Category Archives: College Tips
Avoiding Scams During Your Job Search
Ah, college. Youâre starting to embrace your independence, youâre away from your parents, and youâre getting a taste of everything the world has to offer. While this sounds amazing to you, it also sounds great to people who want to scam you. College students can be susceptible to scammers, who try to use your newfound independence to take advantage of you, especially during your job search. You might think you can spot an internship scam or manipulative job posting from a mile awayâŠbut can you really?
Misleading Practices
Have you ever searched for a certain type of job on a site, then it pulled up a position that wasnât really related? Look out for companies that use misleading practices to get you to view their job posting. For example, when I was looking for communications/marketing internships in college, I kept getting sales positions as search results. Occasionally, it would be …
I Didnât Want to Go to Career Fairs â But Hereâs Why You Should
As students, plenty of you donât want to go to your college career fair. I certainly didnât. It takes away from valuable free time, you have to change into something other than sweatpants, and spend time awkwardly interacting with people. But it wasnât until I started representing my organization at career fairs that I gained a new perspective. Career fairs are actually incredibly important.
My Career Fair Experience
I attended career fairs maybe two or three times during college, all during my freshman or sophomore year. The only times I ever went was when my professors made me go. They made us do assignments based on the career fair (writing about our interactions, collecting a certain number of business cards, etc.). I thought going was a massive waste of time when I had such a busy schedule.
I was wrong.
Now that I occupy a position where I represent my …
Career Fair Tips: tales from the other side of the table
Itâs the end of September and career fair season is going strong. While I was in college, I unfortunately never attended a single fair, and I missed out on so many wonderful opportunities! Unlike applying online or through email, career fairs give you the opportunity to meet face-to-face with a wide variety of employers. Youâre able to ask them plenty of questions about their company and internship/job openings while sharing information about yourself.
But now at Indiana INTERNnet, I get to go to so many career fairs throughout the state to let students know how we can help them find their next internship. Being on the other side of the table, Iâve learned a lot about what can help you stand out with recruiters. Hereâs some tips:
Dress to impressâŠ
If youâre going to a career fair, you should preferably dress in business professional attire, or business casual at the …
How to survive your first month of classes
Ah, the month of August. The air is getting cooler, the corn is growing tall, the humidity is disappearing…and itâs time to go back to school. As you make the transition from swimming pools and sunbathing to lecture halls and homework, you may be in need of a couple tips to help you survive that first month back.
Show up to class
Itâs always extremely tempting to blow off the first few weeks of class, but once you finally decide to show up, youâll realize youâve already dug yourself into a hole. Those classes in the beginning will provide you with an overview of the course and the expectations youâll need to meet if you want to succeed. If you arenât there for those first few days, youâll miss that information. Plus, college is expensive! You donât want to pay for something that you arenât even utilizing.
…
Timing Your Internship Search Right
Many degree programs require students to obtain an internship experience for credit. It is something that is expressed in the graduation requirements that freshmen learn about, but at that point junior or senior year can feel very far off. It is important to keep internships in the back of your mind, no matter what point youâre at in your college career. It can be difficult to work these types of roles into your schedule, and if you wait until the last chance to get an internship under your belt it may not be an experience that proves helpful for your post-graduation pursuits.
Here are three tips to help keep you on track:
Keep tabs on your favorite companies
Do some research on companies in your area and figure out which ones youâd like to look for. Keep a spreadsheet handy and record all the details you can find about their …
How To Handle Feedback Like A Pro
Being an intern can be hard. Youâre juggling school work, internship work, along with the other aspects of being in your 20s. Sometimes youâre doing so many things you question if youâre doing them right. This is why feedback is the most important aspect of your internship, but sometimes it can be hard knowing what to do with it. Below Iâve included three strategies to use feedback to its fullest potential.
Take it and run.
Feedback from your supervisors and peers can be a great asset, especially if itâs in a form of a mid-term review or working feedback. The best thing to do with feedback is to take it and use it. If your supervisor says that your work needs to be double checked, you should make sure to double check your work in the future. This will not only show your supervisor that you value their opinion, but …
Midterm Madness
Itâs the middle of the semester, and you know what that means: MIDTERMS! In my college experience, I havenât had a lot of midterms. Most of my classes focused on exams periodically throughout the semester. However, when I do have midterms I always try to make sure that I am well prepared so I can rock my tests. Here are a few tips on how to manage your internships during midterm week.
Plan your study schedule.
Between working, school, and now studying for midterms, your schedule can become pretty hectic. Make sure that you work in time for studying somewhere in your calendar, whether that means blocking out an hour or two, or saying no to going out with your friends. Better yet, plan some time to study with your friends. Being in a group and studying can help you focus and keep you accountable to actually studying.
Donât put …
What to Do When You Donât Know What to Do
Oh, the holidays. Itâs a time for friends, family, food and prying questions about your future. Before I graduated high school, my family members spent some time during our holiday gathering to ask me what I wanted to do with my life. The questioning only intensified after I started college. I would always have an answer, but I honestly didnât know exactly what I wanted to do until the second semester of my sophomore year in college.
