Category Archives: Young Professionals

Entry by Ashley Cashen, Talent Acquisition and Retention Coordinator, digitalKnowledge

Once your company’s internship ends, it’s important to make sure the communication does not end with it.  Hopefully at the end of an internship, both a company and its intern are parting ways with a positive experience to look back on.  And if everything goes as planned, both that company and the intern will want to work together in the future. 

Most interns still have one, maybe even two or three, years of school left before entering the “real world.”  So a company can go from communicating with their intern on a daily basis to not speaking to them for a year.  But, a lot of things can happen in that last year of school – your intern may attend career fairs, have job interviews, and meet potential employers.  How are you going to continue to stick …

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Entry by Pat Patterson

It is that time of the year again – your internship is wrapping up and it becomes harder for you to focus, as thoughts of the upcoming school year flood your mind.  But before you pack up your materials, say your goodbyes, and take that final step out the door, it is important to make sure that you leave your internship on a positive note.  You may have learned a lot, contributed significantly to the organization you worked with, and made great connections and even friends, but the way you end your internship may ultimately be the way you will be remembered – you don’t want to “pull a LeBron James” and leave on a negative note with your former boss releasing an open letter expressing his disapproval after you leave (sorry about that – I’m originally from Cleveland).

Anyways, with that being said, on AdAge.com …

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Entry by Courtney Sampson, Marketing and Communications Intern, Indiana State Fair

No matter what the economists say, we’ve got to face it. Times are still tough for Americans, and many companies simply aren’t hiring full-time employees. With that said, I feel pretty lucky to be a Hoosier; many of my friends who live in other states have had a difficult time finding minimum-wage jobs, and they have college degrees!

I’ve had plenty of phone and face-to-face conversations with friends about “life after college.” What are the options if you don’t have a full-time job after graduation? Well, if you’re a fan of waking up early, you could head down to the local Starbucks and see if they’re hiring any baristas. For night owls, perhaps there’s a local 24-hour diner or even the corner pub!

But if you’re trying to enter the “professional world,” maybe Starbucks isn’t your best bet…or maybe …

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Entry by Pat Patterson

This summer, I had the privilege of coordinating internships for 59 high school interns through the Common Goal Internship Program, a collaborative effort between Indiana INTERNnet and the Indianapolis Chamber aimed at motivating at-risk high school students to continue their education, graduate, and pursue higher education.  Yesterday, we celebrated the student’s successful completion of the program and recognized their host employers for offering the internship opportunities. (See pictures below)

A student intern with her employer mentor.

Throughout the summer, I visited several of the students at their places of business, and at the celebration conference, a few of the students shared their experiences at the podium on stage.  After learning more about the students’ experiences during their visits and the few students’ presentations, it became apparent how influential the internships have been in their lives. 

During their internships, the students were able to test out their …

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Entry by Ali Norman, Career and Technical Education Intern, Department of Workforce Development

I have to say, I am extremely happy and somewhat surprised with how much I am enjoying my internship this summer. Yes, some things take some time getting used to, like the commute to work, or the new schedule (my friends have been nice enough to adjust our evening get-togethers to starting at 7pm instead of the usual 9 pm, thank goodness), but I can’t speak enough about how much I believe that having internships is going to help me be prepared and succeed after graduation. I know I still have 2 years left but I bet it’ll be here before I know it!

Speaking of graduation, this week I had a pretty interesting assignment. I did some writing for DWD for GRAD magazine (http://www.gradind.com/ -check them out college seniors!) regarding DWD’s soon-to-be-published “Hoosier Hot 50 Jobs …

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Entry by Courtney Sampson, Marketing and Communications Intern, Indiana State Fair

You know, nothing’s typical at the Indiana State Fair. We’re the biggest fair in the state, attracting nearly 975,000 visitors throughout 17 days. We’ve got “the world’s largest boar” and a 25-foot tall sculpture based upon Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.” We’ve even got gigantic pumpkins, big deals and steep discounts, and real-life bears. (Oh my!)

Not that I’m biased or anything, but we’re the biggest and the best! And we sure aren’t typical. So, let me share a secret with you. It’s been a lifelong goal of mine to reach the “corner office.” You know, once you get to the corner office, it means you’re the big kahuna…the big cheese…you’ve made it to the top! Well guess what, folks? It may all be downhill from here – cause I’ve got the corner office at the Indiana State Fairgrounds!

Really, …

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Entry by Anastasiya Elaeva, Indiana INTERNnet Intern

The fun part of interning is that you never know what events you will have a chance to attend and what people you will get an opportunity to meet.  If you keep your eyes wide open, your internship can extend beyond your primary responsibilities and the department to which you are assigned.

After my Washington D.C. internship in international affairs did not work out because of differences in mine and the company’s schedules, I was desperately looking for something in Indiana.  I picked up the phone and called the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. To be honest, at that point of time, in mid-May, I did not expect that there would be anything available.  I picked up the phone because I thought that trying every single opportunity would be the right thing to do.

To my surprise, I was offered an exciting internship assisting …

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Entry by Pam Norman, Indiana INTERNnet Executive Director

Yesterday I had the privilege of serving on a panel that provided advice to thirty downtown Indy interns.  The event was sponsored by the International Center of Indianapolis, and the interns represented corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors.

