Job Hunt – Page 4 – Penn & Beyond

Strategic Self-Assessment

By Sharon Fleshman

Whether you are exploring careers, conducting a job search, or contemplating a career change, self-assessment can energize the process. Begin by reflecting on your previous jobs, projects and activities. Don’t limit yourself to the experiences which seem most related to your immediate career goals. Try to move beyond occupations and job titles. Take a look at your resume or CV and go line by line. Identify where you made the most impact and what gave you the greatest sense of fulfillment.

Next, you’ll want to pinpoint skills that emerge from these experiences. Chances are that these skills can transfer to a variety of career options. For example, research skills could be applied to meaningful work in any number of areas such as academia, program evaluation for a non-profit, or marketing research for a corporation.

In addition to skills, think about what you valued in past experiences in which you found meaning and success. Identifying your work values will help you to consider the work environment which is the best fit for you. In other words, you could perform the same job in two different settings but find that you thrive much more in one setting than the other. What about your interests? Perhaps they would provide clues as to what’s next on your career path. It may be that you decide to try out some career options by way of internships, volunteer work, or short-term projects to tease out all of this information. There’s nothing quite like hands-on experience to provide a fresh perspective.

Finally, you will need to consider the current priorities in your life and how they relate to your job search. Are you willing to relocate or do personal commitments limit your geographical options? How do your immediate financial needs affect your choices?

You will find that self-assessment not only helps you identify potential career paths, but prepares you for next steps in the job search. Your networking meetings will be more focused and fruitful because you have done your homework. Your resumes, cover letters, and interviews will be more compelling because you have taken a thorough inventory of what energizes you, what matters to you, and what you have to offer.

In addition to our Career Discovery webpages, there are a number of tools and inventories that can help you facilitate the self-assessment process. As always, Career Services advisors are available to provide guidance as well. Enjoy your summer!

MAYBERRY R.F.D.- Looking Back and Looking Forward

By Anne Guldin Lucas

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXw0RpWRZC4&w=480&h=390]

Most of our blog readers are probably too young to remember Mayberry R.F.D. (starring Andy Griffith and Ron Howard as a boy) on TV—unless it’s popular in reruns or in DVD collections. Although my life wasn’t quite as hokey as it was for the characters in Mayberry, the 60s were indeed simpler times. In my neighborhood, on summer evenings we literally sat on our porches playing cards, and drinking root beer floats or lemonade. (Personally I never did care for Cherry Coke.)

Last weekend a longtime friend and his family visited us as they were passing through our area. So please excuse me if this Baby Boomer becomes a bit nostalgic. I promise there’s a point that will eventually relate to careers (sort of).

My friend arrived with his wife and the youngest of his three children—a 12-year-old daughter. When my friend and I were twelve, we were neighbors, school mates, and members of the same swim team. So we spent a lot of time together in our youth. Since this friend and I have never lived in the same location since our college summers, it still feels strange to see him as an adult, with a wife and family. I remember us as the same age as his 12-year-old daughter–braces and all! (In fact, I got my braces off on the last day of 6th grade–the12th birthday of this same friend!)

Yet here we were last weekend—adults—middle-aged ones now, with jobs and families, sitting on the terrace of my house—MY house, not my parents’ house (or porch!). Who could have imagined that we would actually grow up into reasonably responsible adults who owned homes, held jobs, and raised families?

Aha—that’s the point! It happens to all of us. Whether we had a plan when we graduated from college or whether it took years and some job changes, we do eventually grow up. Whether it’s a straight line or a crooked path, somehow, we usually find our way to a good place—to jobs we enjoy and valued relationships that are so important to a life well lived.

During the past few weeks in my office at Penn I’ve met with triumphant students who are negotiating job offers and making plans to find apartments and move to new cities. Congratulations to those of you who fit into this category; I know you’ve worked hard. I’ve also met with students who feel as if they are the only one without a job and a definite plan for after graduation. I can assure you that you are not alone in this situation. You have also worked hard, making the most of your precious time at Penn, and you deserve to celebrate Commencement just as enthusiastically as your already employed peers.

MANY Penn seniors will wait until after graduation to begin or to resume a job search. It’s okay. In fact, despite the presence of Career Counselor Mother (obviously not to be confused with Tiger Mother) in their lives, neither of my young adult children had jobs upon graduation or had even begun their job searches at the time they walked up on the stage for their undergraduate diplomas. They are now both gainfully employed, living independently, and one has even earned an MBA. Believe me—you too will visit an old friend thirty or forty years from now and realize that amazingly, you found direction in your life—and the anxiety surrounding your first post-college job search will have faded into a blurred memory.

Although I have tried repeatedly to find a magic wand and crystal ball to aid me in helping you with your career exploration and decision making, there is ultimately no magic available to make this journey easier. There may be serendipity along the way—and I wish you a healthy dose of it. However, I suspect it will take some work and some self-analysis for you to merge your interests, talents, and experiences into a career choice and successful job search.

Please remember that you have lots of people to support you and cheer you on as you begin or continue on the journey to YOUR adulthood and independence—to YOUR own terrace or porch. You know how to find us in Career Services. Please reach out and let us know how we can help you get started on the path to your porch—and if you should happen to stumble upon a magic wand or crystal ball, feel free to bring that along too. Maybe we can use it to look to a future with a little more Mayberry in it for us all!

Good luck with exams, hearty congratulations to the Class of 2011, and Happy Summer Vacation to all!

