Where does WIT Work?

By: Becky Smith


Using LinkedIn to Identify Receptive Alumni, Students & Employers Around the Globe

Networking is a crucial part of any job search…and it is especially important if you are entering a challenging job market! Get started by locating and talking with alumni and students from your major who have done co-ops or jobs related to your interests.

Why Search for Alumni on LinkedIn

1) it is easy to sort by major and see what a targeted group of people have been doing

2) your shared experience from college is an effective way for you to introduce yourself

3) it can help you to identify opportunities in a specific geographic area (home, or a less familiar city/state)

How to Locate Alumni Information on LinkedIn

To find alumni on LinkedIn, go to the School Page: Type our university name in the search bar on your LinkedIn homepage. Make sure you select the School Page, not a Company Page, Showcase, or Group.

Pro Tip: You can do this for any university or school, even if you were never a student there! Try this to get data on alumni in a specific geographic area outside of Boston, or to see where students from another college are working.

Search "Wentworth Institute of..." into LinkedIn search bar

Next, click on “Alumni”.

Select "Alumni" tab

Filter Search Results to Find Companies of Interest, Potential Contacts, and More

Alumni information is categorized by filters such as where they live, where they work, what they do, and what they studied. These lists display top results under each category; we strongly recommend that you also use the search bar above these lists to look for specific cities, companies, etc. if they do not appear in the lists. At the bottom of the page is a display of alumni who meet the criteria.

Other helpful searches: Adjust the date range depending on whether you are seeking young alumni to chat with, or more experienced alumni who are now managers; and search by company name, job title, skills, or any other details.

Pro Tips: Click Next to see more filters. Click Show More to see the entire list under any category.

Filter results

Alumni/Student Profiles

Profile summaries are displayed at the bottom of the page. Click on them to see full details such as:

  • Where has the person worked?
  • What job titles have they had?
  • What skills do they have listed?

NOTE: ALWAYS send a personalized message when you invite someone to connect on LinkedIn. It establishes your credibility and makes that individual more likely to respond.

Pro Tip: An invitation to connect is also an opportunity to message back and forth, even if you do not actually connect!

"Connect" on LinkedIn

Dahnaya Joyner – My Journey of Becoming a Web Developer

By: Will Ma
Dahnaya Joyner in graduation attire
Photo Courtesy of Dahnaya Joyner (STEAM Boston)

Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Dahnaya Joyner and right now I am a Web Developer. I graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Engineering Technology in 2017. I have always been interested in engineering and technology. Computer Engineering Technology is solely hardware-based engineering, but I switched over to the software side. I’m loving software now, so I’m glad I made the switch.

What got you interested in Computer Engineering Technology?

Growing up, I have always been fascinated by how things work. I have taken a lot of things apart and tried to put them back together. I have always been interested in technology and the Computer Engineering Technology degree was the right decision at the moment. I then transitioned to software and I don’t work on hardware as much now.

Tell us more about your transition to software.

I got my degree in Computer Engineering Technology, the summer of 2017. I got a full-time job right out of college and I eventually found out that the job was right for me. The job didn’t make me happy and I had to pivot to something that gave me career fulfillment. After six months, I ended up getting laid off and that moment was bad. Everything hits you at once and it was a bad time. Being a blessing in disguise, it allowed me to take time off and really try to find what I really wanted to do.

I knew I wanted to stay in tech and go into the software route. I did research online and I found out about coding boot camps. I ended going to General Assembly for web development and now I have a job in web development. I’m very happy with my decision to go to a coding boot camp and work in a job I really like.

General Assembly was a really hard coding boot camp and it was intense. There were a lot of times that I thought I wouldn’t graduate and make it through the program. There was a huge support system and everyone in the class are going through the same struggles. It was a great experience and once I graduated, I felt prepared and ready to enter the field.

What advice do you have for students looking to get into web development?

There are a lot of online resources for web development, so I’d definitely utilize that. You could go to college for web development, but there are definitely cheaper ways. There are coding boot camps now and you should do your research on which one that fits your needs.

Where do you see yourself in 1-2 years?

