Alternative Summer Plans

Though your summer plans may have shifted due to our strange and unusual times, there are still many opportunities out there for you! In order to build out a well-rounded and impactful summer, you will want to explore a variety of options and stay creative. Read below for our advice on alternate opportunities and plans for your summer.

Review your long term goals

Remind yourself: Where do you hope to be after graduation? What are your career and work values? This will help you focus on personally relevant activities, whether that means reading more technical interviewing books or starting a new collaborative project. Your answers may also change over time, opening up new options or eliminating paths that don’t make sense for your values and life priorities.

If your goals involve specific job titles or employers, study position descriptions and follow current news about those companies. What experiences are they looking for that you don’t yet have?

Broaden your search

With your renewed goals in mind, consider these alternate ways to gain those experiences.

• Teaching: Improve your knowledge transfer and interpersonal skills by teaching with programs such as iD Tech Camps and Coding with Kids.
• Contracting: Agencies like CampusPoint, MAQ Consulting, or Creative Circle can connect you to temporary project-based positions (yes, even during hiring freezes). Be ready to negotiate pay firmly and dive into projects with minimal coaching.
• Micro-Internships: Sign up with an agency like Parker Dewey and complete short-term, paid professional assignments like those you’d get as an intern, but only 5-40 hours long.
• Freelance Work: Offer your services on platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr, with shorter 5-10 hour long freelance jobs.
• Volunteering: Contact organizations you support and want to help. They might be related to your community or identity, such as Girls Who Code or Techbridge Girls. VolunteerMatch and Idealist.org can spark more ideas.

Create your own opportunities

Hobbies, interests, and one-time commitments can also help you stay involved.

• Research: Outreach to faculty, mentors, or iSchool research groups about potential summer research help.
• Events: Sign up for virtual hackathons and events on platforms such as AngelHack, Kaggle, and Meetup to problem-solve with a team.
• Independent Projects: Design or build something new and personally challenging to add to your portfolio.

Keep networking

Finally, network from a place of curiosity and empathy. Reach out to smaller or emerging organizations, or search unexplored locations such as your hometown or region for new contacts. Using tools such as the UW Alumni LinkedIn group, seek out employers and professionals that resonate with your values and post-graduation goals, and stay resilient if you aren’t getting responses. Genuine connections are worth the wait and the work.

When hiring processes pick back up, employers will pull candidates from the contacts they’ve already established, especially those who have shown a strong desire to learn and adapt. Make yourself memorable with diverse experiences that truly mean something to you!

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Snoopy Pic of the Week!

Snoopy is practicing how to look at life in a different perspective (upside-down).

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Upcoming Events

Highlights:

Sign up by TOMORROW, April 23rd – Accenture is offering a free “Staying Connected” Virtual Learning Series, a month of weekly virtual 1 hour sessions to provide you with deeper learning about working from home, emerging technologies, and more.

April 30th, 11:30 AM – Wyze is hosting a talk focused on opportunities in its product research space, specifically geared towards graduate and Ph.D students. RSVP on Handshake for the Zoom link!

May 8th, 9AM – 5PM – Outsmart Today’s Job Market: An Online Symposium for UW Grad Students! Attend this free tri-campus symposium for workshops, panels, lectures, and resources to prepare you to launch into your career this June and beyond.

More info and registration via iCareers:

• April 23rd Finding a Job When You Don’t Feel Qualified: Small Group Coaching – Zoom; 12:30 – 1:30 PM
• April 28th Adulting 101 Alumni Panel – Zoom; 12:30 – 1:30 PM
• April 29th Employer Tech Talk: The Transformation of Healthcare and Technology with Edifecs; 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Positions for Consideration

Product Designer/Lead Product Designer, January, inc, Handshake
Consumer Data and Analytics Internship, Cambia Health Solutions, Handshake
2020 Summer Data Science Internship (Python), WhatsBusy, Handshake
Software Engineer, Bioinformatics, GRAIL, Handshake
System Analyst Sr – Work Force Management Technology, Starbucks, Handshake
Data Science Fellow, Harvard Law School, Harvard University, iCareers ID 10632
Audiovisual Preservation Project Manager, George Blood, LP, iCareers ID 10673
Business Liaison Librarian, Meridian Library District, iCareers ID 10671 Customer Success Engineer, Paymentus, iCareers ID 10677

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Questions or feedback? Contact us at icareers@uw.edu | iCareers