Tag Archives: intern
Letâs Wrap It Up
Entry by Brittney Horn, Membership Intern, Greater Lafayette Commerce
And Iâm not talking gifts here people! Though the holidays are coming up quickly, for some of you that fateful time that your precious internship ends is looming in the near future as well. Yes, I know Iâm excited for all of the traditions I celebrate, but donât let these last few weeks go by without accomplishing any work with your internship! These last few weeks are the time to make all of your hard work count by following these few tips:
Wrap up any projects/assignments you have. Please do not be that intern that leaves unfinished work left for a new intern to finish. Itâs hard enough on your first day at your internship and they really donât need to be tidying up your leftovers. Get a recommendation letter. Any notable intern supervisor will gladly write you …
Turkey Break: You Can Never Overcook Your Intership Search
Entry by Pat Patterson
Students and employers, Thanksgiving break is a great opportunity to prepare for upcoming career fairs. Although it may not sound like fun, researching and preparing for career fairs will help all you students land internships and all you employers find the perfect internsâŠnot to mention, make you feel better after stuffing your face. After all, what else are you going to do for the six to eight hours that your turkey is cooking?
Students and employers, check out Indiana INTERNnetâs event page to view upcoming career fairs near you.
Students, check out past blog entries for career fair advice:Â Students: Preparing for a Career Fair, Career Fair Game Plan, Career Fairs 101: Create Customized Resumes, Career Fairs 101: Avoid the Herd Mentality, and Career Fairs 101: After the Career Fair.
Employers, check out our past blog entry: Career Fairs 101: Selling Your Company …
Homework for the Holidays
Entry by Brittney Horn, Membership Intern, Greater Lafayette Commerce
So I realize the title of this post may scare most readers away because who really wants to do homework over the holidays? But I promise you if you do just a little work, it will pay off tremendously in the end.
Anyone still reading out there? Moving onâŠ
The homework I am assigning to you is looking for that summer internship! (See itâs not so badâŠ). A summer internship is your time to shine and show off all that knowledge that you learn during school. Internships also provide an excuse to get away for 2-3 months to wherever you want to go! Participating in a summer internship can help you find what you want to do for the rest of your life, which is pretty important to happiness if you ask me. You can learn so much from other co-workers …
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 …
Employers: Is Your Organization Ready for Your Intern’s Arrival?
Entry by Pat Patterson
Preparing your office for an intern’s arrival
If you have already decided you would like an intern or even have hired someone to begin soon, consider following these steps:
Orientation
Before an intern reports to work for the first time, it is recommended that the employer establish an orientation schedule. This helps the student feel like he or she is a member of a professional team and cultivates a sense of camaraderie.
Be sure your plan includes the following:
Confirmation of intern’s work schedule Introduction to staff Meeting with intern mentor Meetings with individuals at the organization with whom the intern will interact frequently Tour of the facility HR paperwork Paperwork for intern’s academic credit Parking arrangements Discussing project work in detail, assigning priority and setting deadlines Arranging any necessary training
Anything I left out? Leave your …
Employers: Is Your Organization Ready for an Intern?
Entry by Pat Patterson; from the November INTERNnetwork
Before you decide to host an intern, you should consider the benefits and whether it’s practical for your organization.
Interns can:
complete project work that may be on the backburner; increase productivity; reduce recruiting costs; and bring fresh, innovative perspectives to your organization.
Hosting an intern can allow you to:
provide a student with a rich learning experience; offer management experience to employees working as intern supervisors; market your company via word of mouth; and begin training potential full-time employees.
Is it practical?
Do you have the appropriate staff to support an intern? Do you have meaningful project work to assign? What will be the duration of the internship? What is the best time of year to host an intern? Do you plan on potentially hiring an intern full-time? Do you have difficulty finding qualified …
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? …