Category Archives: College Tips
Tips & Tricks for a Polished LinkedIn Profile
If youâre a college student, thereâs no doubt youâve heard of LinkedIn. The professional social network is extremely popular, and Iâm sure more than one professor, career counselor or mentor has told you to join it.
LinkedIn can be intimidating to use at first for inexperienced students, but a solid LinkedIn profile can go a long way in your internship and post-grad career search. According to LinkedIn, 9 in 10 companies use LinkedIn to recruit new hires. Additionally, you can apply for many jobs and internships directly through LinkedIn.
Here are five suggestions for students to polish their LinkedIn profiles.
Add a (good!) photo.
This one is more important than you might thinkâaccording to LinkedIn, profiles with pictures get viewed 14 times more than those without! Use a clear, high-quality photo of you in appropriate clothing. No grainy shots, cropped group pictures or crazy expressions. A simple smiling photo is …
5 Ways to Prepare for the Fall Semester
Get familiar with your schedule
Adjusting to your daily schedule is one of the most essential parts of being a put-together student! Iâm sure youâve already forgotten what classes you registered for, so pull out that schedule and try to envision what this semester will look like for you. When will you have time to study? Work? Exercise? Do extracurriculars? Get a trusty planner and figure it out.
Get organized
Letâs be real, youâve probably blocked out all thoughts of school this summerâI donât blame you! Save yourself the stress at the last minute and figure out what needs to be done before you start school again. Do you know what you need for your dorm/apartment? Do you have notebooks, pens, pencils, folders? Are your textbooks ordered?
Get back on a schedule
Unfortunately, your daily schedule at school is probably more demanding than the summer schedule youâre on …
Shoes, HR, and Shadows
Hattie Hynes is a Recruiting/HR Marketing Intern with Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2019.
Through my internship with Milliner & Associates, I have ample opportunity to network and learn about the community of Indianapolis businesses. So much so that I was able attend an afternoon job shadow with seven different human resource (HR) representatives at Finish Line, Inc.
Finish Line is an Indianapolis-based company that brings primarily athletic shoes to the consumer in retail stores nationwide. Employing over 10,000 people at over 900 retail locations, Finish Line prides themselves on delivering âthe epic finishâ to all customers. There are six full-time Milliner & Associates employees and an intern (thatâs me) heading over to such a massive company for half a day was a shock to say the least. Iâm not going to lie to you guys⊠I was a bit nervous going …
Jack-of-All-Trades or Master of None?
I went to a small high school with extremely limited class choices. The only language available to take was Spanish, and the electives didnât go much beyond drama or choir. When I decided to go to Indiana University, I was so excited to have a variety of options. IU is hugeâI could learn anything I wanted to! I could learn how to write code, then turn around and read about famous Mexican muralists, then get some advice from a Pulitzer-winning journalist. (All things Iâve done, by the way. Thanks, IU!) The possibilities were endless.
As I progressed in my college career, I realized how difficult it is to master more than a few skills or subjects. It seemed like every job opportunity I came across wanted me to have infinite abilitiesâwriting, editing, graphic design, social media, videography, photography, web design, event planning, marketing, and the list goes on. Overwhelmed by …
Intern Queen’s Tips for Graduation and Career Success
Lauren Berger, CEO and founder of InternQueen.com, is a highly sought after career and internship expert. She has published two books, âWelcome to the Real Worldâ and âAll Work, No Pay.â Earlier this month, Berger shared advice in a webinar about graduation and career success for recent and upcoming graduates. For more post-college and career advice, visit laurenbergerinc.com.
Preparing for graduation
If you donât have a job lined up, calm down! The hiring process differs among industries, so your offer may come later than your roommate. You should set a three-month deadline to have a job after graduation. A deadline will help you stay on track to obtaining your goal.
Make sure youâre passing your classes and all of your credits are obtained. There are plenty of students who were forced to delay their graduation due to failed classes or a missed credit. If youâre participating in the graduation …
Keep Calm and Intern
Hattie Hynes is a Recruiting/HR Marketing Intern with Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2018.
What grade do I need to get on the midterm in order to get an A in the class?
How much sleep do I really need tonight?
I canât wait for summer breakâŠ
Which classes do I need to take in the fall?
Should I change my major?
I need four hours of sleep to function.
Wait⊠what am I going to do over the summer? Classes? Internship? Work in *shudders* retail?
If youâve thought any or all of these things in the past few weeks, youâre probably in the same situation as I am. My hope is that by the time you finish reading this, youâll be a bit calmer and less frantic about the future.
Where do you want to be in 5 years?
…
The Expectation Versus Reality of my Internship
Kelsey Davis is the marketing and public relations intern at the Crossroads of America Council. She is a junior at Butler University, double majoring in marketing and art + design.
My first impression of an internship was at nine years old with the movie, âThe Devil Wears Prada.â From that moment on, I feared the day I would have to face my own version of Miranda Priestly.
