It's Not About Who You Already Know, It's About Who You CAN Know

Last week online news magazine Slate ran an opinion piece on the uneven power of informational interviews. You may remember from Gary Miller’s blog post that an informational interview is a meeting that you request with someone whose career you admire. During the informational interview, you ask that person how she got started in the field and what advice she has for a student or recent Hofstra alumni like you, just starting out. At the end of the meeting, you ask who else in the field with which you should be talking. This is the most powerful way to job search! You receive the best advice, and, you now have professionals in your field who are interested in helping you in your career.

The Slate piece agreed with that assessment, but said it makes the hiring process unfair, giving those who seek out an informational interview an unfair advantage. I argue that is exactly the reason why informational interviews are critical.  We are not all born with a built-in professional network. The informational interview you can schedule with Hofstra alumni allows you to tap into the powerful network that being a Hofstra student provides for you. For first generation college students, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and students whose parents are unwilling to tap into their own networks to help, the informational interview provides that advantage that others already have.

This spring, tap into your built in Hofstra advantage! Check out the alumni feature on LinkedIn to see which alumni have positions you want, or careers you admire, or are just doing something really cool. Send a message, set up an informational interview, and see where your Hofstra network can take you.

Lisa Tandan
Director of Career Development and Assessment

Meet a new addition to the Hofstra Career Center

Ava Danville
Assistant Director

“Hi everyone, I just wanted to take some time out to introduce myself to you all. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ava Danville, and I’m the new Assistant Director/Zarb Liaison at the Career Center. A little bit about myself; I was born and raised in Washington D.C. and went to Cornell University for undergrad. I graduated from Cornell in 2009, which was a bad time economically speaking and also because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my major. I started my career at Sephora in-store and worked my way up to Operations Manager in only a year and a half, then turned around a store with high inventory loss in only 7 months. While that was a great managerial and leadership experience, I wanted to take my career to the next level and thus I started looking into business schools. My original post-MBA plans were to go into Corporate Brand Management. While attending the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, I had the amazing opportunity to intern with Johnson & Johnson in their Consumer Division. The biggest thing that I learned from this experience was that I didn’t want to do brand management for a career- I missed the one-on-one interactions that I had with my clients when I was working in-store and I also didn’t want to steal market share for a living. This discovery led me to doing some self-reflection and determining what I wanted to do post-MBA. I was a student admissions counselor during my 2nd year at Kelley, which I really enjoyed because I was able to help prospective students through the application process and make recommendations on whether or not they should be admitted. Additionally, I continued to be involved in various mentoring and coaching programs, which I have been doing consistently since my undergrad days. What I realized is that I love helping people achieve their education and career goals and that ultimately, I like marketing people more than I do products. This led me to higher education for full-time work and career services in particular. I’m really excited to be a member of the Hofstra family and I look forward to meeting you all soon!”


Ava Danville, MBA
Assistant Director
The Career Center, Hofstra University

Meet Our HU Students: Alyssa Duspiva

Name: Alyssa Duspiva

Hometown: Holbrook, NY

Major(s): Journalism, BA

When you were young, what did you think you wanted to be "when you grow up?"

When I was young, I knew I wanted to be a storyteller, some sort of writer. I gave up on that dream and tried a lot of different studies in science, but it's always been there. 

What career do you hope your first job after graduate will be?

When I graduate, I want to be a reporter in a small town, or even a desk associate at a major network in New York City. Any way I can break into the industry. 

What experience have you had so far that you think is best preparing you to reach that goal?

My experiences at Hofstra have helped build me into the professional I am today! Working at the campus radio station, WRHU, helped me build my passion for journalism and led me to become News Director. That experience gave me the experience and confidence to apply for a lot of major network internships- and now I intern at CBS Radio News. Having this internship has shown me what the industry is really like, and what I can expect for myself in the future. 

What advice would you have for others who are pursuing this same career?

I would advise anyone who wants to go into the world of broadcast journalism to join Hofstra's many broadcast organizations- Hofstra TV or Hofstra Radio. Broadcast journalism is a high pressure world, but there is nothing better than producing your own story and seeing/hearing it come to fruition. 

Who at Hofstra has had the biggest positive impact on you?

Professor Joseph Peyronnin has had the biggest positive impact on me. Professor Peyronnin has a lifetime of experience in the world of broadcast journalism, and teaches real-world lessons and tricks of the trade. He has always showed respect and support towards me, and always offers his help in any way possible. He's a great man and professor, who has given me the support to follow my dream of being a producer.