Takeaways from the discussion included:
• Improve your skill set by taking on more than you think you are capable of
• Track internship projects so it will be easy to update your resume
• Develop your professional network; opportunities are just a business card away
• Seek advice from management; people enjoy talking about their path to success
• Dress for success; dress for the job you want, not the one you have
• Be authentic; consider your internship a ten-week interview
• Soft skills are important to Indiana employers; make sure your skill set contains them

I’ve already received emails …

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Entry by Pat Patterson

This month, the blog entries I included were all about professional branding, focusing on how to brand yourself through online media.  Although it is important to be aware of how you brand yourself in the virtual world, don’t forget to be mindful of how you present yourself in the real world.

Whether you like it or not, people are going to judge you on the way you present yourself, specifically how you dress.  Most of you have heard “rules of thumb,” such as “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” or “it is better to be overdressed than underdressed.”  A business friend of mine directed my attention to an intern’s perspective on internship attire – among the few reasons why Hetrick intern Sean Litke overdresses for his internship, Litke mentions:

Third, even as an intern, I feel taken more seriously when I …

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Entry by Lindsay Davis, Solutions Marketing Intern, Interactive Intelligence, Inc.

We live in a world where it is now socially acceptable to follow people, where “tweeting” is used in everyday language, and where we learn to describe any emotion we may have in 140 characters or less.

Thank you, Twitter.

Above all else, we live in a world where corporations can use this simple animated bird-themed website to reach out to their customers and employees while gaining feedback in return.  I gained firsthand experience of this during my first few weeks at Interactive Intelligence.

I’ve “tweeted” before, but it was always meaningless updates about my whereabouts, or what I was doing.  Never did I imagine Twitter as a marketing tool, until now. These days if you’re not up-to-date with the latest and greatest, you’re at a huge disadvantage, especially when it comes to company branding and customer service.

With “hashtags” …

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Entry by Pat Patterson

If you are not already on Twitter, then you are missing out on a huge, free opportunity to market yourself. Twitter, at its core, is a marketing tool. Companies use Twitter to market their goods and services; it only makes sense for you, as an internship/job seeker, to use Twitter to market your skills.

Since you do not include as much personal and professional information in your Twitter account, it is easier to create a professional Twitter profile. Here is a recap of the tips to build a professional Twitter profile, which I included in the July INTERNnetwork and last Friday’s blog:

Use your real name, use a head shot photo as your profile picture, create a Twitter name that is appropriate and easy to remember, list a website for yourself – a professional profile such as LinkedIn, an online resume, an online portfolio, or your …

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Entry by Pat Patterson

Are you a 2010 graduate who is still searching for that first job?  It is no breaking news that jobs are difficult to come across in our current economy.  However, what may be news to some of you is that job search databases and networking are not the only ways to land a full-time job offer. 

One option that is continuously overlooked by graduating seniors is the possibility of acquiring a post-graduate internship.  Now, more than ever, because of the low cost of hiring interns, internships are used as a recruiting tool for full-time hires.  A recent article in Forbes reports:

“In this economic climate, people still want to get entry-level hires but don’t have the budget, so they’re trying candidates as interns and looking to hire them afterward,” says Adeola Ogunwole, CollegeGrad.com’s director of marketing and public relations.

In addition, although all internships may not …

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Entry by Pat Patterson

In the July INTERNnetwork, I included an article about social networking and how to create a “professional” Facebook profile. However, I am going to correct myself – since Facebook is less of a business-oriented site and more of a personal social networking platform, I think the word “respectable” more appropriately labels how you should represent yourself in your profile.

Let me explain what I mean by “respectable” – the content in your profile should not be content that you would not want an employer to view. Creating a respectable profile means including both personal and professional content. For example, you want to include your career goals and interests, but that does not mean you have to exclude your other interests as well. Take look at the Facebook profile I have included for your reference – For example, Anastasiya lists “journalism” and “public relations” as some of …

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Entry by Ali Norman, Career and Technical Education Intern, Department of Workforce Development

Last week I had the opportunity to do something both nerve-racking and very exciting for an intern – I pitched an idea for a commercial to the Director of Communications of the Department of Workforce Development. As a communications major, this was a huge step for me. When my supervisor approached me with the idea for a new commercial design for the agency’s job database website, I was immediately excited and got to work. After putting two years’ worth of effort into intensive communication theory and critical writing classes, this was a golden opportunity that I couldn’t possibly pass up.

I spent two weeks creating the concept, designing a storyboard, and making an outline consistent with the storyboard.  I had my co-workers read it to make sure it made sense and then finally, after many deep breaths, …

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Entry by Pat Patterson

In the July INTERNnetwork, I included an article about social media networking. Of all the current social media platforms, LinkedIn is the most obvious tool to use for professional networking because it was created for exactly that reason.

LinkedIn provides an easy to follow template to create a professional profile, but it is important to fill out your profile accurately and in detail.

Check out the included example of a professional, completed LinkedIn profile.

In addition, here are four key tips:

Make sure your profile is 100% complete – having a complete profile increases your search result rankings and shows that you took the initiative to complete your profile join groups that are related to your industries of interest and groups that are designed for networking, job, and/or internship searching, follow organizations of your interest, and take advantage of your network – on LinkedIn, you have …

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