Thank you to everyone, especially our alumni panelists, who made our quarterly alumni career panels for 2021 a success.
Winter quarter panel: Eugene Beliy ’12, Alessandro Regio ’12, Stephannie Stokes ’11, and Sushen Tu ‘15
Spring quarter panel: Hailey Badger ’15, Jordan Brewer ’15, Reece Johnson ’10, Ellen Parodi ’14, and Kaiwen Sun ‘15
Fall quarter panel: Jonathan Delozano ’11, Cynthia Delostrinos Johnson ’09, Carlos Madrid ’12, and Lisa Matelich ‘11
The panelists shared their wide range of post-graduation experiences, including internships, volunteer work, finding a mentor, and entry-level jobs. They offered up their successes as well as their challenges navigating their careers. While each panelist has followed a very different career path, they all stressed the numerous ways in which a background in philosophy helped prepare them for their careers. They spoke about the skills gained in their philosophy classes, especially writing clearly, concisely and persuasively, have been essential to their career success. They encouraged students to reach out and network as much as possible, to seek out mentors, and to find an internship. Many stressed that finding a mentor has provided much-needed guidance in their career and that formally asking someone to mentor them helped define the relationship. They also emphasized that internships are great for networking and for discovering what you do and – equally important – do not want to do in your career.
Students interested in learning how to network, how to use LinkedIn to make connections and explore careers, or who want to find internships, will find a wealth of online resources curated by the UW Career & Internship Center. They can also contact career coaches for one-on-one coaching (currently online via Zoom) on these and other topics.
Our next career panel will be in Spring 2021. Any alumni interested in participating should contact Kate Goldyn.
We encourage all alumni and students to follow the Department of Philosophy on LinkedIn and to join the UW Philosophy Group.