🗨 How the internet can help

 

Reflect on recent career assignments

You recently completed your LinkedIn assignment, so your TA may wish to discuss this experience with you. Today you will likely be on your personal electronic devices all of discussion!

 

Audit. Option 2 of the assignment for this week was for students who opt-out of a LinkedIn profile. But it's a valuable exercise for everyone! Your TA may direct you to complete the steps outlined in Option 2 and to share what you find, with small groups or the class. 

Connectapalooza. The purpose of LinkedIn is to foster workplace connections and communication. Your TA may direct you to open LinkedIn and connect with everyone in the class, including them. Feel free to skim others' profiles while you're at it. Just don't psych yourself out – it's not a competition or anything!

 

Following news sources

Of course, the internet will help your career in substantially more ways than just making a LinkedIn profile. One of the most impactful other ways is giving you access to online news sources. You cannot make good decisions about moving through this world if you do not know what's going on in this world. Your TA will lead you in some activities here.

 

Unlocking your access. As a UW–Madison student, you can get free access to two of the best, most reputable news sources on the planet. The New York Times is accessible by logging in with your NetID at https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.web/nytimes. The Wall Street Journal is accessible by logging in with your NetID at https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.web/wallstreetjournal.

Here are some additional ideas for high-quality sources of ethically obtained and rigorously reported information.

  • The Atlantic
  • Bloomberg Businessweek
  • The Economist
  • The Guardian
  • Harper's
  • Harvard Business Review
  • The New Republic
  • The New Yorker
  • NPR News
  • PBS NewsHour
  • Scientific American
  • Vox
  • The Washington Post
  • Wired Magazine

Credible sources like these tend to have paywalls. Fortunately, UW pays subscription fees so they're free for you to use. Here's how to access them:

  • Go to the UW Libraries home page (https://www.library.wisc.edu/)
  • Select "Journals" from the "Search for" drop-down menu
  • Select "Title" from the search box drop-down menu
  • Enter the title of the publication
  • Click the "Available online" checkbox
 Disc Internet.png

 

Find an article. Whichever source you chose, spend 5 minutes looking at recent headlines on a topic of your choice. Search keywords that will relate to your career community, major, etc. Once everyone has found an article, you'll be paired up so you can share what you found. Discuss where else you would have gotten this kind of information, if you weren't accessing the news source you were, and what the pros and cons of that would have been.

 

In the interview. Following the news of your career field can be a powerful tool in a summer job or internship. It demonstrates to your supervisor and coworkers that you're interested in the field, that you can use your knowledge of recent news stories to open up interesting conversations with colleagues in order to get to know them better. Discuss or practice how an awareness of the news in your career field can be a powerful tool for demonstrating your enthusiasm and interest in a job during an interview.

 

Prepare for upcoming career assignments

Your TA may also talk about your upcoming assignment *Find an expert to interview. For example, the work you did to set up your online LinkedIn site can be a stepping stone to searching for UW alumni trained in a particular field, employed at a particular organization, or living in a particular city who might be willing to speak with you in an informational interview. Or the work you did exploring a "Wisconsin Experience" opportunity can point you to a professor, advisor, or other UW professional who might be a good person to interview, or who might be able to connect you with a professional in a particular area of work or study. It is important to start looking for an informational interview subject early in order to stay on track with this assignment.