FirstGen Ahead
March 2021
JanJJ
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Founder’s Message
The work we do through FirstGen Ahead is needed more than ever. A newly released report from the Boston Foundation estimates a 60% gap between the current capacity to offer career development services to low-income college students and the projected need. Although this report focuses solely on Boston Public School graduates who are attending a handful of public universities in the state, it’s not a stretch to extrapolate these findings to other cities in Massachusetts and across the United States. Furthermore, these findings are relevant to first-gen students who typically come from low-income families.
We are mid-way through the second year of piloting our FirstGen Ahead model in partnership with The Steppingstone Foundation. What have we learned through our one-on-one coaching and project-based, peer support model in preparing first-gen students for transitioning from college to career? We are looking at student participation, their perceived preparedness for a career, and access to opportunities. Although we have documented improvements in all of these areas, it’s too early to know if all students from the first cohort will attain good first positions following college graduation. (i.e., a first position that requires a college degree).
What is clear from our experience and research is that career development services for first-generation college students cannot be automated. First-gen students are not likely to clarify and take steps toward solidifying their career trajectories if they are one out of a caseload of 1,889 students per college career advisor, which is the current average ratio. First-gen students benefit from engaging in trusting relationships with mentors and coaches, from skill-building opportunities, and from access and exposure to people in careers they are considering pursuing.
This is the work we have been doing for almost two years in the pilot phase at FirstGen Ahead and it is needed more than ever. We are in the early stages of building capacity, the details of which will be reported in future FirstGen Ahead newsletters.
Susan Gershenfeld, PhD
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“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.”
Charles Dickens
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A Three-Step Approach to Giving Feedback
For college students, it is just not your professor or your supervisor who can give you constructive feedback to grow and improve. You, too, can give constructive feedback to fellow students working together on team projects, work colleagues, and even friends. But how do you give feedback so that it’s heard in the manner it was intended, minimizing defensiveness?
One effective and easily memorable approach for giving constructive feedback is the sandwich technique. It has three parts.
- First, start with a positive affirming statement (the bottom of the bun).
- Second, provide your constructive feedback (the meat or veggies).
- Third, end with a positive, affirming statement (the top of the bun).
For example, what would be your constructive feedback to your friend if she asked you to give her feedback on her resume? She came to you because you just worked with your coach to polish yours, and you’re feeling pretty good about the improvements you made. Your friend gave you plenty of time to review the resume, and in doing so, you noticed it was missing strong action verbs, the formatting made it look too busy, and it had a few typos.
Using the sandwich technique, your constructive feedback could be something like this:
- You have so much great experience captured on your resume! (bottom of the bun)
- I think it could be made even stronger if you made three types of changes. The first change is to use action verbs so your experience can stand out even more. For example, consider substituting “responsible for” and inserting “led”. We can go through more examples if that would be helpful. Second, your resume will look less busy by changing the formatting to include more white space between headings and using one-inch margins. There are some great examples on this website if you’d like to explore other ways to make your resume look less busy. Finally, it’s always helpful to have someone else review your resume to identify typos. I found these four... (the meat or veggies).
- I can see that you’ve been working hard on your resume and think that making these revisions will result in one that’s going to impress potential employers. (top of the bun)
Constructive feedback is a gift to others and the important skill of giving it can be learned and even perfected with practice.
Image Source: https://med.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Nursing/Book%3A_The_Scholarship_of_Writing_in_Nursing_Education_(Lapum_et_al.)/08%3A_Revising_and_Editing_a_Paper/8.10%3A_Giving_and_Receiving_Feedback
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You’ve Applied and Now Comes the Assessments
When applying for a position, you might be required to take an online assessment as part of the pre-selection process. More and more employers are using assessments as a cost-effective method for predicting which job candidates would be a good fit for their company. These assessments, which are taken via the Internet, help potential employers evaluate abilities, behaviors or characteristics, and knowledge of applicants.
The combination of assessment tests that you might be required to take is linked to the type of position in which you are applying and the types of skills or competencies that are needed to excel in that position. If logical reasoning and text comprehension are important, an ability test will include questions to determine these abilities. If cooperation and ambition are important, a personality assessment will include questions to gauge these characteristics. If specific knowledge is required, such as basic accounting principles for an accountant role, a knowledge test will capture this type of technical knowledge.
Though some of these tests are more accurate predictors of job performance than interviews or work experience, there are some limitations. For example, the ability tests can be vulnerable to racial and ethnic biases. A limitation in the personality tests is the test taker might respond based on what she thinks the company wants to hear (what’s socially desirable) and end up not representing herself. Although companies may also rely on additional methods, such as individual and group interviews, for making selection decisions, there is the risk that job applicants will not perform well enough on these tests to be invited to participate in an individual or group interview.
How can you prepare for these assessments? You can practice. There are various free assessments online such as one by 123test. By taking practice tests in advance, you can get comfortable with the format of the questions and know which types of questions you’re more likely to provide strong and impressive answers for. Also, don’t forget to get a good night’s sleep. Research suggests that several nights of 8 hours of sleep prior to an exam is likely to enhance your performance. Finally, trust yourself. You’ve completed lots of assessments to get you where you’re at in college, and you can do this, too!
Image Source: https://mlsvc01-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/a3898bfd701/7c987d2b-3253-49bc-b88d-cf82dee184e5-thumbnail.jpg
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Matchmaking Matters
By Carolyn Brandes, FirstGen Ahead Coach
We coach our students to apply for multiple internships and jobs to increase the likelihood of getting several offers that lead to a great first job. While it is difficult to predict what the job market is like, there are ways to help students increase their odds.
Before my FirstGen Ahead student started applying for internships, I asked her to list her goals and practical considerations.
