In Wall St. chaos, Wharton reaches out to alums

Amid the chaos and turmoil on Wall Street, business schools across the country, including Wharton, are doing all they can to reach out to their alumni and offer a helping hand.

As major financial firms have collapsed over the past two weeks, Career Services sent e-mails to alumni letting them know of services available to them, Career Services counselors said.

"Even when the economy is strong we often schedule individual appointments with them for career counseling, resume and cover letter reviews, interview practice and graduate school applications," said Barbara Hewitt, an associate director at Career Services.

Alumni who have graduated within the last year are also eligible to use On Campus Recruiting, and several members from the Class of 2008 have opted to take advantage of that, she said.

Business schools are also making the effort to travel to New York and offer their services in person.

Penn is offering two alumni career-support workshops in New York City on Oct. 1 and Oct. 7, as well as a full day of one-on-one career counseling sessions on Oct. 13 to help alumni affected by recent layoffs on Wall Street.

Harvard Business School career counselors also recently hosted a discussion in New York to talk about resources and ways the school can help, making career coaches and career-counseling appointments available to alumni.

"This was the first of a series of discussions, but we wanted to first get a sense of what kind of help would be most needed by the groups of people," said Christine Sullivan, director of alumni career services at HBS.

Some graduates said they appreciated the schools' efforts.

"I don't think they can give the economy a jump start or save us from the pending credit crisis but anything they do can only help alumni," said Zachary Coopersmith, a 2007 Wharton alumnus who now works at Barclays Capital.

Wharton has also created a new position - an alumni career services director - to aid alumni further in their post-Penn job searches.

This position has not been filled yet, but Wharton hopes it will serve as another way the school can maintain its relationship with alumni, said Jillian McGowan, alumni affairs director for Wharton.

"I haven't been very proactively seeking help from people at Penn, but it is Penn and you know that they'll be there, as easily accessible as when you were a student," Coopersmith said. "But it is also up to alumni to get in contact with each other using Penn's large alumni network as a resource."

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