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Career Services – A Preview

Posted by Matt Clemons

· Monday, August 9th, 2010

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Part of being a professional school is taking the career development of students seriously. From the day a student arrives at SIPA the Office of Career Services is involved in making sure there is a strong focus on developing career management skills.

The message below was recently sent out to incoming SIPA students. I thought I would post it here for students interested in our program to provide a glimpse of the type of resources available. Note that most of the links in this message require a user name and password that is only provided to incoming students.

So, if you are an admitted student please take advantage of the links. If you are a prospective student, this message is just meant to provide general information about the first steps new students take with our Office of Career services when they join us for Orientation.

____________________________

Dear incoming SIPA students:

We in the Office of Career Services at SIPA are looking forward to meeting you upon your arrival for Orientation on Monday, August 30, 2010. It will be an exciting time as you embark on this journey to prepare for careers in international and public affairs. Obtaining internships and getting the opportunity to apply your new knowledge will be an important part of your experience at SIPA.

Many private sector employers and some federal government agencies begin recruiting for interns as early as September, while other public and nonprofit recruitment begins in the spring. You will be able to prepare for your internship search through various OCS programs available throughout the fall, including the Professional Development Class, career-related workshops and career advising appointments. Those of you interested in the private sector should register for the Private Sector Professional Development Class which will take place on Saturday, September 11, 2010. A schedule of additional classes will be available during Orientation.

We suggest you review the following information to ensure a successful internship search.

SIPAlink: OCS uses SIPAlink to advertise job and internship opportunities, career events, employer information sessions and on-campus interviews. As an incoming student, you will be able to register with SIPAlink at http://sipa.columbia.edu/resources_services/career_services/current_students/find_job.html on Monday, August 30, 2010.

Resume: Make sure you have a well written and clearly formatted one page resume. You may refer to our Online Career Resources for sample resumes and fact sheets, such as Resume Writing-General Tips and Resume Writing Tips for Positions in Finance and Banking, listed online at http://sipa.columbia.edu/resources_services/career_services/current_students/career_resources/fact_sheets.html.

Business Attire: If you’re interested in private sector employers, be sure to have a conservative business suit to wear to all business/finance employer information sessions and on-campus interviews. For some public sector and nonprofit employer presentations, business casual attire is acceptable.

Employer Information Sessions: These sessions offer a company/organization overview and provide excellent networking opportunities with employers. You should conduct prior research on the employer and arrive with well formulated questions. This will demonstrate your seriousness and interest in the particular employer and their industry. Once you have registered on SIPAlink, you will be able to view and sign up for employer information sessions of interest to you. In order to see a list of recruiters who came to campus last year, please look for a document entitled On-Campus Recruiters 2009-2010 in the SIPAlink Resource Library.

All students attending employer information sessions should order professional name tags through OCS. They can be ordered by logging into your SIPAlink account at https://www.myinterfase.com/cusipa/student/. Under On-Campus Recruiting and Career Events, click Career Events. From there go to the event labeled Office of Career Services: Getting a Name Tag First-Year Students Only (Class 2012) and sign up for this event by clicking the RSVP button. The deadline for the orders will be Monday, September 13. In addition, it is a good idea to order business cards to give to employers after their formal presentations. These can be ordered during your first week at SIPA through the Journalism School or Printing Services at SIPA.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, and we look forward to seeing you on during Orientation!

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Categories : Career Services

Tags : Career Services, jobs, networking

D.C. Connections

Posted by Matt Clemons

· Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

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I know that the location of a graduate school is an item on the minds of those applying, but I wanted to offer a bit of perspective. Many applicants for example might think that if they want to get a job at the United Nations, SIPA would be the best choice because the U.N. and SIPA are both in New York City.

While it is true that SIPA and U.N. are both in NYC and that many SIPA students do take advantage of this, it is also true that many of those who hold positions at the U.N. hold degrees from schools located outside of New York City.

Why am I bringing this up? Well it came to my mind when I received this email from our Career Services Office recently:

Stay Connected with Columbia During Your Summer in Washington, D.C.

Columbia’s Office of Government and Community Affairs will sponsor several events for Columbia students spending the summer break in Washington DC. In addition, they will maintain a listserv to help get the word out about these and other events and opportunities of interest.

An interesting item of note is that Washington, D.C. ranks second in terms of cities with the most SIPA alumni. It is probably not surprising that NYC is ranked first. Just like it is possible for students that graduate from schools outside of NYC to work at the U.N. (or any of the multitude of organizations in NYC) it is possible, and actually highly likely, that many of our graduates will work in Washington, D.C.

Last summer when I finished a recruiting event being held in D.C. I randomly ran into three current SIPA students that were doing internships in D.C. and two students that have worked in my office this year are both moving to D.C. shortly to start working full time.

D.C. is just one example of course, we have over 16,000 graduates living in over 150 countries across the globe. But as I stated in my pro-con entry a while back, NYC is a great place to spend two years of your life. I will warn you though, you might end up addicted to NYC like me.

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Categories : Admissions, Career Services

Tags : career development, Career Services, careers, internships, jobs

OCS Highlights

Posted by Matt Clemons

· Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

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The Office of Career Services sends out weekly bulletin to current students and here are some highlights from the recent edition.

Graduating Student Survey

In order to pick up your graduation tickets, please be aware that you must first fill out the Graduate Employment Survey at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22A2PGDFPSF

Tickets will be distributed beginning on Monday, April 26, 2010.

