Tag Archives: Indiana INTERNnet

This is a guest blog by Alecia Kissel, HR/Recruiting intern at Milliner & Associates, LLC in Indianapolis.

I was just getting settled into my fall schedule, yet I already need to prepare for a new semester all over again – my last semester!

Nostalgia can move to the backburner for now.

On my mind are questions like, “What do I want to do?” “Where do I apply?” “What if I end up at the wrong company?” Valid questions, all worth discussing, but who do I talk to?

I’m lucky to have more than one mentor I truly trust. Regarding my job search though, I immediately go to my boss, Nicole. For other people, this may be a slippery slope talking to an employer about other employment opportunities, depending on the relationship. Thankfully, my boss is one of my most trusted mentors.

If I didn’t have this kind of mentorship …

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Each year, Indiana INTERNnet aims to celebrate the interns, employers and career development professionals that make internships exceptional at the IMPACT Awards.

Nominations for the 2014 IMPACT Awards are due on Oct. 24 by 5 p.m. EST, and time is running out to nominate your colleagues! The Feb. 4, 2015 IMPACT Awards luncheon will honor three interns of the year (high school, college and non-traditional), two employers of the year (for-profit and nonprofit) and one career development professional of the year.

To fill out our online nomination form, visit http://bit.ly/1qGHeIh and tell us how your nominee made the internship experience valuable for all those involved. Help us celebrate the benefits of internships by filling out a nomination form today!

This is a guest blog by Macy Gentry, intern at Milliner & Associates, LLC in Indianapolis. Gentry is a senior at Marian University. 

I have had a great experience thus far at M&A, and I have learned so much in a short amount of time. This internship has opened my eyes to what recruiting is. I have read about recruiting in my text books, listened to a number of lectures in class and even have recruited a little myself, but I have never been in a true recruiting environment.

Looking back to just a few weeks ago, my whole understanding of recruiting has changed. I saw recruiting firms as the people that call and just ask if you need assistance filling positions, but I was wrong. Recruiting is so much more in depth and a lot more complicated and competitive than I could have imagined.

Just having a …

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This is a guest blog by Nicole Bieker, Vice President of Operations at Milliner & Associates, LLC in Indianapolis. Milliner & Associates recently hired Alecia Kissel, former summer intern, to continue her duties into the fall. 

Please join us in welcoming Alecia Kissel back as our HR/Recruiting Intern for the fall semester. Alecia joined us in May as our summer intern, and she did such an amazing job that we invited her to return for another semester. We are so proud of her and the significant contribution that she has made to our team in a very short period of time.

Alecia is a senior at Marian University pursuing Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communication and Pastoral Music Ministry. Upon graduation, she’s looking forward to traveling abroad and pursuing a career in HR or Event Planning that allows her to create and nurture relationships in the business …

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Small details make a big difference.

If there is one place this holds especially true it’s during a job or internship search. Landing an interview may seem like half the battle, but your job as a potential hire is far from over once you leave the office. A recent Forbes article (onforb.es/1nMGfpt) provides tips for a thoughtful follow-up that will separate you from other job candidates.

Thank everyone who interviewed you individually. Be sure to make each follow-up original, as they may share them with each other. The initial thank you should be handwritten, though any additional questions can be sent via email. Pay close attention and take good notes during the interview, as these will come in handy when writing your follow-up. Talk about anecdotes or conversations from the interview. Not only does this show that you paid attention, but it can be a subtle way to remind them …

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The summer after my sophomore year, I interned and studied in London—an opportunity that left me academic and life skills I take with me each day. During my time in London, I worked for a corporate public relations firm. The internship gave me obvious work experience, but studying abroad offers so much more. Brazen Careerist’s recent blog (bit.ly/1rLjusY) shows how to convey the benefits of time overseas to future employers during an interview.

Talk up your communication skills: Even if you studied in an English-speaking country, travel abroad exposes you to people from all walks of life. Chances are you honed in on valuable communication skills that go far beyond polite conversation. Communication is indispensible in nearly every field, so bringing up what you learned during an interview signals that you could handle even the most difficult client.

Budget, budget, budget: Between tricky conversions and strange currency, handling your finances abroad …

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The busiest time for interns often comes as they near the end of their internships. With projects to finish, resumes to update and thank you notes to write, most begin to look toward the school year or full-time job search that looms ahead.

Your updated resume may be full of great quantitative gains from your internship, but it is important to remember the soft skills you learned on the job so you can discuss them in your next interview.

Many new graduates and interns struggle with soft skills, according to this Forbes article. Chances are you developed many of these during your internship, but articulating soft skills can be difficult. You may know that you are an effective communicator and team player, but emphasize this during an interview by recalling a project that required group collaboration. Communication skills are vital in any industry, and using an example from your internship …

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“Align,” “engage” and “advance” turned out to be more than just political buzzwords on Tuesday.

I had the opportunity to attend Align, Engage, Advance: Transforming Indiana’s Workforce cohosted by the Center for Education and Career Innovation and Education Workforce Innovation Network. The conference presented the Indiana Career Council’s strategic plan, and opened my eyes to the challenges Indiana faces with employment. It also reassured me the Indiana INTERNnet will play a significant role in helping provide paths for career success in Indiana.

