Congratulations to our 2022 Graduates!

Career Services extends our warmest congratulations to all of our 2022 graduates.  Your time at Penn has certainly been unique and challenging in many ways – from leaping into remote learning in March of 2020, to testing and quarantining when needed this year, to  finding news ways to come together as a community.  The last two years have brought its share of challenges, and you have risen to the occasion!  However, it has also brought new ways of looking at and doing things, particularly in the world of work.  Individuals now frequently have the opportunity to work in a hybrid or even completely remote manner, opening up opportunities that were not a possibility for employees in the past.  A recent Gallup Survey of remote-capable employees found that 53% of workers expect a hybrid arrangement with their employers moving forward while 24% expect to work exclusively remotely.  The pace of change is rapid and I have never seen so much transformation in the working world in my 30 years of career advising. As today’s graduates embark on careers, not only do they need to think about what they want to do in terms of industry and job function, but also where and how. The new career landscape is truly exciting!

Career Services is already looking forward to the 2022-2023 academic year and we also plan to incorporate a hybrid approach into our programming.  If you are a returning student, look for an array of both in-person and virtual career fairs to encourage employers with different travel preferences to participate, as well as in-person and virtual interviewing schedules and employer information sessions.  Many employers are still trying to decide if and how much they will travel for university recruiting in the future and we look forward to helping them connect with Penn students in whatever way works best for them.  Career Services advisors also plan to continue to offer both in-person and virtual advising appointments to students and alumni.  Students selected virtual appointments 75% of the time this year, so clearly the convenience of connecting via videoconference has been a huge benefit to many busy students.

Career Services will remain open all summer.  Students and alumni can schedule an appointment with a career or graduate school advisor through Handshake.  If you are a returning student, be sure to update your newsletter preferences by logging into the Career Services website to tell us what interests you (industry, job functions, affinity groups, graduate school plans, etc.)  The more we know about your interests the more tailored the newsletter you receive each Friday will be as each student receives a personalized newsletter based on their expressed interests.  We also encourage you to update your Career Interests when you log into Handshake (upper right corner!) as we sometimes send targeted emails to students via that channel.

Best wishes for a wonderful summer to all our graduating and returning students.  We are excited to see what the future holds!

By Barbara Hewitt
Barbara Hewitt Executive Director