Lara Schenck

Artist, programmer, researcher

Job Finding & Professional Networking Curriculum

In this workshop series you will learn how to grow and leverage your network as you search for a job. You will prepare your resume, prepare for and practice interviewing, and start to build a longer-term vision for your career.

Session 5: Work session & interview practice

  • Share: What job did you apply for last week? If you didn’t apply for one, what got in the way?
  • Work time – choose one of the following:
    • Work on a job application
    • Write your cover letter; update your resume
    • Write emails to networking contacts
    • Update the timelines in the Career Story & Vision template (from the first session – you should have made a copy of it)
    • Get started on preparation for Friday’s mock interview session
  • Interview preparation and feedback (15mins)
    • 5mins – Choose a question from the list in the homework and think about how you want to respond to it (or we all choose the same one)
      • Write notes in a place you can reference them later
    • Each person share their answer, and we all give feedback

Session 5 Homework:

  • Apply to another job, and find the next one you plan to apply to.
  • Prepare for Friday’s mock interviews session:
    • Choose a job application you want to do a practice interview for and post it in Teams
    • Share a digital copy of your resume in Teams
    • Here are some interview questions you could prepare for our practice rounds on Friday (but it will be up to the mock interviewers what they ask – see this link for more)
      • Tell me about yourself
      • Why do you want to work at our company? Why this role?
      • What do you do at your current (or most recent) job, and how has that prepared you for this role?
      • Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.
      • Tell me about a time you made a mistake or experienced a failure and how you dealt with it.
      • How do you manage deadline pressure?
      • What do you like to do outside of work?
      • Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
      • What questions do you have for me?
  • Reflection (send to me by end of Friday) – catch up on previous reflections, if you haven’t submitted them:
    • Session 4:
      • List 2-3 ideas for career goals and for each goal, write a list of steps you would take to achieve it (note: all of this can, and will, change!)
    • Session 3:
      • What do you think is the role of data in professional networking, particularly when using social media for networking?
      • About the workshops so far:
        • Has anything helped you feel inspired or excited?
        • What have you found to be challenging?
    • Session 2:
      • What is one way you plan on supporting yourself during a difficult time of growth?
      • Envision a person who you want to invite for an informational interview/coffee chat (they can be made up)
        • What do they do?
        • What would you like to learn from them?
        • What can they learn from you?
    • Session 1:
      • What strengths did you identify? When you asked people about your strengths, did anything surprise you?
      • What did you learn from creating your timeline? What was easy/difficult?

Session 4: Email writing, cover letters, practice interviews

  • Demonstrate email writing and choosing a contact from the networking contacts (10mins)
    • Miscellaneous email etiquette
    • Scheduling a call
  • Cover Letters (10mins)
    • How to Write A Cover Letter – “The key to writing effective cover letters is to succinctly communicate how your professional experience fits the needs of the role and culture of the company.”
  • Work time (30mins – choose from the following)
    • Select someone from the networking contacts list and draft an email to them
    • Catch up on a reflection
    • Write a cover letter
    • Research the company for a job post you like
    • Research people you might want to contact on LinkedIn or otherwise
    • Revisit your career story slides
  • Practice interviews & resume feedback (20mins)
    • Break into pairs and take turns responding to practice interview questions, give feedback on the other person’s resume
    • Example questions:
      • Tell me about yourself.
      • Tell me about a challenge you experienced in your career and how you overcame it.
      • What do you consider your greatest professional achievement?
      • Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.
      • Walk me through your career experience.
      • Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
      • What are you looking for in a new position?
      • What do you like to do outside of work?
      • Why are you applying to this job?
    • Tip: Something I did when practicing for interviews was to write the answers to common questions on an index card and I referenced it while I was practicing
  • Decide on schedule for our next sessions:
    • I have a few people who volunteered to do practice interviews via Zoom. We could schedule these for Friday Dec 2, or Monday Nov 28. We might not have a speaker for Dec 2…I have a potential back up plan, however.
    • Work-time/catch up session – apply to jobs and write emails together, revisit 5 year plans.

Resources:

Session 4 Homework:

  • Apply to 1 job, and find one more you want to apply to. For your first application, you can pick a job you aren’t too excited about or one that you think is a long shot. The first one will be hard and you’ll learn a lot, but it will also be a confidence boost and the next ones will be easier!
  • Reflection:
    • List 2-3 ideas for career goals and for each goal, write a list of steps you would take to achieve it (note: all of this can, and will, change!)
  • BONUS: Email one more person for a coffee chat, from the list or someone you found
  • Remember: If you need a hype person for submitting an application or sending an email, text me!!

Session 3: Professional networking and building your resume template

  • Exercise: Who is in your network? (3mins)
  • Lecture: “Strength of weak ties” and building a diverse network (10mins)
    • Strong vs weak vs absent “ties”, and the strength of weak ties in connecting you to different communities (theory from Mark S. Granovetter, 1977)
    • How weak ties can connect you to different communities, “bridging” ties
    • About “linking” / “vertical” ties and importance of a diverse network
      • Story about someone coming to the U.S.
  • Exercise again: Who is in your network? (3mins)
  • Conversation: What do you think is the role of social media and algorithms in your network? (10mins)
  • People for you to reach out to for informational interviews, resume feedback, practice interviews, and more! (5mins)
    • Show the form results
  • Updating your resume for specific job posts (remaining time)
    • Do a demo of looking at a job post and someone’s resume
    • Discuss how you would update it for the specific post