Some people know exactly what they want to do and where theyâd like to work. While others may not have any idea, and thatâs OK! Your career path is an extremely important decision that greatly affects your life, so take as long as you need to figure out what youâd like to pursue. Hereâs some resources you can explore to help you weigh your options:
Browse IndianaINTERN.net
Even if you arenât ready …
Winter Finals Are Coming
Itâs beginning to feel a lot like winter, and finals are coming. Since you donât have dragons like Daenerys Targaryen, youâll have to slay those exams on your own. Fear not, my friends, we have excellent tips to help you survive winter finals.
Prepare for Battle
Gather all of your class notes and study material and actually review it. If your professor provides a study guide, use it as a tool to map out your studies. You should schedule a few times for studying the week before the exam to prevent cramming it in the night before. Find a quiet spot in the library to study alone, or form a study group to divide and conquer the material.
Ask Questions
If you are struggling with a concept or think your notes might be incorrect, ask your professor or a fellow student. Some professors will …
Four Ways to Make Your College Experience Less Stressful
Moira Keating is a human resources marketing/employee engagement intern at Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from Marian University in December 2018.Â
Anyone who has met a college student, knows college can be is stressful. Trying to find the perfect balance between schoolwork, clubs, friends, jobs, athletics, family and more can really take a toll on a person. Most college students do not hesitate to let others know how much homework they have this week or how little sleep they got last night by posting it to all social media platforms. I am not mad about this, since I too have posted about my busy schedule, but I have realized there are ways to avoid these posts.
ACTUALLY PAYING ATTENTION IN CLASS: This should be a pretty simple rule to follow, since most of us are paying to be in that chair, but the constant advancements of technology can …
Be Aggressive, but Not Too Aggressive
Sofia Grimsgard is a junior at Indiana University in Bloomington, studying Journalism with specializations in broadcast journalism, public relations and graphic communications. She completed an internship with KXAN â a NBC affiliate in Austin, Texas.
Growing up as a naturally motivated individual made me very aware of the effects that my actions would have on my future. I was always thinking about where I wanted to end up, what I wanted to do and what kind of career I wanted to have. I also knew none of my dreams would come true without hard work and persistence â including valuable work experience from a young age. After having three internships so far, I have one piece of advice that seems to have carried more weight than any other: be aggressive, but not too aggressive.
Getting your name out there is of the utmost importance. Tread carefully though: itâs as …
Three Tips on Finding the Perfect Internship
Moira Keating is a human resources marketing/employee engagement intern at Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from Marian University in December 2018.Â
Most college students know that getting an internship is an integral part of expanding their professional career. Some universities, including mine, even require it. There are websites dedicated to helping studentâs find the perfect internship for their majors and/or skill sets, which makes for an easy and comfortable application process. Even uploading your resume to sites such as IndianaINTERN.net or LinkedIn could potentially lead to a recruiter contacting you, and from experience, it is exciting when that happens.
Just because there are plenty of places to see postings for an internship these days, doesnât mean it is easy to get one. Your resume needs to be perfect and sometimes references, a cover letter, and/or a writing sample are required during the application process, and that is …
In the Middle of the Semester
While you may have finally settled in to the swing of fall semester, youâre about to be shook with midterm exams. Take some advice from the cast of The Middle to help you prepare.
First off, donât let midterms catch you by surprise and cause you to fail. Keep track of all the deadlines for exams and assignments. Itâs best to schedule these important dates in your calendar or planner.
Once youâve scheduled all of your deadlines, avoid procrastination. Create a workplan to help you break large projects into smaller, more manageable chunks. If youâre writing an essay, donât forget to add at least a day for proofreading and revision. Nothing is worse than submitting a paper last minute, only to realize you forgot typos.
Do your best to eliminate distractions. There are helpful apps and web browser extensions like StayFocused, Time Out and Cold …
Donât Become Stressed Out, Burnt Out and Cranky
On Wednesdays during the fall semester of my senior year of college, I would intern until 5 p.m., go to a night class until 9 p.m. and then do homework until 12 a.m. The other days of the week, I was either interning or in class. On the weekends, I worked part time at a department store.
I needed an internship for experience and to graduate. I needed to go to class to graduate. I needed a part-time job to pay to graduate. Plus, I had to do all of this while maintaining relationships my family and friends.
I remember scrolling through Twitter one night, seeing this graphic and thinking, âYES! This is exactly how I feel!â
By October, I was stressed out, burnt out and cranky. When I would be at work or with my loved ones, I would be thinking about homework or my internship. I realized …
Back to School Prep
August is the busy month of back to school! So far, your summer has been pretty great. Youâve been relaxing in the sun, hanging out with friends and generally enjoying your free time. Until you read this blog and realized classes start soon⊠Is the stress sinking in? Check out these helpful tips for how to prepare for the semester.
Make sure youâre registered for the correct classes
Thereâs nothing scarier than realizing you canât graduate on time because you took the wrong course. Contact your career development office to confirm youâre on the right track to receiving all the required credits. If youâre on a waiting list, be sure to keep checking its status.
Plan your route
The first week of the semester is always a busy time. Determine where your classes are on campus and where you should park. Some colleges …