You Say Gig …. I say Job

Career services as an undergrad was a fully formed process. At my undergrad college graduates were scheduled for an exit interview with career services and at the interview you discussed your plan to make use of your newly minted degree. Before leaving a follow up interview would be scheduled in which you would review your resume and cover letter skills. Lastly, all seniors took part in an interview session with career services.

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.

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It’s Not You, It’s Just … You

During my high school years, this time of the year would mark the unofficial beginning of the prom season — aka the date of all dates. The junior and senior class would announce carnations/roses for sale, to be delivered on Valentine’s Day during home room. The proceeds would go to the respective class and essentially to the respective prom committees. For many if not most of the girls the carnations/roses represented an inclination of who would ask whom to the prom. The weeks of jockeying between the girls leading up to Valentine’s Day often left even the most assured girl feeling deflated at some point or unsure of her worth.

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.

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