Tag: Career

But I Just Got Here… Career Planning and One-Year Degrees

by Sharon Fleshman

Back when I used to advise mostly undergraduate students, I would encourage first-year students to get settled academically and socially and to take advantage of the numerous extracurricular and student leadership opportunities at Penn.  For the most part, there was no need for them to be preoccupied about career decisions at that early stage.  However, I now find myself working with a lot of graduate students who are in one-year master’s programs. In other words, students who are in their first year are also in their last year.  If you are one of those students, it can be a challenge to juggle your coursework, field placements/internships (in some cases) and the job search.

As you’ve likely discovered, your time at Penn will feel like a sprint.  In a race, pacing is critical.  On one hand, you do not want to exhaust yourself by starting out too quickly.  Don’t immerse yourself in career planning to the neglect of your studies or building relationships with classmates.  On the other hand, it is not a good idea to have such a slow pace to start that you wait too long to pick up speed.

To get started, I would strongly suggest getting familiar with the Career Services website, which has many resources that you can access at any time.  Here are some other tips that I hope will help you to make the most of your fall semester:

Join a Career Services graduate student distribution list so that you receive timely e-mails about programs, events and job opportunities related to your career goals.

Make sure that you are aware of the timetables of various industries as it relates to hiring. While many organizations hire on a just-in-time, as needed basis in the spring, others may begin their recruiting process in the fall.  For instance, many business and technical companies use On-Campus Recruiting in the fall.  As you can see from the most recent blogs, a number of career fairs are held in the fall as well.  Government agencies often have structured programs that may require early application. See our Make an Impact webpage for more information on opportunities in the federal government.

Tweak your resume so that it will be easy to update and ready when you start applying for jobs. The Career Services website has useful advice on resumes as well as resume samples based on your academic program or career interest.

Start researching career options and develop a list of preferred employers and job functions. Check out the Career Exploration section of our website. Sometimes it can also be helpful to look at job descriptions to determine what is ideal to you.  To help you with this, the Career Services website lists links to job listing and company/organization websites, classified by career field.  Attend career services programs that are relevant to careers that interest you.  The Fall 2010 program calendar for graduate students is available here.

Start building your network. As you begin to get a sense for the careers that you want to pursue, you should make plans to speak with people who are in those careers and can provide perspective and guidance. The Penn Alumni Career Network and LinkedIn are two great places to start, particularly with informational interviewing.

Start planning for recommendation letters as necessary. While many employers request contacts for references by phone, there are some fields, such as K-12 teaching, that require letters of recommendation.  If your chosen career field requires a letter of recommendation or you anticipate pursuing doctoral studies at some point, start thinking about potential recommenders, including professors or field supervisors who you will encounter this fall.  Advice on requesting letters is available on our website. For online storage of confidential recommendation letters, Career Services has partnered with Interfolio. If you plan on applying for additional graduate school in the near future, speak with one of our Pre-Grad Advisors.

Get Organized. Even what I’ve mentioned above may seem overwhelming in terms of getting started.  Try to schedule your career planning so that you can be sure it’s not taking up too much (or too little) space on your calendar. Have some kind of system in place based on what works best for you.  For example, you might decide to dedicate a couple of hours each week to researching career options and conduct at least two information interviews per month.

Talk to a Career Services advisor.  It is often helpful to have a listening ear as you brainstorm about career options and networking/job search strategies, or make decisions about job offers. It is always necessary to have a second pair of eyes as you put the finishing touches on that resume. Perhaps you just need some assistance in getting organized. Wherever you find yourself in the career planning process, be assured that Career Services counselors are available to help you as you prepare to cross the finish line into next phase of your career.

A Day in the Life: Educational Non-Profits

Jason Chan
Jason Chan

Read Jason Chan’s archived tweet feed here: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/JasonChan_Feed.pdf

If you’re interested in education, there are many alternatives to teaching or working in a school, whether it is an elementary school or university.  On Tuesday, September 28th Jason Chan (SAS ’02) will highlight one of these alternatives when he tweets for @PennCareerDay about his career with an educational non-profit.

Jason Chan is the Director of Scholar & Alumni Programs at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), where he serves as a student advisor and oversees a portfolio of academic support, leadership development, and community-building programs designed for recipients of the APIASF and Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) scholarship awards.

Prior to APIASF, Jason was a graduate coordinator in both the student conduct and multicultural affairs offices at the University of Maryland-College Park. In addition to advising student organizations and campus leaders, he also facilitated intergroup dialogues and co-taught a course on leadership and race. Jason has also worked at City Year, a national non-profit community service organization, as an AmeriCorps volunteer and a full-time staff member. There, he taught diversity curricula to Boston public school students, managed neighborhood service-learning programs, led teams of volunteers in service, and supported City Year’s recruitment and admissions functions.

 

Jason has a M. Ed. in College Student Personnel from the University of Maryland-College Park, and a B.A. in Psychology and Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania.

