7 Types of Rest

Recently, I have noticed more and more colleagues, students, and friends commenting on a lack of down time. As the holidays quickly approach, down time will be even harder to attain. Then today, a Facebook friend posted on the 7 types of rest. This really resonated with me, and I’ll go into them in a moment, but I wanted to know who came up with this amazing and spot on list. It did not take me long.  Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD is a physician and researcher. She wrote the book, Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity. She has been featured on Fast Company, FOX, MSNBC, and in Psychology Today.

The Skills Matrix

When you get ready to apply for a new position, typically it begins with reviewing your resume or CV to ensure it is up-to-date. But to be truly ready for a job hunt that involves taking the next step up the ladder, you should begin at least a year in advance. Why? No one has every skill or required experience listed in a job description – nor should they. And as a reminder, women typically only apply for jobs where they have 100% or darn close to 100% of the requirements while men will apply holding far less. You should consider a position for which you have between 60% and 70% of the requirements, which may mean you have to build upon your skills and experience to be ready to apply for that next great position.

Making the most of coop

I love to share student's thoughts on career development experience. Each year, The Graduate College, hires a Spring/Summer coop student - Drexel's commitment to experiential learning is heralded through our renowned coop program. This year, Rachel Mroz joined us and worked on the Communications and Events team under the direction of Sandra Strang, Director of Communications and Events. Rachel has done amazing work for us and I asked her to share her experience with the coop program. Although Rachel is an undergraduate student, the lessons she has learned and experience she has gained through her coop experience is also highly relevant to graduate students who opt to participate in coop.

Please enjoy reading more about Rachel's experience.

Bored at work? Then take initiative

While many employees are feeling a bit overwhelmed managing their position and responsibilities of other positions that have not been filled for either budget reasons or the inability to hire a qualified candidate, that is not the case for some. Over the past few months, I have heard more and more folks, especially those new to the workforce, comment about being bored or not having enough work to do. If you do not have enough work to fill your time, you have an amazing opportunity knocking on your door – don’t waste it.

7 tips for gearing up for a job search

I’m going to be honest – searching for a job, whether you are just entering the field or looking to change positions – is not for the faint of heart! Over the past year, I have mentored and counseled a number of folks in their job search journey, and it is a process – in some cases, a long process. I want to share with you seven things to think about as you prepare to set forth on your job search journey, so you can ultimately be successful!

4 ways to beat burnout

One can’t help but see post after post on LinkedIn about feeling the burn and I’m not talking Bernie Sanders. More and more employees, as well as students, are feeling burned out. And, in all honesty, why wouldn’t we all feel burned out. We have been tugged, pulled, and pushed for 30 months or over 900 days due to COVID. Then add in George Floyd, how could one not feel exhausted after watching the life literally be pushed out of him? And he was not the only one! There were the impeachment hearings, the election, hybrid work, which turned more into 24/7 work, and now there is Monkey Pox and if you get sick, some unspoken expectation has emerged that you just work from home. Finally, the heat - anyone who still denies our planet is heating up due to climate change, must be living 30 feet underground.

Goal Setting in 6 Steps

As you scroll through LinkedIn, it is very likely about half of the posts are dedicated to people in your network announcing a new position or a promotion. Whether you just earned a promotion or took on a new role within your current employer or you are moving to a new company, now is a great time to do some goal setting!

Women in the Workplace

While I typically do no write about “political” issues on this blog, like many women (not all – I acknowledge that fact), the recent SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe Vs. Wade, has left me reeling. Of course, this decision has a major impact on women’s health, but it also has a huge implication for women in the workplace. At stake are the ability choose and build a career, get promoted, be viewed and valued as a leader, etc. In addition, a woman’s right to privacy is also being eroded.

Congratulations Graduates

I attended the Drexel graduation ceremonies over the past two days not as a faculty member or an Assistant Dean, but rather as a parent. I carefully listened to the words of encouragement and accomplishment, ones I have often delivered, and those words were wholeheartedly deserved. However, I also listened to graduates, deans, and guest speakers talk about this class, the class of 2022, and the resilience shown as this class entered college and graduate school with all the hopes and dreams of those before them. But life had other plans.

Career Growth Questions to Ask Your Manager

Planning your career growth involves a strategic approach that pulls together networking, professional development, reflection, skill attainment, and a packaging of everything to present your best self. It also involves support from your current manager or supervisor. A good manager will understand that while they hired you for a specific role, part of their job is to help facilitate your growth into other more senior roles. But they can’t, and shouldn’t, do that in a vacuum. As an employee, you are responsible for your career trajectory and need to play the biggest role in growing your skills and experience, so you can move up. A key way to do this is by asking your manager, in your 1:1 meetings, questions about how to enhance your skills and grow your experience, so you can achieve your goals.

What Kind of manager do you need?

I’ve written quite a bit about what it takes to be a good leader, but I have not focused on what kind of manager is right for YOU. Over the years, I have worked with horrible managers – throwing paper clips or worse at folks, mediocre managers who do little to assist you in growing and developing in your career, and a few who have been supportive and encouraging and work to help me achieve my goals. For the latter, I have not taken the time to think about what aspects of their leadership I needed at the time or which elements proved the most helpful.

The Value of Experience

This may sound odd coming from an academic, but I find students sometimes focus too much on their credit-based work, forgetting about value of other experiences. Drexel is a leader in experiential education with our co-op program. And we know that our students who go out on co-op gain incredible advantages over their peers who don’t have a co-op opportunity. This experience offers advantages that translate into full-time job offers, higher salaries, etc. because students build an incredible toolbox of skills they can’t learn in the classroom. While Drexel does offer co-op opportunities to graduate students, it is not built into the academic plan of every program, as it is at the undergraduate level, but there are still plenty of “experience” opportunities available.