ECO Thanksgiving Message
Hello Economics Majors!
I hope your Thanksgiving week is off to a great start.
This week, our theme is gratitude. We have an enthusiastic network of alumni to be thankful for. Each year dozens of economics alumni meet directly with our majors through ECO programming and 800 more have listed themselves on our Alumni and Friends coaching sheet in Collab. In the last 12 weeks, more than 25 alumni and 30 upper level majors participated in ECO programs through our Fall Career Series. You can see the full list of this semester’s alumni participants here by using your UVA email address to access the spreadsheet. All guests are accepting outreach from our majors. Let us know who you’d like to connect with!
While you decompress from the semester and enjoy time with friends and family, think about dedicating some time over break to networking activities, which can be a part of any internship, job, or graduate school search. Use our resource list below as a jumping off point for a networking plan:
1. Brainstorm other contacts with friends and family, who may be good resources for you. See this article for ideas.
2. Read How to Network in a Virtual World The first 8 paragraphs are relevant for our majors. The remainder of the article offers food for thought as you begin growing your network and fortifying those professional relationships you've already begun to build.
3. How to Make the Most of Your Alumni Network Paragraph 6 through the end of the article seem most relevant for our students, post-Covid.
4. Online networking tips from the Wall Street Journal are shared here.
5. Not sure what to say in your email? Check out these great networking email templates!
6. Then prepare for your calls/meetings with these sample informational interview questions.
7. In addition to ECO tools, use the Virginia Alumni Mentor network to find alumni whose interests are similar to yours or work for employers in which you’re interested.
8. For more networking resources, check out UVA's LInkedIn page, UVA's Alumni, Friends, and Parents LinkedIn page, and UVA"s Economics Alumni page. Our students are welcome to join each and connect with alumni. You may connect with me here on LinkedIn, which will give you access to job posts once you’ve graduated.
9. Visit the ECO website for other professional development resources. And if you're wondering what econ majors do after graduation, look here for industry overviews and here for recent graduates' next steps.
Best wishes and safe travels,
Jen
Jennifer Jones
Edwin T. Burton Economics Career Office