Thursday, October 31, 2013

Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet (GEM): Local tech start-ups, listen up!



On October 16, local business leaders, community members, and city government representatives gathered in Old Town Goleta for an open house hosted by the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce. The purpose of the gathering was an attempt to raise funds and awareness for the Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet (GEM), its partnership with the City of Goleta and UC Santa Barbara to attract and nurture local tech start-up businesses. Those that are still wondering what GEM does were given a glimpse of a physical space the small-business incubator could soon call home.

GEM is a collaboration of business, government and education to strengthen the local economy by supporting new and growing entrepreneurs. The Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet provides resources and support to science and technology businesses, whether they focus on bio-medical, software, infrared, semiconductor or other markets.

GEM’s lone employee, executive director Doug Lynch, welcomed supporters into a 2,000 square foot space that could become a conference room if enough donations could be gathered to lease the building. Lynch also said the Goleta Chamber and UCSB would match any funds supporters could provide.

UCSB Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas and Goleta Mayor Roger Aceves offered words of encouragement, referring to a physical GEM space as a major milestone. Startups, many of which would come out of UCSB, could ideally use the incubator space for one to two years before growing out into the Goleta community.

For more information on the Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet, please visit: http://goletaentrepreneurs.com/

Guest blog contributor: Ignacio Gallardo, Director of Career Services




Wednesday, October 23, 2013

LinkedIn NYC

On a short vacation to NYC last Spring I had a chance encounter with Raouf Tarazi, recent UCSB alum (Econ major/TMP) and employee of LinkedIn. You see Raouf is a friend of a friend who we met for lunch one day and I noticed he was wearing a LinkedIn t-shirt. After chatting for quite some time about his job, he offered to give me a tour on LinkedIn in New York City. Little did I know that we were headed to one of the tallest buildings in the U.S, the Empire State Building!

LinkedIn has a location in NYC on the 25th floor of the Empire State Building. It is strictly sales and marketing there and Raouf at that time was a Sales Development Specialist, he has since been promoted to Solutions Consultant. Basically this means that he would reach out to companies, owners, managers, and staffing agencies to sell LinkedIn products and to promote their services. But what’s even more interesting is how Raouf landed his job at LinkedIn. Immediately after graduate Raouf found himself in Inside Sales for a solar company. After doing well at this company, he was ready for a change of scenery and decided to connect with a few classmates who worked at LinkedIn. Through the power of networking, he was able to get his resume into the hands of the hiring manager, and the rest is history! A few words of advice from Raouf for any of you interested in LinkedIn: 1. Cultural fit is one of the most important aspects for the sales and marketing team. You must mesh well with the group. 2. To ensure cultural fit, the hiring manager has potential employees interview with members from the sales team.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside LinkedIn but I did take notes for all of you Gauchos! When first walking into the office on the 25th floor, you pass a huge video conferencing room that they use to talk to locations in 26 different countries! The office itself is set up in typical format (desks, cubicles, some personal offices, etc.) but in between sections they have fully functional and fully stocked kitchens, every type of drink you can imagine, espresso machines, and ping pong tables. They even have an outdoor deck with amazing views that overlook the city. At the end of our tour of LinkedIn, Raouf took all of us to the top of the Empire State Building. LinkedIn employees get a free pass and can bring five guests to the top an anytime! All in all it was an amazing vacation for me and I am so glad I got to bring something back for the students at UCSB!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Job applications, already? Get ready for the school year AND the job search!



Welcome back, Gauchos! While many of you were away from campus, your contacts here at GauchosGetHired have been busy meeting with companies to chat about job and internship opportunities for Y-O-U! Employers are eager with opportunities and application deadlines that you need to know about (psst...have you checked GauchoLink lately?). Last month I took a trip to Downtown L.A. and stopped at City Year’s main office. The next application deadline for City Year is September 30th, so this is a good time to get in the know!

