Category Archives: Internship and Job Search
Weekend Food for Thought: How Do I Choose an Internship?
Entry by Pat Patterson
If you are convinced that pursuing an internship is a good idea, but you are not sure what type of internship to search for, the following information from the November INTERNnetwork may be helpful. (If you would like to subscribe to Indiana INTERNnet’s montly e-newsletter, click here.)
Here are a few ways to discover your passions and explore different careers:
Career/personality assessments
Career/personality assessments can help provide a clearer understanding of the type of professional work you may enjoy doing by helping you to identify your interests, motivations, work habits and personality traits. Ask your career services office if it administers them. Three of the most popular are Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Keirsey Temperament Sorter, and Strong Interest Inventory.
What can I do with a major in …?
If you have decided on your major (or even if you are …
Research…Or lack thereof
Entry by Nicole Goble, Director of Recruiting and Development in the financial services industry in Zionsville, IN
The biggest mistake students make when applying and interviewing for an internship and/or a full-time position is the effort spent researching the company and the career. We are very lucky to live in a time that allows us to access almost any piece of information we wish at the click of a button – this also leaves little room for employers to empathize with candidates who lack the preparation.
There are many ways students search for internships, including and certainly not limited to, career fairs, campus career centers, club and class company presentations, Indiana INTERNnet, and many others. The mistake lies when the proper research is not done prior to applying for these positions and then when getting the first interview, going into that first meeting.
To make the best …
Google Stalker: What do search engines say about you?
Image via CrunchBase
Entry by Valerie Petrey, Public Relations & Event Planning Intern, Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development
Have you Googled yourself recently? If you’re internship or job searching, I highly recommend you Google yourself to see how others view you in the virtual world.
Everyone is always talking about setting your Facebook and Twitter accounts to private, and making sure there are no inappropriate pictures of you on the Internet. Okay, we know to do all of that so when employers Google us, they know we are responsible… but when they Google us, don’t we want them to see something that will make an impact on them?
Every job seeker’s goal should be to get on the first page of Google. It’s more difficult with names like “Kayla Smith,” but it’s doable. Rather than having your Facebook pop up, what if a well-written blog came up? …
The #1 Interview Question: “Tell me about yourself.”
Entry by Valerie Petrey, Public Relations & Event Planning Intern, Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development
Preparing for an interview, whether for an internship or job is stressful. It’s simple to answer questions about yourself, right? The hard part is answering those questions in a way that will convey your specific skill set to an employer.
When answering the infamous question, “tell me about yourself,” you must limit the answer to a minute or two. Also keep in mind your future employer doesn’t care about your obsession with the Chicago Cubs, that you like music or if you’re double jointed, UNLESS you can turn those things into experience that would benefit the job you want to do for that employer. In which case it would make you stand out among the hundreds of other candidates.
A fabulous guest speaker came to my class this week and told us the story of …
Interning After Graduation?
Entry by Valerie Petrey, Public Relations & Event Planning Intern, Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development
For those of you job searching with me, this blog is for you!
Regardless of the economy it can be difficult to find a job. It’s different now because companies have more to lose if their recent hire can’t handle the job responsibilities. Let’s say Company X hired “Mary” on as their copywriter. It appeared that “Mary” knew how to write and could work under pressure but when she was assigned to produce a brochure for Company X, her writing skills were less than immaculate and she crumbled under time limits.
Company X’s time and money was wasted, and they were forced to let her go and search for a new copywriter. Unfortunately things like this happen in the workforce, which may lead an employer to assume all new grads are like this. This is …
Will The Great Internship Please Stand Up?
Entry by Brittney Horn, Membership Intern, Greater Lafayette Commerce
Whatever major you have during college, most students are urged to do as many internships that they can while they are finishing their undergrad. It’s obvious why it’s important, I mean how else are you supposed to get experience? What’s more important to search for is the GREAT internship. I feel as though there are 3 different kinds of internships: the great, the good, and the really bad. Here are few tips for finding the perfect internship.
Before accepting the internship, make sure you ask if you will have a mentor/supervisor. Most companies that provide internships will have a specific person appointed to be in charge of all of the interns. This is extremely important because if you have no one to report to then you may not learn much from the experience. Talk with previous interns from that company. These …
Getting Yourself Noticed by New Blog Author Valerie Petrey
Entry by Valerie Petrey, Public Relations & Event Planning Intern, Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development
Hello everyone! My name is Valerie Petrey. I’m currently a senior at Purdue University majoring in public relations and advertising and will graduate this May. To learn a little bit more about me and what I will be blogging about, please read on!
In today’s workforce you need to have an internship to get a job, and most of the time you need a few. Employers LOVE to hire students fresh out of college with real work experience! This semester I will be sharing experiences of my current internship with Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development (LACD), advice I have received from past internships and my current journey of locating internships and jobs via social media and traditional methods.
The best advice I can give anyone is to take a chance. While it is easiest to …
Temps are Dropping, but Career Services is Heating Up
Entry by Bobby Wade, Peer Career Advisor, Wabash College Career Services
It’s been a hectic first half of the semester at Career Services, and it promises to get even busier. As students returned for fall, the scramble for on-campus jobs was in full swing the first few weeks back. As a result, all 14 peer career advisors, including myself, were busy every day with resume and cover letter critiques. Now that campus jobs are mostly filled and recruiting season has begun, I’ve kept busy helping seniors who are flooding the office with questions about post-grad job applications.
