Cross-Generational Career Tips: Classes of ’66, ’91, and ’16 Gather for Networking Event

Much has changed at Princeton between 1966 and today, but alumni can still recall the anxiety of deciding what to do after graduation. Through a special networking evening for the Class of 2016, members of the Class of 1966 and Class of 1991 returned to campus Feb. 24 to offer career advice and encourage current students to follow their passions. The networking event helped to expose students to a wide range of fields, including law, finance, technology, and nonprofits, and revealed the nonlinear career paths of successful alumni. Planned in conjunction with Career Services, there were 48 students and 10 alumni at the event. Students like Tiffany Chen ’16 said they enjoyed hearing anecdotes from alumni about their changing career goals. “For me, this was really reassuring and inspiring to see how many people didn’t have plans or completely went off what they were going to do. I don’t know yet what I want to do, and it’s nice to know that I’ll be OK eventually,” Chen said. The evening was part of a larger, ongoing initiative to foster relationships between the Class of 2016 and its “grandparent” and “parent” classes of ’66 and ’91. Each of the classes has something to offer the others, James Robertson ’91 said. “You have the youth, exuberance, and the sponginess, so to speak, of people who want to absorb what we’ve learned. And then for us [the Class of 1991], we have it going two ways: We have advice to offer but we have someone to lean on as well. For the ’66 guys, it seems like they have an outlet for a wellspring of knowledge that they’ve accumulated,” Robertson said. In the future, the three classes hope to include the Class of 2011 as a “sibling class” in order to provide another perspective on careers and other life decisions. After the success of Tuesday’s event, Career Services plans to provide additional programming to facilitate relationships between current students and their “grandparent” or “parent” classes. “It always is so rewarding for those of us in Career Services when we can see these connections unfolding,” said Eva Kubu, director of external relations and operations at Career Services. “Where these conversations will lead, one only knows — to career opportunities, to further connections, to building upon this legacy of Princeton alums and the alumni network.”