A Day in the Life: Healthcare Venture Capitalist

Next Tuesday, April 19th follow @PennCareerDay on Twitter to learn about another path in the wide world of venture capital – healthcare. Ambar Bhattacharyya (SAS ’03) will contribute and talk about his career at Bessemer Venture Partners. If you’re interested in healthcare or venture capital – follow Ambar next week! Read more about Ambar below.

Ambar Bhattacharyya is a senior associate in BVP’s Cambridge, MA office. He focuses on investments in early- and growth-stage healthcare companies and has been involved in Bessemer’s investments in Verastem and On-Q-ity.

Prior to joining Bessemer, Ambar worked as an associate at Bain Capital Ventures. There, he helped make investments in companies such as Ameritox, Accelecare, LinkedIn, iPay Technologies (acq. by Jack Henry), TargetSpot, and VMLogix (acq. by Citrix). He also served as a board observer for VMLogix, TargetSpot and EyeTel Imaging (acq. by Neurometrix). Before Bain Capital, Ambar was the assistant to the CEO at MinuteClinic, a company that runs health clinics staffed by nurse practitioners inside retail settings and was acquired by CVS. He began his career at Bain & Co. where he worked on projects across various industries, including healthcare, business services and technology, as well as for non-profit clients at The Bridgespan Group. After attending business school, Ambar interned with the City of Fremont, CA, where he helped the city develop its clean-tech strategy.

Ambar holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated magna cum laude. While at Penn, Ambar co-founded the Philadelphia chapter of Asha for Education, a non-profit focused on improving education in India. Ambar is on Twitter at @AmbarBh and regularly blogs on his own site and at The Healthcare Breakfast Club.

Technology Careers 101: A Whole World Beyond Google, Facebook, and Apple Awaits You

by Brandi Durkac

Social media, cloud computing, and mobile devices… oh my! Just by reading this blog, you have already demonstrated expertise and interest in using social media (what a blog is), the cloud (where the blog sits in cyberspace), and mobile devices (most likely how you accessed the blog). If you are an avid user of technology and are interested in exploring careers in the technology sector, you may have a great predisposition to thrive in the fast-paced, ever-changing, and potentially lucrative world of technology.

Although there are a myriad of opportunities for programmers and coders, you don’t need to be a computer science major to work at a technology company. Nor do you need to limit your search to only brand-named giants like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple. Some of the fastest-growing tech companies are not household names but are shaping emerging technologies in the cloud computing, biotechnology, solar energy, nanotechnology, software security, and social media. Check out Forbes latest annual report on the 25 fastest-growing tech companies.

Helpful Tips:

1) Where to Start: There are pros and cons to working in medium-to-large companies versus in smaller, start-up environments. Industry-leading Silicon Valley companies like Google, Apple, Oracle, Cisco, Genentech, and Salesforce.com, as well as established goliaths like IBM, Dell, Microsoft, and Amazon.com, have formal college recruiting targeted towards undergraduates. In addition to product development, some of these companies also offer internships in sales & business development, marketing, and customer support as a great way to get in the door. These larger companies often provide excellent training programs and opportunities for lateral and upward mobility in the organization. However, if an enormous corporate setting isn’t for you, there are also start-ups and smaller, fast-growing companies that are eager to find talented, motivated young people to help them build their company. Emerging enterprise social software companies like Lithium Technologies, Jive Software, LivePerson, Mzinga, and Drupal offer exciting opportunities in a fun, more intimate work environments that may be better suited for you.

2) Getting in the Door: There is no better way to get into technology companies than to use technology! A great place to start is with the Penn alumni network on LinkedIn and QuakerNet. See if you can find an alumnus/alumna working at these companies who would be willing to schedule an informational interview with you. If they think you would be a good fit and can help you, the good news is that you may also help them. Many companies offer referral bonuses to current employees that help recruit talented individuals to join the organization. Do your homework ahead of time to learn about what the company does and what jobs might be available on these companies’ websites.

3) Finding Your Niche: Remember that where you start is not likely where you will end up. The goal is to get in the door at a company that is financially stable and can offer you room to grow. The technology world is constantly changing – remember how quickly MySpace went from hot to not? – which will always present new and exciting opportunities for you. The more exposure you can get to different departments and functions within the company, the better off you will be. You will need to decide which side of the company you are better suited for: internal-facing operations and product development or external-facing sales, marketing, and support. I found sales to be a great first career for me to gain exposure to many departments in a company, to learn how companies make decisions, and to build a strong foundation of transferrable business skills that will be useful in any career, including working in higher education.

4) How To Learn More: You may be wondering about the best way to start learning technology jargon and industry lingo. I would recommend a combination of YouTube videos, industry publications, and helpful websites, such as Inc., Wired, Fast Company, and InfoWorld to bring you up to speed. Salesforce.com has published several excellent YouTube videos on cloud computing, which provide an easy-to-understand definition of “the stack” – the hardware infrastructure, database servers, application servers, web servers, user interfaces, and application interfaces upon which any software application runs — and explain why most companies are moving towards cloud computing platforms. 100 Best Companies to Work For is another great resource to help focus your search.

The sky is the limit! Reach for the clouds and you just may end up working in one.

About the author: Brandi received a B.S. in Economics and Spanish from the University of Virginia. She spent ten years working in Silicon Valley at Kana Software, Inc. and Salesforce.com, Inc. and is now completing her M.S.Ed. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania.