Category Archives: Poonam

Resume Makeover

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Last Friday was the deadline to submit a resume for this year’s Resume Book published annually by the lovely CP&R. One of CP&R’s many wonderful resources, the Resume Book is a collection of resumes from current graduating students sent to the greater Scripps community as a networking tool. The first requirement to submit asks that your resume be a maximum of one page in length (with exceptions for science resumes). Thinking that I would just do a little trimming and send mine off easy breezy, I opened my resume and found two full pages loaded with material. Forget hacking it down to a single page– I didn’t even know where to begin deleting a word. (This suddenly reminded me of Bryn’s meme from a couple of weeks ago– check them out for some laughs if you haven’t already!). All of the information on my resume (education, skills, extracurricular activities, community service, honors and awards, work experience) seemed vital to communicate to a potential future employer. Since I have been involved in a mixed bag of very different kinds of activities, I didn’t want to cut down on breadth and risk excluding a skill that may be appealing for a particular type of position. So, of course, my next step was to waltz into CP&R and schedule an appointment for a much needed resume makeover.

In just one hour, I left with a fully transformed, ready to submit resume (thanks Leslie!!). I learnt many worthwhile tips that I wasn’t aware of before– hope some of these are helpful to others looking to clean up their resumes. One of the reasons my resume seemed so bulky/ overwhelmed with information was because I had overly detailed and lengthy descriptions after each activity. I had written explanations of the organizations, rather than focusing on conveying my personal contributions, responsibilities, and achievements within each involvement. I reworded and shortened the descriptions to make them more concise using the list of “Action Words” found in the CP&R Career Services Guide. Check it out for inspiration– super helpful!

Another major thing we did was completely restructure the formatting of my resume. Because I now have a clearer sense of the direction I am headed career wise, we used public health and social justice as a central theme around which I tied together and organized my resume. I replaced the various sections listed above with: education, public health experience, advocacy experience, and development experience, and then sorted each involvement into the most related category– this revolutionized the presentation of my resume and created a much more targeted and focused message. One piece of advice my friend recently received from a Scripps alumna was to have a common thread connecting all of the activities on your resume. This may seem close to impossible given the fact that many times we find our interests through our involvements, and not vice versa, but I think we can all be strategic about the way in which we present our experiences on a resume.

Leslie then explained that it is important to highlight the most relevant experiences specific to the opportunity for which you are applying. Employers and organizations appreciate if you have a diverse background with a wide range of skills, but they are most interested in the experiences directly linked to the position or field. This meant removing the descriptions for all activities except those under ‘public health experiences.’ As you can imagine, listing just the name, position, and time frame for all other involvements cut out a huge chunk of my length, and voila– I had a one page resume! Success.

Pop into CP&R to schedule an appointment for yourself or stop by for Drop In hours Monday-Friday from 10-4! Friends, any other resume perfecting tips you would like to divulge? I know mine always has room for improvement! 

In Search of Success

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Before I start, I want to share “Building Nests in Windy Places”— the Scripps 2011 Senior Commencement Speech delivered by Joss Greene. I watched the speech yesterday and was inspired to write this blog post. Joss so beautifully articules everything I have personally been grappling with this past year– how to define success on my own terms, how to achieve a school/life balance that is happy and healthy, and how to envision and start creating a future of fulfillment and value.

Joss opens the speech by challenging the audience with this question: “Who gets to say what is a worthwhile use of your time?” One change I can readily identify in myself since arriving at Scripps is the way I perceive and prioritize my time. I realized after sophomore year that I constantly felt overwhelmed and exhausted from self-imposed stress– activities and classes that I chose of my volition. It occurred to me that I was challenging and pushing myself for the sole reason of testing my limits and capabilities. Instead of being enriching and interesting, these added activities/ projects/ classes drained my time and prevented me from investing energy in other things I enjoy and value– things as simple as my hanging out with my friends, going to the gym, laying in Jaqua, attending discussions and events on campus, etc. Studying abroad fall of my junior year solidified this need for balance. While in India, I found myself perceivably happier on a daily basis because I was able to enjoy and engage fully with the people and places around me. As a result of this mental peace, I learnt better, produced higher quality work, and felt more academically satisfied and accomplished. Returning to Scripps, I began a conscious and active effort to disassociate my self-evaluations of success with external measures of worth– grades, rankings, purely “resume” activities, and so on. This is an incredibly difficult task, especially for someone who has spent the past 20 years deriving their self-worth from these very same standards. However, had I persisted in defining success as the survival of difficulties, I would have risked neglecting and disregarding my interest in public health and social justice. My change in career values came from these shifting understandings of success and happiness.

