Category Archives: Career Advice
Working in the “social generation”
âSocialâ often describes millennial interns. Plenty of studies and begrudging comments from adults note that Gen-Y can hardly take a step without tweeting about it. Rather than being born into the social media era, we grew up with it, and are therefore more likely to embrace new platforms of telling people what we are doing and with whom.
For young interns, âsocialâ must take on a second meaning in the workplace. Clearly, it is important to be friendly with coworkers, but our social media presence must evolve as well. A recent article from Careerealism (http://bit.ly/1p78WQa) boldly claims that while social media cannot replace your resume, it is an additional virtual component that employers look at.
Toward this end, make sure your Twitter account is professional. While it may be fun to livetweet the latest episode of âThe Bacheloretteâ (guilty), use your professional twitter to engage in conversations about your field …
Top 10 Tips for Intern Interviews (and any job interview for that matter)
Kristen Fuhs Wells is the director of communications and development for Indiana Humanities, a statewide nonprofit that encourages Hoosiers to think, read and talk. She has been interviewing, selecting and managing interns in this role and a previous position since 2007.
Make a good first impression. I can tell a lot within the first five minutes based on your timeliness, appearance, handshake and your first few statements. Smile, speak eloquently, shake hands firmly and dress professionally. Show some personality. Youâre competing with a lot of other top candidates â donât just tell me what you think I want to hear. Give me a reason that I canât NOT hire you. Tell me youâre the perfect candidate by connecting to our mission, explaining why you love Indiana or how your hobbies make you a more well-rounded person. I always start off asking candidates to tell me about themselves. Weâre going …
Don’t doubt the power of experience
Summer is here. For me and many other college students, that means transitioning our lifestyles from âcollege kidâ to âintern.â
Having just finished my junior year at Indiana University, the stress of final exams is still fresh in my mind. Iâm an advocate of flashcards and all-nighters before the exam, so moving into a full-time internship is an adjustment. Itâs strange (but great) that when I get home at the end of the day, I donât have to crack open a textbook.
A recent study by the New York Federal Reserve, however, makes me reevaluate some of those all-nighters, and makes me even more grateful for my internship experience thus far. Three economics professors from University of Wisconsin La Crosse, University of Pennsylvania and Auburn, respectively, sent out more than 5,000 fake resumes for online jobs to see what employers were really looking for when hiring graduates.
The results? Only …
Maximizing ROI (Return on Intern)
By Janet Boston, Executive Director, Indiana INTERNnet
“What you put in is what you get out” â weâre not mathematicians, but we do know this is the simple, tried-and-true formula for finding ROI (Return on Intern that is!).
Internships, at their best, function as a two-way street. In exchange for an employer providing a student with real-world working experience, the intern brings new energy, increased productivity, diverse knowledge and perspective, and much more.
We hear constantly from employers that they couldnât keep up their level of productivity and quality of work without the help of interns. We have countless anecdotes of interns who went above and beyond, who saved the company money, who developed more efficient processes, who completed an important project that far surpassed expectations âŠ
And the national conversion rate for turning interns into full-time hires is 48.4%, according to NACE’s 2013 Internship & Co-op Survey.
There is …
Endless possibilities
Possibilities are endless â that is something I learned with my time at Indiana INTERNnet (IIN). The experiences I have been given with IIN have been far and wide. Gaining more writing experience through blogs and LinkedIn announcements, getting to manage all social media and meeting new people are just a few things Iâll be leaving with.
IIN has opened my eyes to many career possibilities. My career visions have changed, along with my career path. Iâve come to understand that this is what an internship is about, to learn. Itâs all part of my journey.
I had a great time with the IIN staff, I couldnât have asked for a better group of people to be with. The staff listened to me obsess over KPOP and the Pacers. They assisted …
Thank you very much!
The importance of a simple thank you â it may seem nominal, but the more I read about job interview follow ups, the more I understand why it is essential.
There are a lot of people that take time out of their schedules for interviewing purposes: the person that has to filter through the resumes, the person that conducts the phone interviews and the people that conduct the actual interview, and donât forget the individual that you may have networked with to learn of the open position. The least we can do is say thanks.
Thanking the interview team
The general rule of thumb is to send a thank you note within 24 hours after your interview. The thank you note could be a simple thank you, but it could also be used to reiterate your interest in the company and position, remind the interviewer who you are or mention …
Time for some spring cleaning
Spring has sprung. Finally!
After my battle with the winter weather, I couldnât be more excited about spring. Besides enjoying the warmth, we all know that spring is a busy time with cleaning and making way for new things by getting rid of the old.
Itâs also the time of the season where some college students will be graduating soon or closing in on the last day of their internship. If youâre like me, you are going through both of these. So, thereâs no better time than now to start sprucing things up a bit for the job search. You know, spring clean it.
Where to start? What needs to be done? Here are some things we all can do.
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Tidy up the résumé
Remove all of the unnecessary items. Make sure your rĂ©sumĂ© fits the position that you are applying for. And remember, …
Who are you? Who? Who? Who? Who?
Stop and think for a moment. When a potential employer is browsing your resume, what impression are they forming about you? What about in person, in the interview?
We all know first impressions mean a lot and developing your personal brand can help achieve a good, and hopefully lasting, impression. According to Forbes, âYour personal brand is all about who you are and what you want to be known for.â Personal branding is an ongoing process of forming an image about you.
Letâs discover how to develop your brand so that you can be assured what you have to offer shines.
Define who you are and who you want to be.
