probably identify some of the things that have helped you achieved past goals you have set for yourself.

What helps us achieve a goal or purpose?

  • Clarity of understanding, enthusiasm or motivation for a goal
  • Information and access to resources
  • Ability to take risks and to take action
  • Accountability (holding self to course of action)
  • Ability to learn from experience, gain insight
  • Recognition of accomplishment (keeps us motivated to tackle the next thing on our list)

A mentor or advisor is someone who can add to our abilities in each of the areas above; who can accelerate the process of attaining goals, minimize both the effects and frequency of derailments, and expand our knowledge as we progress from goal to goal, and celebrate achievements.  That being said, most mentors and advisors do not have every skill or expertise you will need to develop to move ahead in your own professional development.  For example, a great researcher isn’t always a great communicator; a great writer may not be a great connector.  This is where the idea behind having a personal board of advisors for your career comes in:  rather than relying on a single advisor, you are more likely to succeed if you reach out to more people, and have their complementary skills and strengths serve your varying needs and goals.   This is a very strategic form of networking for professional development.

Does this idea intrigue you?  Here are some guidelines for creating a personal board of advisors for your career:

  • Identify people with strengths or experience you seek
  • Identify people with connections to others, or connections to resources that can help you
  • Identify people you respect but who have differing perspectives than your own
  • Identify people who will help you stay accountable

Think about a consortium of 4-5 people that would together have the expertise to meet your short term, and even some long term goals.  Who do you already know that fits one or more of the above criteria?  Personal advisory boards can be made up of individuals from any part of your life; not just school or work: family, friends, teachers, former supervisors, current advisors, coaches, leaders in certain fields of interest, alumni of your school or program.

For example, one of my current career goals is to develop my strengths related to leading a team. My board of advisors currently looks like this:

  • 2 former supervisors who have a lot of experience in my field, career counseling graduate students (strengths and connections)
  • 1 cousin, who has significant managerial experience in a totally different field, management consulting (differing perspectives)
  • 2 friends from graduate school, who provide psychological support, have seen my career grow over time (more than 15 years!), and serve as “cheerleaders” (keep me accountable, recognize accomplishments)

What do you need to do to make the most of the “wisdom” or strengths of your career advisory board?

  • Be prepared to discuss your goal(s)
  • Develop the ability to discuss both strengths and weakness; self-insight is required for this
  • Be open to feedback; and be willing to do things differently or see things differently
  • Have regular contact, including follow up after each interaction
  • Express gratitude and reciprocity (be engaged, appreciate your advisors’ efforts, and even offer to help others)

For more information on this concept, read some of the many articles online (some great ones are linked below), and share your networking and professional development goals by making an appointment with a Penn Career Services advisor: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/appointments

Personal Board of Advisors articles:

Advice From Your Peers: PennDesign Grads “Tell It Like It Is”

Each year, PennDesign students regularly connect with Career Services as a resource in their job search efforts.  And each year, the Career Services graduate student and postdoc advising team asks recent graduates of PennDesign to share what worked best for them in finding post-graduation employment.   We conduct “Career Plans Surveys” of recent PennDesign graduates, where they report data about their current employers, positions, and plans as well as share their advice for current students.  Below are just a sample of the responses we received very recently – each with some direct and doable suggestions for making the most of your time and the resources here at Penn.  Even if you just skim through the quotes from these 2014 grads, you will get a sense of recurring themes: network, go to career fairs (especially the PennDesign Career Connection Day fair, in late March every year), know your faculty and ask them for assistance, explore online job boards and resources in your career field, and visit Career Services.  Read on:

Advice from your PennDesign Peers

Send out work samples to as many firms as possible, talk to people at career fairs and follow up with emails. (MLARC 2014)

I contacted former professors, colleagues from internships, and Penn alums. I also looked for job postings through the ASLA and Land8. The job I ultimately got was through a contact with a Penn alum who I have known since before graduate school. (MLARC 2014)

I accepted a temporary position for a project that really excites me and hope to use it as a launching point for a long-term position in the same area. My typical job search strategy involves talking to as many people as possible, using idealist.org and other list serves, and inviting people out for informational lunches. I have found that the best way to get an interview is through personal connections or relationships rather than applying to a listed position. I have also been hired after cold emailing – the firm was actually looking for something even though they hadn’t posted an official position yet. (MCP, 2014)

