| |
|
|
Michael Cassidy ’98
helps a student with her résumé
during the New York City Career Connections event
held Jan. 3. |
More than 100 Oswego State students attended the 2007
New York City Career Connections event, sponsored
by the Oswego Alumni Association, held at the Fashion
Institute of Technology Jan. 4.
The event hosted 40 Oswego alumni from a variety of
professions and included a question-and-answer panel
as well as the networking portion.
The event was an opportunity for juniors and seniors,
as well as recent graduates, to network with professionals,
get help with their résumés and find out
exactly what their chosen profession was like.
“The networking that goes on in New York is constant,”
Louis A. Borrelli Jr. ’77
told the group of 102 Oswego students during the panel.
“The worst thing you can do is not ask for help.”
Borrelli, chief executive officer of NEP Broadcasting,
told students that they were not alone if they felt
confused, anxious, or just needed more information about
a specific career.
“At some point in a person’s life they realize
that they went through the same thing as you,”
he said.
Joan Cear ’80,
managing director at G.S. Schwartz & Co., advised
students to take a chance.
“If you can find something that you like to do,
it’s great,” she said. “It’s
great to want to get up in the morning.”
Cear, who moved on a whim to work at a radio station
in Kansas just prior to graduating, stressed the importance
of networking and even admitted that she wished she
had paid more attention to the opportunity while in
college.
“People make the world go round. Networking makes
the world go round,” Zoraida
Diaz-Corporan ’95, vocational services
manager for NADAP, told students attending the event.
Graduating with degrees in public justice and Spanish,
Diaz-Corporan encouraged students to take chances, take
opportunities and get their foot in the door. She added
that teachers could be very influential and it was important
to use them both inside and outside of the classroom.
“Who I knew got me in the door, but what I knew
kept me there,” she said.
Emanuel Adjekum ’05
takes notes while he interviews students for approximately 70 internship positions at ESPN during the career connections event. More than 100 students attended the event looking for information on internships and jobs.
|
Students listened as Bob Garrett
’83 recommended that they always maintain
a positive attitude and always have the drive to succeed.
He also stressed the importance of internships and getting
involved in clubs and other leadership positions.
“Oswego State is about building yourself as a
professional,” Diaz-Corporan added. “Have
fun, but life goes by fast, so do the best that you
can while you’re there.”
Anchal Mohan ’05
agreed with Garrett repeating, “Don’t be
afraid to take an internship.”
Mohan explained that many employers don’t even
consider someone for hire unless they have completed
an internship. At Citibank, where Mohan is management
associate, if there is not an internship on a résumé
it gets thrown away, regardless of the GPA.
Mohan encouraged students to attend mock interviews
to learn how to answer questions and “get the
mistakes out of the way.” She recommended studying
abroad and adding travel opportunities to a résumé.
“Operations are going very global,” she
said. “There are facilities all over the place.”
As the panel came to an end, SUNY Oswego’s Associate
Director of Career Services Gary
Morris ’88 gave students a few helpful
hints before they met one-on-one with the alumni.
“Don’t sway when you’re talking, don’t
chew gum, make the conversation brief, smile and make
eye contact, take a business card to follow up and remember,
handshakes are important,” he said.
The crowd of students made their way toward tables of
professionals. From accounting to public relations,
to finance to advertising they lined the walls of the
conference room. With pens in hand, alumni faced the
crowd, and prepared to be showered with questions as
students stood in single file lines in front of them.
“The world is yours,” Diaz-Corporan told
the students. “The only limitations you have are
the ones you set on yourself.”
—Emily King ’05 |
| Back
To February 2007 E-Newsletter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
