All of our new expert advice posts this month are written by and/or featuring @WFUalumni! 🎩💛🖤💛🎩
@thelordrach Rachel Lord ('13) gives some insider advice on what questions to ask yourself before joining a start-up company. 📝
@samanthalarsen Sam Larsen ('16) offers up tips for using UX strategies to land a new job. ✔️
@yourbrandnetworker Erin Andersen (MSM '17) shares how to nail your next virtual job interview and determine company culture over a video call. 💻
@allison.e.mcwilliams Allison McWilliams ('95) explores 🔟 key strategies for thriving in your first job after college. 💡
@tourdefrank John Champlin ('06, MBA '15) explores how you can find your strengths in the unexpected, particularly in moments of major change. 💪
@katherine_laws Katherine Laws ('20) provides tips and advice for moving from indecisiveness to commitment to decisions (hint: baby steps!).👣👣
@pivotpointprofessionals Kristin Winkle Beck ('97) shares expert advice for navigating a career pivot (she should know, she's actually done it)! 🗺
Y'all. We have some really brilliant Deacs. 🙌 Go read/listen to their advice and start applying it to your life + career!
Go to alumni.opcd.wfu.edu or click the 🔗 in our profile.
Join us for the next gathering of our Alumni Book Group on May 12th from 12-1pm EST! We’ll discuss “5 Steps to Designing the Life You Want”, a Ted Talk based on the popular book, Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
(We know, we know! It’s not a book club exactly...but watching the TED talk is even easier!)
From connecting the dots to find meaning, to identifying and reframing gravity problems, to choosing well to make yourself happy, we’ll talk through the 5 steps, share strategies, and make a commitment for what’s next for you.
Space is limited to 12 alumni. Register at the 🔗 in our profile!
We know it's tough to connect with new people right now. Whether you're hoping to build your network professionally or just take a few minutes to meet someone new, sign up for these 1:1 alumni conversations!
Here's how it works:
• Register by Friday, May 7th
• Our team will match alumni for 1:1 conversations
• On Tuesday, May 11th, we'll connect each conversation pair with a short introductory email
• Each conversation pair will work to find a time to meet that works for you both!
It's that easy! Plan to chat for 15-minutes, maybe over coffee or a quick bite to eat!
Register at the 🔗 in our profile.
Have you experienced a reassignment or realignment in job duties due to the pandemic? Are you longing for the “normal” days when your job description matched the work you were performing each week?
Join us for our next Wednesday Webinar this week with @wfualumni John Champlin (’06, MBA ’15), Director of Engagement Programs in the Alumni Engagement Office at Wake Forest University, as he discusses strategies for continuing to engage in work despite significant changes. He’ll stress the importance of continuing to focus and align your strengths on the work at hand to prevent disengagement and burnout.
Even if your job responsibilities haven’t fundamentally changed during the pandemic, you’ll walk away from this webinar with a greater sense of your purpose at work. TRUST US, you don’t want to miss this session (we’ve seen the slides and they’re 🔥)!
Register at the 🔗 in our profile!
We’ve been hearing from @wfualumni that building and maintaining your networks right now is especially challenging. Sound like something you’re experiencing too? 👋🏾
We’ve put together a series of networking conversations to help!
Join us on April 13, 2021 at 12pm ET as we dive deeper into the topic of leadership.
In this Alumni Networking Conversation, Andy Chan, Vice President for Innovation and Career Development at Wake Forest University will deliver a 20-minute Keynote Opening Address on Leadership in the Year 2021 before we pair alumni into 1:1 conversations. We’ll provide thought-provoking prompts and questions for you to reflect on with a conversation partner! We’ll switch questions and partners in several rounds of discussion to ensure you meet alumni interested in this same topic.
Register at go.wfu.edu/next or at the 🔗 in our profile!
Welcome to LEARN with @LifeAfterWake! Come check out your new go-to resource for online learning designed to help you grow and thrive in your personal and career development.
Over the past year, we’ve built out an incredible platform on our website stacked full of easy-to-access content. Follow the 🔗 in our profile to explore our on-demand online courses, facilitated networking conversation with @wfualumni, book groups, and of course, our library of Wednesday Webinars.
What are you waiting for?
What does networking look like when events aren’t happening? If you’ve always dreaded in-person meet-ups, give these facilitated conversations a chance! 💻 Choose a topic that’s interesting to you and we’ll provide thought-provoking prompts and questions for you to reflect on with a conversation partner! We’ll switch questions and partners in several rounds of discussion to ensure you meet alumni interested in this same topic.
Join us THIS WEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 at 12pm ET for a Conversation On Boundaries at Work! 🕔✅🔄
If there’s one topic that we spend tons of time talking about with alumni, it would be boundaries. This balance is personal and elusive, but there’s a lot we can learn from one another. If this topic resonates with you, come chat with other alumni in 1:1 conversations. Register at the 🔗 in our profile!
