Tag Archives: Job Search

An Event You Won’t Want to Miss

Entry by Pam Norman, Indiana INTERNnet Executive Director

No matter how large or small, your company can benefit from hiring an intern. Now more than ever, today’s challenging business environment offers opportunity to access talented student interns willing to put their creative energy to work for your organization. Learn how easy it is to get an internship program designed and implemented!

On October 7th, Indiana INTERNnet joins forces with IndySHRM to present a workshop designed with you in mind.  An interactive panel of experienced internship employers, former interns, and career services staff will highlight how to make a solid business case for hiring an intern.

Hiring managers, career services professionals, and students are invited to attend the event in downtown Indy which includes time for networking, six easy steps to creating an internships program, practical tools to help you get started and lively conversation from panelists with internship experience.

We …

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Career Fairs 101: Selling Your Company to Potential Interns

Entry by Pat Patterson

From the 2010 September INTERNnetwork:

Now that you have established a need for interns in your organization, you need to make sure you have students that are interested in your internship opportunities.  And although having too many interested candidates may not be a bad thing, it is important that the candidates you attract are qualified for your positions and are the right fit for your organization. 

Conveying a clear, concise message about your organization and its mission is vital in attracting the type of talent you would like to fill your internships.  Here are some tips on how to sell your company to interns, specifically at career fairs:

Have a section of your website dedicated to your internship opportunities, including detailed descriptions, which you can direct interns to visit (the link can be included on any literature students are provided before the career fair), attend those …

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Students: Internship Experience May Increase Your Salary

Entry by Pat Patterson

As you may already know, there are many benefits of interning, including:

Enhancing your educational experience, testing out a new organization or industry, exposing yourself to multiple departments within an organization, discovering your talents and aspects of a job you find appealing, gaining real-world job experience, learning new skills, building your resumé, making new connections, and setting yourself up for full-time employment. 

In addition, according to NACE’s 2010 Student Survey, students from the Class of 2010 who had internship experience received higher average starting salaries than students who had no internship experience: 

In terms of starting salary offers, there is a definite financial advantage for students who have internship experience, according to results of NACE’s 2010 Student Survey. Overall, students in the Class of 2010 who had internships received an average salary offer of $41,580. Meanwhile, their classmates who didn’t take internships received an average starting …

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Career Fair Game Plan

Entry by Pat Patterson

Last Friday I posted an entry about how to prepare for a career fair.  You also need to lay out a game plan of the organizations you will visit and the order in which you will visit them.  I would recommend visiting those organizations you are less interested in first to build up your confidence when you speak with those recruiters from organizations you are more excited about.

Here is some advice to help guide you during the career fair:

DURING a career fair:

Arrive early, dress professionally, have your resume, portfolio, and a pen ready, proceed to the organizations that you identified you are interested in, be aware of your posture and body language, relax, be confident, be approachable – SMILE, offer a firm, confident handshake to recruiters with eye contact, execute your *elevator speech, ask any questions you prepared, and make sure to collect …

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Students: Preparing for a Career Fair

Entry by Pat Patterson

Fall career fairs are beginning to take place as early as next week, and recruiters look positively on candidates who show up to career fairs prepared.  But what does that mean exactly?  Here is some advice to help guide you:

BEFORE a career fair you should prepare by:

Keeping up on industry/market trends, keeping up on current events in your areas of interest, pre-registering for the career fair, researching the participating employers and their opportunities,
– General company information:  industry, market outlook, products and services, history and corporate culture, organizational mission and goals, key financial statistics, organizational structure (divisions, subsidiaries, etc.), and locations (main and branch).
– Employment: career paths and advancement opportunities, benefits, diversity initiatives, current internship and job opportunities. identifying the employers you plan on speaking with and the positions you plan on applying for, preparing resume(s) (creating specific, tailored resumes for different …

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How Will You Be Remembered?

Entry by Pat Patterson

Regardless if you are at a networking event or a friend’s cookout, you are likely to meet new people, perhaps someone who will lead you to your next internship or job.  Whether you will continue to keep in touch with new contacts depends on how favorably they remember you.

A great first impression will increase your chances of continuing a relationship with someone you meet.  Especially for those internship and job seekers at career fairs, making a great first impression may determine whether or not a recruiter decides to toss your resume aside or keep it in the pile of potential candidates.

In Kevin Eikenberry’s blog, Leadership and Learning, he provides ten valuable tips on how to make a great first impression:

Relax. This comes first, especially if the situation is one where you feel you need to make a great first impression. You want the new …

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Employers: Are You Effectively Branding Your Organization?

Entry by Pat Patterson

Your organization’s brand determines its reputation, which will in turn determine how well your organization will perform.  Therefore, it is important to periodically ask yourself if you are effectively doing all you can to take charge of your brand.  Even if you are not hiring interns or employees for the fall, consider attending campus career fairs to spread awareness of your organization and its future work opportunities.

Consider these results from NACE’s 2010 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey, citing career fairs as the most effective branding tool:

More than 90 percent of employers taking part in NACE’s 2010 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey cited branding to the campus as very important to their program. In addition, more than 90 percent cited career/job fairs, the corporate web site, and building relationships with key faculty as the tools and activities they use to build their brand. Nearly two-thirds of those using career/job …

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