While my early job search faux pas was born out of ignorance in my latest search I have attempted to work outside of the norms with a bit of intent and purpose. For instance I have redesigned my resume from the acceptable multi-bulleted blocks of text upon text to one that pops with color and presents information in an easier and cleaner way, which I hope allows the hiring agent to remember my skills better. Instead of going with the staid white, ivory, and ecru (the eggshell of paper colors) I have opted to go with grey. Instead of a heavy resume stock (24 or 32 lbs) I have opted to go with standard weight (20 lbs) with linen or woven finish which gives the resume a tactile experience. For my splash of color I have gone with orange and my accent color is a deep turquoise blue. The combination of the orange with the grey paper represents my university’s color palette. I recognize all of these choice are DON’Ts, and in fact or huge don’ts. However, all of these choices have been made with a clear thought of what experience I want the hiring agent to have when viewing my resume package.

Likewise, I have decided to follow some standard resume dos that I think have a clear rational for doing. Despite being a recent grad school graduate I have decided to lead my resume with my work experience instead of my educational background. The rule of thumb is if you have substantive experience then your resume should highlight that prominently and first. Because there are so many individuals who decided to go straight from undergrad into a grad school program in the last few years I think this is a smart rule to follow. By presenting my work experience at the forefront you give yourself an opportunity to standout with the hiring agent as not just another grad resume. Another resume I do that I am keen to follow is the 2 page max rule. Regardless if the hiring agent is looking at 25 applicants or 250 applicants s/he will not have the patience to look at a resume longer than 2 pages and the last thing I want to do is annoy the hiring agent. Of course, I also suspect the inability to edit your resume represents your real inability to work as an individual — if you can’t edit something as simple as a resume how can the employer expect you to work on a project with little oversight. Of course sometimes corresponding dos are counterproductive as a fellow graduate recognized while reviewing her resume. She asked me to redesign her resume and presented me with her current resume of five pages. — yes, a resume and not a CV. When I asked why her resume was so long she noted the chronological nature of her resume. While, presenting all work experience is a ‘do’ for the chronological resume it loses its power when the presentation becomes longer than 2 pages. So, far I’ve noticed a few things since deciding to break some rules and keeping others with my resume:

• I receive back more responses in general than my fellow grads working the ‘dos’
• For interview opportunities I am more likely to get a positive response for the don’ts
• By being selective in my don’ts I have spent less time speaking to tertiary skills like design capabilities, computer competencies, team working and self-editing abilities

In general here are the don’ts I have decided to break for my resume and/or cover letter:

• use of a bright color (I am using orange which I suspect would be considered ‘bright’)
• going over one page for resume/coverletter (I max out to two pages while most of my cover letters are a page and half)
• don’t forget to include a mailing address on your resume/cover letter (I don’t have it on either my resume or cover letter and I suspect no employer spends postage to mail out a response to a resume and in the age of identity theft I am not inclined to have a piece of paper with some pertinent info floating in the ether)
• Use of colored paper and non-resume stock (I am using grey and 20 lb stock)
• Use of website links (I include a link to my LinkedIn page — but I used the LinkedIn option for a shorter and specific link so the link includes my name and is under 15 characters)
• Don’t forget to include your GPA (I don’t include it simply because most graduate programs require at least a 3.0 – on a 4.0 scale – to successfully navigate and to include it obfuscates the more germane point of what you actually learned)
• Don’t use graphics on your resume (I have a small graphic on the second page which is meant to be a wink-and-a-nod to how infographics dominate our understanding of information and I have designed resumes with this graphic to speak to areas of the world one has worked in)
• Don’t use fonts other than Times New Roman or Arial (I use Aller Regular and Aller Light for both my resume and cover letter)

Of course with the risks of breaking don’ts I am hoping for high rewards and I while I have not locked-in a new job yet there are signs that my risks are paying off. Recently, I applied through an online portal for a position that I suspected would have a high number of applicants and expected I would not get more than the automatic response that my application had uploaded properly. Instead of no response I received a stock ‘we are going in another direction’ email and a personalized email which gave me insight into what I was lacking as an applicant from the person who the position would directly report too. I think some of the rules I decided to break in my application package led to the personalized response based on the positive feedback of the ‘robustness’ of my package. As the job market continues to get tighter even for graduate school attendees you will want to rethink the standard approach to the package you send out into the job market, and will want to be purposeful in the do’s you follow and the don’ts you beak.

60 Seconds and You’re Hired

One of the things I like about this book is the section on tough interview questions. It generally helps and on several occasions I have been asked questions from this section in interviews. I also like to review the section on questions to ask. I usually have done a fair amount of research on the org and the interviewer so I have a bad habit of having no questions to ask. This section gives me go to questions to ask … regardless if I know the answer already.