As Joss addresses in his speech, a critical step in achieving happiness is listening to and respecting our bodies. For me, a huge part of finding balance has been learning to respond to my body’s signals and needs. For instance, this past week was a whirlwind of work and deadlines, and by Friday I was sick with a cold and felt physically tense from residual stress. So on Saturday, instead of forcing myself to write the section of my thesis due next week, I hopped on the Metrolink into L.A. with some friends and romped around the city for a few hours. I returned from a wonderful afternoon outdoors re-energized and mentally prepared to be productive. I will finish my thesis chapter and accomplish the same amount of work whether or not I went to L.A., but now I can approach my tasks with a reinvigorated and healthier state of mind and attitude. I admit, I still religiously consult my color-coded schedule, but the change has been in not letting the to-do lists compromise my day-to-day happiness.

Whatever I do in the future, whether it be working or going back to school or starting a family, I hope to continue striving to re-define success and worth by my own values and intuitions. I hope to find fulfillment in aspects of my life outside of my position, pay, or title. The following quote has been on a sticky-note on my computer for over a year now. The message isn’t revolutionary, just a reminder to pause and consider if I am living up to this ideal. Scripps, where and how do you find balance? What are your standards for success? 

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” –Anonymous

Call me, maybe? Phonathon at Scripps

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When I first began working at Phonathon over two years ago, I was simply in the market for an on-campus job and knew close to nothing about the Scripps Fund. I had heard from friends that the Phonathon environment was super fun and upbeat—and that the paid bonuses were great (which is all very true!). Now, many semesters later, I am incredibly grateful I stumbled across this position, not only because of my positive experiences and all the wonderful people I’ve met, but because I will be leaving with a wealth of transferable skills I hadn’t even realized I was honing on the job.

My primary role as a Phonathon caller is to solicit financial gifts for the college. Like most new callers, I was initially hesitant and uncomfortable when it came to directly asking for large sums of money. However, as I came to understand the importance of the Scripps Fund in maintaining the community and supporting critical areas such as scholarships, I grew personally invested in my role, and the unease of asking for money began to wear away. Now, when presented with a cause I truly believe in, I am not only able to ask for money, but also clearly convey my enthusiasm and passion for the cause and articulate why the cause in particular is worth others’ support. While I hope that chasing and thanking donors is not crux of my career in public health, I recognize that my work will inevitably intersect with the non-profit world—an important part of which is garnering financial support. And if I end up on the research side of things, most projects are funded by outside foundations and involve an intense grant writing process in which you must present and defend a strong, compelling case for your research. Either way, being comfortable and confident when approaching issues of money, funding, and donations is a huge strength, especially in the direction I am headed.

Without realizing it, my hours spent at Phonathon building conversation with alumni, parents, and friends have strengthened my communication/ networking abilities immensely. At Phonathon, we call it ‘building rapport,’ which essentially means connecting with the other person in order to stimulate engaging, energetic conversation. This has by far been the most rewarding aspect of being a caller—I have had countless inspiring and interesting conversations, many of which have highlighted the impact of a Scripps education. So many alumni and parents feel a strong tie to Scripps and are eager to share how their experiences with the college have shaped and influenced their career, interests, and life in general. I have had the opportunity to speak with individuals working in public health, medicine, social justice, etc., and their personal stories have provided great insight into the journey and field itself. I am constantly grilling alumni about how they ended up in their respective careers and the challenges they faced in navigating that path. It is encouraging to hear that careers are often entirely unrelated to majors—many alumni assert that it is the critical awareness and intellectual curiosity they developed at Scripps that prepared them for future success and achievement. ‘Rapport building’ has proven to be extremely valuable and will continue to enrich my networking experiences as I move forward.

Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend (it seems like so long ago now…) filled with love, and family, and friends (and maybe some productivity?). As the semester whirlwinds to an end, I have found that the to-do lists are taking over my life—my laptop, bulletin board, and desk are a rainbow of sticky notes. Stay afloat, friends! Anyone else have stories they would like to share about jobs they’ve had at Scripps?

Family always knows best– right?

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This past weekend I attended my cousin’s wedding in Atlanta after literally counting down days until the festivities for over six months. It was the most incredible and grand celebration– I come from a huge, crazy, and hilariously loud family, and I live for these rare occasions when we are all together. Being close to my family is one of the most enriching and defining parts of who I am, and I feel incredibly fortunate to share those strong bonds. That being said, having such personal relationships with my family means two things are always in abundance: food, and advice. My family LOVES to eat, but I would venture to say they enjoy sharing their opinions even more.

A small preview of my family’s craziness

I realized last weekend that I have matured out of the “What are you studying?” phase and into the “What are you doing with your life?” epoch. Very, very terrifying. It is easy to field those questions with curious peers and acquaintances because I can just smile and offer a vague “something related to public health…” before redirecting the conversation. That technique is a complete and utter fail with my family. They want the specifics, the exact details about my elaborate plans from now until a career. And they don’t just want to hear it—they want to add their own commentary, critiques, and suggestions. While my parents are wonderfully supportive and encouraging in all respects, my decision not to pursue med school was less than favorably received by my extended family. When I tried to explain my excitement and interest in global health and human rights, the responses I got ranged from “there is no better field than medicine” to “you will never make money.” My family is so well intentioned, but I quickly grew frustrated and vulnerable from having to defend my choices. It took several months for me to feel comfortable in my decision to steer away from medicine onto a different path, and I did not appreciate the resurfacing feelings of doubt and insecurity.

