Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

People-to-People Career Fair

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People to People Career Fair Flyer.jpgCalling all Liberal Arts majors! Spring Career Days may not always be tailored specifically for us, but there is something that is: the People-to-People Career Fair. Sponsored by the College of the Liberal Arts, College of Education, College of Health and Human Development, the Smeal College of Business, and Career Services, this one day event is the perfect place to meet employers searching for people from a wide range of degrees.  <calling all="" liberal="" arts="" majors!="" spring="" career="" days="" may="" not="" always="" be="" tailored="" specifically="" for="" us,="" but="" there="" is="" something="" that="" is:="" the=""

The People-to-People Career Fair will be held Tuesday, February 28, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in Alumni Hall, HUB. It is an exciting and easy way to connect with recruiters who are offering internships, full time, part time, and volunteer positions. Employers will be on hand from a wide variety of sectors of the professional world, including: government and legal agencies, non profit organizations, law enforcement and more.

Below is a compiled list of potential employers whose job offerings apply specifically to students in the Liberal Arts. Keep in mind this is a short list, and there will be many more recruiters at the fair! Also, the categories below are a loose representation of the jobs that follow, many positions overlap.

Government

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    • <calling all="" liberal="" arts="" majors!="" spring="" career="" days="" may="" not="" always="" be="" tailored="" specifically="" for="" us,="" but="" there="" is="" something="" that="" is:="" the="" Internship: Fall/spring/summer

Public Service

Crime Law and Justice

For more information about any of the above employers, or to learn more about the fair, visit the People to People Career Fair website. As a note: dress for the event is business casual, employers expect students to be coming from class.

In addition to the People-to-People event, right next door the Sociology and Crime, Law, and Justice departments are hosting a Mentoring and Networking Session. Alumni from around the country will be returning to offer advice on internships and career paths. In addition, some alumni will be there to offer employment opportunities! If you would like to attend, you may RSVP through the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network’s Symplicity website.

Hope to see you there!

A Career Days Success Story

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Penn State Career Fair
Originally uploaded by pennstatelive

During my time at Penn State people always stressed the importance of being involved. No matter what your interests are, use this time to cultivate them so you can figure out what you enjoy. While in school I wasn’t sure what I ultimately wanted to do, so I figured trying a bunch of different things was the best way to find out what I liked and what I was good at. In my case, volunteering and interning gave me a better sense of what I did not want to do. I interned for a local paper, a Congressman, and an HR department and realized these jobs were not for me. However, I still made great contacts and got a better sense of what these jobs truly entailed. Even though I did not want to pursue a job at any of the places I interned, I was able to obtain contacts and references that could speak to my work ethic and ability. Academically, I pursued a major in journalism and a major in psychology to broaden my potential career choices and to satisfy my interests.

My favorite experience at Penn State was interning at the Bank of America Career Services Center as a mock interviewer during my senior year. I got the chance to sit down with students and interview them before their real job or graduate school interview. Even though I knew I did not want to be a recruiter, I realized that I was an effective communicator and enjoyed working with people one on one. My involvement at the career services center helped me become better acquainted with my own skillset, in addition to all of the services offered to students. I utilized these services and took a personality test to assess my strengths, weaknesses, and potential job prospects. I met with a counselor to discuss my test results and review my resume.

During the fall semester of my senior year, I researched the employers attending the career fair. I looked at what majors they were hiring and looked out for any potential matches. It was tough to find companies interested in a liberal arts major, as I found most employers strongly leaned toward engineers and business majors. However, I attended the career fair to speak with my employers of interest and to hand out my resume. As I approached recruiters at the Career Fair I was able to articulate how my skillset transferred to the internship and volunteer positions I had previously held. I was able to elaborate on how these skills prepared me for a professional career. I ended up making a great connection with one of the recruiters from SRA International, a company that provides consulting services for clients within national security and civil government. In addition to this, I posted my resume on the Nittany Lion Career Network. I applied for a technical writing position at SRA and obtained an interview. I researched the company and went into the interview with an open-mind and a positive attitude. Following the second interview, I was offered a job that I have been at for the past three years.

