Professional Buzz

Professional Buzz is a blog warehousing relevant information, tips and tools for students and professionals looking for career development and advice. Topics range from leadership and management skills to interpersonal communication and innovation in the workplace. The blog is written and curated by Associate Dean of the Graduate College, Anne Converse Willkomm – drawing on her academic and professional experience to provide insight into the latest professional trends, challenges and skills needed to thrive in today’s everchanging workplace.

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.

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Graphic image of men and women in suits with a positive trajectory and arrow behind them signaling success and job growth

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.

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Image of a hand using a marker on a white board placing a highlighted color over words written in black in a circle. Words include: learning, knowledge, experience, competence, skills, abiilty, training, and growth

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.

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Black and white image of 4 typed job descriptions overlapping one another at skewed angles

Should I Apply for This Job?

Over the years, I have counseled countless women and men in their job search. I have always found it interesting that women and men take a very different approach when it comes to deciding whether to apply for a specific position. Often, men will apply with fewer of the required qualifications than women. And my response to the women who won’t apply unless they have 100% of the qualifications is where is the room for growth in the position? In other words, if you meet every qualification the company is looking for, then shouldn’t you be applying for a more senior role? Let's look at three approaches to determining whether to apply for a specific position.

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Vector image of 4 resumes or CVs, two have an illustrated image with no faces of a woman of color and a white woman

Resume or CV?

In talking with students as they prepare to enter their career or change jobs because they have earned a new degree, I get asked which is better a short resume or a more comprehensive CV. It is not that simple.

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Image of a woman of Asian descent who is looking at a screen, which is then reflected in her glasses, to demonstrate the idea of reflection.

Questions Leaders Need to Ask Themselves

With the Great Resignation is still underway, companies are losing talented workers, which not only costs money, but it also has a significant impact on institutional knowledge, organizational growth, sustainability, team morale, etc. We also know employees will be more likely to stay if they feel valued, supported, included, and encouraged, as well as knowing their manager is listening, transparent, and engaged. So, if companies want to retain their talented employees, it is incumbent upon all leaders – at all levels - to look at themselves and evaluate their leadership style and their engagement with their teams.

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A compilation of images of young women of diverse ethnicities.

Women to Admire

The women I am choosing to highlight for International Women's Month might not be whom you would expect. This group of young women, of which there are some 14 million (based on census data and a little math). I see these young women entering the workforce, far more prepared than my generation was. I see these young women focused on the common good, work-life balance, personal values, but don’t think for a moment that they are not driven. These young women are doing amazing things.

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Image of silhouetted man and woman in front of a maze having an argument

Strategies for Working With Difficult People

We’ve all experienced difficult people in our lives at one point or another – the feelings and emotions they can evoke with their condescension, aggression, or disrespect can feel overwhelming. But let’s face it, as much as we may want to, we can’t control their behavior, but we can control our reaction and the direction we take to resolve it.

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5 Steps to Creating a Culture Shift

How often do you find yourself clicking over from one Zoom meeting to another with no chance to grab a glass of water let alone take a comfort break? I am assuming, it is all too often. In several meetings over the past few days, my fellow zoomies and I discussed the need for a culture shift.

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