Twitter – Penn & Beyond

Your Summer Network

by Shannon C. Kelly

“It’s all about networking.”

No matter what your summer plans were, whether you interned, volunteered abroad, or conducted research on a college campus, if you met new people, your network grew. Now that summer is wrapping up, it’s important to make sure you can take your summer network with you. The saying “It’s all about networking” is true because it’s not just who you know, but who knows you when it comes to looking for your next internship or full-time position.

1. Use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the first tool that comes to mind to stay in touch with your new connections. If you’re not using LinkedIn yet, sign up right now, or at least when you have 5 minutes. Their Student Jobs 101 website is immensely helpful with tutorials and checklists to get you up and running on the platform.

2. Personalize Connection Requests. On LinkedIn, the power lies in your connections. When you reach out to your colleagues or peers you met this summer, make sure you personalize your note. Adding a simple line makes a big difference to show you took the time to remind them how you met and/or why you’d like to connect. This rule applies to other platforms, too.

3. Leverage Other Platforms. There are many other social networking sites that can help you stay in touch with your summer network. Facebook is a natural choice, but be mindful of who you’re adding and how you use Facebook already. Do you want to keep it personal or are you comfortable adding professional contacts? Twitter is also helpful, especially if you’re an active user already. Twitter can help you build your network beyond those you met this summer through by including popular hashtags related to your professional interests, participating in Twitter Chats, and following organizations and their employees.

If you’d like to learn more about using LinkedIn or social media to stay in touch with your summer network or build it up even more, utilize our resource, Build Your Brand. Remember, we also over LinkedIn Profile reviews – so come in to see us if you have questions!

Day in the Life: Associate Manager, Innovation Analytics at Nielsen

What’s life like at a leading global provider of information and analytics around consumer behavior, also known as Nielsen? Join alum, Sarada Bheemineni, SEAS ’10, on Tuesday, February 11th when she tweets for @PennCareerDay. Learn about her career with Nielsen, advice for joining the field of consumer behavior and analytics, and understand what it’s like to be part of the Nielsen team. Did you know that Nielsen will be at the Spring Career Fair? Well, if you didn’t, this is a really great opportunity to help you prep for a visit to the Nielsen table, too. To learn more about Sarada, read her bio below. Don’t forget to follow her on the 11th, either!

Sarada Bheemineni is an Associate Manager, Innovation Analytics at Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around consumer behavior. In her role, Sarada advises clients on their brand and innovation strategy using data-driven insights. This involves consulting clients on category and marketplace trends, as well as drivers of global consumer demand. Key clients include Colgate-Palmolive, Hershey, and PepsiCo.

Sarada has been with Nielsen since graduating from Penn in 2010, where she studied Materials Science and Engineering and Economics. Sarada currently lives in New York City and in her free time enjoys running, exploring the city, traveling to other countries, and watching Mad Men.

Organizations Use Social Media To Recruit? Yes.

77% of organizations today use social media to recruit. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), reported this growing trend in a recent survey. So, who are some organizations that partake in “social recruiting”? More publicly-owned organizations are leveraging these tools, like ExxonMobil, Apple, J.P. Morgan Chase. You may have heard of them, and if you’d like to work for them one day, you should consider how their social media presence can be used to your advantage.

At Career Services, we’re here to help take your social media presence beyond liking pictures of friends on Facebook, tweeting sarcastic comments on Twitter and being intimidated, perhaps, by LinkedIn. If you want to take your social media use to a professional level, see what we have in store for you this year to make that happen:

1) LinkedIn Profile Reviews. A LinkedIn profile is the new resume. Just like resume/CV critiques, we’re offering LinkedIn profile critiques on a one-on-one basis. Connect with your school’s team of counselors to set up an appointment.

2) Social Media Workshops. We’re offering special programming to students this year on how to use social media, as well programs through Weigle Information Commons on setting up LinkedIn. Stay tuned for these programs through our various event calendars for grads/postdocs and undergrads.

3) Follow Us on Twitter. Our main account is @PennCareerServ, but one gem in particular is our @PennCareerJobs account. Employers who post on PennLink schedule tweets to promote their new listings – don’t miss out!

4) #Hashtags. If you’re already active on social media, and given Facebook has rolled out use of hashtags, it’s time to put them to professional use. Look for our hashtags: #penncsevent, #pennOCR. Beyond that, consider #career and #jobtips, as well as following an organization you’re interested in to see what tags they are using. Wondering what is a hashtag? Read this article from Twitter.