Having internship experience and figuring out what my skills were helped me to eliminate options that were not for me. If you are interested in a certain job, obtain an internship or shadow someone so you can get a feel for the environment and what it takes to be successful. Being proactive opens so many doors down the road. There are a lot of opportunities available to gain valuable experience if you decide to make the effort and reach out. These experiences are vital when interviewing for prospective job position. Penn State offers amazing opportunities to intern or volunteer within any avenue of interest. Try new things, make connections, and stay positive. Most employers are looking for candidates with transferable skills and good attitudes. Those things are what make Penn State students a top choice among recruiters.

Dispatch From The Other Side: More Social Media in Your Job Search

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[Note: This is part two of a two-part series. In the previous post I discussed searching for job information online and curating an online resume for yourself.]

In our last Dispatch post, we looked at some common tools like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, and some of the resources available through those networks and sites. This time, we’re going to look at more specific online tools that can help you with your job search.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional social network that allows its users to communicate about industry-specific topics and employment opportunities. Although it has fewer users than large networks like Facebook, some find its focus on job-related information to be an asset in the employment search process.

Consider a user’s “profile” on LinkedIn: it’s structured like a resume, where you can list previous experiences and useful skills that you possess. For more information about building a resume, check out our post from last year. In addition to posting a version of your resume online, you can find some valuable resources on LinkedIn through its groups.

There are groups dedicated to finding internship and careers for Penn Staters and industry specific groups, like this one for International Government Relations and Public Affairs. Find some popular groups that match your career interests and join them. You can learn a lot about the industry (which can be very helpful for interviews or cover letters) and you may find that some job postings for new graduates appear in the group from time to time.

Online Portfolios

The idea of online portfolios tracks closely with the “perpetual resume” part of our last post. The idea is similar: you want to make sure that the reasons someone should hire you are easily visible online because you never know who might be looking. An online portfolio is a way to carve out a small part of the internet just for you to post your work and accomplishments.

At Penn State, you have access to the e-Portfolios service, which can be an excellent resource (although that are other places online for e-Portfolios that you may find better suited to your needs – a Google search for “online portfolios” can give you a clearer idea of what’s out there). I think that this video makes a good case for the ways you can use the Penn State e-Portfolios.

As a Liberal Arts undergraduate, you also have the opportunity to receive an Excellence in Communication Certificate. This program allows students to build e-Portfolios under the guidance of faculty advisers, and will help you demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively to graduate schools and employers.

An online portfolio is a great way to extend your resume. There’s a lot about yourself that you won’t be able to express on one sheet of paper. Putting it online (and directing potential employers to it) allows it to be available to any interested employers.

How do you feel about using LinkedIn or online portfolios? Do you use them? Post your questions or success stories in the comments below! Remember, I’m always available for questions on Twitter (@smloewner).

The Liberal Arts Advantage

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Every liberal arts major has faced the same dreaded question from nearly everyone they meet, “What are you going to do with that when you graduate?” They act as if “that” – a liberal arts major – is some sort of obstacle between you and a good career. These people are wrong; liberal arts programs have produced some of America’s most successful people. A liberal arts education helps to cultivate the skills that nearly every employer is looking for. This was the message of Peter Cloutier, a 1982 Penn State graduate with a degree in English. He recently visited my English 111 class, “The Possibilities of English.”

Mr. Cloutier is the President of Catapult Marketing, one of the country’s top marketing firms. He gave an awe-inspiring presentation that instilled in me a great sense of confidence in my own English major. Mr. Cloutier brought an unquestionable enthusiasm for the Liberal Arts with him. He stressed the importance of being able to perform a wide variety of tasks, rather than specializing in one specific area. The ability to adapt, a skill that is developed in a liberal arts education, is one of the most important things in the job market today.

