Tag Archives: Technology

My Future Career Probably Doesn’t Exist Yet

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This past Thursday, I attended a “Women in Tech” panel at the CMC Athenaeum, featuring three CMC alumnae. I really enjoyed hearing about each of their experiences while at CMC, and working at startups and major corporations, such as Kaiser and General Mills. I learned about the fast-paced and sometimes chaotic startup world and the most valuable college classes they had each taken in college. Each woman was very passionate about her career, and provided candid advice to the audience about regrets, experiences, and achievements.  One of the students in the audience asked “What is the best piece of career advice you’ve received?” The women all provided valuable advice, yet one comment really stuck with me. “Your future job may not even exist yet”, one panelist said.

I found this advice to be simultaneously comforting and terrifying. Just as I struggle to determine my major, I am also hesitant to declare one single career path, as I do not have the skills nor information to make either of these major decisions just yet. I have many future internships to complete and many classes to take that will help me make these decisions. So, what’s the rush in being certain of my future now? It is comforting to know that my future career may not even exist, because it relieves me from the pressure of defining it and sharing it with the world right now.

At the same time, the thought that my future career may not even exist yet is more than slightly terrifying. From the day students enter kindergarten, they are asked “What are you going to be when you grow up?” This question programs students from the very beginning to be forward-thinking and certain in their decisions. Most young students will say doctor, baseball player, or actress based on what their parents have told them they should aspire to be or what they have seen on television. I’m pretty sure that in kindergarten, I said that I am going to be a businesswoman because my five-year old self knew that my mom was some sort of businesswoman. Little did I know that there are thousands of careers within the field of business. Because our society seems to expect certainty from us, it is difficult to accept the ambiguity of my future career. Yet even while I create as much structure and certainty as I can in my everyday life through my weekly planner and  Google Calendar, I also recognize that it is ok to not have everything planned out.

The worlds of business and technology are constantly changing, and many of these changes, like the advent of artificial intelligence, will not only change how we work but how we live. Who knows, a life-changing piece of technology could come out this week! Like that panelist said, I encourage more students, no matter how young or old, to not feel pressure to define their future career, and instead accept, and maybe even embrace, the uncertainty of the process. The next time someone asks me what I’m going to do with my career, I just might respond with “how could I know? My career doesn’t even exist yet”.

Summer Transitions

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As I’m writing this, I’m facing my last week at my internship. The summer feels like it’s gone by in a blip. I’m doing a lot of wrap up—documenting the processes I’ve used so they can be continued, teaching a new analyst how to use a tool, creating slide decks for my two final presentations. The transition will be pretty abrupt for me. This Friday at 5 or so, I’ll leave work. Sunday morning I’ll drive down to southern California to visit with relatives, and then I’ll move back into Scripps on Tuesday for RA training. These last few weeks have been super busy, since I’ve been trying to cram in seeing all my friends and family around my normal work schedule. (I’ve had to sacrifice my daily workout, but hopefully Tiernan will be open when I get back).

I had a great, lengthy conversation with my manager yesterday about life choices and grad school and career options. She’s been tremendously supportive and appreciative of my work, and I was happy that she validated some of the unusual choices I’ve been making.

1.       Taking lots of math and economics, even though I’m all humanities on the inside: My manager got her MBA (while getting an MSW) for the same reasons — people who have quantitative or technical knowledge have power. I don’t want to let anyone mansplain why a policy I support isn’t economically feasible without the tools for refutation.

2.       Not returning next summer to my current internship, even though it’s well paid and at an organization I eventually want to work for: My manager (and my mentor, and my mom) stressed that internships are about exploration, and while they’d welcome me back, they understand that I want to figure out where I fit best.

3.       My semi-secret, maybe-probably-won’t-do it-but-maybe-I’ll-try-anyway dream of becoming an economist: My manager actually just assumed that path might be on my radar, since I’m interested in being a research assistant after graduation. It feels too big for me, and there certainly is a chance that I won’t make it all the way. I’m no math genius, and economic research is heavily math-based. Six years in a PhD program is a long time, and might conflict with babies and other life things. But there’s no danger in trying. It’s not as if I’ll be unqualified for any other jobs because I’ve taken too much math and econ. I can still go into policy, tech, teaching, or anything else, because of the magic powers of liberal arts education. At the moment, being an economist seems pretty appealing, because your work can involve theoretical research, policy focused research, and teaching. We’ll see if I survive multi-variable calculus!

I’m excited to switch gears next week for RA training. I’ve missed Scripps: the sunshine, the people, the beauty. I’m hoping that as much as I’ve stretched my analytical thinking at my internship, I’ll stretch my interpersonal intelligence in the next few weeks.

Playing the Student Card

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As I mentioned last week, I’m a huge dork when it comes to the tech scene in Los Angeles and Pasadena.  You can find me driving to every event I can find in the city, even though that sometimes means up to two and a half hours of sitting in the car (welcome to LA, everything you’ve heard about rush hour and gridlock is 100% true).  Now, if you’re looking for how to find these events, I’ve got a lovely little post written up here, and you can read about the time Scripps Women in Technology and Innovate @ Scripps took a field trip to one here, but this particular blog is not about events themselves, but rather about what makes you special at mixers.

TechSparks1

Mixers love Scrippsies!

