After attending the How To Spend Your First Year Summer PCA panel, about which I wrote another reflection piece, I booked an appointment with a peer career advisor. I showed up ten minutes early and sat at the graceful tall tables in the GCC lounge to sort through my thoughts and prepare questions for the appointment. Cece Hawley showed up right on time and beamed as she stretched out her hand to shake mine. My first impression of her was that she exuded confidence and warmth and by the end of the appointment this impression would only be fortified as she answered my questions attentively and helped me spend my time productively.
During this interview, I wanted to voice my concerns about making sure I use all of the resources afforded to me in the US, specifically at Wesleyan. It’s always been my dream to study abroad since I was a little girl picking up Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the first book I read in English. I’ve achieved my childhood dream of studying abroad and I want to make every moment count. Although much more relaxed and confident in pursuing my goals than before, I still dream to higher extents stretching decades into the distant future. But first things first, I want to secure professional experiences so that I can be more sure of what I want to pursue in the near future. Cece was very receptive to my concerns and introduced me to many resources available to Wesleyan students that I did not know about.
Cece detailed to me her own job application experience which she briefly talked about in the How To Spend Your First Year Summer advisor panel. She had leveraged her experience working at a local McDonald’s to land a customer service/research-based job at a startup company in her hometown. To me, this showed the power of perspective and taking one’s learnings from a seemingly unrelated and applying it to fit one’s goals. Cece talked about her experience applying to and subsequently landing a Sales and Analytics internship at Bloomberg as well. I could see that reflecting on your past experiences could help you pivot your professional interests. Excited, I wanted to know more about the on-campus resources that she used while applying for internships and programs. She pulled each website one by one: Interstride, a professional platform for international students; Wesconnect, which I’d previously used before; and Forage, a job simulation platform for building critical skills. Following my interest in technology and design, we peeked at events organized by Google recruiters and discussed plans for connecting with alumni using Weslink during winter break. All of these resources are either free or free with a Wesleyan email. Yes!
We finished off our appointment with a quick review of my resume and LinkedIn. At that point, I had not filled out my profile at all except for my profile picture and university. Cece helped me understand the importance of maintaining an updated LinkedIn presence. After the appointment, I got to work and am on my way to 500+ connections. I also wrote a short article about what I learned from the appointment in Mongolian for my peers on Facebook. It had high engagement and I’m glad I was able to pass on the knowledge to others. Overall, this appointment was very helpful and I felt that my advisor could relate to my experience which made it easier for me to comfortably open up and ask questions.
