Gagliardi Coaches Students on Job Search and Application Strategies

Director of Career Services and Alumni Relations Ann Gagliardi, who recently joined the School of Public Policy (SPP), sat down with us to answer a few questions.

You've been at SPP for nearly a month. What are your impressions of students and the MPA program?

SPP is a really exciting place to be. There is a lot going on. Students come from very diverse backgrounds and their career aspirations are quite varied, as well. I am enjoying getting to know them as individuals and helping them fine tune their job and internship searches. The pace here is very lively. The MPA program is dynamic and asks a lot of students, but the takeaways, both academic and professional, are immeasurable. Students here are getting excellent training for future careers in public policy, and they have unparalleled opportunities to learn from practitioners whose work -- both inside and outside of academia -- is highly regarded. There's always a lot going on, and lots of things to do, and so there's never a dull moment.

How are you working with students at the moment?

Winter and spring are busy in Career Services Offices anywhere, with a lot of time spent supporting students on their job and internship searches. At the moment, individual career counseling sessions with first- and second-year students are a key part of what is going on. In intensive one-on-one sessions, students and I are discussing and refining goals and mapping out strategies for networking and submitting applications. Some students are doing significant overhauls of their CVs / resumes in order to make sure the documents they put in front of employers do the best possible job of communicating relevant core skills and knowledge. With others, we are tweaking by debriefing on Passion Projects and other aspects of the program and thinking about how to best incorporate all of this in a succinct fashion. Additionally, I've conducted a couple of workshops, one on structuring an internship search and another on networking strategies. Then there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes in terms of employer outreach, developing key relationships, and planning for the next academic year.

What are your plans for next year?

There are a number of things in the works. Perhaps most significant, we're working to structure something along the lines of a job-search boot camp to offer to students early in their time here. The emphasis will be on self-assessment, research, building strategic relationships, crafting compelling narratives for job and internship searches, and interview techniques. I am looking forward to starting to work with incoming students very early in their time at SPP and encouraging them to create individual job-search roadmaps that will guide their work with our office. I am also developing strategies to expand and consolidate SPP's strong employer and practitioner networks so that we can spread the word about our talented students and their commitment to making an impact ... and also make sure they have access to information about key opportunities.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

For anyone thinking ahead to what it will be like to arrive in Budapest from another part of the world, I have to say that I have found the most helpful people both at SPP and CEU and in the greater community, as well. Settling in to a new place always takes a bit of time, but Budapest is a wonderful city, with lots of fun and interesting things to offer, and I am really happy to be here.