Category Archives: Internship and Job Search
Internship Advice From a Student/Intern
One of the biggest goals in the early stages of our careers is to land an internship, but there are some steps you must take before you apply. There are several things to do when applying for internships such as: researching companies, preparing for interviews, resume updates, etc. In the early stages of my search for an internship I thought I had mastered everything. In fact, I thought my resume and interview skills were excellent. Later, I learned that wasnât the case and that it needed improvement.
Career services
Career services can help you with your resume, career advice and internship help. When I used to apply for internships early on, I hardly received interviews, so I had a career advisor help me restructure my resume. The advisor provided me with advice on how to improve my resume, and then I started receiving more interviews. Next, the career center helped …
Why You Should Never Ghost an Employer
One of the latest hot topics in the business world is how candidates are “ghosting” employers. As you may already know, the practice of ghosting comes from the dating world. Instead of communicating that you’re losing interest, or you don’t like someone, you simply disappear and cease communication with no explanation. This method avoids having a difficult or awkward conversation.
Of course it’s ironic that employers are making a fuss over ghosting. After all, employers are notorious for ghosting their job applicants. You can spend hours cultivating your job application, even going to an interview, only to never receive a response. So employers, this article applies to you too. Don’t ghost your applicants! At the very least, develop a quick email template that you can easily send to your rejected candidates.
But for those of you that are seeking jobs, you shouldn’t ghost employers! It’s a bad practice all around.
…
Why It’s Okay to be Overdressed at Your Internship
I was never a fan of being overdressed, but it was a problem I consistently encountered growing up. I remember when I was in elementary school, my mother would never let me pick my own clothes for special occasions. While my peers were wearing jeans and t-shirts, I was dressed to the nines, fully coordinated and accessorized. I hated the feeling of sticking out, and I remember being embarrassed. But looking back from where I am now, I’m grateful. When I see pictures from family gatherings and school events, I always look well put-together. It makes the memories nicer, and easier to look at. I didn’t think dressing up mattered at the time, but now I understand.
This attitude is the same one I have when I look back on my internships. I almost always overdressed! I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, but overdressing served a …
How to Ace a Phone Interview
As I searched for a job after I graduated college, I was navigating a new kind of hiring process. In my previous experiences, I would receive a request for a face-to-face interview, and they either hired me or they didnât. I became used to excelling in those types of interviews, and thought my job search would be easy. It wasnât. For the first time in my life, employers were requesting a phone interview instead of in-person. This meant all my face-to-face skills were worthless, as my interviewer couldnât see my body language or facial expressions. A phone interview is structured differently from an in-person interview. So hereâs what you need to know to ace one.
Set up the ideal environment.
If youâve never had a phone interview, itâs exactly what it sounds like. You schedule a specific time for a phone call, and the interviewer asks you questions over the …
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 …
The Job Search and Dating: More Similar Than You’d Think
After I graduated, I was still in the midst of my job search for an âadultâ job/career. So I continued at my internship and working retail, searching for that coveted full-time position. At the same time, I navigated the dating world, trying both online dating sites and various events to meet people.
I noticed uncomfortable similarities between dating and my job search. Here are the two biggest lessons I learned.
Both parties won’t immediately reveal their true intentions.
Most of the time, on that first or second date, you won’t be completely honest with each other. You won’t say that youâre hung up on your ex, and youâre trying to date to forget them. Your date wonât say that theyâre just lonely because theyâre living by themselves, and have no intention of talking to you after this date because they have commitment issues. But you both feign interest, and warily …
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 …
Should You Negotiate Your Internship Salary?
Receiving an offer for an internship can be exciting, but what happens if youâre not sure you can afford to accept it? As was discussed in a previous blog post about how to choose between multiple internship offers, you shouldnât accept a position that doesnât fit you financially. However, you may be able to negotiate with a potential employer so that the internship opportunity works with your budget.
