Category Archives: Young Professionals
Students: Looking for Something to do this Weekend?
Entry by Pat Patterson
Are you looking for something to do this weekend? Why not polish up your resume? Now, I bet youâre all thinking, âYeah, rightâŠI thought this blog entry was going to be about some fun event or promotion.â Just keep readingâŠ
Iâm not suggesting you spend all weekend working on your resume, but it may be a good idea to add recent internships that you have not yet added. The more time that elapses after your internship, the more you will forget important details. You never know when an opportunity may arise when you will need to submit your resume, especially given the fact that college hiring and recruiting is expected to increase: Â
NACEâs current hiring index shows college hiring at 126.4, compared with 86.8 last year at this time. The October poll also found that nearly half of responding employers expect to increase …
Passion Trumps Salary When Looking for a Job or Internship
Entry by Valerie Petrey, Public Relations & Event Planning Intern, Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development
When job and internship searching there is one important question we must ask ourselves: am I going to LOVE this position? Salary, benefits, location and values all count when choosing the right position, but passion really trumps them all.
For my current internship with Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development, I conducted a survey, which circulated among liberal arts students. 89.4% of students who responded to the survey (536 students responded) said passion matters most to them in job. I couldnât agree more. While salary and location are also extremely important to my particular job search, passion is by far the number one thing that drives me.
Picture your life one year from now. Do you really want to be sitting at a desk with nothing to do, a boss you donât like …
The Secret to Finding the Perfect Job (Er, Internship)
Entry by Brittney Horn, Membership Intern, Greater Lafayette Commerce
Okay well maybe not the secret because letâs be honest, itâs still really hard to find a job at all. Iâve searched high and low, far and wide for almost a year now and itâs still a rough economy. That doesnât mean that everyone that is graduating within the year is doomed to be jobless for the rest of their lives but it does mean the more experience you have (ahem, internships), the better chance you have of getting a job. But searching for internships can be pretty frightening too. It can be a daunting task to search through websites, internship postings, and company profiles to find the perfect internship. I have become a self-proclaimed âproâ at finding great resources for finding pretty much any kind of internship you can imagine. Hopefully youâll be able to use one …
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 …
Email and Texting: The Technology That Knows No Boundaries
Entry by Valerie Petrey, Public Relations & Event Planning Intern, Purdue Liberal Arts Career Development
All of my weeks tend to have a topic that consistently comes up in classes and at my internship. This week the trending topic is email and texting.
Our generation would much rather send an email or text than talk on the phone, and thatâs okay for most people because time is precious and itâs nice to read something at oneâs leisure. However, where do you draw the line?
Is it acceptable to text your boss and tell him or her you arenât coming to work? What about emailing a future prospective employer and addressing him or her with a âHey whatâs up?â Should you secretly blind copy (BCC) a person on an email, or copy someone who hasnât been on that particular email string? The ethics behind email and texting …
Interning and Living in Indiana
Entry by Pat Patterson
Have you found an internship that is perfect for you, but you donât know much about the region in Indiana where it is located? Are you only searching for internships in certain cities because you are more familiar with those areas? If so, make sure to check out Indiana INTERNnetâs regional page to learn more about what Indiana cities have to offer, including information about arts and culture, attractions, housing, networking groups, nightlife, restaurants, and shopping â after all, more likely than not, you will be living in the city where you intern.Â
Also, if you have your heart set on interning outside of the state, donât completely disregard what Indiana cities have to offer. For example, according to Yahoo! Real Estate, Indianapolis-Carmel, IN is rated the 10th best city to move in America:
Indianapolis-Carmel ranked high on both stability and affordability. The average home …
International Students: Orienting Yourself to American Business Practices
Entry by Pat Patterson
If you are an international student looking for an internship in Indiana, the following resources may help you adapt to American business culture, etiquette and communication:
Doing Business in the USA – Contains information on business structures, management style, meetings, team work, communication styles, women in business, business dress code and successful entertaining in the United States Business Etiquette in the United States – Offers information on cultural aspects of doing business in America About.com: English as 2nd Language – Provides information for ESL students on beginning English, intermediate English and advanced English. Topics include pronunciation, speaking, grammar, vocabulary, listening skills, writing skills, teaching English, reading skills and business English InternationalStudent.com ResumĂ© Writing Center – A comprehensive overview of resumĂ© writing in the United States Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) – Offers resumĂ© tips for international students JobWeb.com – Highlights differences between resumĂ©s …
Appreciate & Communicate
Entry by Brittney Horn, Membership Intern, Greater Lafayette Commerce
No matter where you work, there is most likely going to be someone that you just donât see eye-to-eye with. Letâs face it â itâs inevitable that you arenât going to get along with every single person you meet in your entire life. In the work place, it is even more prone to happen because you are surrounded by the same people for at least 40 hours a week.