We’ve made it to the 🎉FINAL week🎉 of our five week challenge to take action in growing your confidence levels as a young professional. This week we’re looking at how confident our young alumni are in their ability to use their experiences, interests, and strengths to create a plan for the future. Swipe left on these images to see what the Wake Forest classes of 2017, 2018, and 2019 reported.
Take some time to assess your own confidence levels to plan for the future and determine your next life and career steps. Here are some ideas for how to start doing that today.
▪️Set-up an informational interview (a career convo) with someone working in the type of job that you eventually want. Ask questions, be curious, and learn about their career path. 💭
▪️Write down 1-2 specific career goals that you have and action steps needed to achieve them. Share this with a mentor, accountability partner, or friend who can hold you accountable and help you make forward progress. 📝
▪️Update your resume to take stock of your skills and experiences. Determine any gaps where you need to “upskill” for the job that you want. Then, seek out trainings and learning experiences to grow your skill set - check out our LEARN with @LifeAfterWake platform (🔗 in profile)!🪴
To participate in our five-week challenge, comment on all five of our weekly posts and tell us the action you’re planning to take, plus tag another @WFUalumni who could benefit from these resources. Do this for all five weeks and we’ll send you a special gift from our @LifeAfterWake team!💛🎩💛
💬 What obligations do professionals have for advancing the public good?
💬 How can character be educated or improved among current or aspiring professionals?
These are tough but necessary questions to be asking, particularly as recent events have revealed the importance of character in leadership as well as the widespread lack of trust in our institutions.
@WFUAlumni are invited to join @leadershipandcharacter and the Oxford Character Project for this ⚡️FREE⚡️virtual conference taking place March 18-20. Register for all the sessions or just select one or two that you'd like to attend (basically, choose your own adventure 🙌📌🛣).
Visit the 🔗 in our profile to learn more, see the speaker line-up, plus register! Hope to see you there, Deacs! 🎩
Our new expert advice posts for March are up! 🎉 This month we're tackling:
🚫How to NOT use LinkedIn (hint: stop sending @allison.e.mcwilliams messages to connect and saying you want her job🙄😆)
🌈 Great advice for LGBTQ+ job seekers on finding truly inclusive places to work (shoutout to our friends @lgbtqatwfu for sharing this article)
📝 Resume tips for re-entering the workforce (especially if there's a gap on yours)
🌎 Some honest truth about why the world is not your oyster (and why that’s actually a good thing!)
Read all this and more at alumni.opcd.wfu.edu or click the 🔗 in our profile.
#expertadvice
It’s week FOUR of our five week challenge to take action in growing your confidence levels as a young professional. 👊 This week we’re looking at how confident our young alumni are in their ability to seek out feedback on personal and professional choices. Swipe left ⬅️ on these images to see what the Wake Forest classes of 2017, 2018, and 2019 reported.
Take some time to assess your own confidence levels to ask the people in your life for feedback. Here are some ideas for how to start doing that today:
▪️Reach out to a colleague or manager to debrief a recent project. Ask them: What did I do well? What could I have done differently? How can I improve moving forward?
▪️Read the article, Ask for What You Need (🔗 in profile). Seek out opportunities this week to practice asking for feedback and responding to feedback in a non-defensive manner.
▪️Review your last performance evaluation at work. If you receive actionable feedback about your performance, have you made any progress on accomplishing those suggestions? Do you notice any patterns in your behavior or work ethic that could be accentuated or improved?
To participate in our five-week challenge, comment on all five of our weekly posts and tell us the action you’re planning to take, plus tag another @WFUalumni who could benefit from these resources. Do this for all five weeks and we’ll send you a 🎉special gift🎉 from our @LifeAfterWake team!🎩
It’s week THREE of our five-week challenge to take action in growing your confidence levels as a young professional in your personal + professional life after college. This week we’re looking at how confident our young alumni are in their ability to ⭐️ build relationships with mentors and sponsors to support your goals ⭐️. Swipe left on these images to see what the Wake Forest classes of 2017, 2018, and 2019 reported.
Take some time to assess your own confidence levels to build meaningful relationships that you need to be successful and feel supported. Here are some ideas for how to start doing that today.
▪️Make a network map of the people in your life (personal and professional). Who is missing and who do you need/want to add? 🧩
▪️Send a “life update” email to people in your network who have supported you in your career. Let them know what you’ve been up to, where you want to go next in your career, and say “thank you” for supporting you along the way. 💻
▪️Reach out to a colleague or manager for a virtual coffee chat. Practice that “building relationships” muscle while working remotely.☕️💪
To participate in our five-week challenge, comment on all five of our weekly posts and tell us the action you’re planning to take, plus tag another @WFUalumni who could benefit from these resources. Do this for all five weeks and we’ll send you a special gift from our @LifeAfterWake team! 🎩🎁
Assistant Vice President: Allison McWilliams, PhD
Associate Director: Lauren Beam, MS, NCC
Assistant Director: Megan Hoyt
