Pitt alum offers career advice

College might seem stressful, but one Pitt grad thinks it’s nothing compared to stepping out… College might seem stressful, but one Pitt grad thinks it’s nothing compared to stepping out into the real world.

“I would come into work with wet hair,” alumna Emily Bennington said. “I spent four years at college dressing to go out, so when I went into the workforce I dressed the same way, but just threw a blazer on it. No one ever sat me down to tell me how to be professional.”

Bennington, a communications major who graduated in 1999, helps the newly employed ease the transition from campus to career through her career development business, Professional Studio 365. She also co-authored the book “Effective Immediately: How to Fit in, Stand Out, and Move up Fast at Your First Real Job.”

Bennington also spoke yesterday about “Strategies to Utilize Technology for Maximum Performance” at the seventh annual Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference for Women in the David Lawrence Convention Center.

Her interest in career services began when she was hired by a marketing firm fresh out of college. She soon realized that not only was she completely unprepared to enter the workforce, she wasn’t the only one.

It was at this point that she grabbed her notebook and began filling it with advice from boss and mentor Skip Lineberg, her co-author for “Effective Immediately.”

“The book was my biggest accomplishment so far. I put everything into it that I thought would benefit new grads,” Bennington said. “The feeling you have when the box of books is shipped and arrives on your doorstep is indescribable — it’s like, ‘Oh my God there it is, finally.’ I imagine it’s equivalent to being a musician and hearing yourself on the radio for the first time.”

In August 2010, Bennington founded Professional Studio 365. It formed around the conferences where she was asked to speak after the book’s publication. When asked what advice she gives to college graduates, she emphasized that students need to take advantage of all online tools available.

“It is so tough for grads to find a job, period. You have to utilize everything you have to stand out in a competitive market place,” Bennington said. “If we are going to beat this economy, we have to find ways to turn our big ideas — those things that wake us up in the middle of the night — we’ve got to find a way to turn these ideas into actions.”

When asked if he felt that college would prepare him for a professional job, sophomore business major Blake Hammer said, “No, I feel like I will be learning a lot more specifics about things once I get out and actually am in the work force.”

This is the exact problem that Bennington seeks to deal with. She said that employers often fail to invest time in their new employees, and training falls by the wayside.

“I found that there was a market of new grads that could benefit from solid career advice,” Bennington said.

More than 4,000 people — as well as 60 speakers, including Tory Johnson of “Good Morning America” and “The Vagina Monologues” playwright Eve Ensler — attended the conference, according to Jess Black, the program director.

Bennington said that these conferences provide the opportunity for masses of powerful women to join together.

“I personally have never been underestimated as a woman,” Bennington said. “But at the same time people notice and appreciate powerful women in business, I have a lot of other women come up to me and say, ‘How did you do it?’ No one says that to men.”