By Julia Plevin '09
Believe it or not, we Dartmouth students become a lot wiser over our four years of college. I cannot express how often I hear the phrase, “if only I knew then what I know now…,” when I am talking to my fellow classmates. In an attempt to garner this wisdom and pass it down to younger students, Skip Sturman-Director of Career Services-created a PowerPoint presentation for parents during First Year Family Weekend entitled, “Ten Things Seniors Wish They Had Known As First Years: A Career Services Perspective”.
One slide listed five things that seniors wished they had done differently in regards to their career searches:
1. Plan ahead
2. Take time to reflect
3. Engage a human
4. Imagine the possibilities and not feel limited by major, employers who come to campus, or internships listed on DartBoard
5. Indulge their passions
While all five nuggets of wisdom are things that I have had to learn on my own after being lured by my peers into the corporate recruiting trap and then feeling lost and confused, I think that the one that is most often overlooked is, “take time to reflect.”
There is so much action packed into every hour of every day of a Dartmouth term. Whether studying, volunteering, playing sports, taking part in extracurricular activities or hanging out with friends, Dartmouth students are among the most over-booked people around. Taking time to sleep is hard enough, let alone taking time to reflect. Once the term starts, there is no blinking or breathing until it stops.
Off-terms and breaks are also typically not used to relax, rejuvenate, and reflect. Instead, students take “free time” to travel to Africa, do research, or work in New York City. Taking time to reflect, even just a few moments each day, does not seem to fit in the Dartmouth schedule.
Since my mom is a yoga teacher, “taking time to reflect” is synonymous with “meditating” for me. Whenever I call and tell her that I am feeling scatter-brained or anxious, she tells me to find a quiet corner and repeat a mantra to myself. However, you do not need to sit in lotus pose wearing Lululemon pants chanting “ommm” in order to take time to reflect. You can just slow down, make some lists and diagrams, write in a journal, or take a hike if you want to reflect.
There is so much pressure to know what you are doing next – whether that is for a break, an off-term, or post-graduation. Taking time to reflect means slowing down and enjoying the adventure. It means not worrying if you don’t have epic spring break plans because you can take the time instead to figure out what is really important to you - what you like and what you dislike – and start to plan for future life adventures.
From talking to alums over Green Key weekend and through the Alumni Stories that I write, I have finally accepted the fact that you can have ideas about what you want, but you cannot plan out your life since the most important decisions will be made due to factors that you are still unaware of.
Here are just a few tidbits from conversations with alums over Green Key:
-“Just don’t rush into anything. Take your time.” – An ’08 who spent the year teaching in Paris
-“Finding a career is like the Gwyneth Paltrow movie Sliding Doors ¬– if you miss one opportunity, another one will come up and it will lead to a completely different life than you could have imagined.” – A ’74 who is a CEO of an advertising agency in Los Angeles
-“The first five years after college should be spent figuring out what you like and what you do not like.” – A ’91 who works in communications at Google in Mountain View
-“I had no plans for post-graduation. I took a job here, a trip there…. It worked out for me and it will work out for you.” – An ’07 who just finished her first year of law school at University of Colorado at Boulder
During my first few years at Dartmouth, I was sophomoric. I thought I was such an independent trailblazer that did not need advice from anyone. Now I have realized that we are all independent trailblazers and all trailblazers can benefit from learning about the experiences of others who have been there before and taking time to reflect. Namaste.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
One Day One Blog
By Julia Plevin '09
The capacity to communicate with people on the Internet never ceases to amaze me. After I wrote a blog that mentioned the onedayonejob.com website, I got a comment from the founder of this website. He wanted to talk to me! I was not sure why The Job Search Guru wanted to talk to some lowly job seeker like myself but I seized the opportunity.
The Job Search Guru turned out to be Willy Franzen, CEO and Co-Founder of onedayonejob.com, who graduated from Cornell in 2006. Willy did not know what he wanted to do when he graduated and realized that many recent college graduates, like himself, struggle with the transition into the working world and their own naïveté. His solution: to create a website which lists a job every day along with research tools to help a would-be applicant learn more. Willy finds most of the jobs that he posts on his own.
