Seniors use Penn alum job network

With graduation only a few months away, Frank Canning and his then-fiancee Heather began to realize last spring that life in a big city wasn't for them.

Unlike most of their peers, the 2001 College graduates decided to skip the long lines for resume drops and the race for on-campus interviews with large corporations. Instead, the two worked connections within Penn's alumni network to find a niche for themselves in rural Pennsylvania.

But the Cannings were an anomaly among recent Penn graduates. Urban areas have attracted the bulk of students diving into the job market, so when students seek aid from Penn's Career Services department in their job searches, they are naturally directed toward the big city job market, not small towns.

"It seemed like almost everyone was going to New York and Washington," Canning said. "We're sort of a silent minority."

In fact, nearly 40,000 Penn graduates live in the greater New York area alone, according to Penn's alumni society. And many go to Boston and other major metropolitan areas after graduation.

The result is that the On-Campus Recruiting Service, one of Penn's largest job-search vehicles, focuses mainly on bringing headhunters from major corporations to the University.

"The large majority of students are looking in major cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, by far the biggest number go to New York," Career Services Counselor Julie Schutzman said. "It's where they think the job opportunities are, but I think often its a social decision.... They don't want to be isolated."

This focus leaves those seniors, who are looking to leave the city, more or less on their own in their job searches.

But that's where the Penn Career Network enters the picture. The database -- which consists of 2,500 Penn alumni -- was designed to link students with alumni career advisors who can provide information about particular industries or geographic regions.

Some alumni act as mentors to students, while others offer one-time informational interviews or answer questions via e-mail.

Students are meant to use the database to gather information, not to lobby for interviews. But in the Cannings' case, at least, a few phone calls with 1989 College alumnus and former Daily Pennsylvanian editor Chuck Cohen opened many doors.

Cohen took the Cannings on a tour of Wilkes-Barre, a town in northeastern Pennsylvania, and later connected them with a real estate agent and found each of the couple three or four job interviews.

"We both got jobs we wanted, in fields that we wanted to get into," said Canning. At Penn, Canning majored in Communications, while his wife earned a Math degree.

Canning went on to say that "it was basically just because of him that we found the apartment that we found, and the jobs we found."

Cohen said that although he had been in the career database for years, last spring was the first time a student had ever contacted him. But, he said, graduates of Penn and other prestigious schools are often welcomed in small towns, which have less access to heavy recruiting.

"So many University graduates go through this career planning and placement routine of dropping resumes off for recruiters, thinking that's the only way to get a job," Cohen said.

"To my mind there are a lot more opportunities out there than just large companies interviewing for a certain number of slots and in a city," he added. "When you are looking at a smaller community there may not be as much competition for high-paying jobs."

And with the economy slowing down, students may find that using offbeat tactics and alumni connections is an easier way to find work.

"One of the things that people are going to have to do more of this year is networking, and this is one of the best ways to do it," Schutzman said.

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