Please post your questions and comments under the appropriate category.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Career Services
Questions about networking opportunities, alumni relations, advising
11 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I've noticed career services gets a fair number of banks to come in, but there is a scarcity of consulting firms, both public and private sector. Does career services see this as a problem? Are they having trouble pitching SIPA to consulting firms?
Why don't we have a weekly happy hour like at the business school to encourage networking among SIPA students? I feel that there is rarely any officially organized networking opportunities for students among the concentrations to get together.
Why don't we tap into the previous experiences of our students more? There are things that I am interested in learning more about and I know someone must have worked in that field before but I don't know how to tap into that base.
The professional development class needs to be improved to make it more practical and useful. One suggestion is to make it a smaller group depending on the students' interest. My professional development class had nothing to do with the sub-section I declared (non-profit).
Professional development should be made voluntary. I personally found it to be a waste of time as I already know how to create a resume and what to write in a cover letter. It would be helpful for first-time job seekers in the US but for more experienced folks, it needs to be more focused on networking within the class and contacting alumni.
..OR 1. make professional development optional (different students prioritizre their goals and activities differently) AND 2. make the professional development classes much more high-level, informative and applicable. Perhaps have us review the resume cover letter, etc. on our own time and hand thos in as homework (for the prof to grade/return/review with us). In-class we could talk about the variety of paths for, e.g. someone interested in the Private Sector, and how to explore all our options and identify what works best for our goals.
Why is the OCS's alumni database so sparse? It's even less in volume when you note that only the italicized names are those alumns who have elected to be contacted. Why is this? Is there some major outreach to alumns that the OCS could do/spearhead toward getting as many alumns as possible 1. registered in the OCS database and 2. registered as someone SIPA students and other SIPA alumnoi may contact for advice, an informational interview, etc.? Has this been tried? Is this feasible? if not, what ar eth barriers?
I agree - more networking opportunities BETWEEN students. The Student Directory has to 1) function 2) be more user friendly. OCS should manage some kind of database where students are encouraged to post their employment history and search for others based on their interests.
A few hours ago, I recieved another extremely discouraging e-mail from OCS basically repremanding SIPA students as unprofessional. First off, why are they sending out multiple discouraging e-mails, especially when the things they are writing about do not pertain to the entire student body; in fact, it seems as though the issues they are addressing (i.e. dress code) pertain to a minority. Regarding the "no show" registrants, not only are we in mid-term gear, but we are foremost students, with our number one priority to excel academically. While placing professional opportunities over academic duties are necessary at times, OCS should know that things, in fact, many things come up last minute, and they really shouldn't hold it against us or try to install fear that some of us couldn't make the event because things do come up (i.e. last minute emergency group meetings, open office hours, talks with professors, etc.). I personally think taking the sign up is ridiculous. Like they say, it limits the number of registrants, who cannot even show up. In addition, I would like to address that as a professional school, we have an unimpressive OCS. I've walked into the OCS office multiple times, once everyday for two weeks, and they were very unavailable. They seem under staffed (i.e. what's the whole deal with two meeting per student?). But when I actually met with one of the career counselors, they were extremely unhelpful, discouraging, uninformative, and unenthusiastic. They basically directed me to do my own research altogether, when I asked for direction. Aren't they suppose to be experts? They had very general resume critiques and spoke minimally and seemed very uncaring. Not only was I discouraged, I was extremely frustrated and help hopeless about the strength of SIPA. Essentially, we are here to enter into PROFESSIONS, career change, etc. We need a STRONGER Career Service! Not one that that is just constantly writing lame e-mails telling us what we're doing wrong. i.e. I would like to see OCS offer loan suits for those that can't afford it or those that are from abroad who found it difficult to bring a suit from abroad. (I'm speaking as a someone who has a suit.) Another suggestion might be more staff availability. More positive energy. Upgrading the SIPA-Trak, so that specific info sessions can be directed into student e-mails. Less joint info sessions with Columbia Business School. More inter-active, social events (perhaps with alumnaes) on the OCS part. I'd be more than happy to direct this to OCS, but with the amount of negativity, I'm afraid they may send out a mass e-mail ousting me. I am extremely frustrated, and I believe it should be SIPA's best interest to upgrade the way OCS is run. Your efforts are appreciated in advance!
I will also point out that as someone who did try to unregister for an event, I couldn't do it! So either redo the whole system (preferable), or make it easier to unregister.
Also, requiring students to schedule "informative interviews" for Professional Development is a waste of time for many people. The whole class could really be more informative and more student-oriented, as people have said.
I think the OCS website should be redone, starting with the link to get to the site (it is buried). Actually, I think the SIPA website should be redesigned, but at the minimum there should be a SIPATRAK button on the SIPA homepage.
When I log into my SIPATRAK/OCS account page and click on 'my presentations/events' or whatever it says, I want to see all the lectures and career events I have signed up for as well.
