Career Paths
Can’t find a job? You’re not alone
As a senior in college still figuring out my post-graduation plans, I am far too familiar with the dreaded question, “What are you doing next year?” In an effort to defend my “I don’t know” reply in the face of judgmental adults, I have done extensive research to defend the claim that the job hunt…
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Entry-level jobs don’t exist anymore
If you’re frantically scrolling through LinkedIn, Handshake or Indeed looking for jobs and internships like me, you probably noticed that the standard for entry-level positions has risen exponentially. The idea of entry-level jobs is practically disappearing before our eyes. For many college students and recent graduates, the search for post-graduate jobs seems almost impossible. Since 2017, 35%…
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This STEMs from insecurity
Growing Into Myself At the ripe old age of 10, my dad and I ran into one of his gym friends when I was getting picked up from a late night swim practice. I don’t remember much from that interaction, but what I do remember sort of changed my life. The friend was extraordinarily tall,…
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The creator economy can hurt users
As spring break Instagram posts rolled out, images of my classmates in picture-perfect tropical scenes bombarded me while I returned to the bleak surroundings of central Pennsylvania. As the week continued, I found myself checking Instagram every 15 minutes, growing more and more bitter. I was filled with an urge to post something, anything, to…
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The case against following your passion
It’s concentration declaration season for AB sophomores and BSE freshmen and the same old questions are bubbling to the surface: Do I really have what it takes to become a math major? Should I pursue classics or comparative literature? Then there’s the most familiar question: Should I choose the more “practical” major that may land…
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Students should be picky about their jobs
Despite being responsible for a one-star review at my workplace that states “the little redhead behind the counter is rude,” I am a very good employee. I promise. The cruel reality about customer service jobs is that no matter how good you are at your job, there will always be a handful of customers that…
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Being extraordinary is overrated
Ever since things have gone back to almost-but-not-quite normal, I’ve had this overwhelming feeling that I’m not doing enough. It’s almost become a mantra in my head, the words repeating over and over, “You’re not doing enough.” I’ve mentioned the feeling to friends and classmates, and the majority of them have related — each and…
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The Myth of Passion
These days, it seems like the resume obsession is real. Everyone is scrambling for jobs, internships, shadowing, clubs, research positions and whatever else the pre-corporate world has to offer. It seems like any use of our time is only as valuable as the number of professional buzzwords we can squeeze out of it. The landscape…
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Safe, structured lives
Over the summer, did you consider taking a gap semester? Possibly a whole year? If so, you were definitely not alone. At both Harvard and Yale, roughly 20 percent of incoming first-year students deferred. Similarly, I opted for a leave of absence, delaying my senior year to the fall of 2022. Despite how frequently the notion of a…
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Searching for my reasons
More times than I can recall, I’ve started a class eager to learn about some fascinating topic. But as the semester progresses and piles on exams and homework, the course grows less and less interesting. The desire to perform well in the course starts to replace my original curiosity, until I’m not sure why I…
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Graduating Jobless
I graduated from Cornell with a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering in 2016. Not only did I graduate without a job offer, but I never even had an interview. I certainly applied to plenty of jobs and I went to all the career fairs. Overall, I think I had a relatively normal and…
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Does anyone really know where they see themselves in the next 10 years?
“Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?” The question is a favorite among job interviews and icebreakers for elementary school teachers and college professors alike. “What are your hobbies? What’s your major? Oh, and I know you’ve barely reached the legal drinking age, but what will your life be like when you’re…
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The Ivy League Breeds Obedient Capitalists
Prestigious universities like Cornell are, in theory, institutions where talented young people receive the education, ideas and skills needed to tackle the world’s most pressing issues. A closer look into elite culture reveals that these conceptions are fantasies that serve privileged, wealthy sectors of society that equate their own interests with those of the rest…
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From the Interviewer’s Seat: What to Do and Say to Win Your Next Job
I just announced my retirement after 45 years in education. For the past six years, I’ve been the head of lower school at The Bolles School (FL) and am currently part of a team that’s hiring for my position. As I close this chapter in my professional career, I’m reflecting on my time in independent…
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Consider the ethics of companies where you want to work
We have a moral imperative to avoid enabling unethical behavior It happens every fall at Penn. Corporate representatives flock like vultures to our campus, eager to take their pick of the brightest students here. From engineers to financial analysts to consultants, they search relentlessly for the students who will create the most value for their…
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More black journalists are needed to tell stories for us, about us and by us
On July 14, President Donald Trump went on Twitter, and in a series of tweets, he attacked four politicians of color: Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). He explicitly told them to “go back” to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Later that…
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Don’t let your parents determine your career path
It’s up to you, not your parents, to decide what you do with both this summer and the rest of your life There’s something about going home for the summer that initially seems so satisfying. It’s been about two months since your last break, and you’ve just finished a grueling round of finals, so you…
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Tough on trade (schools)
The bias against blue collar is hurting the country and its students When Aidan, who requested his last name be omitted, graduated from north Seattle’s Roosevelt High School in 2016, he knew almost nothing about vocational schooling. “I feel like Roosevelt was pretty focused on getting students into college,” Aidan said. “Most of the time…
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Sailing Through High School: A Nautical Alternative
When my kids were little and needed to get out of the house, I took them down to the water. There was much to do: skip rocks, play in the sand, and make dams to hold back the tide. If the tide was low, we looked for creatures under the rocks. We had a dory…
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Why I’m happy with my useless majors
Impracticality matters much less than you’d think when the alternative is a practical field of study that’ll lead to lackluster and underwhelming performances and interests. I have a useless major — two of them if you ask some people. As a cinema and political-science major, with a creative-writing interest, I feel as if I’ve…
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Consider teaching — especially if you’re a student of color
If you’re a person of color and passionate about social justice, try becoming a teacher. Our presence in the classroom has long-term implications on how future generations will come to navigate race, and now more than ever, our children need brilliant teachers of color. You might hesitate at this thought. If you’re anything like I…
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Startups, a Millennial Myth
Earlier this month, I went to watch my best friend pitch her non-profit startup at Harvard’s 2018 President’s Innovation Challenge. Of the fifteen competition finalists, only two teams were entirely composed of undergraduates. This surprised me — at a top school with no shortage of young talent, where entrepreneurs have access to a vast array of resources and a…
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Selfishness Won’t Save Us
Last semester, I went to an event at Oxford organized by The Economist called “The Future of Work.” This title has become shorthand for nebulous concepts such as “the AI/Automation revolution” and how they might lead to mass chronic unemployment in the near future. I have had a keen interest in this for a couple of years and…
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Be uncomfortable
Around this time each year, the perennial question resurfaces: What do I do this summer? And, if you’re one of the two-thirds of seniors who won’t be in the all-entangling tresses of consulting or finance next year, the question could simply be: What do I do? My answer to you? Something completely different. After graduating…
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Toward a broader job search
As the spring semester begins, students are scrambling to secure summer internships and post-graduation positions. The pressure is especially high for seniors, who will soon be completing their final semester and walking through the Van Wickle gates into the dreaded “real world.” For those of us seniors who still don’t have a job lined up…
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Another kind of doctor
From the time I was in elementary school to the summer before I came to Yale, if you had asked me what kind of career I was going to go into, I would have told you that I was going to go to medical school and become some kind of physician. When people back home…
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