It seemed like a burden at the time and often seniors would make a game out of avoiding the career services gauntlet. But looking back it was a process that, rightly so, supposed the senior wasn’t sure what was needed and insured engagement by them. My current career services department takes a traditional approach that requires the graduate to know not only what s/he wants to do next, but knows the path to get to that point. Given that many enter into graduate school from a different careerpath to expect within 2-3 years of fulltime studies a student would have the answer and the pathway to access the answer seems misplaced. My career services department offers a series of workshops: Bootcamp 1-3, a career changers workshop, and a series of miscellaneous workshops. Bootcamp 3 is an all day affair, yes as in 8 hours, that covers what you should have learned from bootcamp 1 and 2 as well as an on-camera interview. Before starting grad school I sat-in on a career services workshop (the career changers one), and I liked the idea that the program wanted to broach the idea of career changers which other university career services seemed less inclined to address. 

Unfortunately what I know now, that I didn’t know then, was the lack of integration of the various workshops by my programs career services. So, while there is a career changers workshop the bootcamp series of workshops are structured as if there aren’t career changers in the group. PARs (Problem-Action-Results) is the only format offered for resume workshopping and I find it a bit difficult to take that my career services is assuming all graduates entered and are leaving with the same body of experience for the marketplace. I can understand if PARs is the ‘gold standard’ of resume preparation but in a market climate that requires standing out it would be nice to at least be informed of the alternatives. For instance realizing the way we consume information has changed with the advent of google, web 2.0, and the social media centric web I wanted to reflect that change in my resume. I am a fan of the infographs as it tells multiple little stories while presenting the big picture, and I wanted to incorporate infographic qualities into my resume. Sadly, my career services contact only could see PARs. Even after a conversation explaining my concern preparing a resume that parrots every other resume I was urged to go to bootcamp 1 (again) and to do problem-action-results statements for each employment experience and internship experiences on my resume. Needless to say it didn’t seem advantageous to me to sit in bootcamp 1 as it basically teaches you how to do PARs, and I know how to do it — I just recognize there may be other tools that could serve me better in this economic climate.

I wish I could say my university is an anomaly in it’s one pathway approach to career services but per conversations other recent graduates from other nationally recognized programs …. this is not the case. Sadly, instead of grad programs bolstering career services many career services are finding themselves swamped with more students and by proxy a higher demand on services. Because most students are focused on finding the right program for them by the time they begin thinking about what they need from career services, they are usually heading into graduation. Of course by graduation time its a little difficult to make any adjustments for the shortfalls of your programs career services.

Looking back to my selection process I wished I had asked how:

• alumni services are integrated into career services
• often career services reviews workshop offerings
• career services receives feedback from expected grads and alumni currently looking for employment
• often career services reviews employment search materials
• employment leads specific to your program are culled

I think that it was naive of me to expect my program to adjust its career services game to the economic market, but I think it is realistic to expect my program to put as much thought into the career services as they do in the coursework design. Likewise, I think those who are looking into programs, particularly given the financial climate, should ask and take time to explore the career services offerings from those programs on a shortlist. At the end of the day going to grad school is a huge undertaking both financially and time wise. If you go to school fulltime you will be out of the market for at least a few years, and of course you will be in significantly more debt than before starting a program. Entering back into the job market is process that requires some assistance in order to navigate effectively. That navigation means the difference between finding yourself in a job under capitalized and finding it difficult to meet your debt obligations, or worst yet you may find yourself unable to shift into your new careerpath and instead falling into your pre-grad school career choices.

A few weeks ago a friend, and fellow alum, likened the job search and current market to the dating environment. At the time I didn’t realize how apropos her analogy is…..or realize how much I would find my confidence shaken by the process over the intervening weeks. I know that I am skilled, capable, willing, and able to do any of the jobs I’ve applied to over the last several weeks. I also know the ‘thanks but no thanks’ is not personal, and over the longer arc of the search speaks less about me and more about the temporal qualities of the time I applied to the position.

Recently, I applied to a position that I felt was tee’d up for me. I had the skills needed in spades, felt confident in my ability to excel in the role and felt I could make a clear case for being hired. I received a call regarding my résumé and 15 minutes into the phone interview was asked to come in for a second round in-person interview. The second round interview I Ieft feeling confident I had articulated what I had to offer the org, and what I could bring to the position. Because of the language during the later half of the interview I expected to advance to the third, final round, of the hiring process. When I hadn’t heard back from the org I followed up. The person who interviewed me, and the position would report too, informed me that there was a wrinkle in the hiring process. The HR director informed her that the cap on the position was 40K, which was well off the 56K salary line at my last position. I was willing to take a step back for the position because it was a good fit. I realized this bit of information represented an opportunity to negotiate so I responded informing her my floor was 47K and asked if the org would be able to come closer to this number. I was told it would take a few days to find out and that if it the org was able to meet this number I should be prepared to come in for the last stage of the hiring process — a presentation open to the entire org. I began preparing my presentation.