There are a LOT of opportunities out there to connect with organizations, learn about their internships and full-time jobs, as well as see if there is a Penn connection – all via social media. Take advantage of the resources we have available to help you take your social media presence to the next level.

To see more resources, check out our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Vimeo and Online Networking pages.

by Shannon C. Kelly

Get Noticed: The Importance of Networking

by Anubha Kapur, SEAS ‘13

Recruiting is undergoing a vast phase change and one of the primary reasons for this reinvention is the advent of social media and its profound impact on society and people. Social networking is no longer just about webpages; it is an ever growing experience enriched with the interactions between people. Here are some ways to use social media to prepare for the career fairs next week, and in your general search.

LinkedIn
“Networking to get noticed” is a new mantra for climbing up the recruiting ladder. One of the most essential platforms is LinkedIn, where your profile speaks volumes about your career goals, expertise areas etc. Keeping your profile updated, following organizations you like, expanding your connections with recruiters etc. are key focus areas. If your profile shows up in the search tools used by recruiters, you’ve gained an edge over thousands of other candidates. Referrals and testimonials give a very good impression about your work ethic and commitment, thus making you a first choice for many firms. Penn Career Services organizes regular LinkedIn profile workshops that are a must for students to attend.

Facebook
With the introduction of Facebook Graph Search, you can easily connect with people of similar interests and field of work, thus expanding horizons. Regular updates by on Career Services’ Facebook page about upcoming information sessions, OCR workshops and career fairs is a good way to initiate and streamline search.

Connecting with Penn alumni working in the industry is another very powerful tool. A friend forwarded his resume seeking an internship to a recent Penn graduate working in a leading bank, and one week later, due to this referral, he got an interview. Who knows, your next recruiter, may be a senior you’ve known at some stage in your Penn journey. J

Twitter
I came across a feature on Twitter quite recently, where you can bookmark your tweets as favorites and embed them on your blog or Facebook page. If someone has a nice testimonial for you, why not tell the world and make them take notice?

Career Fair Prep
Career fairs are the best way to engage with people and learn about prospective opportunities in-person, and social media can help you prepare. When there are so many people in attendance at these events, it might be difficult to have a detailed conversation with the recruiters. Use social media to help with research on organizations and develop talking points. With the Spring Career Fair and Start up Fair next week, here are a few tips to remember while approaching recruiters:

Carry ample number of resumes that you can quickly reach for while speaking to the recruiters.
Introduce yourself and ask about available opportunities within the company.
Emphasize your potential and skills, and what it may add to the organization.
Request a business card for future reference or communication.
Follow @PennCareerServ on Twitter for live updates and information regarding the fair.

The wait to find out if your hard work and research paid off may frustrate you. Remember, with networking, patience and perseverance the wait can truly be worth it!

About: Anubha Kapur is a 2^nd year Master’s student in Systems Engineering. Apart from technology, her interests span creative writing, social blogging and travelling. She can be followed on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Day in the Life: Sales Engineer at AppNexus

If you have a passion for technology and business, you’ll want to follow our next alum on @PennCareerDay, Andrew Lenehan. On Tuesday, December 4th, Andrew will talk about his career as a Sales Engineer with AppNexus, where they are “setting the standard for excellence in ad technology and helping the largest and most innovative companies in online advertising build their businesses.” Read more about Andrew’s background below and remember to follow him after the Thanksgiving holiday!

Andrew graduated from Penn’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology with a BS in Economics (Marketing / Finance) and a BAS in Computer Science. He moved to New York to join the consulting team of a digital ad agency called Rosetta (since purchased by Publicis), where he worked with a phenomenally talented team within their Healthcare vertical. While he loved his time at Rosetta, he aspired to eventually try his hand at his own entrepreneurial venture, and wanted to gain some first hand experience in helping to build a company. Two years ago, Andrew switched industries into the advertising technology space to work for a startup called AppNexus, which provides companies like Rosetta with the cutting edge technology necessary to thrive in today’s digital media industry.

Andrew’s career focus also changed, from solving strategic business problem, to complex technical ones as a Support Engineer. With a solid technical foundation to build on, he wanted to shift into a more client-facing role and moved over to AppNexus’s Sales Engineering team. A Sales Engineer is responsible for qualifying and amplifying deals with prospective clients, acting as somewhat of a technical advisor to all parties involved. It has afforded him the ability to speak with executives from hundreds of companies, from early-stage startups to household names, and accelerated his professional growth significantly in a relatively short amount of time.He has loved his experience at AppNexus so far, and look forward to helping this market-making company continue to evolve in the coming years.