Session 3 Homework:

  • Email 2 people from the list for one of the items they offered to help with (i.e. informational interview, mock interview, resume feedback, or invite them to speak for a career chat Zoom Q&A)
    • BCC me on the emails for feedback, or send me the text beforehand to review!
    • Note: you can also email someone you want to speak with who is not on the list, just make sure to email two people!
  • Send your resume to someone for feedback (either Jan or this can be one of your emails from the list above)
  • Research our speaker, Ebonie Butler, and think of some questions for her. Particularly check out her Twitch streams about learning programming.
    • Connect with her on LinkedIn (mention you are from DataWorks in your message)
    • Think of some questions to ask about her career and about having an online presence – keep these in your personal notes to reference later (10mins)
  • Reflection (email or Teams message to me by Friday end of day):
    • What do you think is the role of data in professional networking, particularly when using social media for networking?
    • About the workshops so far:
      • Has anything helped you feel inspired or excited?
      • What have you found to be challenging?
  • BONUS: Submit an application to one job by next Monday (this will be a requirement for next week…might as well get ahead and submit two ;)

Resources:

Session 2: Preparing your mindset for job searching

  • A note about information management (5mins)
  • Write in professional journal (5mins)
  • Lecture/conversation (10mins): About the brain
    • Do you think your brain changes as an adult?
    • Implicit theories of intelligence (incremental/growth vs. entity/fixed)
    • A ton of research that shows when people have this growth mindset, they do better and are happier
    • Literally, the brain grows with every new thing learned – think about mistakes we all make in the Python class. Every time you made a mistake and corrected it, your brain grew a little. But this can be super challenging.
  • Story and writing exercises: for each story, write for 3 mins about what advice you would give the person in the story. Then we will share and move on to the next story (10min ea. story)
    • Story 1: Job interview (Andre)
    • Story 2: Burned out (Tina)
    • Story 3: Inequitable pay (Kai)
  • What are some ways people can support themselves and each other during these hard times of growth? (10min)
  • Next time we will talk in detail about networking and informational interviews/coffee chats (5min)
    • Informational interviewing: a form of “interviewing” or getting in touch with people for a conversation that can help your career
    • About “playing the networking game” – it seems slimy but it doesn’t have to be! People want to help and you have something to offer, too
  • If time (we can also do Friday before the speaker): Round robin introduce yourself practice (2mins interviews, switch)
    • Pretend the other person is a data analyst and you are in an informational interview with them, what about your story do you share in your professional introduction?
  • Review homework for next time

Session 2 Homework (complete by Friday end of day):

  • Watch: All about the coffee chat (this person works in design, but I thought good advice for all fields) (13mins)
  • Research Jan Morian, our speaker this week, connect with her on LinkedIn, and think of some questions to ask about jobs at Georgia Tech – keep these in your personal notes to reference later (10mins)
  • Reflection questions (email or Teams message to me by end of day Friday): (10-15mins)
    • What is one way you plan on supporting yourself during a difficult time of growth?
    • Envision a person who you want to invite for an informational interview/coffee chat (they can be made up)
      • What do they do?
      • What would you like to learn from them?
      • What can they learn from you?

Resources about mindsets & changing your brain:

Session 1: Career Vision, Your Strengths, Your Story

  • Overview of what we will do (10min)
    • Review modules and structure
      • Each week will have an in-person lecture/exercise, a reflection, and 30mins-1hr of work outside
      • Fridays will be Q&A speakers
    • Information management (copy this folder with templates)
  • Write down your strengths, interests, skills, and values (link to values list) (5mins)
  • Setting the stage with your career story and vision (1hr max)
    • No right or wrong answers, just to get you thinking of ideas! All of this will change, and you can update it as it does.
    • These should be MESSY and fast – don’t try to be perfect or thorough, you just want to get lots of information down and think big! (see below image)
    • Eventually we will look back at these and think, what of all of this do I want to highlight when I am interviewing for a job?
    • Paper Exercise: Past timeline (10min)
      • Create a timeline of the past (any amount of years) for how you got to this point – what is your story? Add all kinds of content, from professional happenings (e.g. started at DataWorks) to tough personal times (COVID…) to exciting personal times (started dating so-and-so)
    • Shareback, if in the group (10min)
    • Paper Exercise: Now mapping into the future…3 ways
      • Create 3 five-year plans
      • First plan: the path you’re currently on (10min)
        • Give it a 3-6 word title
      • Second plan: if money was not a concern, what would this plan be? (10min)
        • Give it a 3-6 word title
      • Third plan: a mix of the two (10min)
        • Give it a 3-6 word title
      • Consider: which was your favorite? Which one do you feel excited about?
    • Examples of my 5-year future plans – you can include personal things here, too!

Session 1 Homework (1-1.5 hrs total):

  • Get feedback on your strengths and career stories (1 hr max):
    • Find 2-3 people (these can be people you know personally or at work)
    • Ask them what they think are your strengths
      • You can email people about this too
      • Write down what they shared in your professional journal
    • Share your story and career vision and get their feedback
  • Reflection (10 mins) Email or Teams message to me by end of day Friday ([email protected]). Prompts you can use:
    • What strengths did you identify? When you asked people about your strengths, did anything surprise you?
    • What did you learn from creating your timeline? What was easy/difficult?
  • Optional: Get inspired (20 mins)

Lara