Alumni Guest Blogger: Benjamin Howe-Maintaining Your Professional Network

GSPIA Career Services is proud to present a NEW feature to our blog: alumni guest posts! 

Our first featured blogger is Benjamin Howe (MPIA '98).


Mr. Howe has worked as a Senior Management Analyst in the Bedford (MA) Audit Operations Division of the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) since January 2009. Since joining the VA OIG, he has worked on several audits and reviews of VA programs and operations. Prior to joining the VA OIG, he spent five years working at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the agency’s Boston Field Office. While at GAO, he focused on issues related to natural resources and the environment, including reviews of EPA’s lead in drinking water regulations and Federal efforts to address the health effects of exposure to indoor mold. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Spanish from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and a Master’s Degree in Public and International Affairs from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at University of Pittsburgh. Benjamin is a native of Manchester, NH.

Maintain Your Professional Network

By Benjamin Howe

Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success.

-Henry Ford

When I was offered the opportunity to write a blog for GSPIA Career Services, the first topic that came to mind was networking and its value to my career development.  I graduated from GSPIA in 1998.  Since then, I have been able to identify opportunities mostly because of my contacts.  Friends from previous jobs, graduate school, college, and even high school have provided me with invaluable advice and support that have helped me to successfully advance my career.  This support has included insights into a position I was applying for, or feedback on a resume I prepared for a particular job opening.

How can you successfully maintain your professional network?  It takes work, but there are a number of ways you can keep in contact with people that were not available when I graduated from GSPIA.  Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms offer easy ways to keep in contact with your former classmates or coworkers.  Visiting somewhere?  See if any of your former classmates or coworkers are in town and schedule some time for a coffee or a meal to catch up with them.

Do what it takes to maintain your professional network.  You will not regret it.  You never know which of your contacts will be able to help you make that next step in your career. 

Best of luck in your pursuits!

Internship Blog: Topher Hoffman, Post #3

Lots of data: plus a bit of party planning

The distinct culture at DOHMH deserves to be mentioned, which I haven’t really done yet. In my building alone, there are thousands of people, spanning 22 stories. Walking through the halls, elevators, and lunchroom, you can hear all kinds of languages spoken by people from different cultures. It’s a great place to work because of this, and because, in my experience, everyone’s attitude comes from a place of dedication, hard work, and passion for the work being done.

My work has picked up and expanded even more since my last update. In the last few weeks, my biggest points of focus have been logging all of the missing HIV testing data for the New York Knows project, and implementing a plan to collect it; updating HIV testing site information for NYC’s 311 list; helping with an evaluation of DOHMH social media outreach efforts; and planning a 200-person event to thank our HIV testing partners in Brooklyn.

The New York Knows project collects five data points pertaining to HIV testing for each quarter since the beginning of the project (see my first post for specifics). For the Bronx, this was 2008; for Brooklyn, it was 2010; and for the other three boroughs, it was this January. What this translates to me is database maintenance. I’m pinpointing holes in these data and collecting data to fill the holes.

Second on my list has been updating the 311 list. Anybody in NYC can dial 311 from their cell phone and be connected to a directory of city services. The NYC.gov webpage also has a services locator for residents to get connected with services they need. The New York Knows team provides HIV testing location information to 311 and the NYC.gov services locator so that when a member of the public wants to know where they can get an HIV test, these services can be resources for them. But remember: this is NYC. Things are constantly changing, and people are constantly moving. My team is currently calling each HIV testing location in our database to verify/update their information so that we are providing accurate information to the public.

To continue, this brings me to another major task that’s picked up recently. Last year, DOHMH promoted free HIV testing events that were occurring in NYC on five CDC-recognized HIV/AIDS awareness days. The promotion occurred using a Tumblr post, which was linked from ads on social networking sites like Grindr, Scruff, and Facebook.

Now we want to know if this worked. We are using data from surveys that each testing site filled out on the days of the events that reported how many people were tested, their demographics, and how they heard about the testing event. This is my first time using SPSS on my own – and outside of a class setting – so hurrah!

Lastly, I am planning a 200-person event to celebrate our testing partners in Brooklyn. Between 2010 and 2014, our partners in Brooklyn conducted hundreds of thousands of HIV tests. That’s a big deal! We want to thank them and bring everybody together to meet each other.