Thoughtful Career Advice for Penn Students and Alumni, written by the staff of the University of Pennsylvania Career Services office and selected special guests.
A colleague sent this video clip to me, it’s pretty funny, though you can see the punch line coming a mile away.
The kernel of truth in the silly scenario is that despite the fact “it’s not brain surgery” – or rocket science – people really do have problems connecting with others, especially in networking environments. You might be brilliant in your studies or your field (or perhaps just a little arrogant), but it really does take practice for some people to know how to talk about themselves in a way that is engaging or even accessible to acquaintances. Even more importantly, being able show an interest in others, and to ask good questions, will get you as far as any impressive accomplishment you have under your belt. Networking is a skill that you will need to find a job and to stay up in your profession. And, I will dare to say… networking can also be really helpful, fun and interesting.
You asked for it, you got it! PennLink, the Career Services job board and OCR manager, is now available in a mobile version! Whether you’re on an Anroid, an iPhone, a Windows 7 phone, a tablet computer, ebook reader or any other portable device, you can now access and use PennLink easily!
The mobile version of the site activates automatically when you visit, instantly detecting your mobile device. There’s no special app to install and one particular kind of phone or tablet is not favored over the other. Though the screenshots below are from an iPhone and an iPad, your mobile PennLink experience should be the same across devices.
Because the main Career Services website isn’t totally mobile friendly yet (But trust me, I’m working on it for 2012!), I’ve created a shortcut to our mobile portal for you here and on our homepage, so you don’t have to navigate through a lot of layers. I highly recommend bookmarking this page on your device or adding it to your homescreen so you can quickly return whenever you want.
From our mobile portal, follow the link to the PennLink log-in page. Just like on our desktop version, you have the choice between logging in using your PennKey (most current students) or using your e-mail address (mostly alumni). Be sure to select the proper entryway, just as you do on the regular site:
Important tip!
Our good friend at Simplicity, who created and maintain the PennLink software, have thoughtfully included a way for you to add a shortcut straight to the PennLink log in screen from your home screen and you may get a pop-up bubble asking you to do so. DON’T DO IT! As great an idea as this may sound, that particular shortcut is not currently compatible with our PennKey system. Technicians are working on this bug and we’ll let you know when it’s resolved. In the meantime, bookmark our mobile portal as suggested above.
Sorry, folks
Once you are logged in, nearly all of PennLink is at your fingertips!
Want to see the schedule of upcoming Career Fairs and who’s attending? Check. Want to find out which Employer Information Sessions are coming up soon? Check. Want to add those information sessions to your mobile calendar? Check.
Of course, what a lot of you want to do is be able to search and apply for jobs. We’ve got you covered. The PennLink mobile site has a complete listing of OCR and non-OCR job postings! You can search for jobs just like you can on the desktop site (all your jobs and employers previously marked as favorites will be intact too) and submit your application directly from the mobile site using the resumes and cover letters you already have uploaded to your “Documents” tab.
Note: PennLink Mobile does not currently support uploading new files to your Documents tab, so make sure that you have already uploaded your most up to date documents!
The PennLink Mobile site is just the first phase of an ongoing effort by Career Services to completely revamp our online resources and make them accessible in the way you want them to be. If you have suggestions about the PennLink Mobile site, please let us know in the comments below. We’ve only been live for about four days, so if you find any bugs or note that something is not as intuitive as it should be, tell us! We hope that come the spring semester, the mobile version of PennLink will be a popular and easy resource for students on the go.
From all of us at Career Services, we wish you and your families a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
Our office, including the Career Services library, will be closing at 2pm on Wednesday, November 23 and will re-open on Monday, November 28th.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Remember that even while we’re closed, the Career Services website and this blog contain lots of valuable information that is at your disposal over the break.
Have a wonderful holiday. We look forward to seeing you on Monday.
I hope everyone has been following Penn alumna Ada Chen as she live Tweets her day as an employee of LinkedIn today on our @PennCareerDay feed!
Ada has been working with us all month to highlight opportunities at LinkedIn and also telling us about her career working in (and then creating her own) start-ups! She wrote a great guest blog about it a few days ago that you really have to read.
Our friends at onlineuniversites.com (who recently named us one of the Top 25 College Career Center Blogs) wrote a great article today about how you can use LinkedIn’s Classmates Tool that I think will be of interest to anyone who has been reading Ada’s day-in-the-life tweets today. You can catch it here.
The 2011-2012 edition of Pathways: The Career Services Manual is now available online!
Pathways is prepared each school year to provide students, parents, alumni and employers with an overview of the Career Services office. Inside, you’ll find sample resumes and cover letters, guidelines for On Campus Recruiting, information about career fairs, interview advice and even examples of business etiquette and attire.
Physical copies of the book are available year-round in our office, as well as other major campus hubs and resources centers. Incoming freshmen and new graduate students may be given a copy as part of their new student orientation and parents can pick up copies during move-in or over Parent’s Weekend in the fall.
This year, we are also please to provide two electronic editions. A PDF version for your PC, Mac or Amazon Kindle and an ePub version for your iOS device, Nook or other completable e-reader. Click on the link of your choice now and begin utilizing the many resources that Pathways has to offer, as the summer winds down and we gear up for yet another exciting year here at Penn.