Although unpaid internships are becoming less common, plenty of these programs still exist. Itâs important to note that if a company posted the internship as unpaid, you will likely not be able to convince them to change their minds. If you know that an unpaid position wonât work for you, you should be transparent with them â just donât expect the company to comply. You may need to accept that itâs not a good fit.
Negotiating for a higher internship salary can …
Factors to Consider When Choosing Between Two Internships
There will be a multitude of points in your career where you will have to make difficult decisions, including throughout your college years. If youâve applied to many internships, for example, you might be faced with having to choose one position over the other. A number of factors should be evaluated before you make your decision, and each of them weighs differently for everyone. Here a few things to think about if youâre currently facing this dilemma:
Your Resume
Review the job descriptions for each opportunity. Is one or the other more likely to bolster your resume or portfolio? For example, if the main task for an internship is to schedule one social media post every day for the company, but you already have experience orchestrating entire social media marketing campaigns, it might not be the best move for you. On the other hand, if youâre qualified for …
Common Interview Questions & How to Answer Them
Interviews are often the deciding factor for whether you get a position, no matter how well-qualified you may appear on your resume. It is very normal to feel nervous before your interview, especially since a lot of the common questions asked can feel like trick questions. The best way to excel in an interview is to come across as confident. To accomplish that, you should prepare for the interview as much as possible. Start out by simply considering what your answers might be to common questions like the ones below.
âSo, tell me about yourself.â
Almost every interview will start off with this type of prompt; do not be thrown off by the apparent open-endedness of it. Employers want to understand why youâre there, sitting before them. An easy way to answer this question is to backtrack: start off with the earliest fact about you that is still relevant to …
Post-Graduation Internships
Perhaps you were busy with other responsibilities during undergrad and you didnât have time for an internship. Or maybe you changed majors part of the way through your college career, and it set you back a little bit. Many students pursue internship positions during college, and assume that once they graduate, they will be done with them. While that is the case most of the time, there is nothing wrong with accepting an internship post-graduation. Hereâs why:
The job market can be tough, especially if youâre are seeking employment in a small city where there is lots of competition â namely, your fellow graduates. Full-time positions can be scarce, depending on the economy, your profession and the area in which you live. An internship can help to provide you with some money and additional experience as you search for a salaried role.
Oftentimes, graduates instinctively accept job offers that do …
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 Important is Networking, Really?
College students hear it again and again â network, network, network! However, building and maintaining professional relationships is often not high on a studentâs list of priorities. The thought of initiating a conversation can be intimidating. Even once introductions and connections have been made, it is difficult for individuals to keep in touch. Schedules are typically overflowing with academic, financial, and personal responsibilities, which does not leave a lot of room for attending networking events. It can be easy to put off networking and ignore event opportunities, with the hopes your schedule will be less full later. That is not the case. Forty-nine percent of todayâs professionals say that it is difficult to maintain relationships with their network due to a lack of free time, according to a 2017 LinkedIn survey.
Ignoring networking events and failing to create connections is a much easier route, but the truth is that taking …
Kaitlin Carroll: Making an IMPACT
Indiana INTERNnet celebrated internship excellence on February 7, 2018 at the 12th Annual IMPACT Awards Luncheon. Though the event is over and the winners have been announced, we are continuing to celebrate the nomineesâ successes.
These are their storiesKaitlin Carroll is a senior at Ball State University studying Natural Resources and Environmental Management with a minor in Communications. She completed an internship with Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem in South Bend, IN.
Indiana INTERNnet: What made you interested in pursuing Natural Resources and Environmental Management?
Kaitlin Carroll: I am majoring in Natural Resources and Environmental Management and minoring in Communication. Iâve always loved being outside and as I got older, I realized I could make a career out of protecting Indianaâs beautiful resources. I also love people, which is why I pursued a minor in Communication.
IIN: Describe your experience with BCe2.
KC: Interns, including myself, worked on various sustainability projects …