Advice from the Career Development Office
Welcome to the alumni family, Class of 2019!
Maybe you’re laser-focused on finding or starting your first post-grad job, or gearing up for graduate school. Before you get too caught up in project deadlines and new assignments, now is a good time to think about career strategies that will serve you well regardless of what is next.
Here are three things to keep in mind as you pursue a professional path that is fulfilling for you:
1. Find your why
What do you want to get out of your career? Are you working to alleviate poverty? To better understand and shape human behavior? To make enough money to travel the world? To create something beautiful?
Whatever it is, find your “why” and don’t lose sight of it. You probably won’t spend every day seeing progress on your goals, but check in with yourself from time to time to be sure you’re on track. Is your job getting you closer to your “why,” or is it taking you further away? A year or five can fly by quickly. If you look back and realize you aren’t heading in the right direction, it’s okay to make a change.
2. Careers are not ladders
Meaningful work is different for everyone, and it can even change for the same person at different phases of life. As another alumna said to me recently, “make plans, but hold them lightly.” Young professionals are predicted to have 15 or more jobs before they retire, which means you likely won’t stay in one place long enough to climb the rungs from entry-level to executive at one organization. While your career probably won’t look like a ladder, it might bear some resemblance to a seven layer chip dip. I know that sounds completely ridiculous, but trust me on this.
Each new experience is a layer. Try to understand what makes it distinct and important: what skills are you gaining from it, and how is it helping you grow? The ability to reflect on your experiences will help you feel more invested in your work now and show future employers what you can bring to their team. With each career move, your experiences and skills will build on each other. The result? Even if you make a big change, your layers work together to create something complex, rich, wonderful, and uniquely you.
3. Find mentors
I have good news: there is still a lot to learn! Unlike college, though, there’s rarely a syllabus in professional life. The best way to get oriented is to build relationships with more experienced people who are willing to help. Research shows that people who have mentors are likely to be more engaged in their work, have a better sense of well-being, and even receive more promotions and higher pay over time. Plus, you’ll also develop meaningful relationships with people you respect.
You might find a mentor at work, perhaps your boss or a more experienced colleague. The Kenyon Career Network is also an excellent place to start, with 1,600 alumni already signed up to provide advice and help others succeed. Ask your mentors to lunch occasionally, prepare lots of questions and be genuinely curious to hear the answers.
Kenyon is a special place in large part because of the density and intensity of social ties we build here. Keep the importance of relationships in mind as you begin your career. If you do good work and build strong professional relationships, you’ll be practically unstoppable.
On behalf of everyone in the Career Development Office, congratulations! Don’t forget you can always reach out to other Kenyon alumni or the CDO when you’re ready for the next step. We can’t wait to see where you go from here.
Jazz Glastra joined the Career Development Office in August 2018. As a Kenyon alumna, she is excited to be back in Gambier helping Kenyon students pursue meaningful careers that compliment their hard work in the classroom.
Jazz graduated from Kenyon in 2011 with a degree in religious studies and a concentration in environmental studies. After college, she worked for three years in Milwaukee at a small nonprofit organization dedicated to creating communities that grow their own food. Seeking to deepen her knowledge of food, development, and American society, she returned to Ohio in 2014 to pursue a Master of Science in environment and natural resources with a specialization in rural sociology. Jazz returned to nonprofit management in 2016, serving as the director of a startup nonprofit organization in Newark, Ohio, devoted to local food and economic development.
In addition to counseling students, Jazz is responsible for working with alumni, advising special populations at Kenyon, and creating new programs that will help students more fully engage in work as a part of their education. She is excited to be working with students to help them make their mark on the world of work.
On the weekends, Jazz can be found working in her garden, baking bread, or hiking Knox County’s many park trails with her husband Jeremy and their golden retriever, Leo.