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Upcoming Events
March 19, Internship/Job Search & Interviewing (Buffs Professional Program), 5:30-6:30pm, C4C S350
March 20, Museum & Field Studies Meet-and-Greet, hosted by Museum Club, 5pm, UCB Museum of Natural History (15th & Broadway)
April 2, Journalism Career Fair, 5:30-7:30pm, UMC Ballroom
April 3, $tart $mart Salary Negotiation Workshop, 4:30-7:30pm, C4C Abrams (RSVP to reserve a seat by calling 303-492-4250 or email Sarah Rimmel)
April 8, Go Global! Launch an International Career Here and Abroad (Special Guest Speaker: Stacie Berdan), 5:30-7pm, Leeds Koelbel S125
April 9, Go Global! Launch an International Career Here and Abroad (Special Guest Speaker: Stacie Berdan), 5:30-7pm, C4C Abrams Lounge
April 17, Just In Time Hiring & Internship Fair, 9am-3pm, UMC Ballroom
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Featured Jobs through
 More than 480 active job postings for graduate level students
Job ID, Title, Company
49159 / Fish and Wildlife Biologist, US Fish and Wildlife Service
49201 / Networking Research & Development Scientist, Utopia Compression Corporation
49136 / Server Systems Engineer, Epic
49000 / ELD Social Studies Teacher, Sheridan School District No. 2
48868 / Structural Engineer, Professional Engineering Consultants, P.A.
49124 / Hadoop Big Data Train and Hire, Dexter Systems Inc.
49313 / Assistant Director, Facility Management,
Xanterra Parks and Resorts, Yellowstone National Park
48158 / Manager - Ethnic Hair Lab-Styling, L'Oréal USA
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Career Spot Videos
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Department
Career Talk
Department specific career workshops are planned with graduate students and faculty.
Formats may be presentations, panel discussions or networking forums.
Topics:
career assessments, non-academic career options for PhDs,
CV & resume writing, job searches, interviewing, networking,
skills employers want, salary negotiation and identifying your talents & strengths.
Contact
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Lovely graduate students,
This is a busy time of the semester for all of us, and we hope you find a much-needed respite during next week's spring break. Consider taking a moment before or during your break to read our March edition of Future 411. We are particularly excited about this month's issue, because it offers useful and, quite honestly, inspiring advice about networking for those taking either the academic or non-academic career paths after graduation -- or both! We say both because, in today's job market, the either/or line between the two gets continually blurry for many job seekers and many Ph.D.s with academic aspirations who also find themselves considering alternative tracks out of choice rather than necessity.
More and more, universities are adjusting to the reality that a doctoral degree does not limit graduates to seeking tenure track academic positions, and cutting-edge schools like the one at Michigan State are reworking their career counseling to prepare grad students to use their knowledge and skills in various creative and professional fields after graduation. Here at CU-Boulder, we are proud to announce that our Graduate School has launched an innovative new program this semester called "Beyond Academia" in response to the growing awareness that the academic world is not the only place where those who earn graduate degrees find fulfilling careers. Like many other Graduate School deans around the country, Dean Stevenson is working to track alumni and other members of our community who have followed such paths and bring some of them back to Boulder to share their experiences and help our graduate students learn about the myriad directions their futures can take with their CU-Boulder degrees. Beyond Academia hosted two speakers earlier this semester, including one of our interviewees below, Peter Hutchings, and we hope you will join us for future speakers!
In the meantime, read on for some creative and sage real-world networking advice from alumnus Peter Hutchings and soon-to-graduate Ph.D. candidate Rhea Williams on how to take academic and career networking beyond the basic exchange of business cards. Both interviewees are doing inspiring work and have energizing stories to tell. This month's articles also offer varied perspectives on networking. The Chronicle of Higher Education takes the "creepy" out of making connections, Inside Higher Ed address networking in the Humanities, and Science Careers offers tips for making face-to-face connections.
As always, we at Career Services are here to help you develop all of your career search skills, including networking strategies. We hope you will pay us a visit at our offices in the C4C before the end of the year -- it's never too early to start your job hunt and investigate all avenues and possibilities for your work opportunities after graduation!
