Why This Exists

Tl;dr: this is the resource I wish I had going into university.

I recently graduated from Minerva Schools at KGI - and while I wholeheartedly loved my university experience, the fact that it’s a newer school means we didn’t have the same career resources, connections, and guidance regarding our professional development. Since 2017, the professional development team has grown and evolved, but the reality of attending a “startup school” is that students have to work together to advocate for the structures/functions they want. On one hand, I hope this document will be useful to the younger classes at my school. On the other hand, I’m starting to see that the problem of organizing and tracking professional-development-related tasks and goals is one all university students face.

During the past year, the global pandemic has also made many in-person university career services inaccessible. It’s difficult to navigate the plethora of online resources - especially if you’re not sure where to begin. For example, a younger friend (studying remotely this past year) was not in an ideal time zone to utilize his school’s career services, so I ended up helping him with his applications and career planning (the “Matt Crumble” mentee persona in

Mentee Meeting Notes⁠

is based on him).

The pandemic has also helped me realize that maintaining online mentor and mentee relationships are more important than ever. I personally place a high value on mentorship and learning from others’ experiences. At Minerva, there were no alumni when I enrolled, and I never had the opportunity to meet my seniors due to the global rotation. For students in more traditional universities, the campus experience can feel like a bubble, and outside perspectives can help clarify challenges and opportunities in the post-college life.

🔑 The main functions of this doc are to assist users in:

Maintaining Relationships: Being able to note down key takeaways from the conversation and follow up from one place has already helped me get better at maintaining active relationships with people I consider mentors. (Example inputs in

Mentor Meeting Notes⁠

and Sarah Sugar and Graham C. Racker are based on real conversations I’ve had with mentors).

Tracking Applications: pretty self-explanatory - hopefully this page frees up brain space to devote to the actual application versus tracking.

Making a Good Impression through

Resources⁠

such as resume guides and email templates.

Advancing their Professional Development by making informational interviews less intimidating with the

Question List⁠

and

Email Templates⁠

. These resources lower the barrier to entry for reaching out to people and starting a good conversation. They would definitely encourage me be more proactive in reaching out for calls and following up.

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