Unless if you are one of those âI get along with everyone all the time no matter whatâ kinds of people (which is rare, and if you are one of those people, I congratulate you) you will experience feelings of frustration with other co-workers. These feelings happen especially when you donât understand where the other person is coming from. This can happen often when you work with people with different types of …
ResearchâŠOr 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 â this also leaves little room for employers to empathize with candidates who lack the preparation.Â
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.Â
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 youâre internship or job searching, I highly recommend you Google yourself to see how others view you in the virtual world.Â
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, donât we want them to see something that will make an impact on them?
Every job seekerâs goal should be to get on the first page of Google. Itâs more difficult with names like âKayla Smith,â but itâs doable. Rather than having your Facebook pop up, what if a well-written blog came up? …
Employers: Hosting an International Student Intern
Entry by Pat Patterson; from the October INTERNnetwork
For some reason or another, some employers are hesitant to hire international students as interns. Gary Beaulieu, Butler University director of internship and career services, believes many businesses have false preconceptions about hiring international students. For example, “many employers think there is a lot of additional paperwork involved, which simply is not true,” he emphasizes.
An issue of the BU INTL – News dispels some of the myths commonly associated with hiring international students. Here are the truths:
International students DO NOT need a green card to intern. Students who maintain an F-1 or J-1 visa status are permitted to intern in their major field of study by federal regulation (up to 12 – or possibly 29 months – for F-1 status and up to 18 months for J-1 status). There is NO excessive paperwork needed to hire an international intern. The …
Just Give It Time
Entry by Brittney Horn, Membership Intern, Greater Lafayette Commerce
When I was younger, I went through phases where I would change my mind about what career I wanted. I had dreams of becoming a hair stylist, chef, nurse, teacher â you name it, I wanted to be it. However, once I got to college, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do.
I went with the âundecidedâ route during my first semester of college to try to figure out what the heck I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I first decided to try out interior design, mainly because I liked the idea of being able to decorate my own house for free. Once enrolled in one interior design class, I realized that this was not for me. Not knowing what direction to take, I began to feel overwhelmed. How was I supposed to figure out …
Career Services: Taking Advantage of Social Networking
Entry by Pat Patterson
Social networking may help you reach your student body, keep in contact with alumni, connect students and alumni with employment opportunities, and market your events. John Hill, alumni career services director at Michigan State University (MSU), has had a lot of success with social networking:
The MSU career services networkâs social networking strategy is to have alumni help it access industries, interest areas, and professions that it wouldnât be able to reach through traditional on-campus recruiting or career fairs.
âThe MSU alumni who get involved in these groups through social and professional media are our low-hanging fruit and itâs up to us to mobilize them,â Hill says. âSocial media gives us a ready-made repository to identify them.â
MSU primarily focuses on LinkedIn as there are 135,000 MSU alumni and students using it. Through information and data on resumes, the career services network creates communities that …
The #1 Interview Question: âTell me about yourself.â
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. Itâs 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, âtell me about yourself,â you must limit the answer to a minute or two. Also keep in mind your future employer doesnât care about your obsession with the Chicago Cubs, that you like music or if youâre 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 …
Knowing Your Audience: The Mindset of the Class of 2014
Entry by Pat Patterson
If you are a career services professional or faculty member enticing freshmen to visit the career office for the first time, it is important to know more about your audience. Consider Beloit Collegeâs mindset list for the class of 2014:
Few in the class know how to write in cursive. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail. Al Gore has always been animated. âCaramel macchiatoâ and âventi half-caf vanilla latteâ have always been street corner lingo. Entering college this fall in a country where a quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent, they aren’t afraid of immigration…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate …