Happy New Year, Graduate Students!

As we start 2013 and the spring semester, we hope that you return to campus revitalized and ready to get back to work. For many graduate students, though, we know that breaks often mean more time to work, and that the second semester of the academic year might bring some fatigue as we head down the homestretch. We are also aware that this semester might bring added stress for those of you preparing to graduate and enter the workforce while still wrapping up your research. It can be a challenge to have so many balls in the air at once, and we hope we can help!

The January issue of Future 411 is designed to inspire and refocus our readers as we kick off this new and exciting semester. This month's colleague interview is a slight departure as we hear from some fresh blood on the CU-Boulder Career Services staff who has come on board to help you identify and reach your goals. Our January (soon-to-be) alumni interview is with a student who made career development part of her study plan from day one and will be leaving graduate school in May with a job in hand, thanks to her proactive approach. Articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and Science Careers remind us to keep our eyes on the academic prize while still students, offer advice on how to use other people's CVs as templates for our own success, and provide a road map for integrating your personal values and career development. 

We wish you good, focused energy as you start your work again. We also really do hope you will take the opportunity to darken our door at the Career Services office in the Center for Community this year (or month!) to take full advantage of the many resources we have to help you with your job hunting and career planning. Our staff is at your service!

Jon Schlesinger joined the CU-Boulder Career Services team as our new Assistant

Director for Career Counseling last semester. Jon comes to us from the University of Florida where he was the Assistant Director of Career Development. He has a bachelor's degree in Architectural Studies from The University of Kansas and earned his Masters of Education in Counseling at DePaul University.

What drew you to working in career development at the university level?

After working in architecture in Chicago for a few years, I realized I needed to make a career change and after evaluating what I truly wanted from a career, and the graduate programs in the area that would help me achieve those goals I found my way to counseling. It wasn't until the program was nearly complete that I discovered career development and university career counseling. 

One of the things I find particularly appealing about university career services is the ability to work in a number of different environments and with a variety of populations within one job. I have the opportunity to work individually with students and alums, counseling them on the career development process and assisting in internship/job searches. I also get to work strategically to develop projects for the center and to present on a variety of topics to students and employers. Lastly, I have the opportunity to work with and supervise a group of talented staff and bring a fresh perspective to their constituencies and individual counseling. 

Welcome to CU-Boulder! What brought you here, and how do you like it so far? 

Thanks! I am really enjoying it so far. I'm just beginning to get to know campus and the students; I already appreciate the diversity of experiences that students bring into my office that makes my job interesting and different every day. 

I started my counseling work in career services at Northwestern University, and I moved here from The University of Florida's career center. There are always slight differences in how the centers operate and their missions, but generally there are more similarities than differences. Most career centers operate from the same basic playbook; helping students grow through individual and group services. I came to CU-Boulder to continue to expand my skills in working with a variety of students and move into middle management to contribute to the career center's strategic direction.

There are a number of differences between the graduate populations at CU-Boulder and Florida that give me the opportunity to better engage the graduate population here. There are about 17,000 graduate students at UF versus the 5,000 here at CU-Boulder. There are fewer students here, which can make it more difficult to get our message out, but also allows for better relationships and interactions.

What is the biggest challenge you've faced in your own career development? How did you use your university career services office when you first started looking for a job?

Ironically, I didn't take advantage of my career center as an undergraduate. I find that's actually pretty common among career counselors. My biggest challenge was in deciding what to pursue after I finished my bachelor's, and I wasn't aware of the resources available to help me understand my options or how to locate positions. In hindsight, I may not have gotten where I am without spending time in architecture, but it sure would have been nice to have used my career center to help me figure it out earlier!

What is your favorite part of your job? Do you have a favorite student success story?

One of my favorite success stories was working with a Ph.D. in political science. We talked on and off for about a year and a half as he finished his dissertation and entered the job market. He had wanted a research position in a consulting or research firm, but felt pressure to pursue an academic path. We spend time discussing his path, preparing for an academic job search as well as helping him explore careers outside of academia and expanding his network. Eventually he landed an adjunct position, as he continued to network and explore research firms. When a position that fit opened up in a research firm, we worked together on the application, negotiation, and deciding if he was ready to make the jump. I enjoyed seeing him eventually land the position he'd worked for was great.

What do you offer our graduate students in your new position here? 

I bring additional perspective having worked with graduate students from a wide variety of fields exploring academic careers and careers outside of academia. I enjoy helping graduate students navigate the academic landscape; having conducted a few academic job searches myself I bring that personal experience. I also have experience working with researchers and academics in translating their skills to careers outside of academia and helping them make the transition. 

As graduate students, we often complain that the undergraduates we help to teach focus too much on the results (grades) and not enough on the process (sharing ideas). Yet in our own studies we commit the same error, fretting so much about whether we will get tenure-track positions and move out of our dingy studio apartments, that our journeys through graduate school become oppressive.

Such thinking is unhealthy, and it is completely antithetical to fostering the kind of scholarship that makes graduate programs worthwhile in the first place.

How many of us glimpsed a frightening vision of our future selves in Daniel Clowes's Boomerang Generation cover of The New Yorker, featuring a recent graduate who hangs his Ph.D. on the wall of his childhood bedroom, as mother and father look on with pity and dismay? How many of us took a dark delight in forwarding the Internet cartoon of a young professor begging her eager student to avoid graduate school, which, she warned, would leave her romantically repellent and financially ruined? Read more