Critical thinking, communication skills, and having a broad perspective were three of the things most stressed by Cloutier. These attributes are fundamental aspects of a degree in the liberal arts. Specifically from an English point of view, I know that I have to exercise each of these skills every time I walk into class. Trying to find new things to say about books that have been read by students for a hundred years is very difficult and takes a lot of careful analysis and critical thought. Once I have something worthwhile to say about the text, I then have to communicate it to my peers and professor. I have to do this through speaking in class and writing during exams. These communication skills are vital in the business world as well as many other professional fields.

The broad perspective is the most vague, but arguably the most prized aspect of the liberal arts graduate. Mr. Cloutier used a quote from Sue Kronick, CEO of Federated Department Stores (Macy’s, Bloomingdales, JC Penney) to describe just what it means: “You tend to get more narrow in point of view as time marches on. Liberal arts is about approaching problems from a broader point of view, taking into account the subtleties of the situation.” This kind of perspective is incredibly important, especially in a world that is evolving as fast as ours is today.

Mr. Cloutier was truly an inspiring and helpful speaker for somebody like me. As a sophomore and newly declared English major, I needed something to help assure me that what I was doing was going to have long-term benefits, in addition to the enjoyment I find in my current coursework. His presentation really stressed not only that is possible to get a job after I graduate, but also that in many cases my background will serve to help me in my job search. The talk definitely helped me to set my head straight for my future and how my major will position me for a career.

Take a look at some of the slides from Peter Cloutier’s power point presentation in the slideshow below:

Dispatch From The Other Side: Social Media in Your Job Search

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Social Media
Originally uploaded by cristinacosta
[Note: This is part one of a two-part series. In the next post, I’ll discuss some different tools, like LinkedIn and online portfolios.] 
Much has been made about how social media impacts our friendships, educations, and communication skills. In addition to that, however, there is a growing body of knowledge regarding how social networks, blogs, and online forums can help people find employment. I think this is especially true for current students or recent graduates. I have no desire to reinvent the wheel, however: there are many great resources online on this topic already, and I’ll link to a few throughout this post. What I do want to do is describe the impact of social media on your job search through two lenses: the search for information and the perpetual resume.
The Search for Information
Social media allows us to access experts without much effort. We can read blogs (including this one!) in order to find opportunities that we wouldn’t have had before. There are great resources on Twitter that distribute information directly to our timelines or phones. Social networks are becoming forums for discussion on opportunities.
This rapid proliferation of career information allows you to choose when and where you’ll sift through the opportunities available to you. Although I’ve included several links above, there are many others out there, and many are specialized for certain disciplines, so it makes sense to take some time and search for ones that you’ll be able to use.
Of course, these resources are available for everyone, so following them doesn’t necessarily give you an advantage, which brings us to our second point:
The Perpetual Resume
Social media allows you to create an online image of yourself. Previously, the only way to present your identity to most employers was to submit a resume and hope someone read it and liked it. Now, many employers (in certain fields more than others – feel free to weigh in on that in the comments) consider your online presence to be as (and often more) informative than anything they see on a resume. For job seekers, this can be both a positive trend and a negative one.
In the negative sense, it means that you should be careful about the information you put online, especially if it’s easily available to the public. This is old news and something you’ve surely heard before, so I won’t spend more time on it. In the positive sense, however, social media allows you to differentiate yourself from those around you. That gives you the opportunity to impress recruiters for more than the 5 minutes they might spend glancing at your resume.
Do you have questions or insights about how social media impacts your job search? As always, I encourage you to leave comments below or find me on Twitter.
[Author’s note: before we went live with this post, the good folks at Onward State put up an Onward Debates set of posts regarding how Facebook might impact your job search. I like John Tecce’s post.]

My Penn State Experience

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Being an underrepresented student in the College of the Liberal Arts at The Pennsylvania State University helped shape my experiences. I met people from different ethnic groups who I was able to connect with on a personal level, developing friendships that would last a lifetime.

