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“Don’t skip steps. You first need to learn technology and become deeply knowledgeable. Then innovation tends to follow.”
John Tobler (’96), Senior Director of Engineering at Google in San Jose, CA
Thank you @wfualumni and friends for following along with us in this space. Whether you’ve read our posts here on IG, signed up for a program or two, or have utilized any of our resources over the past year, we’re grateful for the opportunity to support our alumni in their lives after Wake!
2024 has been a busy but fun year! Because of that, our team is signing off here to enjoy some much-deserved rest and a social media break over the coming weeks.
We hope that you, too, are able to take time to relax, rest, and enjoy a slower pace this holiday season. We’ll see you in 2025! ❤️
If you find yourself having some downtime over the holidays, it can be a great opportunity to dust off your resume, reflect on what you’ve accomplished and learned over the past year, and make some updates.
Then, we hope you’ll participate in Tune-Up Tuesdays starting in January when we’ll be offering weekly, virtual resume reviews!
How can you participate?
📝Send your resume (as a Word or Google Doc so we can edit on it directly) to WFUalumnicareers@gmail.com. It’s also super helpful if you tell us how you’ll be using it (new job role, career change, grad school).
✍️We’ll review weekly batches of resumes that we receive by the end of the day Tuesday throughout the month of January 2025.
➡️ Be sure to read the article about creating an ATS (automated tracking system) friendly resume at the link in our bio before sending us your document.
*Please note this offering is only for alumni who are graduates from College of Arts & Sciences programs. Grads from any School of Business program, law, med school, etc. should reach out to their respective programs for career assistance! Current WFU students should contact the OPCD.
https://alumni.opcd.wfu.edu/2022/10/designing-a-resume-for-applicant-tracking-systems/
If you’ve been out of the workforce and are planning to return to work, you’ll want to check out this new advice piece from our AVP Allison McWilliams (‘95) for her Psychology Today blog. She explores what our relationship to work says about us and these key questions to consider as you prepare to go back to work.
💡“No matter your reason for leaving or returning, how and why you reenter the workplace can be as important as where you end up.” 💡
Read the full post at the link in our bio or stories!🫶
https://alumni.opcd.wfu.edu/2024/12/how-to-return-to-work/
🎩NEW DEACON SPOTLIGHT🎩
We recently caught up with Brian Ostasiewski (BS 1998 Computer Science), Director of Research Informatics at Wake Forest School of Medicine in 📍Winston-Salem, NC. Brian’s team provides the data infrastructure for enabling research studies and clinical trials. They also build a lot of software tools and data analysis scripts, and they have to work with their IT colleagues to enable access across an enterprise that is still multiple separate computer networks.
Here are a few fun facts about Brian:
🍺Brian has tried almost 8,700 different beers! Even for some beers he has only sampled once, he can recall the taste and identify again.
🧵He knows how to sew and made himself a Demon Deacon Halloween costume that won two contests.
💻Brian wrote his first computer program when he was 6, a tool for his father to use for counting inventory in the steel factory.
We’ll leave you with some wisdom from Brian:
💡💡💡💡💡💡
“With all the advances in things like AI and online search, it’s less important to have a storehouse of knowledge in your head, but rather to have the skills to know how to use these advanced tools and how to discern what information is accurate or useful.”
Read more of our Q&A with Brian at the 🔗 in our profile or stories.
https://alumni.opcd.wfu.edu/deacon-spotlight/deacon-spotlight-brian-ostasiewski/
Whether you’re hoping to develop your mentoring skills as a leader at work, wanting to seek out mentorship as a young professional, or are just wanting to develop your mentoring skill set, we hope you’ll join us for our Online Introductory Mentoring Skills Certificate course in the new year! 🎉
This self-paced course, offered only once a year, is designed as an introduction to skills and strategies used by effective mentors and mentees. We will also explore tools that will help you build and maintain your mentoring network. At the end of this course, you should be better equipped with the language and tools for engaging in mentoring relationships and conversations both personally and professionally!
⭐️Bonus: if you fully complete the course and final assignment, you’ll receive a professional development certificate (which is great for your resume!).
This course is free and open to all WFU alumni, students, faculty, and staff.
Learn more and register at the link in our bio or stories!
https://wakenetwork.wfu.edu/events/online-introductory-mentoring-skills-certificate-course-02-01-2025-0011398
Take some time to💡 LEARN 💡 about easy ways to use AI to update your resume as you navigate what’s next in your career with Step 5️⃣ of our LEARN Alumni Career Development Model!
Here’s a quick clip from this month’s new micro webinar where we discuss why and how AI can be useful in tailoring your resume to specific job descriptions.
To watch the full video and access more LEARN resources on this topic, visit the link in our bio or stories. 📲
https://alumni.opcd.wfu.edu/step-5-navigate/#accordion-section-3
🎩NEW DEACON SPOTLIGHT🎩
Get to know @wfualumni Dwayne Peterkin II (BA 2017 Communication, Minor in Entrepreneurship & Social Enterprise), Sr. Sales Operations Specialist at SHL in Chicago, IL. Dwayne works in Sales Operations and supports SHL’s sales teams in a variety of ways, ranging from process efficiency to incentives. A majority of his time is spent managing data and analyzing how it translates to the real life experiences of SHL and its sellers.
Here are a few fun facts about Dwayne:
🎉Dwayne is a former member of Wake Forest Cheer and Momentum Dance Crew.
🌍His hobbies are cooking, traveling, and martial arts.
🖤He met his wife during his first year at Wake Forest! #deacsinlove
We’ll leave you with some wisdom from Dwayne:
💡💡💡💡💡💡
“Entering the working world, it is tempting to keep the same pace as college, but there is a lot of life left once you graduate. Make sure you maximize [life] both inside and outside of work.”
Read more of our Q&A with Dwayne at the 🔗 in our profile.
https://alumni.opcd.wfu.edu/deacon-spotlight/deacon-spotlight-dwayne-
If you’ve been out of the workforce for a few weeks or a few years – to take care of a new baby, to be a full-time stay-at-home parent, or be a caregiver to a spouse or family member – you might have wondered how or even if you should put caregiving duties on your resume. 📝
In one of this month’s new expert advice posts, our Director and working parent of 3 kids, Lauren Beam (‘07) shares tips for figuring out how to include and address time away from paid work as a caregiver (because unpaid work is still work!).
Swipe to see her tips, ➡️ but read the full article at the link in our bio or stories!
https://alumni.opcd.wfu.edu/2024/12/how-to-address-your-role-as-caregiver-on-your-resume/
Each month we feature new 💡 expert advice posts on our website and our latest content for 🗓️ December is now up!
We have posts on a variety of topics related to our new LEARN Model’s Step 5️⃣ – Navigate What’s Next, including:
🤖 A new micro learning webinar on how to use AI to update your resume
💻 How to build your career strategy on LinkedIn
✍️ Addressing your role as caregiver on your resume
📌 Returning to work after a break
…and much more!
Want to search for advice on a different topic? Simply click our blog roll filter and choose from dozens of other life + career categories and 500+ posts.
Read our latest expert advice pieces at the link in our bio.
https://alumni.opcd.wfu.edu/get-expert-advice/