Summer: How to Keep it Professional

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Evelyn

Summer vacation is anything but a break from our career development. No matter what you are doing this summer, take the time to focus on your professional goals. I achieved my short term goal: find an internship that involves a passion of mine. I love marine life, so coincidentally I am going to be working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While short term goals are great, I know that I need to start thinking ahead. I have developed a check list to keep in mind during the summer to make sure I stay aware of my career development:

Pay attention to how I feel about the daily tasks I perform at my internship. If there is a special project I am assigned that I absolutely love, why did I love it? Was it the topic, the type of work, or the team I was working with that made it fun? Paying attention to your gut reaction to work projects or tasks, no matter what job you have, is a great way to learn what you may be good at or what type of work you want to do in the future. Similarly if you end up hating something then maybe that career path is not for you. For example, say you had to make a presentation and present it to a board of people. You loved creating the presentation but hated standing in-front of everyone to actually present it. Perhaps research and project management is a great skill set for you to develop, but you know that you will not be pursuing a career in public speaking.
Always keep my network in mind. Everyone I meet could play a role in my career path further down the line, you never know! I need to keep in mind the importance of building and maintaining bridges. Whether or not that is with my parents’ high school friends or with my new coworkers, keeping track of my connections is a great way to start thinking about next summer and who I may want to reach out to for an opportunity. If you are staying in a new city, then reaching out to Scripps Alumna in your area could be a great way to find and create connections to help you navigate your new temporary home. Check the Scripps Network for alumna who work in the same city as you. Most people are willing to help a college kid out in their professional development, so keeping that in mind is never a bad idea.
Keep it creative. This is a personal summer goal, because I am pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. I spend a lot of time writing research papers, studying lab result, and reading political theory in college. I am not complaining, I find my academic tasks very interesting. However, there is little room for me to exercise creativity, like creative writing or film. I enjoy coming up with projects to work on during my free time over breaks just to exercise the right side of my brain. Writing short stories, drawing, and even briefly learning an instrument only to forget it during the school year are some of my favorite creative tasks.

With my career-development checklist in mind, I am ready to start summer break. Unlike this past year, I plan on starting the academic school year next fall with a decent idea of where I want to work and what I want to do my summer before senior year. I learned a lot about my professional goals this last semester, I and cannot wait to see what summer has in store for me.

Making Professional Friends

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Evelyn

As a former Seattle resident, finding connections and expanding my network in Southern California has proved somewhat difficult. I have lost all of the immediate connections that I had access to through my friends and family, and am essentially starting over in a new state. Therefore, finding an internship this summer has required searching for potential connections through the scripps network and reaching out to my parents for any potential family friends.

Scripps College has an excellent database for finding information on alumna. I have accessed the Scripps Community Network several times in the past month in order to gain some inspiration on what I want to do this summer. By first narrowing the search down to California, then choosing the specific field of work I wanted, the network uses the search inputs to provide a list of Scripps alumna in the location and area of expertise. It provides their occupation, where they work, and even some contact information. This is a good tool to access during your internship search, because you can reach out to Scripps alumna and ask questions or advice on searching for career opportunities.

Another helpful networking to use is the Scripps College page on LinkedIn. Although there is often little to no contact information, it is still easy to search for occupation and location to get some inspiration and maybe even connect with an alumna if she works for or as something that sparks your interest.

After using the Scripps Community Network to see a range of career paths taken by the alumni of Scripps, I had a wild thought: what if I found an internship in the entertainment or media industry this summer? I have always enjoyed creating things, and just because I am a politics major does not mean I have to be a politician. So, I reached out to my mom and asked about getting in contact with a family friend who works as a production designer on films and television shows. I got her contact information, and am planning on connecting with her over spring break to discuss advice, tips, and how she got into the business.

Well, I am slowly building my network from scratch, so does that mean I am an adult now? If so, I am not sure how to do it right, but I’m rolling with it. While I am excited to have established this connection, it has been hard to focus on my career path for the past two weeks. I had four midterms, which required a lot of time-management in order to figure out when and what I was going to study.

It can be hard to balance school and professional life, especially during times of heavy workload. I managed it by unfortunately reducing my time at the gym and my time spent sleeping. I am not saying that I cut the two out from my daily schedule completely, but instead, I shortened my workout to a thirty minute run instead of a full hour and a half training session. I also started waking up early on days when I did not have morning classes in order to fit in an extra two hours or so of studying before lunch. While I do love sleeping in and exercising, sometimes sacrifices must be made during midterms weeks. I am excited for spring break to come so that I can have an extended period of time to focus on internship searches and network building without the stress of exams.

Networking Hacks: CP&R Resume Book

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Claire

This week, I thought I would take a little time to highlight one of CP&R’s resources that I have found helpful in the never-ending search for internships. As I have said before, I think networking is valuable no matter what field you are going into. Not only do personal connections give you a leg up in the application process, but you have the chance to make real, meaningful connections with professionals in your field. It’s hard to put yourself out there to “network”, in whatever form that may take, but I have found that people are inherently kind and genuinely want to help. Without further ado, here is one of my favorite weapons in my (not so secret) networking arsenal!