My experience at Penn State was a little challenging at first because I am from an urban area. However, I was able to join different organizations that helped make my overall experience better at the University. I was a part of the NAACP serving as the Corresponding Secretary for a year. In addition, I was a part of the Fast Start Advisory Council which helped First Year students get adjusted to campus. This organization really helped me because I was able to get a mentor in my hometown, with whom I am still in contact with to this day. She has helped me throughout my Penn State career and is still helping me in graduate school. I was also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. which put on programs for the Penn State community on issues that affect students, like how to avoid debt and how to maintain healthy exercising practices.

Attending The Pennsylvania State University is one of the best things I did for myself. It has helped prepare me for a graduate experience I could not imagine. During my undergraduate study, I was in the College of the Liberal Arts majoring in English. When I became a junior, I decided to double major in African American Studies. I learned to navigate through Penn State very well. I also had people who helped me along the way. One person who helped me was Mr. Merritt, the Director of Multicultural Equity Programs in the College of the Liberal Arts. Mr. Merritt assisted with my books, helped me to find scholarships that I was eligible to apply for, and provided caring advice when I needed it. Having someone that is able to help the needs of underrepresented students is very important to the Penn State community and can be a deciding factor of whether or not underrepresented students stay enrolled at the University.

Faculty were very supportive of my decision to attend graduate school. Three professors, Dr. Mhando, Dr. Thomas, and Dr. Gilyard helped me with my journey to graduate school. From being a part of the Ronald E. McNair Program, I was able to learn what research was by attending workshops and getting experience doing research with Dr. Thomas. I was able to learn Stata, a statistical software, and was able to learn about high school dropouts. This experience helped me to do research during the Summer of 2009 at the University of Michigan where I was able to study how achievement motivation affected African American adolescents. After these opportunities, my experience and motivation led me to pursue a doctoral degree in Education Policy Studies. Currently, I attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where I am on fellowship. This past May I received my Masters Degree in Education Policy. I believe the experiences at Penn State helped me to be adequately prepared for this program. I have no doubt that I chose the right school for my undergraduate experience.

Dispatch From The Other Side: Welcome Back

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Hintz Family Alumni Center
Originally uploaded by akrobat77

Greetings, Penn Staters. I hope that all the returning students have returned to campus with worthwhile summer experiences under their belts and that the new students (welcome!) are finding University Park to be a welcoming community.

During the last academic year, I started a series of blog posts titled “Dispatch From the Other Side” that is designed to provide some guidance for students interested in pursuing a career after graduation (in contrast to the students who plan to attend professional or graduate school). You can find those posts by searching on the blog. I hope some of last year’s readers are returning.

For those who are new this year, I’ll include a brief introduction. I am a Penn State College of the Liberal Arts alumnus. I graduated in 2010 with a B.A. in Political Science and two minors (Communication Arts & Sciences and Dispute Management and Conflict Resolution). After graduating, I immediately began work for a political non-profit in Washington, DC. I spent several months there before I left at the end of 2010 and started at a company in Virginia. I create web content and work as a business development specialist.

I am planning to structure this blog series this year just as I did last year, although I would welcome feedback and happily make adjustments. Tell me what types of information you would like to see and how you would like me to present it. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to answer all questions, but I am confident that I can track down answers from friends who have graduated from the College with different experiences than me. Don’t hesitate to ask questions (related to the post content or not) in the comments. You can also find me on Twitter, where I would be happy to read feedback and questions.

I don’t want this post to grow too lengthy, so I won’t introduce a new topic today, but I will invite you to review some of our old Dispatch posts and the comments. Did many of you attend the career fair? If you did and have questions about your experience, leave them in the comments. If you have a firm strategy for following up and building rapport with employers you met, I think it would be wonderful if you could share those in the comments so that others can learn from them.

Please also consider leaving ideas for future topics in the comments. It’s very useful for us writers to know just what our audience is seeking!

