Tag: Job Hunt

Why Reneging on an Offer is Bad for Your Career Mojo

By Claire Klieger

This is the time of year when people start to feel desperate about jobs or internships and may be tempted to accept something, anything, just because it’s a job and a job right before graduation equals peace of mind. So you’re thrilled to get any offer and you say yes so your parents and friends will stop hounding you about what you’re doing after the semester is over and you breathe a big sigh of relief. I mean, ok, so it’s not your dream job but the places you were really excited about never called you back. Except…sometimes they do.

Occasionally, you’ll later hear from an employer that you’re a lot more excited about that you’re invited for an interview or even that you have been offered the position. And here’s where things get difficult. You may hear from family members and friends things like, “Awesome!  Just back out of that other job offer. What does it matter now that you have what you want? Plus, if you’ve just said yes on the phone and haven’t actually signed anything, it’s not like it’s legally binding anyway.” However tempting, this is seriously bad counsel.

Despite what you may hear, employers consider a verbal acceptance as good as signing a contract. While you’re not legally obligated, you’ve made a verbal commitment and there are definite consequences to reneging on an offer:

1)       First and foremost, you can be pretty sure that you are ruining your chances of chances of ever working for that organization. Employers’ memories are long and you will forever have that figurative little black mark on your file.

2)      In addition, you may be affecting your chances of working at similar organizations. Keep in mind that most industries are relatively small and that the people you angered by saying no may tell (warn) others in the industry about you. As you can imagine, this is particularly damaging in instances where the offer came through on-campus recruiting where recruiters from competing organizations all know each other, making it much less likely that such an individual would have interviewing options with any of those organizations in the future.  In fact, we’ve even seen cases where the thwarted recruiter has called the employer with which the student is defecting to explain the situation and the new employer has pulled their offer (leaving the student with no offers).

3)      Reneging on an offer damages the Penn reputation, and as such, future recruiting opportunities for Penn students. When you renege on an offer the employer doesn’t just think negatively about you, they also think negatively about Penn. In fact, we’ve often had to do serious “damage control” with employers who had one or multiple reneges from Penn students. It may only take one instance for them to conclude that “this is just the way Penn students are” and be less inclined to consider applicants from Penn in the future.

The way to avoid being in that situation is to not accept an offer without carefully thinking it through. You should never tell an employer yes if your plan is to continue to look until you find something better. It’s not fair to them and it’s untrue to you. There are always jobs out there and it is far better to wait for the right thing to come along than to damage your own career reputation by going back on your word.

How Study Abroad Can Be Career Gold

By Claire Klieger

Increasingly, the world is becoming a smaller place and being able to easily navigate in unfamiliar circumstances and different cultures certainly has its advantages. As someone who spent 11 years abroad as a child and teenager, I can’t tout the benefits of studying abroad enough. I think it’s an experience everyone should have if they can. Living some place unfamiliar will give you a perspective and skills that you can use for a lifetime. It has certainly been true for my career. My international living experience is something that has come up in every interview I’ve had as an adult. And I honestly still believe the skills I gained from that experience I use on a daily basis.

Here are the first two installments of our “Study Abroad Advice” series: “Benefits of Studying Abroad” and “Making the Most of Your Time Abroad.” Additionally, if you didn’t catch it the first time, you can read more on Career Strategizing from a Land Far Far Away.


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Say it Ain’t Snow

By Claire Klieger

Remember how excited you were when we had our first major snow storm of the season—all those beautiful flakes falling and covering campus in a blanket of peaceful white? And now, 70-plus inches later, just hearing the words “chance of snow showers” incites groans, hair pulling and the desire to throw things (or, at least it does when you are responsible for shoveling and driving in the stuff).

Even when it's stormy, you've got to keep trudging along in the job search.

Your job/internship search can often be a similar emotional roller coaster.  You may start out excited by the prospect of new opportunities and the many interesting postings at the click of your fingertips. However, in this stormy economy, it’s really hard to stay motivated if multiple applications yield few results.  If you have gone far enough along in the interview process to start imagining your name on the business cards, it can be especially demoralizing. Like this year’s winter weather, it may feel like your torment will never be over.

Whether OCR did not pan out for you or you just aren’t having much luck in your search, it is important to keep looking. Rather than giving into that urge to just throw yourself under a blanket and live in your PJs, now is the time to reconsider your strategy. Are you looking in the right places? Is your resume effectively highlighting your relevant skills or experiences?  Are you networking? Do your interview skills need work? Come talk to us in Career Services to see if there are tools to help you better weather your search.

Even though they are calling for snow (again) on Wednesday, eventually warm weather will be here (sooner than later for those of you going to sunny destinations for spring break).  There are lots of great jobs and internships still out there. In fact, for internships, peak season for postings is actually March. To be successful you just need to continue to put yourself out there. So, keep those wellies or uggs and that rain coat handy (as well as a retooled resume and networking or interview techniques) and when you hear that fateful weather forecast, take a deep breath (after possibly a few choice and colorful words) and say “bring it.”

Make sure Facebook is your Friend, not your Enemy

by Lin Yuan

My name is Lin Yuan and I’m a workstudy for the Career Services office. I do a lot of Facebook and Twitter posts for the office. It’s a pretty sweet job because how many people can say they get paid to be on Facebook and Twitter all day? It’s definitely a fun job, but also pretty informative and I’ve already learned so much from work that I want to share with you all.

I come across a lot of articles at work about social media making or breaking a job offer. Employers these days definitely search  job applicants on Facebook and other sites to see if they can dig up any dirt or just get to know you better. Even if you’re not applying for a job or internship now, make sure your Facebook profile always puts your best face forward:

1)      Untag unattractive or incriminating photos of yourself. Better yet, ask your friends to delete them.