The CP&R Resume Book

Every year, Scripps Career Planning & Resources invites members of the current graduating class (and alumnae 1 year out) to submit their resume for an online resource called the Resume Book. It serves multiple purposes:

First, it is a publicly available document that allows recruiters to see the accomplishments of the graduating class and contact them about job opportunities.

Second, for first years, sophomores and juniors who may be stressed out looking for jobs/internships, it provides some wonderful ideas of internships that our amazing seniors have landed, formatting examples and a way to build a list of companies you might be interested in.

The Resume Book is organized by career interests, so all you need to do is look up professions you’re interested in and BOOM! you can see where past Scrippsies interned, what their activities they were involved in on campus, and get good examples of what a resume in your field might look like. While I’m not saying that you need to follow someone’s exact career trajectory, it gives you a good idea of how their budding careers have evolved from student activities to professional experience.

When we think of networking, we usually think of contacting real, professional adults. But your peers are also a invaluable resource. For example, last year I was panicking about internships and began digging through the resume book. I found, and reached out to, a then current senior who had interned at companies I was interested in. When I emailed her, she warmly agreed to meet me at the Motley, we had a delightful conversation, and she then connected me to a company she had interned with. Through a personal introduction, and subsequent calls with employees at the company, I landed an internship! Because I have had such success with and find the resume book a valuable resource, I thought I would share this insider tip.

Networking with your peers

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Claire

Many people shirk at the concept of networking because it has a slimy connotation to it, like you are using people for your own gain. As I have said time and again, I think of networking as developing personal, learning relationships. Some of these relationships can follow you through a lifetime and some are short, providing you with information when you need it. And networking is a two way street, it gives you the opportunity to raise others up and help them achieve their potential.

You may not have considered it before but your peers are actually a hugely important part of your professional network. After all, through your majors, activities, and friends you are developing close connections with people that have similar interests to you. And this form of networking is far less formal than trying to make contacts with professionals because you do it every day just by being a social human being. Here are a few tips for developing your personal network amongst your peers

Get involved!

This one can almost go without saying but try to connect with or get involved with groups that do things that interest you. It can be something like a professional society but it doesn’t have to be super formal. Find clubs or volunteer positions that focus on things that you’re passionate about. Finding likeminded people that you connect with over an interest makes it that much easier to form friendships and relationships. And you never know where people are going to end up, so being respectful is key.

Don’t be afraid to ask for an informational interview!

This can be for people that you don’t know as well but might want to get to know better or learn from. I got one of my internships this summer because I got in contact with a senior who interned at the company. I just emailed her and then met her at the Motley one afternoon. I learned a lot from her experiences and she was able to pass me on to the people who would eventually become my coworkers and bosses. It can be intimidating to reach out to people randomly like that but people usually want to help and are more than willing to share their experiences.

Enjoy yourself!

I know, I know everyone says that college is a fleeting time but it’s true, you have to enjoy it while it’s here. Responsibilities are constantly pulling at your brain and networking is one of those things that you always feel like you should be doing but never get around to it. Take a deep breath. You are doing it already and don’t even realize it. Never underestimate the value of the people around you. They are going to be your biggest advocates and supporters going forward because they know what a wonderful person you are!

Networking Adventure

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Claire

What a Saturday! Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to three networking events! They were all one right after the other but I was able to attend all three (somehow). Two were on campus and one was in LA. All were absolutely wonderful and insightful but I am going to focus on my trip to LA. First, a little background…

Earlier this week I ran into several recruiters at the Harvey Mudd dining hall. They were representatives from Universal Creative, the theme park attraction designers in the company. They were advertising their panel and their flyer indicated opportunities for Theater majors! Naturally curious, I attended the event that night. They described their division of the company; they do everything from conceptualizing to implementation of new attractions and experiences at the Universal owned parks. They hire a variety of engineers and artists to make these visions come to life and operate in efficient, safe ways. I really enjoyed interacting with the representatives and hearing them speak. I wasn’t sure where my interests and passion for creative management/organizing fit into their organization but I left my resume anyway. A few days later I got an email inviting me to their learning center at Universal City Walk for a networking event. Still unsure if I was really interested in this field, I decided to take the opportunity anyway.

I usually feel very confident about networking but this event was unlike anything I had been to before. It was far less casual than the networking events I had been to. The conference room was divided into engineers and “creatives” (art/architecture/theater). Upon speaking with the other candidates, I quickly realized how out of my depth I was. Many were extremely passionate about theme park design, touting portfolios and chatting about other professional mixers they attended. Not that they were unfriendly, but I felt out of place in an industry that I stumbled into less than a week before. But the recruiters must have seen something in my resume, so I plowed ahead. I had a lovely conversation with the intake representative, trying to be as honest as I could. She guided me towards some areas of their organization where my skill sets might fit and I discovered that she was friends with one of my internship bosses. Overall, I am still not sure if theme park design is right for me. But I’m glad I took the opportunity to go outside my comfort zone. Because although I felt destabilized in the moment, it gave me the confidence to know that I can work through any situation by just calming down and doing it!

Beyond the Elms

Exploring Careers with Scripps Students

Tag Archives: networking

Summer: How to Keep it Professional

Making Professional Friends

Networking Hacks: CP&R Resume Book

Networking with your peers

Networking Adventure