Me, my parents, and my brother at the reception!

These past few days since being back through, several small occurrences have reaffirmed my confidence and reminded me of why I am passionate about public health. Today, for instance, I took a career values assessment that allows you to rank what you value as important in a job. My top five were:

1) Help society

2) Diversity

3) Influence people

4) Public contact

5) Moral fulfillment

Looking at the list, I realized that I am drawn to the fields of global health/ social justice/ international development/ human rights because the work so perfectly aligns with what I fundamentally value in a career. Being engaged in the community and making a difference is a reoccurring theme throughout the rankings, and I recognize that a personally fulfilling and satisfying career must highlight those elements. For me, the values on this list are realized through public health. I know with time and action my family will come to accept, respect and understand my decisions. Familial pressures can at times be hard to manage, but I am grateful for their ability to challenge and question me because it keeps me honest with myself. As one of the youngest members of my family, establishing a voice for myself will be an on-going process, but in the meantime, I am thrilled to continue with public health and show them where it leads me next.

Dear Scripps students, do you ever face similar experiences or reactions regarding your school/major/ career choice? How do you deal with and address the situation?

Thesis Excitement and Inspiration

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Hope everyone is having a relaxing and rejuvenating fall break! We’ve officially passed the half-way mark for the semester—insane. And scary. Insane because time is literally flying, and scary because thesis is becoming ever more pressing as the work piles up and deadlines loom nearer. Even though I am just now beginning to get a sense of the real scope and immensity of thesis, I am SUPER excited about my project and topic (now there’s a line you never hear). I think the reason for my enthusiasm for thesis has everything to do with the fact that I carefully and actively sought out a project that genuinely interests me.

Thesis is an intense commitment. Essentially, by the time you have a finished product, you will be the resident Scripps expert and master of your topic. Hence, for your own happiness and well being, it is in your favor to select a project that intrigues or impassions you, because otherwise thesis can become a soul-draining and rather unpleasant burden on your senior year. Personally, I figured out pretty early on in my college career that, as much as I love Keck and the faculty and science in general, counting fruit flies or growing mold in a lab would be a painful experience for me. My future (hopefully) and ambitions lie in the realm of public health and human rights, and I wanted a thesis that engaged my true interests.

So, I began seeking out alternatives to a lab thesis early junior year. I was ecstatic to find out that Keck recently partnered with the CGU School of Community and Global Health (SCGH) to offer science majors the option of conducting their thesis with a SCGH adviser. Through the application process, I was even able to indicate preferences for specific faculty and project areas. I feel very fortunate in that I ended up with a perfect match—I am working under the guidance of a SCGH faculty member on tobacco use among young adult South Asians. My end of the project is actually much more narrow and focuses on emerging polytobacco (the concurrent use of multiple tobacco forms) trends and the contextual factors influencing such decisions and usage. I am still fine-tuning the details, but much of this first semester has involved building a case for the research and obtaining all the necessary stamps of approval from review boards. (Hint: submit IRB requests as early as possible! Your life will be infinitely easier because you cannot start data collection with human subjects/many animal species without authorization.) Because I hope to pursue a Masters in Public Health (and possibly concentrate on health promotion and disease prevention), this project directly aligns with my goals and is invaluable research experience that will benefit me beyond graduation. I am fascinated with this area of study and am eager to dive in to the interview/ data collection part of the project. Hopefully that should begin soon—I will be sure to keep all you dedicated readers updated on the progress!

In the meantime, here are three tips that helped direct me when I first began thinking about thesis. I know it can seem daunting and distant for non-seniors, but investing a little time now will aid you immensely in the future, promise.

1) Think about your favorite classes, the ones you have absolutely loved or found inspiring. What subjects were those classes? Who taught them? Are they related (or could you relate them) to your major(s)?

2) What are your potential post-graduation plans or career goals? However vague or uncertain they may be, thesis is a fantastic opportunity to become the expert of a topic that could help expand your understanding or knowledge of a particular field and later give you some leverage in the outside world. Could you craft a topic that has some sense of a trajectory to a possible career path?

3) Take advantage of your department’s website and investigate what projects faculty are working on or areas they have researched. Reach out to faculty you find interesting—they are a wealth of ideas and support!

Fellow seniors, what other tips to you have to add to this list? How did you go about choosing a topic? Everyone else, what are your concerns and thoughts about thesis? Happy Halloween—stay safe and have fun this weekend!