I found out that 47K was still too high and the best the org would be able to do is 42K. In that instance I found myself wildly flailing towards a quick depreciation of myself. I wondered how much I would be able to save by going to an income-based calculation for my student loans, if I could tough it out in my apartment for an additional two years, and I even tried to figure out how much I could save if I learned to do some basic sewing ( I figured I could save on work clothes if I could figure out how to make a basic work shirts — can’t blame a girl for trying). I was quickly preempted by being informed that she understood the 42K was too low and a good luck on your search response.

a few days later the job was reposted on the popular job search sites we all frequent. I found myself feeling like the girls post home room during high school doubley dejected and woefully nothing was comforting. It’s hard not to take employment search personal, especially considering how personal the grad experience is to some extent. You find yourself returning to school for personal reasons, pursuing coursework that personally resonates with your aspirations, and you sum up your grad school career with the highly personal thesis work.

Where once program consideration needed to be a succinct finite experience presented to potential students, increasingly programs need to have a response for the ongoing dilemma of the post-grad experience in order to attract students willing to take on the debt load that is graduate school.

It is not lost on me that many within in my program and other local grads I know are finding it difficult to find employment or to find ‘adequate’ employment. By adequate I mean employment that actually makes use of the new skills developed during grad school and comes with a salary that supports the new debt load of grad school. Last spring, my last full semester, I began my employment search early in the semester after recognizing that while the news spoke of the economy being in recovery it still felt like a recession which meant finding employment even in NYC would be difficult at best. By the time graduation rolled around in May I had secured employment and had lucked up with a salary that could support the impending loan payments. I started a couple of days after graduation and four months later I found myself before the board of the organization being told they couldn’t afford to keep me on staff. Because of the short employment window I found myself without unemployment benefits, no severance package access, and loan payments coming due without haste….more importantly, I found myself within the thick of an employment search as the holiday headed into full swing and the December grads entered the market.

Because, arguably erroneously on my part, I looked at selecting my program solely on the strength of coursework offered, program ranking among peers/industry, and the like and less on the tangential services that a graduate will need not only while on campus but once a graduate moves into their chosen profession I thought I would spend the next several posts on exploring some of the struggles post program for those who have decided to attend graduate school in light of the economy. Foremost, I think it may help those who are looking into programs to better understand some of the needs they will need post graduating and will be able to better weight program options, and for those currently in school and like myself newly minted graduates hopefully these posts will help you to leverage your programs resources to meet the new economy’s shortcomings.

I should note that I don’t believe that many of the shortcomings I have and will experience during my current employment search are solely a problem with my grad program. I have friends who have gone to Ivy League programs and find themselves equally unemployed and searching, likewise I have friends who have done top tiered law schools and find themselves underemployed both within the legal profession (one such friend is in many respects a glorified paralegal with the title of legal researcher) and outside of the confines of the legal professional world. I think in part the financial crisis of 2008 shifted the marketplace in ways that many folks are just really understanding the long-term implications of and we are just starting to understand why there is no real way of going ‘back’ to the pre-2008 crisis days.

It’s really not that bad. I’m taking public finance, which I really enjoy. Some people aren’t that interested in tax policy, but it really is very interesting, especially if you’re interested in politics. I learned what the marginal rate really is, and why a lot of political arguments are just nonsense devoid of real policy and empirical data. A lot of lawmakers need to learn economics, especially public finance economics. But I digress…

I’m still at Milano. Still writing for this blog. But I do plan to graduate at the end of the semester, which means we need new writers to keep this thing going. Any takers? You don’t have to be the best blogger ever, just willing to share your grad school experiences with our cadre of readers, many of whom are prospective or incoming students. So give it a shot. Let us know if you’d like to write for the Milano Grad School Blog

I’ve been spending my days at the Center for New York City Affairs. We have some really interesting events coming up this fall. Make sure you stayed tuned to your emails and the New School calendar. Also make sure you follow the Center on Twitter.

What have you been up to this summer? Exciting internships? Looking for jobs post-graduation? What’s the word hummingbird?

Oh, if you are looking for a job, don’t forget that the Milano Career Connections group meets every Wednesday from 4:30pm – 6:00pm at 72 Fifth Avenue, Room 528. It’s a great opportunity to connect with other Milano alumni who are also on the job hunt. Sometimes Milano alum actually drop in with job offers, so don’t sleep! Contact the Career Development and Placement office for more information.