When I first started attending mixers, it was the summer between sophomore and junior year.  I was only 20 years old, and had no idea what I was doing in these seemingly uber professional business spaces.  Everyone around me would talk about current jobs, services they offered, projects they were working on, and I’d stand around mute with nothing to add.  People seemed to be trying to find someone else who shared their interests or had connections they needed, and as a student I had no network to speak of, nor skills to share.  My status as a student made me feel useless, but what I didn’t realize was it also gave me an advantage.  Although I was lacking in things to give, I was also lacking in ulterior motives.  The instant I said I was a student, anyone I talked to knew I had nothing to sell.  It was great watching them drop their guard as they spoke passionately about their interests, when they realized you didn’t want anything except to listen and learn.

We have only a few short years to use this status to our advantage (maybe more if you go to grad school), so I recommend starting as young as possible.  The most important lesson I learned is that as a student at a mixer, people honestly want to help.  They want to tell you about how to find interesting events, about their work, about internships at their companies. They don’t mind that you don’t know anything, they can remember their own innocence as students, and want to teach you about their own lives.  There will occasionally be people who brush you off (you can see it in their eyes when they dismiss you as useless to them), but by and large the world is full of people who just want to share their own knowledge with you.  Sometimes a mixer can teach you more than any classroom, and following up with those people can build you a better network than you ever imagined.  So go out there and flaunt that student status, you’d be surprised at the knowledge you can gain just by admitting your own ignorance.

Fullbridge Day 6: Technology and Business

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Hi everyone. Thanks for continuing to follow my posts as I narrate my journey as a student participant in the Fullbridge Program.

Day six, we worked on a number of different assignments, including two expository videos. Each person worked individually, and all was quiet as usual. Since recording a video requires peace without interruption, we all took turns working in the open rooms upstairs meant for shared use. The finished products were to be submitted online to our coaches for review and feedback.

For the first video, I summarized a series of documents as an oratory for my boss. I wrote out the information first and memorized it from there. Other participants approached the task from various angles, some of whom spoke off the cuff. Others wrote short notes for themselves, much as someone might do with index cards for a presentation.

The second video required me to assess a possible workplace dilemma and propose a set of solutions to my supervisor. This assignment was shorter because it required less reading and time investment. As such, the information was less about research as it was about understanding work place etiquette. I found this one took less time and was easier to relay in terms of memorization and speech.

The idea was to simulate a work environment in which I would have to communicate with others via video, similar to the way people now use Skype and other similar programs for business purposes. After all, I’ve already had my first Skype interview because of Fullbridge, and it likely it won’t be my last. Given that technology has become essential to nearly every type of career, we have to consider the impact it will have on our future vocational plans.

As for you, do you find the advent of technology to be encouraging or not?  How does technology play a role in the career in which you’re interested?

Thoughts Before and After a Skype Interview

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Let’s go back a few months to the previous spring semester. I’m sweating profusely and chugging an extra large Red Bull while speed walking to my dorm. The short walk between the Field House and Clark Hall seems eternal; I repeatedly glance at my phone and count down the minutes. I should have left earlier. I shouldn’t have gone to work at all. I barrel through the bike shed and swipe my card four or five times before finally entering through the emergency exit (Oops!). On my way up the stairs I pass my roommate, who is watching hockey in the TV room, and feel a tremendous relief. She already got all her things and is out of the room. Brilliant. I throw my bag on my bed that is lofted way too high and start clearing the clutter off my desk. I button up a clean blue and white striped shirt, comb and pull my hair half up/half down, and prop my laptop onto my desk. It’s 10:17am and I dust a final layer of loose powder of my face while Skype loads.

… This is not ideally how you would prepare for a Skype interview (Now you know!). I suppose the interview must have gone well, as I managed to get the job and spend an invaluable time in New York this summer, but in hindsight, I know things could have gone a lot more smoothly. Here are some things I’m glad I did and other things I wish I had done differently (Be sure to take note of these “do’s and don’ts”!):

  • I’m glad I had the opportunity to do a Skype interview. Many employers consider the interview, both in person and via Skype, an integral part of the hiring process. Additionally, an increasing number of employers are utilizing Skype as a professional tool because it enables intimate conversation with prospective hires from all around the world and spares them the costly expense of travel. Download Skype here and familiarize yourself with the application.
  • I wish I had scheduled a better time to interview. My interviewer lived on the east coast, which meant she was also living in a completely different time zone. I had to be mindful that she was three hours ahead of me – although it was only 10:17am in California, it was already 1:17pm in New York – so I scheduled an early morning interview. However, I found out a little too late that a 10:30am interview would entail chaos for me. I had to leave work immediately after my shift was over, and eat and dress in less than an hour.
  • I’m glad I warned my roommate ahead of time that I would be conducting a Skype interview in our room that day. By communicating with my roommate early, I was able to secure a quiet space where I wouldn’t be interrupted and she was able to make plans to be somewhere else for half an hour (It would have been incredibly rude to exile her out of blue!). For peace of mind, I also silenced my phone and exited programs, such as Groupwise and Facebook, so that I wouldn’t be distracted by notifications during my interview.
  • I wish I had worn a solid colored blouse rather than one with stripes. Stripes or busy patterns tend to appear distorted on camera and thus distract from your face. Jennifer Johnson, founder of J. Johnson Executive Search, Inc., recommends a dark solid colored outfit with a pop of color somewhere. To make up for the distraction, I did my best to stimulate eye contact by looking directly at the camera rather than at the thumbnail of my interviewer. Sometimes things don’t always go the way we plan, but it’s important make the best of the situation!

Here are some helpful links to consult before your next Skype interview:

1. Learn How to Ace a Skype Interview – About.com Article 1

2. Video Interviewing With Skype – About.com Article 2

3. How to Ace a Job Interview on Skype – Time Video

What is your experience with job interviews, both in person and via Skype? If you have experience with both types, how are they similar and how are they different?