2)      Use Facebook’s friend lists functions.  Friend lists are great to classify your hundreds of friends into manageable groups. I made a friend list for acquaintances and family friends called PG, with limited access to my profile. Closer friends go into a PG-13 list. And remember, if it’s R, it probably shouldn’t be on Facebook!

3)      Put some thought into your About Me section. Employers might have something in common with you that could give you more to talk about in an interview. Use your About Me section to make your profile more personalized and show off what an interesting person you are! (Check out this student branding success story).

4)      Exercise general caution on Facebook. Facebook creates a huge, complicated web of contacts, so even if you do use privacy settings, make sure you don’t put anything on your profile that you wouldn’t want everyone to see. For example, a popular privacy setting is only letting Friends of Friends see your Facebook photos. It sounds pretty reasonable, but when you have 500 friends and each of them have 500 friends, that’s suddenly a lot of people with access to your pictures from last night’s party.

More resources and tips about Facebook can be found on Career Services’ Social Media page.

And if you aren’t already, become a fan of University of Pennsylvania Career Services on Facebook!

We’ll keep you updated on our events & workshops and post information that can help you with your career search. (I promise to keep the corny puns to a minimum!)

Seniors: Five Job Search Tips for Winter Break

by Kelly Cleary

Once the semester stress is behind you and you’ve had some time to rest up and celebrate, I imagine many seniors will start to focus on your post-grad plans. Even through, for many industries, the application timeline won’t begin until later in the spring semester, there are some things you can do now to better position yourself when you do start applying for jobs. Below are a few tips and resources to help you get started.

winter

FIVE JOB SEARCH TIPS FOR WINTER BREAK

1. EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS: Spend some time exploring career possibilities by looking at some of the websites below. This can be an overwhelming project but it’s an important first step.

  • First Jobs and Graduate Schools for Penn Grads, listed by major–  these are long lists of what Penn students have done with their major in past years.
  • Career Plans Surveys for the Class of 2009 and earlier years – you might be surprised by the wide variety of paths your predecessors have chosen. And hopefully you’ll be encouraged to see that while only about 30% of the College Class of 2009 had accepted job offers by the end of December, almost 75% of them had accepted job offers by the end of May.  (The 2009 report is preliminary. It will include more detailed employer information soon.)
  • What Can I Do with this Major?—These PDF’s provide a helpful overview of career paths related to specific majors including suggestions for types of employers and advice on preparing for those jobs.
  • Watch ourCareer Exploration video:

Career Exploration from Penn Career Services on Vimeo.

2. RESEARCH EMPLOYERS: Once you’ve narrowed down your preferences for types of work, industries of interest, and where you hope to live, it’s time to start developing your wish list of prospective employers and build your list of favorite job search websites.

  • Vault & Wetfeet Guides – Yes, these two companies make great books to help students land i-banking and consulting jobs, but they also publish career and company guides for other industries like entertainment, fashion, retail, green, healthcare, pharma, marketing, PR, and many others. You can download the career guide books for free from our Online Subscriptions page.
  • PennLink – This is where employers who specifically want to hire Penn students post jobs. Under the “Advanced Search” tab, you can set up a Search Agent to schedule weekly emails of new jobs that match your interests so you don’ t have to log into PennLink every day.
  • Career Resources by Field – From Anthropology and Arts to Sciences and Sports, you’ll find job search websites and transcripts from alumni speakers. There are similar websites for Wharton, Engineering, Nursing, and Graduate programs.
  • Online Subscriptions – this page includes log in and password information for over 25 job search websites including Art Search, Ecojobs, JournalistJobs, Policy Jobs and many others.
  • GoinGlobal – From GoinGlobal you can access international country and U.S. city guides that include lists of job search websites and links to local chambers of commerce which all have extensive employer directories for their regions.

3. TALK TO PEOPLE WHO DO WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO: Yes, I’m talking about networking. Outside of trying out a job through volunteering, interning or actually getting the job, talking with people who do or have done the job is one of the best ways to figure out if a career is right for you and to gather advice for landing a job in a particular field or within a specific company.

  • PACNet – Penn’s alumni career networking database is an easy way to connect with Penn alumni who have volunteered to be career mentors. They are a great resource for information and advice.
  • LinkedIn – Linked In, which is basically a professional version of Facebook is one of my favorite job search tools. If you don’t already have an account with an up to date profile, you should. Here are a couple of tips for making the most of LinkedIn for  your job search:
    • PEOPLE Search –  If you don’t find what you’re looking for in PACNet, you can search for alums (or even people with whom you don’t have a common affiliation) who work in the fields and/or organizations that interest you. You can view their profiles to see sample career paths and you can send direct messages to ask for advice. While this is more like cold calling, if it’s done respectfully and professionally, it can be worthwhile.
    • GROUPS – There are thousands of groups (i.e. alumni, specific industries, etc.) in LinkedIn where people share job postings and other career-related information, and they also serve as a forum for asking questions and gathering answers from more experienced professionals. Joining the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Group is a great first step.
    • Want to learn more about LinkedIn? Check the LinkedIn Guide for Recent Graduates. Tutorial from LinkedIn.com.
  • Watch our Networking Tips video.

4. UPDATE YOUR RESUME AND COVER LETTER DRAFTS:

5. RELAX AND ENJOY:

  • Unless you’re heading straight to graduate school, it’s likely that it will be a while before you have such a long mid-winter break again, so  sleep in, eat well, and enjoy good times with your loved ones.

fireplace

Good luck with your remaining finals and papers. I hope you all have a safe and fun break. We look forward to seeing you in 2010!