Whitman Family Foundation 2010 Summer Fellowship in Environmental Policy

With financial support from the Whitman Family Foundation, the Energy and Environmental Policy (EEP) concentration is pleased to offer the 2010 Summer Fellowship in Environmental Policy. An award of $1,000 will be given to a student in the environmental track participating in an unpaid summer internship related to environmental policy.

Chris Hill MPA Internship Grant

SIPASA is pleased to honor the life of former MPA student Christopher Hill with a scholarship fund for continuing MPA students undertaking public interest summer internships with government or nonprofit organizations. Christopher died in March 2000, while still studying at SIPA, after a courageous battle with cancer. Christopher’s friends and family created and funded the first year of the scholarship.

More details and eligibility requirements are available on SIPAlink.

SIPA Travel Grant Program

SIPA provides internship grants to qualifying students to help defray the costs of summer unpaid or low-paid internships overseas.

The application deadline is Friday, April 23, 2010.

SIPASA/OCS Business Cards and BBQ

Get ready for an evening of food, fun and networking on Friday, April 23 from 5:00-8:00pm on Ancell Plaza! SIPASA and OCS present a new twist on our annual barbecue – “Business Cards and BBQ”. In addition to the usual BBQ, beer, music and games, we also encourage students to bring some of their business cards to share job and internship experiences. This event is FREE to SIPA students with their CU ID.

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Categories : Career Services

Tags : Career Services, internships, jobs

Policy Professional Training – For All Sectors

Posted by Matt Clemons

· Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

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Graduates of our program go in a lot of different directions. Policy training can benefit those interested in all three major sectors: profit, not-for-profit, and public. A policy based mindset can help individuals succeed in all walks of life, and policy training can actually open doors.

Recently Sandhya Chari, a current student that used to work at Google and is now pursuing Economic and Political Development at SIPA, took a moment to interview Gabriel Stricker, an alumnus of our program currently working employed with the storied company.

Name: Gabriel Stricker
Degree Program: MIA
Concentration: IFB (now International Finance and Economic Policy)
Graduation Year: 2001
Current Position: Director, Global Communications & Public Affairs
Organization Name: Google, Inc.
Organization Location (city, country): Mountain View, CA

Describe your background prior to attending SIPA?

Before attending SIPA I worked on political campaigns – some international, some in the US. Nearly all of them were for underdog, progressive candidates… and many of them lost.

What are you doing now?

I’m currently Director of Global Communications & Public Affairs at Google, where I head Search communications – addressing everything from web search and other search properties (such as Maps, Earth, News and Books) to issues pertaining to partnerships, content, and the use of intellectual property.

Why did you choose to attend at SIPA?

I really wanted to get a solid grasp of finance and business, but in the context of international affairs. It was clear to me that the theories of commerce and trade were best understood in that context rather than in a vacuum. I was also impressed that International Affairs students had to have fluency in a second language. That prerequisite alone made for a diverse student population, and one in which people approached things differently if only because they brought some entirely different worldview to the table.

What was it like to attend graduate school/work in New York City?

It was just amazing. You’d read about folks in the New York Times one morning, and that night they’d give a lecture in your class – or maybe they’d actually be teaching your class! I’ll never forget taking finance and accounting from Andrew Danzig who was an adjunct in the evening, and by day was a financial analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank. It was incredible to get instruction from someone who was putting the principles he taught into practice every single day.

What’s your most vivid impression or recollection of SIPA?

I remember taking a course on privatization, and our professor began the class by explaining that he had just flown in from Russia where he had been providing guidance on privatizing its telecommunications industry. There were so many times when instructors’ real-time experiences were far more compelling than any textbook could ever achieve.

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Categories : Columbia University, News

Tags : Alumni News, career, jobs, tech

SIPA and Careers in the U.S. Government

Posted by Matt Clemons

· Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

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The Admissions Committee continues to work away and today I present the following student entry. The following was prepared by SIPA student Joshua Huneycutt, a second year MIA student concentrating in Energy and Environmental Policy.

___________________________

So you’re interested in working for the U.S. Government, but are worried that SIPA may be too far from Washington, D.C. for you to effectively work your way in. Well, have no fear – SIPA has a strong track record of placing graduates in civil service positions and a large (and friendly) alumni network within government.

For those students at SIPA seeking government jobs, opportunities abound for networking and gaining entry to special career development programs at various agencies. SIPA career panels frequently feature U.S. government-employed alumni, and the annual D.C. Career Fair features site visits with alumni to various government agencies.

Another great way to gain access to a career in government is through the Presidential Management Fellows Program. Thanks in part to the dedicated effort of the Office of Career Services and the various workshops, guides, and one-on-one consultations, 18 SIPA students were recently named as PMF Finalists for 2010.

Below you can find the employment statistics for recent graduates, provided by the Office of Career Services. A link to the information is here.

Program & Year	# of Hires	% of Program Graduates	Median Salary
2009 Graduates
MIA	32	15.6	$55,000
MPA	5	3.5	$73,100
2008 Graduates
MIA	23	11.36	$55,000
MPA	6	3.3	$72,500

In addition to SIPA being a great “in,” you will also have the pleasure of enjoying all that NYC has to offer, prior to beginning your days as a resident of the lovely, yet very culturally different, city of Washington D.C. Policy schools in D.C. certainly have many things to offer, but a significant advantage over SIPA for government positions is not quite one of them.

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Categories : Admissions, Columbia University, Paying for SIPA

Tags : beltway, careers, government, jobs, presidential management fellows program, washington d.c.