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Our Alumni
Taking the Road Not Taken
Interview by Annie Sugar
Peter Hutchings started his undergraduate career studying Theater and Film at Northwestern University, but transferred to CU-Boulder where he completed a BA in English Literature and then received an MA in Comparative Literature. After graduation, he left Boulder to pursue his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Princeton University where he has also returned to his first love, filmmaking, while completing his dissertation. After graduation, he intends to continue writing and directing films while publishing independently.
How are you preparing for your career after graduation?
After deliberating at length between a career in academia and one in filmmaking, I ultimately decided on the latter. In doing so, I diverged from the path most often travelled by graduate students in the Humanities. Yet, ever since I was an undergrad, I have tried to identify basic transferrable skills in any course I've taken, whether on Translation Theory, Renaissance poetry, or Spinoza's philosophy, so that I could apply them one day in a chosen career. Close reading, critical thinking, and writing skills stand out to me as the three pillars of my liberal arts education. These tools have equipped me to deal with many aspects of my job as a filmmaker, from screenwriting to script analysis to working with actors.
What role does networking play in your current work, and what is your networking strategy?
As an art form, filmmaking is about collaboration; as an industry, it's about connections. Sometimes these connections come ready-made, like when someone has a family member in the business. In my case, personal connections helped me get my start. But while this type of connection can help you get a foot in the door, you need to work hard to broaden your network.
My strategy is two-part. First, never burn a bridge. I've seen it far too often in the short time I've been in the industry. You never know when a current connection can lead to a future collaboration. There's rarely a good reason to close a door. Second, when I work with talented team-players I keep them in mind for future projects. The old adage is true: a director's only as good as the people with whom he surrounds himself.
How did you learn to network?
My mother worked in television, and my father is a photographer. They're two of the most gregarious people you'll ever meet, and I learned a lot from them. I also found a lot of opportunities to practice networking in graduate school -- not just by forming enduring relationships, but also by watching my professors strike a balance between the personal and professional when dealing with students and colleagues. A lot of this happened outside the classroom at conferences, parties, dinners for invited speakers, etc. In this respect, some of my professors acted as both teachers and models.
Where have you discovered are good places to network both on and offline?
I don't spend a lot of time networking online. That said, I'm one of those people who is on Facebook exclusively for the network. I don't like to approach networking like a shark, and I'm really turned off by people who do, but I like to keep my lines of communication open. Offline, it seems to me that any setting or situation can be fruitful. I was once outside a pizza place waiting for it to open, and I struck up a conversation with the man standing in front of me; it turned out he's a working screenwriter, we exchanged information, and we've kept in touch ever since. For me, it's more about staying open and attentive, and never feeling "above it all."
Is networking different in different parts of the country?
It seems like 90% of the film industry is in Los Angeles and most of the rest is in New York City. I've bucked the system by living in the Hudson Valley, where my next-door neighbor is a herd of cattle. I find this environment very conducive to my creative process, but it has certainly insulated me from some of the realities of the industry. What has struck me is how technology has made a lifestyle like mine possible. Being able to Skype or video chat with actors, writers, producers, and crew members is a great example of how I've been able to work and network without being in one of the industry's main centers.
What advice do you have for graduate students seeking to establish or improve their networking skills beyond academia?
I think one of the real pitfalls of networking is approaching people opportunistically, as if they were rungs on a ladder leading to a successful career. This is not only ethically but also professionally problematic, because people can easily sense when someone's trying to use them or take advantage of them for personal gain. Ambition is a tenuous quality; it rarely identifies goals that bring personal well-being or that engender significant social contributions. I think people respond much more to friendly, open, and cooperative people. You can approach every encounter as a potential opportunity without being opportunistic. The difference is important for many reasons.
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Our Colleagues
Leaving No Stone Unturned
Interview by Annie Sugar
Rhea Williams earned a BS with a double major in Chemistry and Mathematics at Salem College in 2009. CU-Boulder's Chemical and Biological Engineering Department's broad, contemporary energy related research opportunities and its connection to the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2) drew Rhea to Boulder for her doctoral studies. She plans (hopes!) to defend her dissertation and graduate this summer.
