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Learn from your fellow Deacs.

Read alumni stories about life & work after Wake Forest.

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“You owe it to yourself to create adventures and moments to recharge yourself, so do it and give yourself grace in the process of it all – ‘adulting’ life is an adjustment.”

Alisha Hartley (’18), The Pennsylvania State University – Associate Director of Major Gifts of the Smeal College of Business in State College, PA

🎩NEW DEACON SPOTLIGHT🎩

We recently caught up with Sydney Gibson (‘21), Manager, Private Equity Accounts at AlphaSights in New York, NY. In her role, she manages a set of private equity accounts, as well as a team of three associates. They rally around the goal of helping their clients gain the market insights needed to propel their investments forward.

Here are a few fun facts about Sydney:

☕️ While Sydney lived in Winston, her favorite places to study were Krankies Coffee and Wake Downtown.

🌍 While she worked to complete her major in Politics and International Affairs, Sydney studied at Worrell House and Wake Washington.

🌇 The first time she visited NYC was for a Career Trek with the OPCD. Sydney says that trip was impactful because it introduced her to the life of young professionals who’d graduated from WFU and moved to NYC!

We’ll leave you with some wisdom from Sydney:
💡💡💡💡💡💡
“Put your best foot forward in the role you have, even if your first job isn’t your ‘dream job.’ The people you work with and things you learn in a first role will always, in some way, inform the next role. It’s better to tackle each day as a new opportunity.”

Read more of our Q&A with Sydney at the 🔗 in our profile.

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It’s always exciting to receive a job offer after all of your hard work and effort in the search process! 💵

But✋, before you automatically accept what you’ve been offered, take a minute to step back and consider all aspects of the offer.

You need to do your research to determine if the salary offered meets market value plus matches up with what you deserve. However, you also want to consider if there are other non-salary related items to ask for in your negotiations.

Read more in the article from JobSage.com to learn about 14 things to negotiate other than salary at the link in our bio or stories.

🌟PLUS: Don’t forget to sign-up for our next Wednesday Webinar with special facilitator and @wfualumni Austin Belcak (‘13) as he shares strategies for winning your next negotiation. Link is in our bio!🌟

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Calling all WFU alumni and leaders in K-12 Education! 🍎✏️

Join us to meet and connect with one another and engage in conversation around opportunities and challenges as leaders in education, led by @wfualumni Adam Dovico (’04, EdD’23), Academic Director of Wake Forest University School of Professional Studies!

Register to join us over Zoom on Wednesday, March 20th from 7-8pm ET. Sign-up link is in our bio or stories!

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🌟 New Expert Advice Posts! 🌟

It’s a new month which means we have fresh content on our website. Our March posts are focused on….

💰Salary Negotiation Beyond the Basics: Discover what to negotiate in a job offer beyond just salary.

💡Master Your Pay Raise: Explore 5 ChatGPT prompts to ace your next salary negotiation.

🚧 Boundaries Matter: Learn how to set and communicate financial boundaries effectively.

💵 Thrifty Tips: Get practical advice on saving money even when you’re broke.

🔥 Mid-Career Recharge: Navigate burnout with strategies for rejuvenation.

🌱 Digital Well-being: Dive into positive technology for healthier work environments.

To read any of these, visit the link in our bio or stories!

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Looking for a way to support and give back to current Wake Forest students? Hire a Deac! 🎩🎩🎩

It’s that time of year when our students are actively looking for internships and full-time job roles. If your company or team is currently hiring, let us know! 📣

Visit the link in our bio or stories to share your info and our WFU Employer Relations team will follow-up.

Go Deacs! 🖤

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What if you could get an $80,000 raise? 🤯💸

Join us for our next Wednesday Webinar as we hear from career expert and @wfualumni Austin Belcak (’13) about 13 steps you should be taking to successfully negotiate your salary.

And true story: Austin helped a client actually get an $80,000 raise after negotiating his salary at Amazon. 🎉 Whether you’re hoping to negotiate salary and perks for a new job offer or increase your pay at your current organization, you don’t want to miss this one!

Austin is the founder of @cultivated.culture where he helps people land jobs they love without traditional experience and without applying online. Austin’s job search system stems from his personal experience transitioning from a new grad with a biology degree, a 2.58 GPA, and a job in healthcare to landing interviews at Microsoft, Google, and Twitter resulting in a 5+ year career at Microsoft where he was promoted multiple times. His strategies have been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Co, and Inc. and he has helped thousands of job seekers land jobs at places like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Tesla, SpaceX, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, ESPN, the NFL, and more — without applying online.

Our webinars are ⚡️free and open⚡️ to all WFU alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents, and friends. But you have to register at the link in our bio or Stories to access the Zoom link and join!

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We have a 🔥NEW🔥 career development tool on our website: the LEARN Model!

In fact, this is a one-of-a-kind resource we’ve developed just for our @wfualumni (no other college or university has something like this for their alumni 👊🎩).

The LEARN Wake Forest Alumni Career Development Model™ is your self-directed, personal learning framework to develop professionally and take the next step in your career. No matter where you are – new employee, mid-level manager, seasoned professional, or somewhere in between – the LEARN Model is adaptable to you.

Years of research and professional career development experience has guided the development of this Model and its five steps: 1️⃣ Learn, 2️⃣ Evaluate, 3️⃣ Act, 4️⃣ Reflect, 5️⃣ Navigate. We always like (and recommend) to begin at the beginning with Learn. But the good news is that you can start exactly where you are. LEARN is a cyclical Model that will repeat itself over the course of your career. 🔄

Identify where you currently are in the Model and begin there by clicking into that particular LEARN step to get started.

Visit the link in our bio or Stories to explore this new resource.

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Are you interested in practicing strategies to become a stronger advocate for yourself, your colleagues and your team in your workplace? 💪

Are you curious how developing strong advocacy skills is essential for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work?

This upcoming virtual workshop is designed for professionals at all stages of their career journey who want to grow as champions of DEI in their workplaces. This workshop is for learners who understand and have experience discussing concepts and definitions including: diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, bias, oppression, race/racism etc.

Participants will leave this learning experience with tools to identify their own strengths, use their strengths to develop stronger advocacy skills and cultivate a deeper understanding of how advocacy fosters an inclusive work environment. 🌱🔁💛

Join us on March 14, 2024 from 11am-1pm EST on Zoom as we learn together! Register at the link in our bio or Stories.

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