I definitely still want to do web development and I’m still learning. I’m working in a team where everyone is supportive and I can learn so much. In 1-2 years, I envision myself becoming a more experienced web developer and being the best version of myself.

Any wise words of wisdom to the STEAM Boston community?

Don’t give up. I got laid off my first job and I was in a really bad position. I took the time to find out what I really wanted to do and I’m happy to be a web developer now. Also, imposter syndrome is very real. I deal with it often. But no matter where you are in your journey just know that you’re not doing it for anything and it’ll all pay off.

I also want to shout out my parents. “I’m very thankful to my parents for their constant support. Making a career change is a very difficult decision but I am fortunate to have a great foundation that allowed me to do that. I love you guys!”


Interested in joining the STEAM Boston Community, then visit this link: https://community.steamboston.com/

You will have the opportunity to expand your network and connect with students & professionals in the STEAM field in the Greater Boston area.

This story was originally posted on STEAM Boston’s blog site. Original story here: https://www.steamboston.com/dahnaya-joyner-my-journey-of-becoming-a-web-developer/

 

4 Ways Younger Job Seekers Can Step Up as Baby Boomers Retire

By: Val Matta

Baby boomers have always been defined by their sheer numbers. Even now, as they reach retirement age, 41 million baby boomers are still working according to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center. This equals out to them still accounting for a quarter of the workforce.

As more and more retire, there will be opportunities for younger job seekers to step up and assume the baby boomers’ responsibilities. But first, you’re going to have to prove you’re ready to take the next step in your career.

By understanding what employers want, both at your current company or another one, you can present yourself in the best light. Here are some tips to landing a job previously held by a baby boomer and ensuring you can take ownership of a role without missing a step:

Advancing at Your Current Company

If your current organization is a great fit, you might want to make a move without leaving the team. For both you and the company this is a win-win situation. You get career advancement, and your company doesn’t lose a talented employee. Make the most of your situation by taking the following steps:

Find a mentor

Having a mentor is essential to young job seekers’ careers. Older employees who have been where you are will provide valuable advice to help you learn and make better decisions. Plus, as boomers retire, having one as a mentor will put you on their radar to recommend as a possible replacement.

But to get the right mentor you need to be proactive. It’s rare that an experienced employee will approach you with an opportunity. Start by making a list of people in your organization who you already have a relationship. To evaluate if they could be a good mentor, consider:

  • Their accomplishments and if they are something you aspire to
  • How their personality meshes with yours
  • If they will push you to grow and develop
  • How available they typically are
  • Their connections within the organization and outside of it

Once you have a list of potential mentors, invite your top choice for coffee and have a conversation about what you’re looking for. Explain what your career plan is and how you think they can help. The more specific you can be the better. It helps them understand exactly what they’d be providing you.

Ask what positions are opening soon

Employees don’t retire without notice. It takes planning and conversations with company managers and leaders, helping everyone prepare for the transition. However, while upcoming retirements aren’t secrets, you may not be told about coming opportunities.

Talk to your manager about your interest in moving up in the company. Don’t say ‘I want Janet’s job when she retires.’ Instead, explain you’re ready for a new challenge and ask for their feedback on what you can do to prepare and train.

If you’re not ready to take over the retiring baby boomer’s position, suggest ways you can take on some, but not all, of the responsibilities. This will help you expand your role without setting yourself up for failure.

Manager stock photo

Advancing at Another Company

Sometimes the right move for your career is changing companies and making a fresh start. You will still need to prove you have what it takes to fill a more advanced position, however, you’ll approach the situation differently than if you were already in-house.

Look for jobs the “old school” way

In recent years, companies have turned to social media to recruit younger talent. However, don’t forget companies still use traditional job boards to reach older job seekers — especially for non-entry level positions.

Don’t neglect the old school ways to find a new job opportunity. Consider adding the following to your job search:

  • In-person networking events
  • Niche job boards
  • Job fairs

Find out what skills the company is blindly missing

Hiring younger job seekers presents employers with a unique opportunity to fill a position while getting a new set of skills. However, when an employee has performed a job for a long time, the organization may not be aware of alternate skills and ways to grow the role. While baby boomers have experience, a trending concern for years has been that not all have the latest skills.