City Year is one of our employer partners so I was excited to meet the staff at their home base. The team at City Year was very welcoming, upbeat, and sincerely dedicated to their work. There was a sense of commitment and pride in the brightly painted office (which featured a cool communal meeting area) and everyone I met was excited to talk about their role at City Year. One of the best signs that a company is great to work for: people are constantly smiling!  

City Year visits UCSB frequently every quarter (see below), so I was very familiar with their post-BA leadership and training opportunities within their 10 month, full-time service program which dramatically increases the graduation pipeline and transforms the future for thousands of students. But I did not know that past City Year participants have gone on to successful careers in Business, Education, Law, Medical, and Non-Profit fields! This may be partially due to City Year’s exceptional networking opportunities which they build into their program with alumni connections.

Our UCSB campus contact Bert Rivera, Senior Regional Recruitment Manager for the West Coast, informed me that we have a new Campus Recruitment Ambassador this year, Christine Fuentes, who will be an additional resource and direct connection for students interested in City Year. I also received some great news. Each year, City Year ranks applicants and confirmed corps members throughout the nation from the top schools. For last year’s national rankings, UCSB landed in #3 for applications and #10 for confirmed City Year Corps Members. Go Gauchos! Now let’s raise the bar and get to number one! The next application deadline for City Year is September 30th and here are other upcoming deadlines.
  
Apply by:         Notified after:
September 30
October 21
November 15
December 16
February 15
March 16
April 30
May 30

City Year will be on campus bringing you workshops and/or information sessions October 2, 9, 16, 30, and November 13. Check our calendar for more details!

Professional Communication Workshop, hosted by City Year and Peace Corps (Food provided!)
Wed, October 2, 5:00pm – 6:30pm at Career in room 1109

Learn best practices from recruiters on:
- Maintaining a strong social media brand
- Composing professional emails
- Telephone do's and don'ts
- Maximizing in person meetings
   Food provided!


Monday, April 29, 2013

POP QUIZ: What do Mars, Mohawks and MINI coopers all have in common?


Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) hosted the NACE Face2Face on Friday, April 26. Assistant Director of Employer Relations, Emily White and I  jumped on the southbound 101 bright and early destined for Pasadena. We were eager to connect with SoCal colleagues and recruiters as well as learn more about employment opportunities at JPL for UCSB students. We spent the first part of the day with Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director, who shared interesting trend data and insights on the future of college recruiting.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) field center, has been recruiting at UCSB for several years. JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for NASA and its primary function is the construction and operation of robotic planetary spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions.
 
You may have heard of JPL’s recent Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. The Curiosity Mars rover, the most technologically advanced rover ever built, landed in Mars' Gale Crater the evening of August 5, 2012 using a series of complicated landing maneuvers never before attempted. View JPL team member’s riveting account of the Curiosity Mars rover's final minutes and the challenges faced with landing on the surface of Mars. ‘Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror’ [VIDEO]. Curiosity's mission is to determine whether the Red Planet ever was, or is, habitable to microbial life. The rover, which is about the size of a MINI Cooper, is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm containing a suite of specialized laboratory-like tools and instruments.

From inside the mission control room in the Space Flight Operations Facility, we got a glimpse of all that was involved in the tremendously complex Curiosity Rover mission. We sat in the seat where JPL Director, Dr. Charles Elachi, collaborated with rocket scientists and project managers and saw where MSL Flight Engineer Bobak “Mohawk Guy” Ferdowski played an integral role in the Curiosity rover’s landing sequence. It was truly an eye-opening experience and a wonderful chance to learn more about exciting job & internship opportunities for UCSB students.
 

Pursuing a non-technical degree but interested in a career with JPL? Aside from a pool of talented scientists and engineers, they also have positions like business analysts, facilities specialists, human resource practitioners, public outreach communicators, and administrators to ensure their success. Check out the JPL website for job information specific for college grads and check GauchoLink to find out when they’ll be on campus again.

 Ignacio Gallardo
Director, Career Services