Dear AAPAAN How does the media portrayal of Asians affect you in the work place? Anonymous Dear Anonymous There’s a lot of recent media reporting about Asian-Americans being subjected to harassment and outright hate. Historically, there’s been very little media portrayal of Asians. And what little there were, they were usually highly stereotyped images. […]
Dear AAPAAN What was one of the most difficult choices you’ve had to make in your career? Anonymous Dear Anonymous On reflection, there were two situations which presented difficult choices for me. One was when my company was bought by another and I was faced with the decision to stay or take a severance […]
Dear AAPAAN What kind of questions should I not ask in an interview? Anonymous Dear Anonymous Asking questions is crucial during an interview. From the interviewer’s perspective, a good question shows interest, curiosity, and intelligence. For the candidate, it’s the opportunity to see if the job posted is the job you actually want. Think […]
Dear AAPAAN How do I tell my boss that I am resigning to go to another company? Anonymous Dear Anonymous Congratulations on moving on to a better job/situation. It’s always better if you are the one cutting the tie rather than your boss telling you to move on. In general, I advise “not burning […]
Dear AAPAAN What opinions are there for taking a gap year or other measures before going to grad school? Signed Anonymous Dear Anonymous Graduate school requires a large investment of time, personal energy, and financial resources. Graduate school also represents a commitment to a particular career direction, and, by definition, a winnowing down of certain […]
Dear AAPAAN Got a job offer and they asked for my pay requirement. What should I do? Signed Anonymous Dear Anonymous Congratulations on the offer! I always find this question from the company to be disingenuous. They know what they pay their people and their HR people do salary surveys so they well know […]
Dear AAPAAN Diversity is normally considered as a good thing. But, in the working environment, is it still a good strategy to make others normally associate me with the country and culture that I was originally from? Anonymous Dear Anonymous, Interesting question. I agree that in most business situations, diversity is a plus. However, […]
Do you have any advice for a recent graduate looking for a job? Anonymous Dear Anonymous Getting that first job can be tough. Depending on your major, you may have to work hard to get it. I’m sure you have made use of UVa’s Placement services. I will touch upon multiple key considerations but the […]
Dear AAPAAN Is it useful to have a master’s degree? Anonymous Dear Anonymous In general, I think that a Master’s Degree is useful for specialized professional training; for example a Masters in Business Administration. Otherwise I have trouble seeing its incremental value. In some professional and academic fields you need to go all the way […]
I was recruited for a job I initially was luke warm toward. But the recruiter seemed very enthused and urged me to come talk. So I went thinking they really wanted me. They really tried to sell the job to me during the interview so I was surprised afterwards when they didn’t give me an […]