When you’re researching positions, identify the skills that might be useful yet are not in the job description. Look at as many job descriptions from the organization (even those not for your specific department), as well as comparable positions at other companies. Use that to identify any trends of skills the company could inadvertently not be looking for in their job description.

Then, when you’re writing cover letters, updating your resume, and in the interview process, showcase the experience you have as well as how these additional skills could improve the team and bring greater value to the company.

Team stock photo

Want to find out more ways to land a more advanced job? Check out this blog piece!

Blog originally posted to: https://careershift.com/blog/2019/04/4-ways-younger-job-seekers-can-step-up-as-baby-boomers-retire/

 

Adjusting to the Workplace Part 2: Young Alumni Panel

The Real Truth About Adjusting to the Workplace from Recent Wentworth Alumni

By Ria Kalinowski

 

As part of the 2019 Summer Leopard Lunch & Learn Series, CO-OPS + CAREERS invited four young alumni to campus to give advice about adjusting to the workplace. Our moderator was Janel Juba, Co-op + Career Advisor. The alumni were as follows:

  • Hayley Patton, 2016 Biomedical Engineering Graduate. Currently working at ZOLL Medical as a Design Quality Assurance Engineer and completed one co-op at the manufacturing center at ZOLL.
  • Will Ma, 2018 Computer Information Systems Graduate. Works as an IT Service Desk Analyst at Criteo. Also, the CEO and co-founder of “STEAM Boston”. Completed co-ops at Dell/EMC, Brightcove, and EF Education First.
  • Kasey Cordeiro, 2018 Electrical Engineering Graduate currently working at Starry. Completed two co-ops at Raytheon and worked full-time for them as well post-graduation.
  • Alyssa Payette, 2016 Biomedical Engineering Graduate working as a clinical applications analyst at Mass General Hospital. Completed one co-op there as well.

Alumni Panel Photo

Professional Relationships

The alumni shared advice about building professional relationships in the workplace. Two main points that came up were the importance of being confident, so people begin to trust you and figuring out what to share and what not to share:

Hayley: Make sure you have those little boundaries, don’t be too personal, but don’t also be a clam.

Alyssa: In the last 3 years, I got the opportunity to serve in a few different management roles, so I can actually speak to the other side of it as well. So initially kind of like what Hayley was saying, it was a little touch and go trying to find what to share and what not to share. Afraid of it being off putting, you kind of want to blend with the teams you are on. So, you definitely want to share to identify those things you have in common. It can be tricky when you’re worried about crossing lines.

Will: Some advice is to try not to be too personal. Make sure to not cross the line.

Another way that these alumni managed professional relationships, especially with their manager, was by speaking up and asking questions. Having open lines of communication with your manager is important so that your expectations align:

Kasey: Definitely speak up if something is not working for you or if something could work better. I find that a good manager will be open to that kind of feedback. They want your productivity to be as high as it can be and they want you to be comfortable in your work space.

Alyssa: And you have to remember that your managers are trying to accomplish the same goals as you so if you are struggling, my best piece of advice, which I have done, is to set up a meeting to discuss your professional relationship.

Hayley: I’m the type of person who asks a ton of questions…when I first started I was going to [my manager] at least 3 or 4 times a day asking where’s this, how do I do this? But he was super helpful. He also provides information on where to find information on the questions you have. So he also kind of pushes you to find it yourself.

 

Company Culture

These alumni gained a lot of knowledge about their company’s culture through research, the interview process, and observation:

Will: Basically the first week they can give you an understanding of how the culture is, so what kind of clothes they wear, is it really casual or more professional, is it a 9-5 culture or is it more like a work hard play hard type of culture – there are a lot of factors you can learn from that first week…and also the interview too, when you have an interview one of the questions you should ask is how is the company culture.

Kasey: I actually used WITworks, and on there [saw that] Starry goes to the Career Fair… so I looked at [WITworks] and it said something like company culture or in their dress code maybe and so I looked through those and saw it said very casual… and so I used those to play my interview strategy where I was sort of half business causal but more on the casual side… I think it helps the transition a lot.  And then paying attention to how they acted in the interview, and how casual it was, and the way they interacted with each other, that was my strategy.