Willy gave me a few tips for the job search and urged me to use his most recent venture, foundyourcareer.com, as a research tool. Once I get started on this 21-day online job search boot camp, I will blog about my experience. For now, I will disclose some of the advice that he offered me:
1. Become a professional job-seeker.
2. Do not just apply to one job and then sit and wait until you hear back from them. Apply to ten similar jobs.
3. Don’t wait to hear back from the employers at all. Be proactive. When you sit back and wait, you put them in control of your job search.
4. By sending in your resume, you are making it easy for them to reject you. Find someone at the workplace you are interested in and call to learn more about the organization.
Basically, I have started to realize that the “attach your cover letter and resume” line that we always see on websites or job postings is a trap for the naïve job seeker. It is better to call someone and learn more before crafting that perfect cover letter and sending it into Bermuda’s triangle.
With that in mind, check out this website that has tons of interesting job listings that I stumbled across today: Alison Doyle's advice and commentary on jobs, careers, work, and life - You will need to be on twitter to take advantage of these resources. Get connected and get a job!
To the power of the Internet!
The capacity to communicate with people on the Internet never ceases to amaze me. After I wrote a blog that mentioned the onedayonejob.com website, I got a comment from the founder of this website. He wanted to talk to me! I was not sure why The Job Search Guru wanted to talk to some lowly job seeker like myself but I seized the opportunity.
The Job Search Guru turned out to be Willy Franzen, CEO and Co-Founder of onedayonejob.com, who graduated from Cornell in 2006. Willy did not know what he wanted to do when he graduated and realized that many recent college graduates, like himself, struggle with the transition into the working world and their own naïveté. His solution: to create a website which lists a job every day along with research tools to help a would-be applicant learn more. Willy finds most of the jobs that he posts on his own.
Willy gave me a few tips for the job search and urged me to use his most recent venture, foundyourcareer.com, as a research tool. Once I get started on this 21-day online job search boot camp, I will blog about my experience. For now, I will disclose some of the advice that he offered me:
1. Become a professional job-seeker.
2. Do not just apply to one job and then sit and wait until you hear back from them. Apply to ten similar jobs.
3. Don’t wait to hear back from the employers at all. Be proactive. When you sit back and wait, you put them in control of your job search.
4. By sending in your resume, you are making it easy for them to reject you. Find someone at the workplace you are interested in and call to learn more about the organization.
Basically, I have started to realize that the “attach your cover letter and resume” line that we always see on websites or job postings is a trap for the naïve job seeker. It is better to call someone and learn more before crafting that perfect cover letter and sending it into Bermuda’s triangle.
With that in mind, check out this website that has tons of interesting job listings that I stumbled across today: Alison Doyle's advice and commentary on jobs, careers, work, and life - You will need to be on twitter to take advantage of these resources. Get connected and get a job!
To the power of the Internet!
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Revival of The Unpaid Internship: I’d Even Wash The Floors
By Julia Plevin '09
In a grand gesture of defiance, I quit an unpaid internship last summer. I was interning at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The idea of this internship was so exciting because I am interested in fashion history, but the reality of it was disappointing. I spent my day in a closet by myself vacuuming fur coats from the 1900s. I wanted to scream, “Do you know who I am? I am talented and capable. I’m a Dartmouth student!” I did not scream, but I did politely say that this internship was not what I expected and shut the door on my way out.
I was so naïve and full of false hope last summer. I expected that I would graduate and get a job that paid real money. Now that reality has sunk in, everything is different. I might even consider another unpaid job….
A satirical blog post on gawker.com says, “don’t despair, media-types: you could still land this magazine editorial job. You’ll never guess how much it pays”. The job, which required 2-3 years of writing experience and 25-30 hours per week was, in fact, unpaid. The scary thing is I saw this ad and was unfazed about the lack of pay. It sounded like a cool opportunity to me, an aspiring media-type.
Here was the job posting:
Freelance Features Editor Position (unpaid)
Job/Internship type: Full-time
Company/Publication Name: Monroe Magazine
Location: New York, NY
Description: Monroe Magazine, a new fashion, music and entertainment based magazine, is seeking a Features editor with at least 2-3 years of writing experience. This person must be able to commit at least 4 days a week - 25-30 hours a week - and must have a reliable computer to work with and a fast response time for all follow ups, e-mails and phone calls.
Responsibilities Include:
-Generate article ideas with editorial interns and staff.
