by lhandler | Feb 25, 2021 | Alumni Perspective, Career Exploration, General |
By Brian Grimm ’97 Director of Content Marketing English Major What are you day-to-day responsibilities? Collaborating with my Marketing colleagues and other subject matter experts, I create strategies to help promote our capabilities with prospects and clients. I then write, deploy, and measure the content-based tactics supporting those strategies. Our main target markets are government agencies and healthcare organizations. My deliverables include videos, websites, email campaigns, white papers, case studies, sales presentations and proposals, social media content, print and conference assets, and more. I don’t directly manage anyone at the moment, but in the past I have managed teams of about 10 people. What skills make someone successful in your field and what can current students do to gain those skills? Curiosity is important. To stay engaged — and, in turn, to deliver good work — you need to dig in and really understand your business. Collaboration is key too. Nearly everything I do depends on input and buy-in from an array of business partners. Early on, identify your key partners and cultivate those relationships. Communication skills are critical, both for my actual work product and for how I impact and influence my business partners. Be clear, concise, and confident. And finally, patience is a virtue. For example, my B2G world is rife with rules and regulations, so I need to be patient as I secure many inputs and approvals before bringing my ideas to life. What steps did you have to take before you got to where you are today and/or what steps do you plan to take to further your career? All of my career stops have involved writing...
by lhandler | Feb 23, 2021 | Career Exploration, General, Internships, Job Search |
A key component of the job or internship search is finding an organization that’s a good fit for your values and beliefs. With the heightened focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the United States over the past year, it becomes important to monitor the scope and degree to which employers are engaged in DEI-related efforts. As such, the CCPA has created a guide for students and alumni to assess workplaces for their commitment to DEI activities and initiatives. We have identified five areas in which organizations can demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and a corresponding set of questions to determine the ways employers are enacting this commitment. We also offer a set of strategies and resources for gathering this information. Below is a snapshot of the five areas of focus and some sample questions. Check out the full guide for more! Values & Commitments Are diversity, equity, and inclusion part of the organization’s core values and strategic goals? Does the organization have an explicit diversity statement and/or a strategic plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion? If so, do their practices seem to align with the statement and/or plan? Workforce Demographics Does the organization have a diverse and representative workforce? Is there diversity in race/ethnicity, gender, and other social identities among the senior leadership team, board directors, and staff? Is this diversity distributed across all positional levels or clustered within certain ranks? Staff Development & Support Does the organization have DEI-related resources for professional development and employee support? Are there support networks or affinity groups for underrepresented and marginalized identities? How visible and active are...
by lhandler | Feb 20, 2021 | Career Exploration, Events, fellowships, General |
The CCPA is excited to announce the launch of a new resource for career exploration and planning! The Career Success Series is an online, self-paced program designed for first-years and sophomores – but open to students from all class years – to explore and focus your career interests and prepare to apply for internships, jobs, and other opportunities. Built around the first three steps of CCPA’s Career Action Plan, the Career Success Series provides a structured framework for you to: Identify your interests, skills, and values and related career paths. Access resources to explore career fields and internship/job opportunities. Begin to develop an effective resume and cover letter. Gain tips for effective networking and informational/job interviewing. Begin to cultivate a professional online presence. Create an action plan for ongoing career development. The series consists of articles, websites, videos, and other resources to read and review, and a list of action steps to take to set yourself up for success. This is a ”choose-your-own-adventure” experience – while we recommend you go through the series in order, you can decide which activities to complete and when depending on your interests and needs. There’s even a handy checklist for you to track your progress and which activities you’ve completed. To get started, self-enroll in the program via Moodle and watch the introductory video. Then bookmark the page and complete the activities in each module at your own pace and in whatever order makes sense for you. We hope you find this series valuable in your career journey. Feel free to contact us in the CCPA with questions or schedule a meeting if...
by lhandler | Feb 18, 2021 | Alumni Perspective, Career Exploration, General |
By Jon Sweitzer-Lamme ’14 General Collections Conservation Technician, Library of Congress in the Conservation Division History, minors in Fine Art and Art History What are you day-to-day responsibilities? I repair and rehouse damaged materials in the Library of Congress collections. The purpose of my work is to ensure that all of the general collections items (which is to say, everything post-1801 and not otherwise considered “rare” or “special”, perhaps 12 million items) are in usable condition for current and future users. Most of my time is spent at my workbench using traditional tools, materials and methods to repair damaged pages, reconstruct covers, and reattach covers to the pages or text block. My job also includes constructing custom housings using our CNC machines or by hand. I also ensure that each item is connected to the overall Library of Congress database, and make treatment priority decisions–with 12 million possible items to repair, some items must be diverted, either because they are irreparable, or because they are available either digitally or in microform. Because Congress is our primary clientele, we prioritize their requests: members of Congress or staff receive their books within 48 hours. What skills make someone successful in your field and what can current students do to gain those skills? The most important skills in conservation writ large (whether of books, of paintings, or of other types of materials) are the “hand skills:” the ability to do repairs skillfully, without causing damage and with minimal interference with the original item. The only way to gain these skills is by practicing them: in book conservation, by learning how to bind...
by lhandler | Feb 11, 2021 | Alumni Perspective, Career Exploration, General |
By Dorrit Lowsen ’97 President & COO, Change Finance Major: Computer Science What are you day-to-day responsibilities? Change Finance is a small, early-stage business so my day-to-day responsibilities are wide ranging – I manage our budget and finances, human resources (hiring, benefits, payroll, and any other personnel matters), legal and regulatory compliance, and product operations. I also am involved with marketing, product development, public relations, strategy, fundraising (although thankfully my co-founder does most of that!) and pretty much everything else that it takes to run a business. What skills make someone successful in your field and what can current students do to gain those skills? My “field” falls at the intersection of entrepreneurship and financial services. To be successful as an entrepreneur (regardless of field), you need to be tenacious, resilient, thirsty for knowledge, and willing to roll up your sleeves and do anything and everything no matter how tedious. The good news is that the times we are living in and your time at Haverford prepare you well. You have adapted as your education changed radically in response to a long-lasting pandemic. You have grown up during a time of political chaos as dramatic as most of us have lived through. You stuck with it so you’ve learned tenacity and resilience. You are studying at Haverford, so you must be eager to learn. That just leaves willingness to do anything – as an entrepreneur you’ve got to be prepared to do every aspect of your business yourself, because you’ll probably have to. That’s not really “learnable” – either you decide you can do anything if you just work...