Coaching Tip: It can hard for students to know what they want or need in a job, especially if they have never lived on their own or worked in a full-time salaried position. Start this conversation early!
Using this list, suggestions from informational interviews, internet searches, and salary data, I helped her target her job search, create “Indeed” notifications, and set weekly goals for submitting applications. We talked about testing her marketing materials – if they were spot on, she would get multiple offers in line with her qualifications and goals; if not, she would either not get any offers or would get offers that did not meet her goals.
Coaching Tip: Apply early and rewrite marketing materials as needed.
My student’s marketing materials worked; she received multiple interview invitations for positions that were good fits for what she wanted and needed. To prepare for interviews, we talked about how to frame questions directly to share her aptitudes and experiences in ways that showcased what the interviewer was looking for, as well as indirectly to help her obtain the information she might benefit from in learning about the organization. For example, instead of asking, “Would you be willing to mentor me?” she asked, “How do people work together to accomplish goals?” to prompt a conversation about employee culture and opportunities.
I also coached my student on how to listen to what was being said and test assumptions. For example, for one position, she was told that it would primarily be an independent work situation. During the second interview, she asked the interview team, “How do you like working here?” and learned there was more interaction than she had previously assumed.
Coaching Tip: Practice interviews with your student to frame questions and answers from the employer’s perspective, using the STAR technique (Situation Task Action Result).
When my student received her first job offer, she was very excited, of course, but also understandably concerned because it met some but not all of her criteria. She was worried about both taking the job (missing out on a better offer) and not taking it (not getting another offer). She shared her response email draft with me, and we tailored it to convey enthusiasm and gratitude about the offer as well as asking for more time to make a decision.
Coaching Tip: Encourage students to ask themselves, “Will my future self be happy if I took this job?"
Fortunately, my student received several offers within the next few weeks. As exciting as this was, she found it challenging to make a good decision – especially when prospective employers were asking for commitments before she knew all her options. To give herself more time to decide, she asked follow-up questions, requested the total offer package, deferred her decision until the following week, and/or sent follow-up emails to pending positions to gauge when they might move forward in the process. Using these strategies, she was able to consider several offers at the same time without making any employer feel like they were on hold until something better came along.
Coaching Tip: Keep in close contact with your student during this time, using a shared spreadsheet to keep track of communication and deadlines.
My student evaluated her offers by listing the pros and cons of each position after each round of interviews. This helped her ask follow-up questions, as well as choose which position to take.
Coaching Tip: Encourage your student to think about the total package and long-term goals, not just the salary.
My student also courteously let employers know when she was not interested in a position. We worked together to write emails to politely withdraw from their applicant pool while also creating concrete reasons to keep in touch for future networking opportunities.
Coaching Tip: Help your student build bridges that may lead to the next position.
In the end, my student was lucky enough to find a position that met all her criteria. She can confidently say that she is happy with her decision regardless of what else may have come along.
Coaching Tip: Encourage your student to reflect on the time and effort it took to get a good job - and find time to celebrate!
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Did You Know?
LinkedIn is used by 96.2% of surveyed employers as a recruiting platform and 73.8% of participating employers rated LinkedIn as “very” or “extremely” effective in recruiting potential employees. The value of LinkedIn, from the students’ perspective, is 1) as an online networking strategy, they can message alumni and/or connections at employer organizations in which they have an interest; and 2) for those with highly desirable majors, their LinkedIn presence can attract the attention of employers who may reach out to start an authentic conversation that, in turn, may lead to a job. – Source: NACE’s benchmark survey report
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How Would You Answer This Question?
You are interviewing for a summer internship and during the interview, you are asked the following question: What is your greatest weakness? How do you tell an interviewer about your shortcomings without sounding like you’d be ineffective at the job?
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Meet Coach Joel!
Over the past three decades, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld has not only taught graduate students about industrial relations, engineering systems, human resources, operations, and strategy, but he has mentored hundreds of students along the way. He is a professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and has been a coach with FirstGen Ahead for two years.
In reflecting on his role as a coach, Joel says, “We know well the historic challenges faced by women, students of color, and others with visible differences. What’s less well known, but equally important, are challenges faced by first-generation students, whose identity as first-gen is not usually visible. Still, first-gen students haven’t benefited from a network to tell them the unspoken rules of the game. My work as a coach, first and foremost, is to share what I know as they navigate the transition from college to career.” One recent example is a FirstGen Ahead student who thought that it was only possible to apply to one internship at a time (sequentially). Joel was able to help the student realize that it was expected that he would apply to multiple internships at a time (simultaneously). Joel further shared that once his FirstGen Ahead student accepted an internship offer, he needed to let any other employers he was interviewing with know of his decision. This is an example of knowing the unspoken rules of the game.
For him personally, Joel was born into a family that knew the rules of the game. He followed in his parents’ footsteps in becoming a professor. Over a lifetime, he has benefited from mentors who are pillars in their professions. He has never taken this privilege for granted. It’s a motivator for being there for others, including his FirstGen Ahead students who have not had the same exposure and opportunities. Joel adds, “This is a profoundly challenging time, with the accumulated stress of the pandemic and the revealed disparities that are acutely felt by the FirstGen Ahead students. The transition from college to careers can be difficult for all, but it is more important than ever for first-gen students. What is so motivating is seeing my students continue to make progress despite the inherent challenges. I will be with them every step of the way.”
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Sunday, March 28, 7-8 pm
Monthly Peer Session facilitated by Dr. Susan Gershenfeld. A Zoom link will be sent in advance of the session.
Sunday, April 11, 4-5pm
Monthly Coach Session facilitated by Dr. Lois Benishek. A Zoom link will be sent in advance of the session.
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