Connect with Jason:

Your Career: It’s a Family Affair

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family” (Anthony Brandt)

One of the most interesting classes I took in graduate school included a project where students created a “family tree” of relatives’ professions, going as far back as possible in their family history.  The goal behind the exercise was to learn about family impact on individuals’ career choices.  Sometimes family influence, especially parental expectations, has an obvious impact: ie “I am paying for your Penn education to get you the best pre-med training possible” – other times, it is much more subtle – ie “We just want you to be fulfilled and productive.”

When I have a career counseling session with a student, I am aware that in some way their family is in the room with us.   Families influence what we value (money, prestige, productivity, intellectual achievement, helping others).  Families influence the geographic regions we think are open to us in our work.  Families influence what occupations we are exposed to: know any Resort and Panoramic Illustrators?  How might you know to pursue a career like that unless your parents were skiers or you were raised at 5,000ft?

This is part of my family tree:

What are the themes here?  Is it surprising I might be a career counselor at an institution like Penn?  Even though no one in my family has held my kind of job before, most of my family’s career paths involved teaching and “helping” positions working with people.  Skills required: strong communication, assessment and problem solving, empathy.   Most of my family worked for themselves in private practices or worked in educational institutions.  No one (in all three generations) chose to spend time in corporate environments. Another theme is the level of education in my family.  My family let me know that they expected educational achievement and success but beyond that I got no direct instruction on what I “should be” professionally.  Despite this apparent freedom to choose, it’s easy to see in my case, that “the apple falls not far from the tree.”

Have you thought about the ways in which you have skills, interests, and other experiences in common with your family?  What have you considered to be an option, but don’t know anyone who has done it before?  What choices have already been made for you?  How important is your family to your career plans?  These topics are great for you to explore on your own, or with a career advisor.

Here is a link for parents about career planning for Penn students.  If this really interests you, you may have a career in genealogy to consider….

Need a Break?

by Shannon Kelly

As we approach August, arguably the last month of summer, I want to remind you to take a break! When I think of summer I think of the shore (or beach if you don’t go to New Jersey), Phillies baseball games and barbecues.  However, for many in the professional world, summer is a time characterized by professional development conferences, summer projects, working on annual reports, etc.  The summer can easily fly by and before you know it, it’s August (aka less than 2 days from now) and your window of vacation opportunity is closing.

via mandolin davis on Flickr

It is important to take care of your professional responsibilities, but it is equally important to not burn out.  If you burn out,  your productivity at work will likely nose dive and your ability to execute your responsibilities effectively will go with it.   You don’t want that, period.

Time away from email, the daily grind and just unplugging from regular life is priceless.  We are only human and do need a break every now and again to re-charge.  So whether you can take two weeks, or two days, I encourage you to take advantage of vacation time.  It is there, use it before you lose it (or your mind).

And the Offer Goes To…

By Claire Klieger

No, it’s not Oscar time, but the sense of anticipation or anxiety about whether or not you might get a full-time offer from your summer employer can be just as intense for rising seniors.  However, only a few industries (consulting, financial services, consumer products and technology) typically make post-graduate full-time offers almost a year before you would actually be starting in that position. This is because of the cyclical nature of entry-level roles in those fields—that it is common for people to work for two years and then leave—which allows those employers to predict so far in advance what their hiring needs will be for the upcoming year.  For this very reason, these are the same employers that often participate in on-campus recruiting, so, if you secured your internship through OCR it’s very possible your firm will be making full-time offers to some interns at some point in late summer or early fall.

Regardless of what type of organization you’re working with this summer, if you’re interested in future opportunities with your employer, there are ways to broach the topic with your supervisor. How you approach it depends on your experience at the organization and how serious you are about really wanting to work there.  Here are some tips:

1. Demonstrate your interest. Start by thanking your supervisor for your wonderful learning experience this summer. Explain how the experience has helped you realize that you are really interested in pursuing a career in… (whatever type of work you’re interested in at the organization). Then say that you would certainly be interested in future opportunities at the organization and ask if it would be possible to stay in touch throughout the year.

2. Don’t give a false impression. Be wary of giving the false impression that you would –definitely- work there if you had an offer if that’s not really the case. Avoid saying things like, “I would jump at the chance to work here full time” (unless you actually mean it—as in, if they offered you a job tomorrow you would say yes without hesitation).  The last thing you want to do is give the impression that you would accept an offer if made if you’re not sure that’s true. Remember, the working world is small and you don’t want to burn bridges.

3. Express your interest in future opportunities without committing yourself to anything. You could say something like, “I’ve had a wonderful experience this summer and I really appreciate the opportunities afforded me and all that I’ve learned.  I realize you probably don’t know what your future hiring needs may be, but I’d certainly be open to opportunities that may present themselves in the future.” Notice how I didn’t say “love” or “definitely” or “thrilled” anywhere in there?

4. If you had a negative experience, don’t push for an offer. If you know that you would never in a million years take a full time job with your employer, don’t initiate any kind of conversation like this. Instead, figure out how to focus on the positive of that experience so you can talk effectively about it in future interviews (we can help!).