Woah Baby! Feels like this semester went by in a blink. These last two weeks have been absolutely crazy so I apologize for no blogg last week. However crazy these last two weeks have been they have been a good crazy. Other than polishing off the last bit of work before finals I have been very busy in the job hunt, having 2 or 3 interviews in the past week. My nerves for this summer have moved into excitement now as I see the multiple possibilities that could present themselves to me. I have learned a great deal about the job process this year while at the Career and Development Center and am sad to bid a farewell. Congratulations to all seniors who have finished their career’s as Hawks and depart from our hill and go out to change the world. I hope you all have found jobs in your desired fields and want to remind you to continue using the Career Development Center as a resource and tool to further your career’s. Thank you all who have been reading the blog and staying up to date with it. It was a pleasure to give you my side of the story. Until next semester, have a wonderful summer and happy job hunting!

Last night I was returning to my house from a formal meeting I had to attend. As I reached my room I started taking off my suit. When doing this  I reached in my pocket inside the jacket to retrieve my wallet and to my shock I found two business cards from the employer I interviewed with the day before! I was so mad at myself that I let them sit in my pocket and forgot about them until now. I didn’t send out a thank you letter at all or any type of follow up from my end. So as i typed up two emails to send to them late last night I thought about how important the follow up email can be. The first thing of importance with the follow up is that it shows your interested in the position. It also shows that your grateful for the time the employer gave you to interview. Another thing I thought was important is it brings you back up in the mind of the person who interviewed. For example say you interview early in the morning on a day where the employer has scheduled 20 different appointments with students. After awhile they interviews would tend to blur together. The email brings your name to the forefront of the employers mind and they then remember your interview and what type of person you are which. Also sending a thank you letter is just a respectable thing to do. Happy Job Hunting!

I recently spent time making an Internship.com profile. I spent about an hour updating my resume and making sure everything transferred over right, as I was doing this I thought to myself does this really work. The new wave of social media that has swept through all of our lives has now transcended into everything we do whether it be interact with friends, connect with people, to job search! Sites such as internships.com or LinkedIn have allowed us as job seekers to market ourselves in ways that have never been capable before. I wanted to know thought is it working? Or these internet/social media career sites actually correlating to finding jobs and companies finding you? Or could these sites make it even harder to be found now that millions of people could be on the site making it that much harder and competitive for individuals to stand out? Like many of my last post you all probably know I’m a huge proponent of networking, and i still feel this is the best way to land jobs. I feel that these sites are helping discover jobs but to anything more than that I’m still up in the air on. Let me know your thought and opinions down below. Thanks!

So this week I was thinking about networking. Not only on how important networking can be in your job search but more about how to network. For myself I decided to first start professionally networking through my family members. My parents were a great resource in introducing me to new people who I was able to talk to about different job/internship possibilities. The networking through family ties has so far paid the most dividends to help me. My second most successful networking process has been through social media such as LinkedIn. I actually refereed back to my high school year books when I was a freshman and tried to reach out to the men and woman who were seniors in high school then. This proved to be somewhat helpful in finding out what roads they pursued. My other networking has come through my general school life through either working at the Career Development Center, talking with professors, or any of the other clubs that I’m involved with where alumni/recruiters have come in to talk to us. I find activities such as these good because generally anyone who comes back to SJU has a strong interest in the students. However as well as these three techniques seem to be working, I still wish to improve upon my networking and like I mentioned before you should never stop networking. What ways do you network and what do you find works the best? Let me know by leaving comments!

Sorry for the late update everyone! Its funny thing that this post is late because it kinda coincides with the topic I want to talk about. So when I had a moment today to stop and think, I realized something. When I become busy it seems I place job/internship hunting on the bottom of my priority lists. Which seems to really end up getting the best of me because I feel like I miss deadlines or opportunities to apply or even secure a position at a company. I also don’t think this is a problem with time management because I feel like I have good time management when it comes to everything besides this for some reason. I feel like this is a common problem at least here at SJU. I always hear people saying thing such as, “Oh yeah! I totally forgot to make a appointment at the Career Center!” or “Oh that event was tonight!?!” Maybe this is a common problem facing all college student however I feel like this is a glaring issue if it is! The reason most continue to college is to eventually secure a job/internship. Maybe this is my nerves speaking as the end of the second semester draws nearer and I have yet to land and internship. Of course once I place the issue in those constraints, maybe I shuffle this to the bottom of my priority lists because I do have time(considering I’m only a sophomore). My rebuttal to my own argument comes when you look at the stiff competition you face when it comes time to get a job, these experiences can be critical. I do place some of this on our professors at SJU actually. They do stress getting jobs but then forget to see such things such as scheduling a test on the day of a Career Fair. I would like hear some thoughts of what you all think! As students do you think this is a problem, do you find yourself moving job hunting to the bottom of your priority list. If so how do you think the CDC/Professors/Administrators should address this? As CDC Counselors/Professors/Administrators do you see this occurring and what are your thoughts on this.

