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3/26/08 Lambda Pi Eta

CALS Student Advisory Committee Follow-Up:

LPE Communication Career Panel

The LPE Communication Career Panel was an idea conceived by the president of Lambda Pi Eta in coordination with the vice president and an advisor in the Department of Communication. Lambda Pi Eta has historically struggled to increase its member turnout at and engagement in the organization’s events. So this year’s LPE leaders analyzed why turnout has been low and talked about ways to improve it.

One of the key factors identified as attributing to this challenge is that LPE’s events have primarily been service events, and the organization has offered few events that provide knowledge and experiences directly relevant to communication or career guidance and development.

We agreed that if LPE rewards achievement by asking members to give more and achieve more, they may not feel like they are getting much out of their LPE membership other than more time commitments. Therefore, the LPE Communication Career Panel was conceived to better fulfill the national Lambda Pi Eta goals “to stimulate interest in the field of communication” and “to promote and encourage professional development among communication scholars.”

Thanks to our leaders’ and Prof. Brian Earle’s key network connections with alumni across a variety of organizations in the communication industry, we were able to secure four speakers for our panel: Josh Braun, a graduate student in the Department of Communication with a broad array of communication industry work experiences; Catherine Flickinger, executive vice president general counsel and secretary of Hachette Filipacci; Sharon Tregaskis, a freelance writer who writes for Cornell publications such as Weill Cornell Medicine magazine and Cornell Alumni Magazine; and Molly West, senior director of business operations at ESPN.

On Saturday, February 16, 2008, LPE’s advisors, several of our organization’s leaders, the members of the Communication Career Panel planning committee, and our four panelists convened at Banfi Restaurant in the Statler Hotel to network over brunch and get to know each other before the panel, scheduled for later that day. Sharon and Molly reminisced about their days as Cornell undergrads and chatted about how things have changed since their college days. Catherine talked to us about her son’s current experience as a Cornell undergraduate student in Applied Economics and Management and what it’s like to be a Cornell parent. We all swapped business and story ideas and compared our work and internship experiences.

After brunch we walked together to the Mann Library conference room in the front lobby to set up for the event. As students trickled in for the event, we were very pleased to learn that our audience was comprised of students from not only the Department of Communication, but also from Applied Economics and Management, the School of Hotel Administration, the Department of English, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and Policy Analysis and Management. Approximately 20-30 students attended the event, as well as two parents, the husband of Catherine Flickinger, and our advisor, Prof. Toni Michael.

The event opened with a brief welcome and introduction by the president of Lambda Pi Eta, Erika Nolting ‘08, followed by a 10-minute presentation by Samantha LaFirst ’10, a representative of CALS Career Development. Samantha spoke about the types of jobs that Cornell communication majors have pursued after graduation in the past few years, the challenges they encountered in their job and internship searches, and the resources that the CALS Career Development Office can offer to help students find communication-related jobs and internships. She brought resources from the CALS CDO for students to take with them after the event, and LPE intends to post her presentation on our web site with the entire edited video of the panel before this year’s commencement ceremony.

The panel was structured around the following 12 questions contributed by members of LPE:

· How did you get into your industry?

· What college classes best helped you prepare for your current work environment?

· How did you find out about the different cultures in areas where you were exploring? How did you know that that's the right place for you to be going?

· How has networking helped you in your professional career?

· How have you navigated your way through your career path?

· How did you find your first job after graduation? How did you get your foot in the door?

· What do you wish you had known before entering your career?

· What are the high and low points of your work?

· What skills and resources did you use to find your position?

· What skills do you use in your current job?

· What activities were you involved in as an undergraduate that helped in your career?

· Has there been a highlight or defining moment in your career?

As a result of having panelists who were from very different career paths and different types of workplaces, our speakers were able to contribute diverse perspectives and answers. One of the key takeaways for many of our guests is that there really aren’t right or wrong answers to the decisions we will face along our career paths; there are only choices that are uniquely right for each individual.

Catherine Flickinger explained that she took a more traditional approach to her career path, graduating from undergraduate studies and pursuing law school studies at Columbia law School soon thereafter. What she would not have predicted, however, was that she would end up working as an executive vice president for a major publication company, rather than a litigation lawyer. Additionally, she explained that her favorite things about the nature of her work at Hachette Filipacci is that she tackles an array of projects and challenges on a daily basis and that she is always learning new things, such as how laws for digital copyright and communication are evolving.

Molly West explained that she had studied human development with a goal of becoming a social worker, but she ended up at Turner Communications after graduation and fell into the world of media sales and planning. She explained that while she likely would have expressed at the beginning of her senior year at Cornell that choosing to work in media would be a wrong choice for her career path, she has fallen in love with media business and wouldn’t change a thing about her career now.

Josh Braun contributed a highly relevant perspective to our student audience’s perspective since he was our youngest panelist and not that far removed from the undergraduate experience. He explained that it’s okay to jump from career to career and that most of us will. We learned from his responses that whatever jobs or internships we choose now will not corner us in that job’s career field until the end of time. Josh worked as a producer and director of a life sciences documentary, a production intern for ABC News Nightline, a writer and editorial assistant for Seed Magazine, and a freelance producer for Radio Lab on WNYC New York Public radio and NPR before he decided that he missed academia and wanted to pursue his Master’s in Science from the Cornell Department of Communication. He explained that it is important to dive headfirst into a job and to be willing to do all the jobs that no one else wants to tackle, but most importantly, he recommended assessing your happiness and progress in your job at least once a year to decide whether to stay or to explore other opportunities.

Sharon Tregaskis explained to us that if you love to learn new things and to be intellectually challenged by some of the most complex questions the world faces, writing for university publications is a wonderful job that supports both of those aspirations. Her job offers the benefit of a flexible workplace arrangement and the opportunity to be creative and independent, as well as to visit research sites and to write about research and scholars who are changing the world. She comforted students with the notion that if you find yourself in a job that you dislike after a few years in the work world, it doesn’t mean you are doomed. She explained that she has had previous journalism jobs that she didn’t love, and so she actively explored other opportunities and now finds herself in a work environment that is inspiring and motivating to her.

The panel question portion of the event was followed by a short question and answer session, during which students in the audience had a chance to ask their own questions. Then, Prof. Brian Earle gave a presentation of the importance and value of networking and maintaining connections with people like our panelists who are in career fields that we may be interested in pursuing and who are eager to give back to the university that fostered their success.

We received much positive feedback from students, the panelists, and our advisors during the networking reception following the event. One student from the Dept. of English shared that she was so pleased to see a Communication event promoted in her department and that she would love to build a stronger partnership amongst students across the university interested in careers in communication. Another student expressed that he had been feeling very anxious about his job search and that the panel made him realize that he didn’t need to be so worried and that there are many Cornell alumni who he might be able to reach out to for career advice and connections to potential employers.

Thanks to Erika Nolting’s father, Bryce, the entire panel was captured on video, and so we are currently seeking a video editor to help us create a 30-minute production from our nearly two hours of footage. We are looking forward to posting the video on the LPE web site and giving DVDs of the panel to the CALS Career Development Office and the Department of Communication as a resource for students to refer to for career advice for years to come. Due to positive feedback from the event, we hope the leaders of LPE will continue to hold this event on an annual basis, and next year’s goal will be to promote earlier and to increase attendance.

Thank you to the CALS Student Advisory Council and the administration of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for supporting our endeavor by funding our event and having faith in our ideas. This event would not have become a reality without your generous contribution!