The Importance of Linkedin for Students

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LinkedIn Logo
Originally uploaded by mariosundar

If there is any marvel of the 21st century to be noted in the history books, it would be the emergence of the social network. As an eager Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) once said, “by giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.” (1) This statement could not be any truer. Social networks have expanded throughout many outlets of the world and have provided many services that have enhanced the communication process drastically. In recent years, social networks have also been developing professional careers too. That is exactly why Linkedin, the professional social networking website, has become so important for students all around the nation.

Linkedin is more than just a website where you can post your resume. In your Linkedin Basic (and free) Account, you can truly be in full control of the network that is you. You could expand on your resume by marking specific accomplishments that couldn’t fit on the CV. You could provide links to other professional blogs, websites, portfolios, or whatever else you may have to show your entire professional profile. You could connect to peers and colleagues from your past, and utilize those connections to enhance the job searching process. You could even ask for recommendations from your colleagues to show what you have done and show how you have affected the people around you while doing it.

One of the more important features (at least in this writer’s eyes) of Linkedin is the ability to join groups. At first, I completely overlooked this feature of LinkedIn. However, my curiosity got the best of me when I joined a Linkedin Sports Marketing group last year, and I haven’t stopped joining groups since. This is an incredibly vital feature that has led me to more connections than I could make otherwise.

One great way to make connections is to join the LinkedIn Group Penn State Career Connection (which can be found here). In this group, there are tons of PSU alumni who are posting job openings in their companies all the time. Students can use that portal to promote themselves in the job hunt too, and alumni can reach out to them from there. The College of the Liberal Arts has also recently started its own LinkedIn group, which students and alumni are encouraged to join for networking purposes.

Students can benefit in many different ways from utilizing this website correctly. They could even land their next job because of it. Linkedin is one of the more important websites of the 21st century, and will definitely affect the job landscape in the future.

(1) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mark_zuckerberg.html

My Path from Liberal Arts to the Department of Justice

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DOJ Corner
Originally uploaded by M.V. Jantzen

It goes without saying that searching for a job in today’s economic climate is an arduous task for a recent college graduate, especially with a liberal arts degree. It is difficult to translate a liberal arts education into qualities that potential employers seek when hiring qualified candidates. A degree in the liberal arts is often joked about as being a “useless” degree, and for many graduating seniors it is easy to accept this cynicism when faced with such daunting obstacles. Liberal arts graduates are overwhelmed by the sheer variety of possible careers. Instead of feelings of exhilaration at your options, you’re instead left with fear and paralysis. The perceived ambiguity of a liberal arts degree can be a hindrance in a job market that places high value on specific qualifications and skills.

These were the feelings I felt as I approached graduation earlier this year. I had degrees in Political Science and Crime, Law, and Justice, and as I weighed my options late into my senior year I felt that my hard work in the College of the Liberal Arts had been in vain. Like too many liberal arts students, I had planned to enter law school after graduation. But after researching the costs of a law education and the unfavorable employment numbers, I realized that law school may not be the right option for me at this time. Law school seemed like an easy fix to my problem because I was completely unaware of what I could do with my liberal arts degree other than more schooling. This realization came to me two months before graduation. I had not thought to visit career services and had not received career advice of any kind.

So I made the difficult transition from student to job market. I had to learn independently how to write my resume, how to draft appealing cover letters, how to interview well and how to market my degree to employers. I learned these lessons the hard way by trial and error, missing out on many fantastic opportunities because of simple errors that could’ve been avoided. I struggled to translate my experiences in the classroom into qualifications that employers look for in potential employees. I didn’t have enough tangible work experience for most positions, a fact exacerbated by a tough economy flooded with more qualified unemployed professionals. I also had no guidance as to what entry-level careers were open to me with my degrees, and I was left to the mercy of cold calls, online job databases, unpaid internships, and whatever research I could find on my own.

