A Thanksgiving Day Plan

It has been a long semester. We all need this four-day weekend to relax and spend time with family and friends eating and shopping!  However, I have a few specific ideas for Thanksgiving Day.

1. Get up before 9am, have a nice breakfast and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Make sure to relax and lay on that couch!

2. Help your family prepare some food for your Thanksgiving meal.

3. Think about who will be attending your Thanksgiving Dinner.  Who do they work for? What jobs do they hold or held in the past?  Even if these jobs and career paths are not related to what you want, these people may have some professional insight to share with you, or may know other people who can help you.

4. Create a mental list of questions you may want to ask these people about their jobs and career paths. Remember, these are probably family members or friends. They want to help you. 

-What do you like about your job?

-What are challenges?

-How did you get your job?

-What skills are important for this work?

-What would you recommend I do while I am in college to prepare for my career?

-Can you recommend anyone I could speak to about my career field of interest?

5. Sit down for your dinner; enjoy the food, the conversation, and start asking questions! It is important to ask others for insight and help because 85% of jobs are found through the people we know!

And do not forget to follow up on any insight you learn, contacts or assistance that might be offered, and resources that might be provided! 

Suzanne Dagger, Director of
Career Development and Assessment

Make Sustainable Connections!

Last night, we hosted our Green Careers: Meet and Greet event in the Student Center. Students were able to meet with professionals from a variety of areas in the Sustainability industry and learn what it is like to work in a “green” career field!

Seeing students and employers make connections on the basis of sustainability as an industry got me thinking about how the connections we make sustainable themselves. Meeting with employers in your field of interest is a great way to get introduced to the variety of opportunities available to you, but it also allows you to build up a network of professionals with whom you may be working or interacting with in the future! Keeping this in mind, it’s very important to keep the connections going after the initial interactions are made.

As you’re meeting with professionals, make sure to get their business card or other contact information. Then, just as you would after an interview, follow-up with them within 24-48 hours to thank them for taking the time to speak with you, and include some of what you talked about or found interesting from your conversation. If you can find the professional contact on LinkedIn, even better! Sending a connection request allows you to not only reach out, but to make a connection that allows the professional to see what you’ve been up to!

Need advice on how to sustain your networking connections? Come on in and let us help!

Amy Smith, Assistant Director

Using Information Interviews and Shadowing to Find Your Career

The best way to explore a potential career choice is by speaking with and/or following someone who works in that career.  So, how do you do that? Informational interviewing and job shadowing are two great options.

Informational interviews help you learn first-hand about your chosen profession by asking questions about tasks, business environment, and educational background.  Shadowing a professional allows you to follow someone in your career choice as they go through a typical day or week on the job and ask questions and observe the work.

Finding a Profession(al)

Finding someone to interview or shadow is not difficult. Ask your parents and your friends’ parents if they know someone you can interview. Ask your professors for recommendations of professionals in the field. Go to your career center: Many maintain lists of alumni and employers who are willing to help in your career exploration.

Next, call or write a letter requesting an information interview or job shadowing. People who like their jobs tend to enjoy talking about them. You compliment the professional by expressing an interest in the career. In your phone call or letter, explain how you found the person you want to interview and request time for an appointment. Emphasize that you want to find out more about the career—you’re not looking for a job. If you’re lucky, the professional you contact may have other colleagues you can interview also.

Asking Questions

Take notes during your time with the professional. Here are some questions you might ask:

• What is your typical workday like?
• What do you like most (and least) about your job?
• What skills/abilities are most important to succeed in this job?
• What is your educational background?
• How did you get started in this field?
• What courses were most helpful to you and which would you recommend?
• What is the best way to get started in this field?
• Do you have any additional advice to help me prepare?

Following Up Your Interview

Review your notes. What was your impression? Did you leave the interview feeling as if you can envision a future in this occupation or were you discouraged—you don’t feel you learned enough about the occupation or the job description doesn’t sound appealing any longer?

Take your thoughts and concerns to the career center staff and get feedback on the next step to take in your career exploration. You may want to do additional information interviews in this career path or you may want to reexamine your goals and find a different path for your interests.

No matter what you decide, send a thank-you note to anyone you interview or shadow. Whether you decide to forge ahead on that career path or find another one, this professional may be a good person to network with when you begin your job search.

Courtesy of the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Gary Alan Miller, Executive Director

Preparing for a Career Fair is Like Planning a Birthday Party…

I know, it doesn’t sound like there are many similarities between getting ready for a career fair and planning a birthday celebration, but if there’s anything I learned from celebrating my birthday this past weekend, there are definitely some overlaps that you can take into consideration:

1. Planning the right outfit is key: Whether you’re looking for a cute dress, matching shoes, and that perfect hint of detail from a statement necklace; it’s important to dress your best, but still professional, when meeting employers. You want to dress to impress, but also remember that you’ll be moving around from table to table—so same for a night out in the city, it’s probably best to ditch those 6-inch heels.
2. Do your research: Similarly to researching and finding a good restaurant everyone will enjoy, it’s important to do the research on employers to learn if it’s the right fit for you. You’ll also dazzle employers by your extensive knowledge and avoid the “deer-caught-in-the-headlights” look when you’re asked a question you don’t know the answer to.
3. Make a plan and prepare beforehand: You generally want to have an action plan of where you’re going and what events you’ll attend beforehand. You may need to call ahead and make reservations or set up a game plan for travelling. Similarly, you want to make a plan of which employers you want to visit before going to the career fair so you can utilize your time wisely and print out an appropriate number of resumes to hand out. Be sure to get your resume critiqued before the day of the event and print out extra in case you come across an employer you weren’t expecting to be interested in!
4. Follow up with people after the event: Whether it’s giving thanks to a guest for being a part of your celebration or sending some love for a birthday present you received, you want to follow up with recruiters with a thank-you letter to express gratitude for taking their time to meet with you. This leaves a positive impression on the employer and makes you more likely to get an interview! 

So, next time you’re planning a birthday celebration or looking to attend an upcoming career fair, be sure to keep these tips in mind so you’ll be prepared and ready to have a great time—or score that interview!

Anne Monique Concepcion,
Graduate Assistant