Careers and internships
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Five alumni stories
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Advice: ‘The crucible of challenges faced while traveling can sure speed up the process and burn away any lingering questions [about your life goals].’ — Betsy Faber ’02, nature and culture
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Advice: ‘Diversify your knowledge base and know how it all relates.’ — Eric Watkins ’02, landscape architecture
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From wedding planner to behavior therapist
Advice: ‘Finding what you want to do for a living is a life long process, so don’t stress out if it takes a couple of tries to get to that final dream job.’ — Jessica Helms, ’04, human development
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Advice: ‘My biggest advice to people searching for a job is to approach it like you might a relationship.’ — Tiffany Swan, ’03, food science and nutrition
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Is it who you know that counts?
Advice: ‘Get as much experience as you can while you are in school or right after graduation.’ — Jenna Kirkwood, ’06 communication
‘Think creatively about job possibilities that are less impacted by the economic climate.’
Lisa Sanders, Internship and Career Center
Tips in tough economic times
The Internship and Career Center suggests 19 simple steps to help you find your direction. [more…]
Counselors, alums, dean give tips for success in bad economy
For UC Davis seniors and new graduates, the current economy seems like a black, yawning chasm with no way across. But as alumni (see righthand box) and Internship and Career Center staff will tell you, where there is a will, there is a way to skirt that hole and find success — and a job.
“The news will affect your confidence,” agrees Kay Nelson, a coordinator for the liberal arts and business program area of the Internship and Career Center. “But these are my encouraging words to students: People move for various reasons including desire to be closer to ‘home,’ change in weather or marriage. And people retire. There is always turnover.“
She points out that the baby boomer generation is offering new graduates tremendous opportunity: 80,000 people in the California state government will be retiring between 2007 and 2013, and jobs will also be opening across the state in teaching and other professions that offer long-term employment.
“My advice is position yourself to be a competitive applicant,” Nelson says.
Use more strategies more often
Adds colleague Lisa Sanders, “Whether you are job searching in strong economic times or uncertain economic times, the strategies are actually the same; the only difference is that you’ll use more of the strategies more often.”
Students can take advantage of a Nov. 19 center program, Tips in Tight Economic Times: How to Up the Ante to Land Your Career in Business, that focuses on helping students interested in landing a job in the business world — where most jobs will be found.
The program begins at 7 p.m. in 158 Olson Hall. The workshop focuses on knowing your resources, making a plan and being tenacious.
Another workshop on the topic will be held winter quarter. Students can get on an e-mail list for the event announcements on by visiting the Internship and Career Center Web site.
You need to be tenacious
“I tell students that it is possible to find a job or an internship, but you need to be tenacious, take advantage of the resources at the Internship and Career Center, start networking now and think outside the box,” Sanders says.
“Think creatively about job possibilities that are less impacted by the economic climate, but that allow you to develop the transferrable skills that match your long-term career plans … and then go after them,” she says. “A short-term, flexible and strategic plan will make all the difference.”
For those who have already graduated, the Internship and Career Center is there for you, too, with a weekly Job Search Group for Recent Grads that meets at 2 p.m. on Thursdays in 307 South Hall.
The sessions will continue through Dec. 4, and start up again in winter quarter. The schedule is still being organized (look to the center’s Web site for more information).
Job seekers can get help to make themselves stand out through their résumés and job interviews. And they learn how to rephrase work that they’ve done in the past so that employers can understand how their ”transferable skills“ will suit their needs.
Dean looking at solutions, too
It’s not just the Internship and Career Center guiding UC Davis graduates through these economic times but faculty and deans.
There are always upsides, or at least new possibilities, during any crisis, says Nicole Biggart, Graduate School of Management dean.
“A financial meltdown and shrinking economy translates into clear losses of opportunity and financial strains,” she writes in an essay about how downsides and upsides in the job market affect MBA students.
However, Biggart says she has a stake in helping UC Davis graduates survive and, ultimately, thrive.
On the UC Davis home page : Nicki Sun, a third-year student from Fremont double-majoring in Communication and English and minoring in Contemporary Leadership, is using internships to build her rèsumè. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)
“What do I plan to do to help us through the trough?” she writes in her essay.
“I’ll work on strengthening our alumni network, which always proves helpful in finding jobs for students and fellow alums in tight job markets. I'll also be trying to remind our alumni, friends and students that private support is not just for private universities, and that a public university is a great private investment, too.”