11 comments:
I've noticed career services gets a fair number of banks to come in, but there is a scarcity of consulting firms, both public and private sector. Does career services see this as a problem? Are they having trouble pitching SIPA to consulting firms?
Why don't we have a weekly happy hour like at the business school to encourage networking among SIPA students? I feel that there is rarely any officially organized networking opportunities for students among the concentrations to get together.
Why don't we tap into the previous experiences of our students more? There are things that I am interested in learning more about and I know someone must have worked in that field before but I don't know how to tap into that base.
The professional development class needs to be improved to make it more practical and useful. One suggestion is to make it a smaller group depending on the students' interest. My professional development class had nothing to do with the sub-section I declared (non-profit).
Professional development should be made voluntary. I personally found it to be a waste of time as I already know how to create a resume and what to write in a cover letter. It would be helpful for first-time job seekers in the US but for more experienced folks, it needs to be more focused on networking within the class and contacting alumni.
..OR 1. make professional development optional (different students prioritizre their goals and activities differently) AND 2. make the professional development classes much more high-level, informative and applicable. Perhaps have us review the resume cover letter, etc. on our own time and hand thos in as homework (for the prof to grade/return/review with us). In-class we could talk about the variety of paths for, e.g. someone interested in the Private Sector, and how to explore all our options and identify what works best for our goals.
Why is the OCS's alumni database so sparse? It's even less in volume when you note that only the italicized names are those alumns who have elected to be contacted.
Why is this? Is there some major outreach to alumns that the OCS could do/spearhead toward getting as many alumns as possible 1. registered in the OCS database and 2. registered as someone SIPA students and other SIPA alumnoi may contact for advice, an informational interview, etc.?
Has this been tried? Is this feasible? if not, what ar eth barriers?
I agree - more networking opportunities BETWEEN students. The Student Directory has to 1) function 2) be more user friendly. OCS should manage some kind of database where students are encouraged to post their employment history and search for others based on their interests.
A few hours ago, I recieved another extremely discouraging e-mail from OCS basically repremanding SIPA students as unprofessional. First off, why are they sending out multiple discouraging e-mails, especially when the things they are writing about do not pertain to the entire student body; in fact, it seems as though the issues they are addressing (i.e. dress code) pertain to a minority. Regarding the "no show" registrants, not only are we in mid-term gear, but we are foremost students, with our number one priority to excel academically. While placing professional opportunities over academic duties are necessary at times, OCS should know that things, in fact, many things come up last minute, and they really shouldn't hold it against us or try to install fear that some of us couldn't make the event because things do come up (i.e. last minute emergency group meetings, open office hours, talks with professors, etc.). I personally think taking the sign up is ridiculous. Like they say, it limits the number of registrants, who cannot even show up. In addition, I would like to address that as a professional school, we have an unimpressive OCS. I've walked into the OCS office multiple times, once everyday for two weeks, and they were very unavailable. They seem under staffed (i.e. what's the whole deal with two meeting per student?). But when I actually met with one of the career counselors, they were extremely unhelpful, discouraging, uninformative, and unenthusiastic. They basically directed me to do my own research altogether, when I asked for direction. Aren't they suppose to be experts? They had very general resume critiques and spoke minimally and seemed very uncaring. Not only was I discouraged, I was extremely frustrated and help hopeless about the strength of SIPA. Essentially, we are here to enter into PROFESSIONS, career change, etc. We need a STRONGER Career Service! Not one that that is just constantly writing lame e-mails telling us what we're doing wrong. i.e. I would like to see OCS offer loan suits for those that can't afford it or those that are from abroad who found it difficult to bring a suit from abroad. (I'm speaking as a someone who has a suit.) Another suggestion might be more staff availability. More positive energy. Upgrading the SIPA-Trak, so that specific info sessions can be directed into student e-mails. Less joint info sessions with Columbia Business School. More inter-active, social events (perhaps with alumnaes) on the OCS part. I'd be more than happy to direct this to OCS, but with the amount of negativity, I'm afraid they may send out a mass e-mail ousting me. I am extremely frustrated, and I believe it should be SIPA's best interest to upgrade the way OCS is run. Your efforts are appreciated in advance!
I will also point out that as someone who did try to unregister for an event, I couldn't do it! So either redo the whole system (preferable), or make it easier to unregister.
Also, requiring students to schedule "informative interviews" for Professional Development is a waste of time for many people. The whole class could really be more informative and more student-oriented, as people have said.
I think the OCS website should be redone, starting with the link to get to the site (it is buried). Actually, I think the SIPA website should be redesigned, but at the minimum there should be a SIPATRAK button on the SIPA homepage.
When I log into my SIPATRAK/OCS account page and click on 'my presentations/events' or whatever it says, I want to see all the lectures and career events I have signed up for as well.
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