-Oversee and manage all editorial interns, freelance editorial staff and commissioned writers.
-Edit, revising and proofreading articles and stories.
-Researching new and upcoming short story fiction and nonfiction writers.
Posted 4/28/09 Contact: To be considered, please submit a cover letter, resume, 3-4 writing samples and story idea proposals. Also include a list of your top 3 magazines and why you like them, and your preferred topics of writing interest. Email jobs@monroemag.com and put "Features Editor" in the subject line.
The best part of this blog post was the comments. One person replied that this was the new business model that newspapers should use – to let aspiring writers work for free. Another person said, “Soon there will be paying media jobs. You will have to pay to work.” These comments hint at the sad state of the media industry and make me wonder if I will ever get a job that pays. Perhaps I will become the Princess of Perennially Unpaid Internships.
The truth is that unpaid internships are great if they help you get a foot in the door at a company or help you gain much-needed experience for a specific industry. In other words, unpaid internships are fine if they eventually lead to a paid position. I could handle waitressing and working for free for a few months after college. In fact, I would happily wash floors for free at a media company I am interested in if it would help me to eventually get a journalism job. It would be nice to be able to have a real life and have some spending money to enjoy myself but I understand times are tough.
I’m no longer naïve and harboring dreams for an apartment in the city and a disposable income, at least not right away. Now I would settle for a small stipend and bringing a bagged lunch from home.
In a grand gesture of defiance, I quit an unpaid internship last summer. I was interning at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The idea of this internship was so exciting because I am interested in fashion history, but the reality of it was disappointing. I spent my day in a closet by myself vacuuming fur coats from the 1900s. I wanted to scream, “Do you know who I am? I am talented and capable. I’m a Dartmouth student!” I did not scream, but I did politely say that this internship was not what I expected and shut the door on my way out.
I was so naïve and full of false hope last summer. I expected that I would graduate and get a job that paid real money. Now that reality has sunk in, everything is different. I might even consider another unpaid job….
A satirical blog post on gawker.com says, “don’t despair, media-types: you could still land this magazine editorial job. You’ll never guess how much it pays”. The job, which required 2-3 years of writing experience and 25-30 hours per week was, in fact, unpaid. The scary thing is I saw this ad and was unfazed about the lack of pay. It sounded like a cool opportunity to me, an aspiring media-type.
Here was the job posting:
Freelance Features Editor Position (unpaid)
Job/Internship type: Full-time
Company/Publication Name: Monroe Magazine
Location: New York, NY
Description: Monroe Magazine, a new fashion, music and entertainment based magazine, is seeking a Features editor with at least 2-3 years of writing experience. This person must be able to commit at least 4 days a week - 25-30 hours a week - and must have a reliable computer to work with and a fast response time for all follow ups, e-mails and phone calls.
Responsibilities Include:
-Generate article ideas with editorial interns and staff.
-Oversee and manage all editorial interns, freelance editorial staff and commissioned writers.
-Edit, revising and proofreading articles and stories.
-Researching new and upcoming short story fiction and nonfiction writers.
Posted 4/28/09 Contact: To be considered, please submit a cover letter, resume, 3-4 writing samples and story idea proposals. Also include a list of your top 3 magazines and why you like them, and your preferred topics of writing interest. Email jobs@monroemag.com and put "Features Editor" in the subject line.
The best part of this blog post was the comments. One person replied that this was the new business model that newspapers should use – to let aspiring writers work for free. Another person said, “Soon there will be paying media jobs. You will have to pay to work.” These comments hint at the sad state of the media industry and make me wonder if I will ever get a job that pays. Perhaps I will become the Princess of Perennially Unpaid Internships.
The truth is that unpaid internships are great if they help you get a foot in the door at a company or help you gain much-needed experience for a specific industry. In other words, unpaid internships are fine if they eventually lead to a paid position. I could handle waitressing and working for free for a few months after college. In fact, I would happily wash floors for free at a media company I am interested in if it would help me to eventually get a journalism job. It would be nice to be able to have a real life and have some spending money to enjoy myself but I understand times are tough.
I’m no longer naïve and harboring dreams for an apartment in the city and a disposable income, at least not right away. Now I would settle for a small stipend and bringing a bagged lunch from home.
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