I probably spent the most effort looking at the multiple jobs boards that are likely to offer listings for Planning students. These include Planetizen, planning.org, and uli.selectleaders.com, all of which have a frequently-used jobs section. In addition, I was happy to attend the Design School career fairs – but I made sure to be selective, and make the firms make their pitch to me as much as I was pitching myself to them. You must carve out time and motivation to send out applications. Treat it as a job, one that you schedule on your calendar. Also, try to apply to some “safety” positions first – ones that might be good but not your most tantalizing ones. This helps you work out some kinks and get overall practice honing your resume, letter-writing, and even interview skills. Talk to other students! They can always give you new ideas on where to look and who to talk to. (MCP 2014)

Use Career Services as much as possible, particularly in refining your resume and cover letter and performing mock interviews. They are exceedingly helpful processes. QuakerNet is also a spectacular resource for finding alumni in relevant fields and relevant locations. (MCP 2014)

I built my online portfolio and used it as my application material to apply for product designer jobs. I had a list of potential employers and I found all job vacancies from their official website. I also got some part-time offers from dribbble.com because I posted my professional works and self-started works there. (MArch, 2014)

I had a spreadsheet with offices I’ve been interested in since my 500 year. I used this sheet to organize my internship applications, and I kept coming back to this spreadsheet to keep myself focused on a specific type and location of office. As I attended events and met friends of friends, I would naturally expand my network, often into some of the firms that I had listed. By the time I was ready to graduate, I feel I had a strong enough network that allowed me to cut through a lot of the process and really speed up the path from making a phone call to interviewing to receiving an offer. (MArch 2014)

Be selective about the number of firms you’re applying for and send out specific work samples and cover letters tailored to the firm.  Also, don’t be intimidated or afraid of online postings.  I wanted to work for a small firm and ended up connecting with a previous undergraduate alum with a PennDesign employee and a wife who graduated from PennDesign from an ad posting on Archinect.  Also, don’t be afraid to use professors as a resource.  From my experience, they are always willing to help. (MArch, 2014)

My advice is to stay active by interning, volunteering or freelancing until you find the right fit. Use all of your resources and apply even if you don’t think you’ll meet all of the qualifications but know it’s a job you are willing to do extra work for to make up for some skills you may be lacking. (MUSA 2014)

Networking is the key in finding a job. (MUSA 2014)

One of the pieces of advice that I found useful was to go to all possible career fairs and talk to the potential employers, it built my confidence and I also got some of the best advice from them. My advice is to have a good relationship with the faculty since a lot of opportunities come through them– having some amount of part time experience also helps during the interview. (MUSA 2014)   

See the latest data from the 2014 PennDesign Career Plans survey and be sure to follow up with Career Services – we are here to help!                                                                                    

Research employers and improve your job application ROI!

Researching potential employers is a critical element of every job or internship search.  It is extremely important when you need to identify your options, and necessary during the application and interview stage for you to successfully communicate the match between a prospective employer’s needs and your relevant skills and experience.  In fact, it may be the best investment of your time and effort that will simultaneously 1) boost your ability to stand out in a sea of other applicants and 2) give you the confidence to know that you are aiming for opportunities that will be a good fit.

Many of you may be familiar with academic institutions, but there are many other types of organizational settings and structures.  Before you are called to interview, do your best to find out the following about any prospective employer:

  • Mission; product/service: what is the purpose of this company/organization?
  • “Clients” and competitors: who receives the services of this company, and who else is targeting this group with their services?
  • Structure and management, organizational culture
  • Sector: nonprofit, for-profit (private sector), public (government agency)
  • Financial health 
  • The hiring process

Career Services offers several online resources through our library subscriptions pages to help you research potential employers.  You must log in with your PennKey and password to access the subscriptions, which are listed alphabetically.

  • For those interested in exploring industries such as consulting, healthcare, and investment banking, Wetfeet.com and Vault.com are particularly useful.  These reference resources allow you to read overviews of various major industries, discover the “major players” (i.e., biggest, influential companies), and learn more about typical position types within each industry.
  • We also subscribe to ReferenceUSA, which provides contact information as well as specific company data for United States businesses in particular (as well as some Canadian and other international businesses).  If you use the advanced search option, you can get information on credit ratings, company histories, executives’ names, and even the company’s local “competitors.”
  • Finally, for international students, GoinGlobal and H1VisaJobs offer databases which can help you identify the companies who have applied to the federal government recently for H1Visas (this gives you a head start if you know a company is willing to hire international candidates, or is familiar with H1 Visa hiring procedures.)  GoinGlobal also lists salary information for specific job titles – a very helpful tool whether or not you are an international student.

