Tag: PennLink

Career Services’ Top 10 of 2010

With almost 15 days left in 2010, the top ten lists of the year are starting to pop up online and in print.  I’m dedicating this blog entry to the top ten highlights from Career Services in 2010 – these are in no rank-order because they’re all great achievements from the last 12 months.

1. Penn & Beyond Blog.  As of today (December 14, 2010), we have had over 70,000 hits (72, 921 technically)! Some of the top posts are:

Beware the Hippo: Choosing Where to Apply to Medical School

How to Become the Next Intern Idol

Responding Sincerely is Very Professional

It’s not too late! (Good) Internships are still out there.

Why Reneging on an Offer is Bad for Your Career Mojo

FrankenFood for thought! How lunch can help you find a career.

2. @PennCareerDay. We launched a new Twitter account, @PennCareerDay, that features alumni who post about a day in their life.  Alumni in consulting, venture capital, education, publishing and international healthcare recruitment all contributed.  A record of their posts can be found on our Twitter resource page.

3. PennLink. Since January 1st, 2010 we have had over 2,000 new employers, as well as over 8,000 job and internships posted in PennLink.

4. Video Conferencing. We had 17 international companies speak with students through our video conferencing equipment this past year.  Companies were in the UK, Germany, Dubai, Israel, India, China, Hong Kong and Japan.

5. Career Fairs. We held 10 career fairs here on campus, 2 were virtual fairs, with 500 employers in total.

6. Make an Impact.  We had another successful line up of programs on careers with the federal government.  Speakers visited campus from NASA and the CIA at the Science & Engineering Jobs in Government, the State Department  at the presentation on the Foreign Service Oral Exam, as well as from UNICEF and USAID at the Careers in International Development panel, to name a few. Stay tuned for more programs like this in 2011!

7. Website Re-Design. We re-organized our website to help you find resources more easily and feature new content. One of the biggest changes were updates to the undergraduate resources – if you haven’t seen them yet, visit the undergraduate page here.

8.  On-Campus Recruiting (OCR). There were 7,708 interviews on campus this fall, up over 10% from Fall 2009.

9. Interview Stream. We added Interview Stream to our list of partners in PennLink. This resource lets students practice interviewing and watch themselves through the playback feature.

10. Vimeo Video Channel. As part of our growing use of social media to provide you with a variety of content and resources, we have grown our video collection on Vimeo to include over 50 videos with 7 specific channels. Whether you seek advice about law school, what to do while you’re abroad or to get advice from alumni first hand – there is a video for you.  Check out our channel today at http://vimeo.com/penncareerserv.

Here are two other Top 10 Lists I came across recently:

Top 10 Job Hunting Tips of 2010 from Lindsey Pollak

Time Magazine’s Top 10 of Everything 2010

What do Employers Want?

by Patricia Rose, Director of Career Services

This fall, a number of employers responded to this question in a survey administered by NACE (the National Association of Colleges and Employers, of which Penn is a member). NACE published the results in Job Outlook 2011. Employers identified a number of factors that were important or extremely important, such as GPA, internship or leadership experience, and major. They also ranked the following “soft” skills or qualities as most important in new college hires; in order, they were:

• Verbal Communication Skills
• Strong Work Ethic
• Teamwork Skills
• Analytical Skills
• Initiative

This is not that surprising; these skills and abilities are frequently cited. What is more interesting is that employers were also asked how satisfied they were with their recent college hires in these areas. They were “very satisfied” with their new recruits’ teamwork and analytical skills, but less so with verbal communication skills, initiative, and work ethic.
The message to you as current students is that certain things may get you in the door: a Penn diploma, good grades, a sought-after major. Once you get there, though, you have to earn the success you envision for yourself. Raising your hand and taking the initiative, and working hard go a long way with every employer, in all fields. And good verbal communication skills will take you far. If you haven’t already developed confidence as a speaker or communicator, take steps now to improve. For example, be the one to present your group project. Ask for feedback from the professor after doing so. Take note of the areas that need work.

One way Career Services can help in this regard is through our interviewing training. Sign up for a mock interview with a counselor. If you are going to be interviewing in February for internships, participate in our mock interview day in late January. Current MBA students and employers have graciously agreed to provide the mock interviews. Check out our InterviewStream program, an online tool to practice responding to a range of interview questions. (Go to PennLink to access InterviewStream; you will need a web cam on your computer to use the program.)

Finally, since this is my final blog post of 2010, best wishes for the holidays and the new year. May it bring peace and prosperity to us all.