NEED MORE ALUMNI PANELISTS FOR CAREER PANELS AT YALE!

Here is a message fromSteve Blum, a member of the AYA Board of Governors. I did this last week when I spoke on the law panel, and found it to be a really great experience.

NEED MORE ALUMNI PANELISTS! Inaugural Junior Class (AYA-supported) Career Panel: HUGE success. See Yale Daily below.

2/17 Education

2/24 Pub Service

3/24 Medicine

4/7 Nonprofit

4/14 Music

4/21 Science/Engineering

4/28 Media

Yale Daily News link: http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/feb/04/jcc-goes-pre-professional/. Panels (and panelists) appear for 90 minutes, at 730pm, on campus. To volunteer as a panelist (and come to New Haven), please contact Steve Blum: sblum@bsibam.com.

OVERVIEW. The Junior Class is….hosting Career Panels comprised of Yale students and alums with similar career interests. Career Panels can make all undergraduates, not just those interested in finance and consulting, more confident about the job application process—and about their prospects for success in career paths not heavily advertised --and to provide undergraduates with a more clear idea of the process and outcomes. Career Panels provide students with an informative event in which students can talk to Yale alums with experience in their respective fields of interest. On every Career Panel of 5 or 6 people, the Junior Class seeks a mix of alums ensuring exposure to recent graduates and others with a longer career-path view, as well as Yale professors and non-alumni experts in their fields who can provide advice on:
• Entering the field;
• Initial job expectations; and
• General career information.
Younger alumni provide a more current description of the former two. Older, more experienced alumni better guide current undergraduates by providing a more complete picture of the job that only comes with experience. Although the Career Panels are targeted at juniors and seniors, freshmen, sophomores and grad students are welcome. Many if not most of the students in attendance will not yet be certain of what career they’d like to pursue. The career panels therefore help them along in making that decision.

Career Panels will cover the following areas: Music, Media, Law, Education, Medicine, Not-For-Profit, International, Public Service, Architecture, Science/Engineering.

Career Panels take place on Thursdays at 730pm (i.e., after most students have finished daily classes) in a residential college Common room or auditorium. Career panels are advertised through Yale Station, Yale’s virtual bulletin board, as well as through flyers posted in colleges, class buildings, etc. Each career panel is announced on a weekly Junior Class Council Newsletter sent to all 1,300 or so juniors.

Depending on the panel, attendance is 15 to 45 students. Panels begin with a short introduction by student moderators, which is followed by brief introductions from each of the panelists, and then a question and answer session with the students. Frequent questions include:
• Why did you decide to go into your field?
• What would you have wanted to know, as a Yale junior, that you know now?
• What should Yalies be doing now to ensure future success?
• How does one go about looking for a job as a college grad?

The Junior Class is committed to making the transition between college and the job world as smooth as it can be. Career Panels greatly help us meet this goal. With the help of Yale alums, the panels are becoming a big success!