P.S. Sorry if it seems like I was rambling on, many thoughts flying through my head this week!!!!!! #collegelife

So while over spring break I decided to ‘professionalize’ my resume. I took everything off from high school and removed the overused and boring activities section. Instead of nonchalantly listing the activities I’m involved in and hoping a potential employer takes the time to read them and understand what they are, I decided to highlight a select few that I hold leadership roles in. For example I am in a fraternity at SJU and I used to have the name of the fraternity and the position I hold. This didn’t give any explanation or credit to myself to the amount of work I put into the position. I think its important to know how much time and work you put into your activities. However after doing all of this I wondered if the activities list would have been better to show an employer the plethora of activities I am involved in, even if I only just show up for meetings. What do you all think is better? Also what do you choose to highlight on your personal resumes? Thanks for the input!

So most college students associate spring break with beautiful beaches and time to relax. This spring break I plan to do neither of the two. My goal for this upcoming spring break is to follow up with every possible job opportunity I have explored to this point. With crunch time approaching to land a summer internship I want to make sure I exhaust all of my options, which means double checking every interview and talk about working for a company this summer. There is nothing wrong with asking a company where they are in selecting an internship for the summer months! I also am planning on doing more networking at home with already contacting other companies to learn about what they have to offer. My goal through spring break is to make sure I LEAVE NO ROCK UN-TURNED. I feel that keeping up my motivation and determination to land a great summer internship will pay off eventually. I encourage all of you to do the same this spring break. Also quick note to all SJU’s APEX groups: Please have a wonderful trip and be safe! Its awesome to see so many of your class mates giving up their spring breaks to serve others! Be open and allow yourself to be consumed by everything around you!

So my girlfriend is a Biology/Premed major. She recently was at the Science Networking Night and she came back with a mixed bag of emotions. She said that it wasn’t helpful to her because she knows what she wants to do which is attending medical-school. So talking to other people seemed like a waste of time to her since her mind is so set. However she did say it was neat to see all the different possibilities that are out there in the Science/Medical field that you just don’t realize. “Most people just think about a degree in science means you are going into medical-school or going to do laboratory research your whole life. That is just a stereotype of science majors” She claimed. She mentioned all the different things that were on display from different companies, such as a new latex glove that didn’t sweat which I of course had to try on the one she had, that connected the research and application of science. Her lab partner found the night to be extremely helpful, networking with a recruiter from an internship he applied for. He was able to put a face and personality to his application and resume he submitted. From what I concluded the night sounded to be very successful and being a business major like myself it was interesting to get the science aspects of job hunting.

So this week I recently found out that two interviews that I am attending are both group style interviews. Meaning it’s going to be multiple people trying to shine and boast as best they can to catch the eye of the potential employer. For myself I absolutely hate these types of interviews. I would much rather sit down with a recruiter and have a one on one chat with them. I feel that the pressure is so much more when you’re with multiple people in a group where you can visually see how you compare to each one. However other people’s opinion seems to differ on this subject. That would much rather be in a large group interview. They feel that it alleviates some stress knowing that the employer will not just be focused on you. I think that this comes down to personal preference, my questions is though how do you catch the eye of your potential employer? Comment and let me know your thoughts!

So before this year I really did not give networking much thought, but I can tell you personally so far in my job search I have used networks I created to help me find possible internships for the summer. For those of you that are new to networking I found the best place to start is family and friends. You wouldn’t believe how helpful my family and local friends have been in getting my resume looked at and my name out there. A possible summer internship that I might have came about through family networking that allowed me to get an interview with the company. Also I think St Joe’s does a great job of networking for its students. There are many societies that bring in local professionals and also the CDC has multiple network nights throughout the semester.  I always look at it as when any job position is open, there all hundreds of resume’s sitting on the desk at a company and it can’t be a bad thing if your resume just happens to get placed on top of that pile! Keep that in mind this semester if you’re thinking about going out to any of the numerous networking opportunities!