What are your plans when you finish your degree? How are you preparing for your new career and job hunt after graduation?
My plan post-grad school is to head down an "alternative" PhD career path. By alternative, I mean that I am seeking roles where my scientific knowledge and organizational skills will be a key asset in furthering a company or organization's goals, including scientific program management, scientific publishing, or the coordination and administration of research and development team projects.
I realize these are niche positions to find, so my job hunt is already underway. While attempting to leave no stone unturned, I have availed myself of the help offered by the graduate counselor, Annie Piatt, in CU Career Services. Her critique and advice for my CV and cover letter was timely as I prepared to submit online applications this spring. Another great suggestion Annie gave me was to use LinkedIn's various search mechanisms (by company or within alumni, for example) to find first and second degree connections I could reach out to. My follow up visits to Career Services have been reassuring as I continue the job hunt process and I've appreciated getting an objective person's perspective as I prepare to interview professionally.
What role does networking play in your career preparation and what skills are you developing to that end?
I believe networking will play a key role in my job hunt. To date, my time in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, undergraduate January internships, and professional meeting/conference contacts have already served me well as mentors, with whom I check in periodically for feedback and to ask relevant questions. Their insight and experience helps me explore the possibilities and shape the vision I have for a fulfilling career. Building relationships, demonstrating a professional communication style, and just having the courage to reach out and ask questions are useful skills I'm developing.
What is your networking strategy and how has networking helped you?
My networking strategy is multi-faceted and includes emails, periodic check-ins and updates, and getting coffee at conferences over the years. I would encourage other students to find out what works best for them. I have had good success by sending "blind emails" of interest and inquiry to root out opportunities. As an undergrad, I relied on the power of suggestion to open a door at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and they created an internship for me based on my offer to spend my January Term at their Washington DC headquarters. It worked out so well, that the agency now hosts two students every year in the particular program office I worked in. My not-so-secret love for film took me to the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. A straight-to-the-point email to a few folks saying, "Anybody need help?" received a good response and resulted in a volunteer spot in the Theatre Operations office. It's worth mentioning that working the Sundance Film Fest was a goal I'd set for myself a full year prior. I believe sufficient forethought is important so you can "connect the dots" throughout the year and when the time comes, your circumstances are such that you can seize the day.
Where have you discovered are good places to network (online and offline)?
Conferences have been fruitful for me, but you need an "in" to help you start conversations. It's hard for anyone to walk up to a stranger! Non-conference aspects of the meeting provide good inroads. Just show some interest and nine times out of ten, the person will be happy and willing to answer your questions and have a discussion with you. Follow up on professional networks such as LinkedIn every time to connect, and be sure to personalize the invitation message rather than rely on the automatic one provided by the site. You can and should follow up fairly soon after the event, being sure to mention an idea or point from their presentation or related to your recent conversation, etc.
Do you have any networking success stories to share?
A couple recent efforts resulted in multiple beneficial informational phone interviews and invitations to send my resume for personal referral to hiring managers for positions that interested me. The first connection came through a friend I met at my REU, now working in the industry, was linked to a chemist post-doc at Pfizer who then connected me with a chemical engineer in research and manufacturing, which led me to a CU-Boulder chemical engineering undergraduate alum working in the same R&D group. My second connection came via my mother's former employer where an executive business consultant spoke on my behalf to a friend who is working in the oil industry supply chain, Conveniently, this contact's father is a Ph.D. chemical engineer working at LyondellBasell, a large international chemical company.
What advice do you have for other graduate students seeking to establish or improve their networking skills or strategies? How should they get started?
Get started by checking out the Career Services website and maybe set up an appointment with Career Services to discuss your personal approach to what can be an overwhelming task. Next, think about a person you can reach out to. This person will feel like a "stretch," someone you haven't spoken to in a long time but you think they might know something that could help you. Reconnect. Send them an update on your accomplishments and current project. Have a goal in mind before you hit the send button. For example, I was seeking an answer to the question "What does an industrial chemical engineer really do?" when I conducted my info interviews.