Finally, I received an email from the advisors at the Crime, Law and Justice/Sociology Department. A Penn State Alumni from the College of the Liberal Arts had contacted them about positions as Paralegal Specialists with the Antitrust Unit of the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. It turns out the federal government values liberal arts majors because many of the skills learned – critical thinking, document analyzing, intellectual flexibility -are perfectly suited for government law. I asked for more information, emailed the Alumni, interviewed for the position and was hired last month. I never would’ve found this position researching vague government websites or entering keywords into an online job search engine. A simple email coupled with the advice of a Penn State graduate at the Department of Justice who guided me through the process was vital to my current employment. How many other students aren’t as lucky?

The value of a liberal arts degree cannot be overstated, but it would have been nice if the transition from student to workforce was a bit easier. In many ways, Penn State provides these tools through their career center, one of the best in the country. However, at such a large university the career center is limited in providing advice specifically for liberal arts majors and the correct counseling on how to market their degrees. It is also difficult to be adequately educated on all the opportunities that the College of the Liberal Arts provides to their students. The College provides so many exceptional and challenging opportunities that can greatly enhance a resume, but many students are completely unaware of these opportunities. It is unfair and easy to blame students for their own ignorance. How can even the most motivated students know about every opportunity at a university of this size (especially transfer and branch campus students)? And how many students look for opportunities and fail to find them? I know I would’ve greatly appreciated the guidance if I had been forced to think strategically about my post-graduate career earlier in my college career. And I’m sure I’m not alone.

Dispatch from the Other Side: After Graduation Reflections

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Graduation
Originally uploaded by LAUSatPSU

I hope that finals treated everyone well. For the seniors who are graduating: Congratulations! It’s a great accomplishment. I hope that you remain involved in Penn State and work to give back some way to the undergraduates who are remaining and who have yet to enroll.

This issue of Dispatch from the Other Side is aimed at the students who have some more classes left at Penn State. If you’re planning on more classes over the summer or if you have a few years left ahead of you, I hope you can learn from some of my “classmates.” I recently ran across some information from a survey of recent graduates (all different types of universities and colleges throughout the country) that I thought might be useful. The survey attempted to measure the biggest (professional-related) regrets that recent graduates have regarding their time in school. I’m going to throw out a few of the numbers and a little bit of my analysis.

Over a quarter of the students surveyed said that they wish they had networked more prior to graduation. 18% of them said that they wish they had done more internships. I think that these two numbers illustrate the importance of taking a step back and learning about your surroundings. I wrote a while ago about leveraging connections at Penn State, and I think this data indicates that students wish they did more of that. At Penn State, you have some remarkable opportunities for networking and internships: just look at the alumni base around you and the wide array of internship/co-op assistance available to you.

26% of recent graduates wish they had applied to more jobs when they were in school. 26% also said they wish they’d started their job searches sooner. 12% said they wish they had spent more time on their application materials. These data seem to indicate that planning is critical. Getting an early start thinking about the kind of jobs you want to apply for and then identifying potential application opportunities (I recommend using the Nittany Lion Career Network for at least a glimpse at the variety that you have). If you start earlier, you’ll be able to apply for more jobs with greater depth and sophistication. Employers can tell if you spent a few days on the application materials or a few minutes. If you are graduating in May 2012, there are plenty of employers who would like to take your application in November 2011 and interview you sometime over the winter.

14% of students say they would have changed their major. 8% think they should have gone directly to graduate school. What these statistics tell me is that students really must take the time to think about what academic opportunities are right for them. If you are in the College of the Liberal Arts, you have an incredible selection of majors and an excellent set of advisors that can help you figure out what programs are right for you. You may decide to add a major outside of the College too – whatever you choose, just remember to think through your major(s) and how you want to structure your education. You will be glad that you put the thought into it. Consult with professors, advisors, and other members of your personal community to get as much information as possible.

What do you think of the numbers: do you think that they represent recent graduated you know? What kind of work have you done to put yourself in a better position and have fewer regrets once you graduate? If you have any questions, feel free to put them in the comments. And if you have a topic for me to write about in the future, I’m always open for suggestions in the comments or on Twitter.