I’ve had a number of independent projects this semester that I am very excited about, one of which began this past summer. In June, I was notified that Paul Wineman, former president of my national fraternity and current negotiations consultant, was going to visit my house for homecoming weekend. With the help of …
How to Secure an Indiana Internship as an International Student
Entry by Pat Patterson; from the October INTERNnetwork:
It is no secret that internships are becoming more competitive, especially if you are an international student who may not be completely assimilated into American business culture. For this reason, Gary Beaulieu, Butler University director of internship and career services, advises, “It is important for international students to start looking for an internship early – as early as a year in advance of when you plan on interning. Also, begin networking immediately and visit your career services office early and often.”
Students need either an F-1 or J-1 visa to intern in the United States. We highlight the differences below:
F-1 visa: With an F-1 visa, an international student can intern as either part of his or her Optional Practical Training (OPT) or Curricular Practical Training (CPT).
General OPT Requirements:
Employment must be “directly related” to the student’s major. Student must maintain …
Career Fairs 101: Avoid the Herd Mentality
Entry by Pat Patterson
After attending a few career fairs this fall, it seems like a lot of students attend career fairs with a group of their friends. That in itself poses no problem, but showing up to a career fair with your friends and walking around the career fair with your friends are two different things. What I am getting at is – it is important to navigate your way through a career fair alone.
First off, think about the reasons that you may walk around a career fair in a group. The group acts as a ‘crutch.’ You may be nervous, unconfident, or unsure who to approach at a career fair, and your friends may make you feel more comfortable. And that is how employers may perceive such a group of students – recruiters may see such students as unconfident, unsure, or unprepared (not necessarily admirable traits for …
Internship Are Not Just for Juniors and Seniors
Entry by Pat Patterson
Although the National Bureau of Economic Research recently announced that the recession ended, this does not mean it will be easier to land a full-time job. Employers will always be looking to hire those competitive candidates who have previous work experience. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal’s survey of college recruiters, an internship may be one of the best ways to land a full-time job offer.
I’ve recently attended a few career fairs where freshmen and sophomores have approached me to learn more about Indiana INTERNnet and ended up surprised to learn that internship opportunities exist for underclassmen.
As many students may not realize, employers are starting to identify a potential future employee as early as a student’s freshman year:
A quarter of the nearly 480 respondents to The Wall Street Journal’s survey of college recruiters said more than 50% of their new-graduate hires had …
Educators: Preparing Your Students for the Internship/Job Hunt
Entry by Jackson Ding, Peer Career Advisor, Wabash College Career Services
My name is Jackson Ding and I am a peer advisor at the Career Services Office at Wabash College, a liberal arts college for men in Crawfordsville, IN. Here at Wabash, we, Career Services, organize many events throughout the year to help students with career development and graduate school application.
The project I am working on now is a four-week long internship/job class. Prepared by career services staff and peer advisors, these once-a-week classes teach students various aspect of job hunting, including job search, resume and cover letters, and interview preparation. Offered during lunch/dinner time with the company of free pizzas, these classes are often well received among our students. For example, the last session attracted more than 5% of the total student population. We also regularly bring in guest speakers to give lectures. In the …
Career Fairs 101: After the Career Fair
Entry by Pat Patterson
Students
After a career fair (From the 2010 September INTERNnetwork):
Jot down your notes and organize the information you collected (including contact information – it is a good idea to note where you met certain individuals and what you talked about), write thank you notes to those you met, apply for positions you are interested in, and follow up with employers about applications you submitted.
Remember, making a positive impression with people greatly influences your internship and career search. When recruiters sift through resumes and decide who they plan to interview, you are more likely to stand out if the recruiters remember who you are and the interest you showed in their particular organization.
Employers
After the Career Fair (From the National Association of Colleges and Employers NACE)
Post-fair activities do help with your recruiting efforts. Here are some ideas:
Host a networking …
Students: Internship Experience May Increase Your Salary
Entry by Pat Patterson
As you may already know, there are many benefits of interning, including:
Enhancing your educational experience, testing out a new organization or industry, exposing yourself to multiple departments within an organization, discovering your talents and aspects of a job you find appealing, gaining real-world job experience, learning new skills, building your resumé, making new connections, and setting yourself up for full-time employment.
In addition, according to NACE’s 2010 Student Survey, students from the Class of 2010 who had internship experience received higher average starting salaries than students who had no internship experience:
In terms of starting salary offers, there is a definite financial advantage for students who have internship experience, according to results of NACE’s 2010 Student Survey. Overall, students in the Class of 2010 who had internships received an average salary offer of $41,580. Meanwhile, their classmates who didn’t take internships received an average starting …
Students: Pay Attention to the Details
Entry by Pat Patterson
Just because you may not have landed the internship of your dreams in the past does not mean it’s not possible. Writing a great resume and cover letter and “looking the part” at a networking event or career fair are not the only determinants of whether or not you will get a call back. It is important to also pay attention to the details that may set you apart from other candidates.
Spell check your resume and cover letter over and over again. And then after you are done spell checking, have one of your peers spell check for you. A typo can say a lot of negative things about you – such as, you may not be able to spell, you don’t care enough to check for spelling errors, you are not organized or detail-oriented, etc.
Invest in professional resume paper. Although business stationary paper …