Elvi Caperonis, Technical Program Manager at Amazon and Life & Agile Career Coach, talks about how to stay adaptable in your job search and career using some of the techniques of Agile Methodology (used in software development). She also encourages you to increase your emotional intelligence and to discover and use your own super powers.

In this episode we are joined by Dr. Rebecca Schewe, Assistant Professor of Sociology and O'Hanley Faculty Scholar. Dr. Schewe takes us through the first-round or "screening interview" that colleges and universities use to determine whom they should invite for on-campus interviews. These meetings are short, to the point, and most often happen over Zoom or the phone. What are they looking for, and how do you make the cut--and get the invitation for the campus interview? Find out here. 

Shaundel Sanchez completed her Ph.D. in spring 2020 in Cultural Anthropology just as the pandemic hit, causing her postdoc in Germany to be cancelled and her to reevaluate her post-Ph.D. life and career goals. Throughout our interview she describes how she evaluated herself through self-reflection and refined her job search with networking successes along the way. Shaundel begins a Visiting Assistant Professorship this fall at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA.

In this episode, Dr. Romita Ray, Associate Professor of Art and Music Histories, discusses the thorny issue of the reference letter, and encourages us to get started asking for them now! But before you ask, there's plenty to know: whom to ask, what information your referees need, how to "pop the question," and more. 

As many professionals work from home, we interviewed several alumni on their top tips for working well in your personal space. On today’s episode we’ll hear tips from:

Tanya Achhra, G’18, Information Management, is a Program Manager at Amazon Web Services, and began her job working from home this past spring.

Janak Khilnani, G’15, Information Management and Managing Consultant at IBM and has been working from home for five years.

Jessica Garay Redmond, Ph.D., G’18, Assistant Professor at Syracuse University. Jessica is also a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS),  Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (FAND) and 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher. You can connect with Jessica on Twitter, @CuseSportsRD.

Zhicheng (Mike) Zhao, G'14, Computer Science graduate from the College of Engineering and Computer Science is currently a Tech Lead at Alibaba in China. Mike formerly worked as a Senior Software Engineer at eBay and lived in San Francisco where he created a large orange alumni community. Mike will provide tips for conducting your job search.

Join Syracuse University alum Laura Spenceley, PhD, who is assistant professor of School Psychology and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at SUNY OSWEGO to explore the ins and outs of effective teaching statements. A good teaching statement, Dr. Spenceley says, are "teasers for what faculty and students can expect from you when you're on campus." Yet so many statements let the reader down, so how do you write one that makes faculty want to see what you're like as a teacher?

Christa Kelleher, an assistant professor of (this is a mouthful!) Comparative Hydrology, Urban Hydrology, & Hydrologic Modeling in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, joins us this week to give us her take on the research statement. Given her preference for "shiny things," as she calls them, what makes a research statement shine? Listen to find out. 

In this podcast we welcome alumnus Meriton (Tony) Gollopeni, a December 2019 grad from the College of Engineering and Computer Science with a Master of Science in Structural Engineering. He now works as a Bridge Engineer at STV Incorporated in Baltimore, Maryland.

Tony answers questions on how he secured a summer internship and full-time job. He gives advice for students conducting jobs/internship searches and mentions what he wishes he knew as a student.

This edition of the Academic Job Market Series tackles the crucial and sometimes under-appreciated role of the cover letter in an effective academic job search. We answer so many questions: How long should your cover letter be? What is its purpose among so many other documents? How do you organize it,  and most of all, how do you save time when you have lots of applications to complete?