Alyssa: Like Will said, definitely in your interview ask about the culture, because sometimes you don’t meet with everybody when you go in for an interview… so definitely find out what the specific group you are working with has as far as culture, and then speak up, ask questions, pay attention to your surrounds when you go in for an interview.

Alumni Photo Panel

Learning from Failures

Making mistakes are an inevitable part of adjusting to a new workplace. The alumni shared how they were able to overcome or learn from these experiences:

Hayley: So I do a lot of testing, and it has to be super attention to detail… one time I was testing one of our new AED products, and I had put in a code for the Wi-Fi, because our device communicates over the internet to the hospital… and it just so happened that the number I put in was [wrong]… you have to make sure that no matter how many times you’ve run through this or how many times you’ve done it, you have to treat it like your first time.

Will: So what I did was I basically wiped out a whole computer, and the employee wasn’t happy… we didn’t really do that much research, and so after the computer was wiped, I had to create a backup plan-  how can I prevent this mistake from all the 20 other employees in the whole company from deleting someone’s files, so I made some documentation, and talked about some steps you can take to solve this bug on the computer, and actually a lot of employees are looking at this documentation to this day… overcoming failures makes you grow and turns you into a better employee and turns you into a better person.

To read more about adjusting to the workplace, click here.

As always, to make an appointment with your Co-op + Career Advisor call the front desk at 617.989.4101 or stop by the CO-OPS + CAREERS Office. And be sure to check back next week for Part 2 of Adjusting to the Workplace.

Summer 2019 Drop-In Hours: Wednesday and Thursday 2:00pm – 4:00pm while classes are in session.

Class of 2017 Career Outcomes

By: Abbey Pober

Each year The Center for Cooperative Education and Career Development survey’s the graduating class to analyze and report on employment and graduate school status of students’ post-graduation. Responses are collected at the December, April, and August commencements, and again six months later from all graduates who reported they were still seeking employment at graduation. These efforts resulted in a 70% knowledge rate of day student career outcomes. Wentworth graduates obtain well-paying jobs in a wide range of fields and we are seeing a continuation of this trend from the class of 2017.

Of those that we do have data, 98% are in graduate school or are employed and their median salary is $60,000, slightly higher than the NACE reported national median and higher than the last few years of Wentworth’s graduates. More than half (56%) received offers of employment from one of their co-op employers and 36% accepted. We have a knowledge rate of 24% of CPCE graduates, down significantly from prior years. Of those that reported, 100% are employed or in school. The median salary of a CPCE graduate is $71,500. Of those that are employed, 96% of students report that their work is related to their academic major, up from last year’s 92%. This year, seven employers hired at least four members of the class of 2017.

Most our graduates continue to live in the Northeast with Massachusetts overwhelmingly having the most, followed by New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Outside of New England, many of our students are working in New York, California and Pennsylvania. Of those that we have data, 14% of our students are going on to graduate school. The majors that are sending the most to graduate school are: Architecture, Biomedical Engineering, and Civil Engineering. Most students are continuing their education at Wentworth. More than one is heading to Northeastern and Tufts University. Some of the unique schools to which an alumnus is attending are: Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, the Institute of Technology Eindhoven, and University of Southern California. Most our students are seeking an M. Arch followed by an M.S. Three are seeking an MBA, two are seeking a PhD, and one is seeking an MPS.

For the third year, the survey asked graduates from the College of Professional and Continuing Education about the impact their Wentworth education has had on their professional life. Of those that reported, 50% reported receiving a promotion and 43% reported receiving a salary increase. Seventy-seven percent reported that job opportunities are available to them now that were not prior to their degree, 72% reported that their job performance has improved, 77% reported that their technical knowledge and skills have improved and 73% report feeling more confident in the workplace. Using the learning outcomes of each of the day program’s majors, the survey asked questions to measure the effectiveness of the education at Wentworth. This data is reported on for each major and may be used for accreditation purposes.

The comprehensive report, including salary and employment data broken down by major can be found on our website.