Book gives tips on public service careers
Jennifer Greenstein
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Ande Diaz
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"I wanted students to know that confronting a lot of uncertainty when you're starting off in the working world is pretty darn normal," said Diaz, who has been assistant dean of undergraduate students at Princeton since 1997. Her book, which recently was published by Harvard University's Office of Career Services, is called "The Harvard College Guide to Careers in Public Service." It is available at <www.ocs.fas. harvard.edu>.
After Diaz graduated from Yale with a degree in American studies/social sciences and a thesis on the topic "bathroom graffiti as a social barometer," she had "absolutely no idea of what I wanted to do," she writes. She got her first job because it was raining. After a dismal day of job interviews in Boston, she got caught in a downpour. When she ducked into an office to call a cab, Diaz asked the receptionist if anyone at the firm was available to meet her. A month later, the company gave her a job.
The story demonstrates the importance of creating one's own opportunities; it also shows that quick thinking and a little serendipity can play a big part in a career. "It's partly luck, and partly knowing how to take advantage of the luck," Diaz said.
Diaz spent several years working at design firms and advertising agencies, but realized that education was the field that she would love when she began running the internship program at her ad agency. Then she learned that Harvard was looking for an assistant director of career services. As it turned out, having worked at a number of different positions made Diaz an ideal candidate. She got the job and stayed for seven years.
As assistant dean of undergraduate students at Princeton, Diaz oversees the selection and training of residential and minority affairs advisers, consults on multicultural affairs and acts as a student adviser. One can't help but take note of Diaz's passion for Princeton and its students after meeting her or walking into her office, which is welcomingly furnished with rugs, dance posters and stacks of books. Diaz herself is bursting with ideas, so much so that the to-do list she has printed from her Palm Pilot is covered with minuscule writing along the margins.
What Diaz most enjoys about Princeton is "the intimacy. The scale is such that there is a real intimacy for students, staff and administrators. And then there's the academic energy. I'm never bored -- never, ever, ever bored."
Diaz hopes her book will help students understand that "you can absolutely do public service in the private sector. I think of public service as a value system that can be integrated into a host of careers, whether you manufacture products that clean up the environment or work against hate crimes." She also wanted the book to provide a guide for those trying to start a non-profit organization and to explain exactly what working in "development" means.
The book provides a road map to working in the not-for-profit sector, outlining trends and opportunities in a number of fields and offering a host of strategies for landing a job. The last third of the book consists of 26 profiles of young people who work in a broad range of fields and of people changing careers.
Diaz praised Princeton's Office of Career Services, saying that in the last few years she has seen a greater emphasis on the not-for-profit sector and real efforts to provide fairs, alumni panels and opportunities in that area. "Students have noticed this and are eyeing role models and alumni in every field from teaching to civil rights," she said.
Diaz hopes the book will promote public service to students who may be interested in trying it for a year or two after college before going to graduate school or moving to another career. Students she has counseled who have followed that route discovered the experience had a profound effect on them.
"At Harvard, I had a student who said to me, after having
an experience in public service, 'I want to work for a bank,
but I don't want to work for an investment bank. I want to
work for a bank that lends money for start-up businesses in
inner-city communities. I want to work for a bank where my
values are honored,'" Diaz recalled. "Someone who does
national service before they go to a high-tech start-up or a
law firm will bring their ethic into that world."
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June 4, 2001 Contents Commencement
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