You know yourself and where you want to end up in life better than anyone. Remember those things during an interview and when you are networking. Let yourself and your passions shine!
What makes you unique?
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8th Annual IMPACT Winners Part II
We recognized six individuals and organizations that dedicated their energy and expertise to successful internships in 2013 during the 8th Annual IMPACT Awards luncheon, sponsored by Ivy Tech Community College. These are the second in a two-part series on winners.
Claudine Meilink
Career Development Professional of the Year
Since 2006, Claudine Meilink has played a key role in facilitating student-employer connections at Purdue University. She wears many hats within the Center for Career Opportunities (CCO), including career counselor, employer coordinator and data collector.
Meilink volunteers as a Faculty Fellow and has served on search committees for various departments on campus. She also serves as an at-large board member with the Career Development Professionals of Indiana and also held leadership positions with Midwest ACE (Association of Colleges and Employers), even chairing two of its conferences.
âClaudine is one of those people who makes working in career services at …
Legendary Internâs Last Day, New Gig
The first time I walked through the office doors, I didn’t notice much about my surroundings. Like any new grad, I was headed for an interview and my focus was directed at the person I was about to shake hands with and the questions they had in store for me.
This morning, the elevator carried me to a positive and supportive work environment, to people I have come to respect and admire. Ten months after that first meeting, the interviewer is now my mentor, and the questions made room for new ones. My view of the office is still narrow this time around as the superimposed emotional and psychological lens tries to concentrate on the people and the memories that remain.
I know. This sounds too reflective, too nostalgic. This is exactly the state I find myself in on the last day of my internship. The projects are all wrapped …
United Way Team NFL Interns Impacting Education
Indiana University senior, Tim Klawitter, tells of his experience as a student manager and how United Way team NFL interns are impacting education. Tim is specializing in sports communication, business and journalism. He will be graduating in December and is presently searching for a full-time position. As a a student manager for the Indiana Football team and a United Way TEAM NFL Intern, Tim promotes the civic efforts of Virgil Green of the Denver Broncos and Antoine Bethea of the Indianapolis Colts via digital marketing and social media. You can connect with Tim via both Twitter and Instagram.
In todayâs fast-paced, results-driven world, itâs easy to get caught up in our to-do lists and forget about taking a second to give back. We focus on tasks that will benefit ourselves and spend our days consuming rather than making a difference and bettering the world we live in.
Not too …
Thankful Intern Shares Grateful Moments
The below freezing temperatures hint at the brewing winter and signal a string of holiday celebrations. Every November, Thanksgiving is celebrated in Indiana with only the juiciest of roasted turkeys and the sweetest of pumpkin pies. As family and friends gather around the table, a sense of gratefulness fills the air almost competing with the blend of nutmeg and cinnamon. I find myself reflecting on the internship opportunity I have enjoyed with Indiana INTERNnet.
Grateful for the chance to gain work experience: Graduating with my MBA right after college, I had no experience in marketing. For the past 6+ months, I have learned how to manage social media accounts, design print and web materials, analyze website metrics and write content. My marketing internship has not only expanded my skill set but also provided me with relevant work experience.
Grateful to be building my portfolio with skills-focused projects: …
Talking Career Options (& Internships) with High School Students
Jack Hope (Hope Plumbing) presenting on the skills gap at Perry Meridian High School
We had the pleasure of presenting Indiana INTERNnet (and Indiana Skills) to eight classes of Perry Meridian High School students last Friday. It was great to see the attention students paid to these important topics â we had students ask us about training for jobs in sonography, truck driving and public safety.
“…many students donât understand their post-secondary options outside of four-year college.”
We talked with the students about the importance of experiential learning no matter what career track you are on.
We had the added pleasure of being joined by Jack Hope, owner of Hope Plumbing in Indianapolis. Hope has become a terrific partner to Ready Indiana with his dedication to encouraging students to consider middle-skill careers. We know the demand and the rewards are there, but we find that many students donât understand their …
Speak Up
“Speak Up” is a guest blog post by Hanover College‘s third-year English Studies student, Alyssa DelPrete, who dreams of making it in the publishing industry. She left her comfortable small-town life and traveled to Philadelphia for the fall semester, obtaining an internship in editing and being immersed in the world of publishing through The Philadelphia Center (TPC). “This experience is already changing me, and I canât wait to see how I transform over the course of the semester,” says Alyssa.
This past Thursday, I had a meeting with both my TPC advisor and my internship supervisor. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I found myself standing nervously beside Mark, my TPC advisor, as we waited for my supervisor to return to her office. As Mark flipped through the recent issues of Book Business and Publishing Executive, the two publications done by the group at NAPCO that Iâm interning with, …
Offering More Treats and Newer Tricks
Itâs not technically the most wonderful time of the year, but Halloween comes pretty close. One quick stop in our neighborhood and youâd find that Indiana INTERNnet (IIN) is offering more treats and newer tricks than anyone on the block. Before I let you in on my favorites, promise me you wonât show up in your scream mask at my cubicle. Promise me.
“Itâs not technically the most wonderful time of the year…”
It doesnât need a shiny wrapper or a fancy commercial because IINâs most decadent treat is just that deliciously designed. Youâre probably familiar with the former state work-study program. As of the summer of 2013, a new recipe has spiced things up for both students and employers: the Employment Aid Readiness Network program (or EARN for short). With EARN, eligible students have access to resume-building, experiential, paid internships, while employers receive state matching funds in exchange for hiring these …