The biggest lesson I took away from the day is that experiential learning is a driving force in the efforts to elevate Indiana’s workforce.

Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann said that she and the rest of the Indiana Career Council hope 60% of Indiana’s workforce will have postsecondary credentials by 2025. This includes industry-recognized certifications, apprenticeships and certificates, among others. Internships provide hands-on, real-world context to classroom studies and …

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Organizations, large and small alike, are frequently spread thin. Especially as an intern, it can even be tempting to fly under the radar. Come in, do your assigned tasks and make as few ripples as possible before the end of the day.

Getting noticed for the right reasons, however, can dramatically improve your career trajectory. As Brazen Careerist explains, small actions elicit big rewards.

One of the easiest ways to draw all the right kinds of attention is to start each day on time. Very few people (I’d argue no sane people) enjoy waking up before the sun to head to a job, no matter how fulfilling their careers are. That being said, arriving on time shows dedication and boosts your efficiency—make an effort to be prompt.

The minor details that send impressive messages don’t stop with your morning routine. Make eye contact with your boss and other coworkers; it …

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Generation Y “Millennials” may receive some criticism from the media and employers, but many possess skills that can increase the depth of an organization. Every generation has its quirks, and Gen-Y is no different. If employers know how to best work with them and utilize their burgeoning talents, however, Millennials can add great value to the office.

As the first generation to grow up with computers, cell phones and tablets at the ready, Millennials are primed to augment an organization’s technological skills. They can be the go-to candidates for starting a new social media platform or finding new technology resources to help your organization get ahead.

In addition to bringing new technology to the tools in your organization’s arsenal, Gen-Y interns and employees bring increased social awareness to the table. Today’s twenty-something employee is attracted to socially-conscious organizations and can help develop office volunteering plans. Beyond making an impact at …

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By now, the shine has worn off of many summer internships. The first week butterflies are gone, and the faces in the office are more familiar than fresh. As the days grow longer and warmer, it is prime time for motivation to wane. However, there are some easy ways to keep enthusiasm and productivity high when dragging yourself out of bed and into the office seems like a chore.

Review your goals: Chances are, you came into your internship with a list of skills you wanted to improve or tasks you wanted to accomplish. Assess how many of those goals you’ve reached and what you still need to do to finish the others. This will give you a sense of accomplishment in what you’ve done so far while inspiring you to reach for your remaining goals. Mid-internship reviews with your supervisor and mentor can also be a good time to …

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Interviews are notoriously stressful. From your resume to your clothes and posture, it is no wonder interviewees often get little sleep before the big day. Augmenting this stress is the fact that one of the hardest questions always comes at the end.

“What questions do you have for us?”

Every job candidate expects it, but it still presents a challenge, especially if the recruiter already covered some of the ones you had prepared. While saying that all of your questions have been answered is clearly not the right response, many find it difficult to think on their feet. Luckily, there are some tried and true themes that can help guide your questions and show the recruiter that you want to know more about the position and organization.

Any place where you spend the majority of your days should share your values, so it helps to ask the recruiter what values …

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“Social” often describes millennial interns. Plenty of studies and begrudging comments from adults note that Gen-Y can hardly take a step without tweeting about it. Rather than being born into the social media era, we grew up with it, and are therefore more likely to embrace new platforms of telling people what we are doing and with whom.

For young interns, “social” must take on a second meaning in the workplace. Clearly, it is important to be friendly with coworkers, but our social media presence must evolve as well. A recent article from Careerealism (http://bit.ly/1p78WQa) boldly claims that while social media cannot replace your resume, it is an additional virtual component that employers look at.

Toward this end, make sure your Twitter account is professional. While it may be fun to livetweet the latest episode of “The Bachelorette” (guilty), use your professional twitter to engage in conversations about your field …

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By Janet Boston, Executive Director, Indiana INTERNnet

“What you put in is what you get out” – we’re not mathematicians, but we do know this is the simple, tried-and-true formula for finding ROI (Return on Intern that is!).

Internships, at their best, function as a two-way street. In exchange for an employer providing a student with real-world working experience, the intern brings new energy, increased productivity, diverse knowledge and perspective, and much more.

We hear constantly from employers that they couldn’t keep up their level of productivity and quality of work without the help of interns. We have countless anecdotes of interns who went above and beyond, who saved the company money, who developed more efficient processes, who completed an important project that far surpassed expectations …

And the national conversion rate for turning interns into full-time hires is 48.4%, according to NACE’s 2013 Internship & Co-op Survey.

There is …

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As we begin to finally thaw out from what seemed like the longest and coldest winter, signs of spring and summer are everywhere. The trees are green, the air is fresh and the pollen count is high.

With these new beginnings comes a new season of summer interns, including myself. Now that my first days as Indiana INTERNnet’s Marketing and Special Events Intern is under my belt, I am ready for the learning experiences that await me this summer.

Having just finished my junior year at Indiana University in Bloomington, I am excited to return home to Indianapolis for the summer to continue the learning process. My previous internships in marketing and public relations at home in Indianapolis and abroad in London helped greatly strengthen my workplace experience, and I know those experiences will only grow during …

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