Beyond Plan A: a note from the Bentley summit, and a pilot deadline
This week I took the bus up to Bentley University in Waltham for their Graduate Career Success Summit and delivered a workshop called “Beyond Plan A: Strengths-Based Dual Planning for International Graduate Success.”
The argument is simple to say and hard to do: build your career plan around your strengths, and build two of them — one track for staying in the U.S., one for going global (or home, or somewhere entirely new). Most international students I meet have a Plan A and a prayer. I’d rather they had two plans they actually believe in.
The keynote was Jeff Taylor — and if you’re under thirty, the name might not ring a bell, so here’s the context: before there was Indeed, before Glassdoor, before LinkedIn Jobs, Taylor pioneered pulling job postings out of the newspaper and putting them in front of a global audience on Monster.com. He basically invented the online job search.
He’s a joyful guy. You can tell he loves watching people try new things and live their best lives. But somewhere along the way he realized that what he’d set in motion — the whole online application machine — was sucking the life out of people. He asked the room, and the room confirmed it. Around 500 applicants per job posting on average, he said — and climbing fast as AI floods the pipeline. Five hundred.
So he decided to fix the monster he’d built. Boomband, his new company, launched in September across New England — nearly 500,000 roles updated daily — and the pitch is to make hiring human again, even fun: lead with the strengths you’ve built across your whole life, not just formal employment. His examples weren’t job titles. They were things like building stone walls as a hobby, or caring for an aging loved one.
Then came the line that landed: the resume hasn’t really changed in over a hundred years. He put it next to a car from over a hundred years ago. The point writes itself. Time to update the model.
It rhymes with appreciative inquiry, which is the whole premise of my workshop: start with what’s working, start with the person’s actual story. If you’re job hunting in New England, Boomband is worth a lookk. The onster guy is trying to fix the machine the Monster guy broke.
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Which brings me to the reason I’m writing this week. Applications for the founding cohort of Launch Your Global Dream — OPT Global’s 6-week pilot — close October 9. That’s an extended deadline, and I’ll tell you why: the cohort is small by design, and I want to give everyone who’s interested a fair shot at getting an application in. The pilot starts the week of October 12.
One full scholarship is on the table — the entire program, free — awarded by nomination only. If you’re an international student or recent graduate (F-1, OPT, and the like), or a U.S. student aiming for a global career, apply at pilot.optglobal.org. Know someone who fits? Send them there. The scholarship nomination is in by October 9 too.
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And one save-the-date: we’re launching a free workshop series alongside the pilot — same themes, same strengths-based approach — and it’s open to everyone, whether or not you join the cohort. Four sessions, Mondays at noon ET:
- Oct 12 — “Three Doors to Working Abroad: Which One Is Yours?”
- Oct 26 — “Getting the Most Out of Your University Career Office as a Global Candidate” (career-services panel)
- Nov 9 — “Beyond Plan A: Strengths-Based Dual Planning for Your Global Career”
- Dec 7 — “Two Doors to Europe: Careers in the Netherlands and Germany”
You’re reading this first: the series goes public with the newsletter — subscribe here so you don’t miss it.
Plan A is fine. Plans are bett
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