Sometimes I don't have a lot of time...

To be quite honest with you, sometimes looking for a real job can be kinda scary or be thrown on the back burner because of everything else that is going on. With MQP, organization responsibilities and other classwork, I have no energy or motivation to be on the job hunt 24/7.

Like anything else though I try to make some time every now and then to go through jobfinder and look for future employers. Another thing I try to do is respond back (either via email or phone) to employers that contact me within a reasonable amount of time. After about a day it will slip my mind and losing that contact is not good.

Besides those little things I have been preparing for interviews. This past week I had my first interview for a full time position. A little scary to be honest but all and all it went well. I reviewed the materials the company had given me previously and also reviewed my own resume. Once I felt comfortable talking about my experiences and had knowledge of the company I just tried to relax...which almost happened.

Having that first interview under my belt is a big relief. I have another interview this upcoming week and I hope to keep improving with my interview skills. Besides that I will be focusing on my school work and just getting some things done around campus for my organizations. Good luck on any interviews you have coming up!

Looking back on the Career and Graduate School Fair

It has been a couple days since the Career and Graduate school fair and it worked out really well for me this time around! I got to have some great conversations with companies and was able to distribute a good amount of resumes.

One of my big improvements this year was my ability to hold good conversations with people and make some good connections. I spent a good deal of time with a handful of companies, got contact information, and gave out resumes. Some of the representatives instructed me to apply for a job online and I did so when I returned home from the fair.

I made sure i took note of the people I talked to, their contact information, and any further instructions they told me I should do. For example, one company asked me to forward an electronic resume to an email address. I did that the following night to ensure that the employer would receive my resume while the career fair was still on their mind. If you have not gotten around to making your final connections with companies its not too late so make those connections!

Results from the career fair have been great! I have an interview this week and another one next week. Hopefully I am able to secure 1 or 2 more interviews in the upcoming weeks. Now I need to prepare for my interviews and hope for the best!

Getting ready for the Career and Graduate School Fair

It's time to get ready for the upcoming career and graduate school fair! Here is what is on my list of things to do before I attend:

• Finish updating my resume
• Get my resume critiqued
• Research companies that I wish to talk to
• Find an outfit to wear that I feel comfortable in and look professional
• Practice speaking clearly to others in normal conversation

Some of these things might sound silly (what I'm wearing and practicing talking to people) but these are little things that will calm you down if you feel good about them. The more comfortable you feel talking about yourself and your experiences the more relaxed you will feel when you enter the career fair.

I have researched a handful of companies already and plan to continue researching until the fair. Hopefully all goes well!

So what does an intern do?

Both of my summer internships have included a lot of learning from people in the company as well as a lot of discovering things on my own. For the first couple of weeks I went through a lot of tutorials and sat through numerous meetings on how the company works, what the division does, and what are the goals for the division in the future and how my internship will play a part in that goal.

Many of my tasks were given to me by week and I would try to problem solve on my own before reaching out to find answer. Doing a little work on your own first is always good, this way when you ask for help you have concrete questions to ask and can follow along easier.

With the implementation group I work with test sites alongside a full time employee. I would help with moving code and setting up a site and then helped test different functions. In my IT helpdesk position I would do daily task when people called and needed help with such things as printers, network connections, and specific applications. Some of the long term task I had were improving the inventory database as well as working on a GPS database for one of the other groups at the company.

Internships give you a great experience to figure out what you like doing and in some cases what you don't like doing. I have had two great experiences in two different fields and that will help me decide a career path in the future!