Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy your Thanksgiving break! But don't take a break from networking! Thanksgiving gatherings may be the perfect time to meet friends of family and make new connections. Also, don't forget to chat it up while standing in the long lines outside the mall on Friday.

Have a nice Turkey Day!

What I Learned About Informational Interviews

Last week I had an advising appointment with Phil Gallimore and he gave me some very interesting reading material to take home. It was a several chapters out of Katherine Hansen’s A Foot in the Door. I really enjoyed reading it so I wanted to take the time to share some of the things I learned.

On average it takes 200 resumes—but only 12 informational interviews—to get a job offer. This means that informational interviewing is a very effective networking technique. However, these days many people have forgotten that true purpose of the informational interview—which is to gather information. It is not a trick to get a job offer; the offer is just the icing on the cake. So why interview if not for a job offer? Interview to help yourself learn what you really want in a career, to tap into the hidden job market, and to build networking relationships. And at the very least, think of it as practice for the job interview.

The best way to find people to interview is through networking (Yes, you have to network to network). If you can’t think of anyone come to the Career Center for help, but you could always try contacting alumni first (Try Career Connections-https://www.wustlconnections.com/default.aspx?Page=StudentLogin&Redirect=%2fdefault.aspx?Page=CCONBasicMentorSearch).

Requesting the interview can be done by phone, letter or email (ask for 20-30 minutes). The interview, itself, can be conducted in person, on the phone or via email (in person is most effective). It’s very important to prepare for the interview. Research the company so that you don’t waste the person’s time with questions that you could have answered yourself. Dress in professional attire, and bring an updated resume. Don’t forget to call to confirm the appointment and bring a list of questions (about 15 questions for half an hour).



Good Luck and have fun!

You really do have skills

I've been noticing a lot recently that people don't have confidence in listing their experiences on their resumes. I've seen a lot of vague entries that obscure the great things that people have done in their time at a job, internship, club, or volunteer activity. Have a friend read your resume, or bring it into quick questions. Chances are that, while you know exactly what you did and learned in a particular experience, it doesn't come across as clearly as it should.

I often find myself asking people what they really did in an entry on their resume, and end up hearing about numerous skills the student obtained that were not displayed in the document. These are questions you can ask yourself: What are the concrete tasks I completed during my experience? What skills did I learn? Who did I work with, and in what manner? What resulted from my work? How did I go about it?

Once you answer these questions, your skills and experience will be clearly delineated for a potential employer to see. This is not stretching the truth, which, as Shana so wisely discussed, is a bad idea for many reasons. This is about accurately and concisely portraying the things you have done and learned that will make you a great addition to the company or organization you're applying to.

If you have any questions about your resume, or any in general, please come into quick questions! It's always a good idea to have a fresh eye look at your work.

-Sarah

Resume Padding: Why it Won't Help You

Ok, we’ve all been there: we’ve all thought about how to fill our resumes with a series of “impressive” activities and experiences. In our highly competitive high schools and colleges, the pressure to be over-involved and over-committed is tremendous. Every new project, student group, or extracurricular activity becomes a siren song for the perennial overachiever.  Resist that urge to add yet another student group to your ever-growing list! It won’t help you in the end, and here’s why:

1.     Your resume can only be one page long.

That’s right, you have to fit all of your activities onto one page—and don’t forget that some of your resume will be taken up with the essentials of contact information, education information, and the like. You will have to cut down your activities to the ones that are most important to you, so many of your resume-fillers will be weeded out anyways. A very full resume is not necessarily a strong one and too much clutter will actually hurt you—employers will be looking at a lot of resumes and you want yours to be easily read and accessible.

2.     Employers want to see your passions and commitment.

Having just a few extracurricular activities that you have really committed to will make your resume stronger. This shows that you are passionate about what you do and that you can handle long-term responsibilities. Being involved in something for more than one year and holding a leadership position is more impressive than a list of activities in which you were only somewhat involved. Spreading yourself too thin will show, trust me.

3.     If you can’t talk about it at length in an interview, it’s not worth having on your resume.

Your interview is (among other things) your chance to talk about your experiences; namely, the activities listed on your resume. If you have been involved with something for a while or in a leadership capacity, chances are you will have plenty of good stories and experiences to share. On the other hand, if an employer asks you about an activity you weren’t really involved in, you may not be able to show off your strengths and skills as effectively.

The quest for an internship: Is it too early to start looking?

“The early bird gets the worm, but they worms are hibernating right now,” said the man who would be my mentor for my summer internship at Caltech and Amgen this past summer. It was August of 2007 and I was inquiring about working for him in 2008. I admit, I was a bit overeager and did not need to contact him that early. In fact, the students from that year hadn’t even left yet. However, in December, I received an email from Caltech asking if I was still interested in the position and I ended up getting the job. When I arrived in California, I discovered that my boss had over four times as many students apply as he could accept and that one of the main reasons I got the job was that I asked earlier than anyone else. With that being said, here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Come to Quick Question hours! Most people don’t know it, but QQ’s are not just for resume and cover letter reviews. We can help with your job or internship search or alleviate your frustrations with CareerLink. Stop by with any sort of question- we are here to help!

