Summer Career Activities

The end of the year is just around the corner! Career Services would like to extend our congratulations to those of you graduating. As you begin your career (or take the next step), we encourage you to stay in touch. We’re able to meet with alumni for advising appointments up to one quarter after their graduation (through August for those graduating this quarter), while the UW Career & Internship Center takes alumni appointments up to two years after graduation.

Once you’ve settled in at your new organization, please also feel free to reach out about hosting a recruitment event at the iSchool. As you probably know from your time here, Information Sessions and iLounge Hangouts that feature iSchool alumni are particularly helpful to our current students, and they can help Career Services in strengthening our relationships with industry partners.

Last, don’t forget to let us know what’s next in store. The Graduate Outcomes Survey is due June 2. You can fill it out here.

For those of you returning in the fall, we’ve outlined some things below that you can start doing this summer to help ensure that once you do graduate, you step into a career you find engaging and fulfilling. Continue reading →

Career (and Life) Reading

Summer is a great time to work a job or internship. Summer is a great time to do something other than work a job or internship. Summer is also a great time to read.

This week, we’ve compiled reading material that covers both topics that are explicitly career-related and those just generally relevant to recent and soon-to-be grads. The first part features a book recommendation from each Career Services member, followed by a list of online outlets putting out useful content.

Career Services’ favorite books

Dean’s choice: First Job First Paycheck: how to get the most out of both…without help from your parents by Jeff Lehman

Jeff Lehman is the Founder and CEO of his own holding company, and sits on the Board of Advisors for the Foster School’s Professional Sales Program. His book focuses on personal finances and navigating the professional landscape, with an eye toward recent graduates. Continue reading →

Career Self-Assessment

It’s common wisdom to seek jobs that match your strengths and interests, though the actual task of doing so can be difficult if you aren’t quite sure what those are. Career self-assessments can help you find out. An essential tool in career planning and development, the tests give further insight into your goals and unique abilities, with the ultimate goal of aligning the two.

This week we’ve outlined some recommended self-assessments.

Pymetrics

Pymetrics is a free service that utilizes a series of straightforward but challenging “neuroscience games” to analyze your cognitive abilities. Unlike traditional career tools that gauge your disposition (“Would you rather do something hands-on or work on a computer?”), Pymetric’s tasks assess you on a variety of metrics, including your ability to read facial emotions, memory, and aversion to risk.

After you’ve completed 12 games (each takes one to three minutes), you’ll receive a report on your cognitive, social, and emotional abilities, and how they compare to other Pymetrics users. Career matches are then calculated by comparing your gameplay results to those of working professionals within different industries. For example, your results might be a 92% fit for project management, 75% for data science, and 10% for software engineering. The site will then recommend current job openings based on those scores.

O*NET Interest Profiler

The O*NET Interest Profiler is a tool on My Next Move, an occupation information site sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. A more traditional assessment, the Profiler asks you to rate specific tasks on a scale of “strongly dislike” to “strongly like.” Example prompts include everything from “build kitchen cabinets” to “help people with personal or emotional problems.”

At the end of the questionnaire, your answers will be scored along six different metrics: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. You’ll then be able to view suggested careers based on those scores, with the ability to filter the results by the amount of required preparation and/or education. Each suggested occupation will come with an abundance of information, including job duties, necessary skills and abilities, technologies used, and average salary.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

While not specifically a career assessment, MBTI is one of the most commonly used tools in helping people gain insight into their personality traits. The test analyzes character attributes including how you gather energy, collection information, make decision, and the sort of organizational structures you prefer.

Your Myers-Briggs results can both point you toward potential careers and provide a better understanding of how to succeed in your current job. And beyond strictly occupational concerns, MBTI offers information that is personally useful, such as your preferred styles of communication, how you develop friendships and romantic relationships, and what might test your patience.

While the above link brings you to a free version of the MBTI, you can take the official version here for $50.

Upcoming events

iSchool

(Please RSVP via iCareers for any iSchool event you plant to attend, unless otherwise noted.)

5/18: Adulting 101; 12:30 – 1:30pm, MGH 258

Guest speaker Almeera Anwar, coordinator at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s HR Global Operations team, will discuss a variety of HR and finance-related subjects. Topics include interviewing and negotiating an offer, employment contracts, compensation plans and investing, health benefits, performance reviews, and showing up for your first day on the job.

UW Career & Internship Center

5/11: Working for Social Justice: UW Alumni Discuss Their Careers in the Labor Movement; 4:00 – 6:00pm, HUB 145

5/12: Exploring Your Career Interests Lab; 1:30 – 2:20pm, MGH 134

5/16: Internship Story Share: A Showcase of Student Perspectives; 2:00 – 5:00pm, SMI 320

5/16: Exploring: Education, Non-Profits & Social Justice Careers; 3:30 – 4:00pm, MGH 134

5/17: Exploring: Creative Arts & Design Careers; 3:30 – 4:00pm, MGH 134

5/22: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency InfoSession; 5:30 – 7:30pm, MGH 134

RSVP required (link above). The NGA is not able to hire international students

Top job/internship opportunities:

• Innovation Force Software Developer/Entrepreneurship Internship, Cambia Health Solutions; HuskyJobs ID 114923
• Outreach, Training and Operations Assistant: Digital Media Labs (DFW), Tacoma Public Library; iCareers ID 6155
• Software Engineer, ABRAID, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; iCareers ID 6138
• Senior Data Indexer, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; iCareers ID 5893
• Global Future Leader Development Program (Summer 2018), Lenovo; iCareers ID 6153
• Strategy Analyst, Food Innovation, Starbucks; HuskyJobs ID 114865
• William H. Gates Sr. Fellow in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Technology Alliance; iCareers ID 6154
• Geography and Global Studies Librarian, UW Libraries; iCareers ID 6151
• English Studies and Research Commons Librarian, UW Libraries; iCareers ID 6152

Making the Most of Your Internship 

For those of you not graduating next month, this summer will likely be spent interning. This week, we’re looking at how to make your internship successful. Whether or not it’s your first intern position, approaching the opportunity strategically will maximize what you take from the experience.

Conduct preliminary research

You likely researched the company before interviewing, but there’s no reason to stop now that you’ve secured an internship. Continue reading up on the organization’s mission and vision, and look for relevant news articles, whether from outside publications or the company’s own communications team (which are often shared via social media accounts). Starting with a depth of prior knowledge will reflect your genuine interest in the role and organization, as well as help you acclimate more quickly than fellow interns. Continue reading →