Georgia Tech continually strives to give its students a competitive advantage in the global job market. This year Ivan Allen College (IAC) will host its first annual Career Week. Elizabeth Miller, IAC Director of Enrollment and Student Affairs, explains:

“Liberal Arts Career Week is a week long event that is designed to support our current undergraduate and graduate Ivan Allen College students in developing their professional image for the real world.  Building confidence, networking and educating our students on the possibilities in their fields of study will be key concepts throughout. The week long event will consist of workshops, seminars, presentations, and other opportunities with our alumni and important community and industry leaders. In our new economic climate, it is more important than ever to provide support and offer opportunities for a competitive advantage when our students begin to actively seek employment.”

To participate in the IAC Career Week, you must register in advance. Elizabeth Miller is seeking alumni who serve as speakers. Otherwise, the events of the IAC Career Week are open only to current Tech students.

In addition, the School of Public Policy will be offering career and grant workshops that week. There will also be an alumni-student social event to network and build friendships. Alumni are welcome to participate in the free Public Policy career and grant workshops as well as meet with recruiters.

It will be a week filled with excellent career-related training, networking and interviewing. Don’t miss out!

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel-prize winner, Dr. Daniel Kahneman, explains how many scholars fail to differentiate between regressions to mean and causal explanations in their interpretation of statistics. Many subtle and pervasive biases adversely affect scholarly statistical analyses.  Employers recognize this tendency to misinterpret statistics, drawing invalid inferences, among many college-educated workers.

This is another reason why top Human Resources recruiters come to Georgia Tech. Tech’s strong emphasis on quantitative skills and analyses includes more than an occasional statistics course. Mathematics and statistics are embedded throughout the curricula, including in the School of Public Policy. In Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy, students apply rigorous standards of quantitative analyses to their papers, projects, case studies, theses, and dissertations throughout their degree programs. They emerge as Social Scientists with excellent quantitative skills.

So, take full advantage now of the Public Policy course offerings to strengthen your quantitative skills, so that the next time a prospective employer asks you about your quantitative skills, you can speak confidently about your skills. Continue the proud Georgia Tech tradition.

The GTRI Advantage

Students in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech have numerous advantages: excellent instruction, faculty engaged in cutting-edge research, numerous research and teaching assistantships, an award-winning library, and more.

But outside of the School of Public Policy, our students also possess excellent opportunities and resources. For example, the campus houses the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). 

GTRI offers our students internships in its Office of Policy Analysis and Research (OPAR) under the leadership of a Public Policy alumna, Director Marlit Hayslett. (See her profile under “PP Alumni Profiles.”) In OPAR, our students have the challenge of working on real-time science and technology policy issues in the State of Georgia. In Spring 2012, Director Hayslett will deliver a presentation about OPAR to Public Policy students, informing them of the excellent internship and learning opportunities available there.

On December 15, 2011, OPAR hosted the Georgia Legislative Forum to address dozens of science and technology issues within the State of Georgia. In attendance were state legislators, state and local government officials, researchers, students, industry leaders, and many other economic stakeholders.

To learn more about this event and key state science and technology policy issues, refer to the 2011 Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Review: A State-Level Legislative Analysis.

Events like this legislative forum enable our students to stay current on the latest state policy discussions, understand the diverse views and interests of various stakeholders, and network with key policymakers and potential employers.

GTRI also provides Public Policy students with rewarding graduate research assistantships, allowing them to apply their theoretical knowledge and analytical skills to real-world policy problems, making a difference in society even before they graduate.  As the GTRI motto goes: “Problem. Solved.”