Just a few weeks ago, I gave my father a call to tell him something that I was super excited about. As he answered the phone, I blurted out “Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Today is the day that I officially began my job search.” You may now be wondering what it was that exactly marked this beginning. Well, for me, it was attending the first Career Lunch of the year for TEAM students. At this lunch, I was inspired and became eager to begin searching for a job.
I would like to step back a little now and tell you why I was so excited about this. When making my decision on which graduate program to attend, my number one requirement was career placement. I wanted to be enrolled in a program that I felt would launch my career as a biomedical engineer with an interest in management and business. As I researched the TEAM program and saw that the overall placement rate for graduates was 90% within six months, I knew this was the program for me.
Career Lunches are held once a month for TEAM students. At the first one, we were exposed to the many services that we are offered while here. To me, the most helpful thing to learn about was the fact that we are provided with the resources of both the University’s Gwen M. Greene Career & Internship Center and the Simon Business School’s Career Management Center. That is like getting the best of both worlds! Since I did my undergraduate degree here I was familiar with the tools from the Gwen Greene Center such as CareerLink and CareerShift and it was great to know that I still had access to these two helpful programs. A highlight of this Career Lunch was exploring SimonWorks. This program is similar to CareerLink; however, it has more of a focus on business and management since it is operated through Simon. I know that I will be using these programs extensively in my career search in the upcoming months.
A few days later, I scheduled a meeting with Kathy Driscoll. Kathy is TEAM’s assistant director for career management and is a part of the Career Management Center at the Simon Business School. She provides students with guidance and assistance in the job search. Our first item to tackle was my résumé. We sat down together and she provided me with feedback to make my résumé just right. From there, we discussed ways to narrow down my search. For me, we decided to narrow by location, as I am very interested in heading to Boston next. Kathy then suggested that I make a list of companies that I have an interest in. I really like this advice because looking for a job can be incredibly daunting and overwhelming. I feel that looking for a full-time job is practically a full-time job in and of itself. Kathy also provided me with some great tips to speak to alumni in my field.
While this is just the beginning, I am extremely excited to continue on this journey. Although it seems like it could take a long time, I am determined and confident that the support that I receive from the TEAM program will get me there.
– Courtney Astemborski ’15 (MS)