Basically, you have to put yourself out there on the limb. Don't take it personally if only one out of five attempts nets an offer of help. It's cheesy, but just keep turning over stones until you find a gem. I want to emphasize how important it is to follow through when the contact offers to introduce you to someone or sends you some helpful information or asks you to send your CV. Now is not the time to procrastinate! Promptly read what was sent, reply and ask another relevant question to help move the dialogue forward, eventually building a relationship.
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Professional Advice
Chronicle of Higher Education
A New Way to Look at Networking
By Allison M. Vaillancourt
In some of the career-development workshops I offer, I ask attendees to give me their business cards. I choose one card randomly and ask the owner to raise his or her hand. Then I walk over, look the person in the eye, and say, "It's 2:30 in the morning and I'm returning from a hiking trip in the Grand Canyon. I'm 100 miles from Tucson and my car has just broken down. I really need a ride home. Can you come and get me?"
The typical role-playing response involves significant squirming and a string of excuses. I hear about sleeping children, spouses that wouldn't understand, challenges with night vision and suggestions that involve calling AAA. Some participants even point out that they don't really know me. "But I have your card," I say. "When we met, you said that I should call you anytime, and I really need you." I end the exchange by expressing profound disappointment at the broken promise before we move into a philosophical discussion about our motivations for networking.
These conversations came to mind when I read Rob Jenkins's recent piece on networking, in which he asserted that academic types tend to find it disingenuous to forge connections in the hope that the new contacts might prove useful. I think he's right: That does feel creepy. But a simple reframing can make the networking process feel better. Read more
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Inside Higher Ed
Personal Economy and Liberal Arts
By Lee Burdette Williams
I recently sat through another compelling defense of the liberal arts, although I hardly needed to be in the choir again. I sing loudly from the song sheet, being both the recipient of a liberal arts education and an employee of a college deeply committed to this work. I am surrounded every day by the very evidence that its defenders offer in support of the necessary existence of this uniquely American construct.
But I am troubled by what is not often said. I interact daily with students who will soon be on the job market as well as recent graduates who have entered that same tough market, and I have come to realize that the arguments in favor of, or against, the wonders of a liberal arts education tell only half the story. There is an equation at work in determining the likelihood of success, and it is an equation too often overlooked in our defense of the liberal arts: the one that calculates the value of character and personal skills.
I can hardly count the number of times in recent months I have heard successful people share with audiences that they are liberal arts graduates. These speakers are often on the dais because of their success. "I was an English major -- British lit to be specific!" "I majored in philosophy, double-minored in French and chemistry!" Read More
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Science Careers
Networking: How to Get a Good Connection
By David Bomzer
Surveys indicate that 50% to 75% of people found their last job through networking. You can network several ways, including networking by phone, giving a presentation, or networking face-to-face. This article will focus on three types of face-to-face networking: one to one, one to many (e.g., in a meeting), and many to many (e.g., at a conference).
There are many opportunities for face-to-face networking, including professional association meetings, social gatherings, and job fairs. The mechanics, tips, and tools in this article are applicable to all three types and to the different situations. You must decide which types and places work best for your face-to-face networking.
But first, here is a short quiz about networking.
Why Network?
A) To meet people
B) To get a job
C) To make money
D) Next Wave told you to
Why network among strangers?
A) To tell people you're looking for a job
B) To build relationships
C) To get calls when job openings and opportunities occur
D) Next Wave said it would be good for me
When networking you should ...
A) Talk about yourself
B) Talk about your ideal job
C) Ask questions and build rapport
D) Talk about Next Wave
If you answered, respectively, A, B, and C, then you are on your way to success. You'll also recognize that it's possible to break effective face-to-face networking down into three component parts: Meeting the Person(s), Establishing Rapport, and Communicating Effectively. Read More
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Contact Us
Annie Sugar, Editor, PhD Student, Media Studies, Journalism and Mass Communication
Annie Piatt, Graduate Student Program Manager and Career Counselor
Center for Community, N352
Appointments: 303-492-6541
Office Hours:
Fall & Spring: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Wednesday, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
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