2. Peruse CareerLink! It may seem early, but there are already many postings for summer internships up on CareerLink and even updating your profile and looking around can help you later. Even if you don’t find something now, being familiar with the site and how it works will help make the search easier later on. Also, you will run into any problems you may have early on and will have time to get questions answered before the panic of deadlines sets in!

3. Make an appointment with a Career Advisor. Whether you know exactly what you are looking for or don’t know where to start, going to visit your Career Advisor could turn up opportunities you didn’t know about or prep your interviewing skills to help you land that position!

4. Watch for the Internship Book for 2009! It’s not out yet, but over winter break we will distribute the famous Internship Book which is packed with companies and organizations that specifically recruit WashU students like you.

Going abroad...what should I be doing NOW?

If you, like me, are a junior going abroad for second semester, it may or may not have crossed your mind to think about what you are going to do when you get back. The summer after junior year is a key year where the pressure is on to get a valuable internship experience. If you are going to be out of the country (some of you without internet access), you could have a tough time finding an internship, or even a summer job, when you return. Furthermore, many programs go much later into the summer than the usual WashU semester, giving you even less time to find a summer opportunity. So, why wait? It is never too early to start looking for internships/jobs and getting your name out there. Here are a few tips to help get you started so you don't end up scrambling come June:

1. Get your resume reviewed during Quick Questions (M/T 12-8 and W-F 12-5) at the Career Center and complete Internship Resume Review (IRR). Now is the time to make sure you have an updated, quality resume that is ready to be sent to companies. This will also get you in the job search mind set. Once you are here, make sure to ask the Career Peer you meet with to help you complete IRR. This will enable you to apply for internships on CareerLink.

2. Browse the internship listings on CareerLink. This will give you a sense of what opportunities are out there. Also, this will give you a chance to apply early to internships that already have postings up.

3. Constantly network. Since you are in a unique position, you can't rely on an abundance of positions to be available to you on CareerLink. Thus, use your few months still at school to exercise every networking possibility you can think of. Ask around to your parents, friends, roommates, friends' parents, family friends, teachers, connections from past jobs, etc. if they know of anyone who works in the industry you are considering. They might not necessarily have a job for you but getting in touch with your roommate's mom's best friend who works in a field you are interested in can only help you. You never know where these connections can take you and connections are often the best way to find jobs and internships, especially at times when most companies aren't yet thinking about hiring summer interns.

4. Get your resume out there! Send your resume to anyone who will take it to get your name out there. You only need your resume in the hands of one right person to land you a job.

5. Interview before you go. If there is anyone who seems at all interested or who has any possible opportunities, set up interviews (even just informational interviews!) during Winter Break, before you go abroad. That way, they will have a strong memory of you when it comes time for the company to do some hiring.

6. Keep in touch! Keep networking and sending out your resume while you are abroad, and keep in touch with companies you have already been in contact with. Even if you have a very promising offer before you go abroad, keep pushing the process forward throughout the semester in any way that you can. The closer you come to having something completely set up when you get home, the better!

7. Don't wait! Most companies will be done hiring by mid-June so don't wait until you get back to search for jobs. Even restaurants and stores will likely be done hiring summer employees by then, so you might be stuck with no backup plan if you don't find an internship. So start now!

8. Search broadly! You might not be able to land your ideal job with all of the difficulties of being abroad. So, get creative. Think of opportunities you might not have considered and ask around to people you might think won't be any help. Also, rather than searching for paid opportunities, search for any opportunity that interests you and look into options for grants or stipends.

How do I build a network?

So networking is my favorite thing to do in life! But I know that everyone doesn't share my feelings. Thus, I thought I would break down some of the myths to enable people to feel better about what I consider to be one of the most important skills to have.
Myth #1
A network can only be made if you have BIG connections with important people.

FALSE!!!!!!!!! First of all everyone is important in a network because you yourself may not be connected to the person that you really want to talk to but a person in your network may be. Therefore everyone you know is a part of your network, even your grandma! Which means that you're born into a network, and all you have to do is add on to it.

Myth #2
You have to have a certain type of personality to build a network.

This is totally untrue. I don't think that because you may be somewhat of an introvert, you won't ever be able to build your network. What really matters is your attitude. This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting a shy Counselor. AN oxymoron right! Well I thought so initially, and then I realized that she never let her shyness get in the way of dreams. I think the same goes for network building. If you keep your eye on the prize you will always have success.

Myth #3
You must be strategic about your networking

I always get a little afraid of the work strategic because to me that means you're going to separate the people that you should from the ones that you shouldn't, which I disagree with. You never know how people are connected, and just because I may not be looking for a job at a specific company, maybe the person at said company has moved from another company that I may be interested in. You have no idea what the future will hold and I think being too strategic about your network hurts you. However, I do agree that you don't want to go to a Career Fair and talk to every company there because that's not using your time wisely. You do want to visit the places that interest you the most, but don't be afraid to get contact information from everyone you meet.

These pointers really help me and I hope they destroy some of the lies that people spread around about networking!