When I became a junior at Butler University, it was time to start applying for internships and inching towards a life-long career. Interviews often have a stigma for being brutal. These situations make you question your own thoughts and actions and wonder if itâs too soon for a follow-up call. If an offer is secured, you can only breathe momentarily until your first day.
Iâve compiled my top five expectations versus realities of an internship. Specifically, this applies to my role as …
Pete the Planner & Hattie the Intern
Hattie Hynes is a Recruiting/HR Marketing Intern with Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2018.
I recently had the opportunity to go to Indiana INTERNnetâs Intern Meet & Greet with Pete⊠Pete the Planner. If you havenât heard of him, heâs a financial planner by day and comedian by night. Well, he used to be until he decided to combine the two into one. Now, he writes for USA Today and is the author of ten books. He appears on local news broadcasts regularly to advice others on how to make yourself more financially successful. While he was speaking to the group of interns, he catered his speech to appease his audience by talking about student budgeting and student loans.
He started out by asking us how we paid for our social lives during college. Typically, itâs one of four answers. First, …
Four Ways to Gain Experience Before an Internship
Many college students run into the hurdle of not having enough experience for an internship. This is a common issue: how do you gain experience to gain experience at an internship? The good news is that there are other ways to bulk up your resume and enhance your skills. Check out my suggestions below!
1 . Side hustle
A part-time job, or side hustle, is a great way to develop various skills to add to your resume. Part-time jobs can enhance your soft skills: communication, decision-making, teamwork, work ethic and more. While it may be difficult to balance your class schedule with a job, the practice can improve your organization and planning skills. For tips on how to manage this juggling act, check out this blog.
2 . Campus involvement
Campus involvement looks great on your resume for added experience and shows you have initiative. Leadership development and civic-engagement programs, …
Intern Meet & Greet with Pete
Indiana INTERNnet is hosting an afternoon event on March 7 from 3-5 p.m. Interns and college students are invited to meet Peter Dunn, Founder of Pete the Planner, and listen to his lively financial tips. Employers are welcome to invite their interns and attend with them as well.
A networking session will follow the presentation to connect with fellow interns. Beverages and snacks will be provided, courtesy of Baldwin & Lyons, Inc.
This is a free event, and space is limited. Please contact Karissa Bash, kbash@indianachamber.com, for more details and to RSVP by Tuesday, February 28.
Dunn is a local comedian, author, columnist and financial wellness educator. His organization, Pete the Planner, helps individuals with finance troubles get back on track through publications, broadcasts, speaking engagements and more.
During last yearâs summer engagement event at the Indiana State Fair, Dunn advised interns on moving out of their parentsâ houses …
Relax During Winter Break
As final papers, projects, exams and fall internships come to an end, students are left feeling an odd combination of relief and exhaustion. Take time during winter break to relax and decompress. Hereâs a list of some soothing activities to leave you feeling recharged and ready for the spring semester:
1. Catch up with family and friends
If you go back to your hometown during winter break, plan an activity to catch up with old friends. Spend time baking with your grandparents, or catch a movie with your siblings. It can be difficult to coordinate plans between breaks, so savor the time you have at home.
2. Read a book
Find a cozy spot, grab some hot cocoa and read something that isnât required for class. The New York Times compiled a list of the top 10 books from 2016
3. Sleep
After I finished my finals, …
Use spring break to spruce up your resumé
After long winter months and tough internships, spring break is finally here for college students. If your spring break has some built-in downtime, use it to learn a new skill and build your resumé.
Intern Queen Lauren Berger has this advice for doing (a little!) work during spring break.
Get Tech: There are many online outlets to learn tech skills outside of the classroom. Check out https://www.coursera.org/ to learn basic HTML or CSS coding. If you took a technology class last semester, show what youâve learned in the skills section of your resumĂ© as well. Take an Externship: Spring break may be too short for a full-blown internship, but that does not mean you are out of options. Many companies host externships or job shadowing opportunities. Visit your schoolâs career center to find spring break openings in your area. Be Social: If youâve always wanted to try a new …
College seniors: utilize career services
Rising seniors headed back to school face a year of important decisions. Between going out as often as possible and procuring a class schedule that begins at noon, the concept of applying for full-time jobs is an overwhelming task.
Career development professionals and college/university career centers are great resources for students looking for jobs, and a new National Association of for Colleges and Employers (NACE) study of more than 43,000 college seniors (http://bit.ly/1slNS9Z) demonstrates that more students are flocking to these offices than ever before.
The 2014 Student Survey, which NACE will release in its entirety this fall, shows a 7% increase from 2013 in the number of students visiting their schoolsâ career centers more than once, representing an all-time high.
Tellingly, students who reported using these career centers were more likely to have a job upon graduation. These offices are a great way to attain job leads and career …
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 …
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, …