As the title suggests, we cover the legislative process process on the federal, state, and local levels.

Jeff is an engaging and dynamic professor. He’s a political scientist by training but a politico by profession, so he offers a great mix of theory and practice that you might not get with a standard political science course.

Along with that, we have a mix of dry academic political science readings along with current news articles and entertaining accounts of congressional battles.

Long story short – if you like to read Politico, watch C-SPAN, or talk about politics, this course is for you.

But there’s another thought that I have, a thought that I didn’t expect to have when I came into the program. Certain policy issues and neighborhoods tend to be invisible at Milano. In other words, we just don’t see them.

I came to Milano because I have a burning desire to serve my community of Harlem in particular and urban black neighborhoods in general. I thought that at Milano, I would find a community of aspiring policy makers and scholars actively engaged in urban policy matters that directly impact urban communities of color. Sadly, this is not the case. This is not to say that Milano is completely devoid of any discussion of urban communities of color, but there is not the level of emphasis I would like to see in a program that is supposed to offer an alternative to Columbia’s SIPA and NYU’s Wagner. We only have a couple of courses that directly address issues of race, and both of them, to my knowledge, are taught by one professor – Darrick Hamilton. I think Leigh Graham’s classes may also address issues of race, but her Economic Development course wasn’t offered this semester and she’s off to another university next fall. Karen Merson has led the Making a Difference course, but my understanding is that the course is more of a general question-your-assumptions survey of oppression.

I think an urban policy program rooted in social justice should have greater emphasis on the plight and assets of urban communities of color and the potential policy options to improve the lives of people living in these communities.

Now, I should note that the Laboratory in Issue Analysis and Community Development Finance Lab has featured neighborhoods of color including Harlem, the South Bronx, and Brownsville. Political Economy of City definitely includes discussions of race and class but its only a piece. The course helps students understand how ghettoes came to be but doesn’t take the next step in examining possible policy solutions.

I think that a large reason why urban policy impacting communities of color is noticeably absent at Milano is because urban policy aimed at the improvement of communities of color is noticeably absent from government at all levels (notwithstanding Bloomberg’s Young Men’s Initiative). Ironically, we learn about neoliberalism and the devolution of government over the past 30 – 40 years, but we do not examine potential policy alternatives to compensate. Just because the Federal Government isn’t funding community action programs and community development corporations like it was in the 1960′s doesn’t mean that problems that gave rise to such programs have been solved. It seems that once the Empowerment Zones money ran out, once Boyz N the Hood became cliché, and once hip-hop became the best-selling music genre, the problems facing urban communities of color weren’t “sexy” policy issues anymore. At best, we look at pieces – urban education (charter schools vs. district schools), affordable housing, and food deserts. But what about the whole picture?

How can we send policy makers out into the world without ensuring that they have a full understanding of how urban policy has impacted urban communities of color? How can we do this and claim to be a social justice institution?  The Obama Administration was supposed to shine a new light on urban policy in America, but the President’s urban policy efforts seem to be going nowhere fast. As a heterodox and social justice-oriented institution and program, we should not be constrained by what’s hot right now. Of course there is the reality of offering programs and courses based on demand. I’m not challenging that, but what I am saying is that Milano should not just be driven by consumer demand, it should encourage students to engage issues that are overlooked in the popular policy discourse. Milano needs to have a greater emphasis on race, class, and what’s going on in communities of color across the city.

EDITED TO ADD: I also have to give a shout out to Robert Zdenek’s Community Development course. Unfortunately it’s not being offered next year. Supply and demand.

Grad school is an intense period. You go hard for one, two, or three years (depending on your program and status) and then you shoot off into the job market (or go for another degree). The intensity is a form a pressure that creates bonds between you and people you might never have become friends with under different circumstances. The many hours spent doing group projects, the late night study sessions, the mutual griping over this class or that professor – these things build relationships. My Milano classmates are, in a real sense, my Milano family.

The inevitable sling shot into job market is only a few weeks away for my cohort. Some people will stay in New York (yay!), others will go off to other places (boo!). Never again will we find ourselves coalescing at the study center, or 72 Fifth Ave. (affectionately known as the Milano building). Sure there will be happy hours, unofficial reunions, random run-ins and Facebook, but the cap is about to be placed on the bottle that holds the lightning of our grad school experience.

For each of us there will be new memories, new experiences, new adventures ahead. New reasons to smile, new people to accept into each of our families, whether personal, professional, or academic.

But for now, the lightning still strikes, and I intend to enjoy its light.