Use networking as a means to find out employer or industry information you can’t get through your online research.  If you are a current Penn student or alumnus/a, be sure to use QuakerNet (Penn Alumni Online Community) to identify alumni who can give you the “inside scoop” on a particular organization or field.  LinkedIn is also a great resource – read these Program Notes to find out how to optimize your LinkedIn experience in your career exploration and job search.

Once you use these resources to research an employer, you will be better able to: connect your accomplishments to the performance criteria that the organization is seeking; identify the most important skills, qualifications and experiences that are in demand in a given industry; assess an organization’s potential workplace needs and how you can contribute given your work style; show how your goals match those of the company (given its mission, size, structure, and market specialization).   And in communicating all the above, you will greatly increase your chances of getting job offers!

If you have any questions or would like some guidance in how to use these resources in your career exploration and job search, please connect with a career advisor.  You can find information on how to do that here:
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/appointments.

Advice from Your Peers: Penn Doctoral Students on the Job Search

Have you wondered how Penn PhDs are using Career Services in their job search efforts?  Each year, Career Services works with hundreds of Penn doctoral students and postdocs in their career exploration, planning and job search efforts.   We also conduct “Career Plans Surveys” of recent PhD graduates, to find out their post-graduation plans and to ask them to share their advice with current students.  Below are just a sample of the responses we have received very recently – each with some direct and doable suggestions for making the most of your time and the resources here at Penn.  These graduates, representing a wide variety of disciplines, utilized Career Services for doctoral students/postdocs as one component of their job search efforts. We encourage you take advantage of their insights:

Linguistics PhD (2012), currently a lecturer at a university in the United Kingdom:  
“I made heavy use of the Academic Job Search Handbook, the sample materials available on the Career Services website (and similar materials on the website of Berkeley’s Career Center), and one-on-one meetings with Career Services staff. I strongly think knowing how to craft a well-formulated research statement and cover letter helped me get a leg up, because I was short-listed for two jobs in departments where I didn’t have any close contacts, and I really think that was due to how I sold myself in my application materials. That said, for the one offer I did end up getting, I had three close faculty contacts in the department: so there is a large element of networking and luck in the process. But I do really feel that Career Services helped to demystify the process and show me how to write about my work in a promising and intelligent way.”

Sociology PhD (2012), currently a postdoc at a R1 institution:
“One of my committee members hired me for a project he is working on.  In terms of advice I’d give other students, I’d say develop ties with academic people outside of your committee, talk to people in your field, meet as many people as possible.  Also I would highly recommend using Career Services.  Although that’s not how I got this job, I had interviews thanks to the help I got from the career advisors at Penn.”  (Check out Career Services resources on the academic job search.)

Bioengineering PhD (2012) currently a consultant with an international management consulting firm:
“I went to Career Services first to get my first few concrete steps, which were to write a resume along with reaching out to alumni on PACnet (now called QuakerNet). The initial networking and research helped me determine which field I wanted to pursue first, so I could focus the limited time and energy I had on optimizing my resume and cover letter for that niche. I then went to Career Services about eight more times to hone my resume and cover letter, so I had a solid platform to apply to many jobs quickly.  After that, I reached out to anyone who would talk to me in that field to either get advice or do case studies.  Pithy advice: prioritize; get an outside coach who knows the process to let you know where you should focus your energies because you can’t do everything.” (Click here for information on consulting for PhDs.)

Communications PhD (2013), currently a postdoc at a R1 institution:
“1. Create a list of what you want out of a career, what you enjoy doing, what you are good at doing, and where you would like to live.
2. Networking throughout the entire time as a student is important to get to know organizations, institutions, or individuals who do similar types of work or research. This could be at informal meetings, lunch seminars, conferences. And it helps to inform your choices of courses, projects, and research topics during the program. Don’t wait until the last year to do this.*
3. Start about a year before the expected date of graduation to scan through position announcements that seem to match those in the list and get a sense of skills and responsibilities that are required.
4. Attend many of the excellent Career Services workshops; make appointments with the CS advisors along every stage of the job search process.
5. Keep in touch with your referees during the search process about your plans, outcomes from interviews, etc.
6. Before interviewing, talk to as many people as possible who are familiar about the organization e.g., alumni, advisors, or faculty.
7. Staying positive and keeping the search in perspective and balancing the search with other daily demands is really important too.
8. Thank everyone who helped you and gave advice along the way.”

* View our suggested PhD career planning steps/timeline here.

Speaking of “thanks”…..  Career Services is grateful for all the doctoral students who fill out our surveys and take the time to share their advice with us on behalf of their peers.