Archive for Category: Internships
The #1 Millennial Career Advantage
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Future of Careers Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships Job Search Tips Managing Generational Differences on September 26, 2011 at 8:29 am
As we enter fall recruiting season on college campuses, many students are concerned about how to position themselves for jobs in the continuingly dismal job market.
To stand out in this economy, everyone needs an angle (or three…or four…). But there is an angle that I think many Millennials overlook, perhaps because it feels so natural to them. In my opinion, the #1 advantage Millennials offer employers is that they are digital natives.
As defined on Wikipedia, a digital native is “a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technology, and through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts.” (Check out PBS Frontline’s excellent special on this topic.) In other words, if you clicked a mouse before you read a book, you’re a digital native.
I’m not talking here about coding ability, HTML5 design or any other specific technical skill. I’m talking about the overall instinct to use technology to solve challenges and create opportunities. This is a highly valuable career advantage and one that Millennials don’t exploit enough when applying for jobs.
If you’re a young professional, here are some ideas for using your status as a digital native to your advantage:
• Promote your social media knowledge. Many Gen Ys are shocked when I recommend including social media skills on their resumes or LinkedIn profiles. The reality is that everyone doesn’t know how to use Twitter and many employers (especially small business owners) will pay someone to do this. If you consider yourself an expert designer of Facebook fan pages, a super-Tweeter (including using all of the myriad Twitter-related sites like HootSuite and TweetDeck) or you’ve been posting videos to YouTube for years, then this expertise should appear as a skill on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
• Demonstrate the ability to tap your online networks. Many companies today are obsessed with crowdsourcing, a skill that most Millennials possess innately. For instance, if you want to be a journalist, editor or TV producer, you should market your ability to quickly tap your online networks for referrals to sources, information and ideas. This is also a valuable skill for aspiring marketers, recruiters and fundraisers.
• Emphasize your self-sufficiency. While Millennials do require a lot of feedback from employers, what you don’t require is a lot of tech support. According to new research from Bomgar and GigaOm Pro, “Millennials initially seek outside sources to solve their own technology problems versus immediately turning to the IT department when something goes awry. Sixty-one percent said they don’t go to company support first, and the majority (71 percent) had searched for an answer on Google at least once.”
• Market your mobility. Everyone is talking about mobile marketing these days, so if you’re especially good at finding apps for your phone, or — better yet — designing apps, be sure to make this known. Since mobile marketing is still a relatively new field, your natural abilities can stand out when companies are looking to build their mobile strategies. But they won’t know you can do this unless you tell them.
If the above tips resonate with you, be sure to add these digital native skills to your resume and to the “Skills” section of your LinkedIn profile (check out this article from Mashable on how to do that).
What other digital native traits are valuable to employers and overlooked by Gen Ys who possess them? Please share your comments!
3 Simple Ways to Get More Feedback
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Future of Careers Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships on August 26, 2011 at 10:38 am
When I run training programs for companies on how to better manage their Generation Y talent, there is a certain complaint I hear over and over again:
This generation wants too much feedback!
According to many managers, Gen Y employees want feedback “on-demand” — they want to know how they’re doing after virtually every meeting, presentation, report, project or any other demonstration of their skills.
Most Gen Ys don’t dispute this fact at all. Almost every young employee I’ve questioned about this stereotype has agreed that it’s true: they can’t get enough feedback at work. This may be because Millennials grew up receiving endless feedback from their performance on video games. Or it may be because they received constant attention and encouragement from their helicopter parents. Or, as digital natives, Gen Ys are used to comparing themselves to the rest of the world with a single click.
Whatever the reasons (and they may be different for each individual), the reality is that most Millennials want more feedback than they’re currently receiving. Many Baby Boomer and Gen X managers are doing their best to provide more feedback — after all, providing feedback is a great way to make one’s employees more productive and successful — but a gap still exists. Remember that for many managers of a previous generation, an annual review was once considered adequate feedback.
In my opinion, the burden to meet Millennials’ feedback needs should not rest entirely with managers. If you are a young professional (or any age professional!) who feels you are not getting enough input from your manager, here are three simple ways to ensure you receive the feedback you want and need:
1. Set a feedback schedule. One of the reasons managers don’t give regular feedback is because they simply don’t have time. So, make it easier for your manager to assess you by asking to set a regular time to discuss your performance. (This strategy works best if your manager has specifically said that you are asking for too much feedback.) Ask your manager for a daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly meeting (depending on what’s reasonable) to chat about your work and provide you with feedback and guidance.
2.Seek out multiple sources of feedback. If regular meetings don’t totally satisfy you, or your manager doesn’t want to meet regularly, this is a smart strategy. Simply look elsewhere. When you have multiple sources of feedback to tap, you can save your most important performance questions for your manager.
Even if you have a manager who loves to assess you, it’s still a wise idea to solicit other people for feedback. While you can’t share confidential work product with anyone else, there are many other aspects of your job that others can assess.
For instance, seek a mentor in another department who can provide feedback on your email communication skills or your overall professionalism, ask a peer to observe you in a meeting and comment on how you handled yourself or attend a few Toastmasters meetings to receive feedback on your presentation skills.
3.Improve your self-analysis skills. The final person you can ask for feedback is yourself. Self-analysis is an important career skill to learn early on in your working life. Continually educate yourself on career-related “soft skills,” such as communication, negotiation, professional etiquette (the many articles here in the Experis Career Center can help), and on the “hard skills” related to the actual work of your job. Then, in any situation where you desire feedback, ask yourself what you did well and what you might improve upon. In most cases, your gut feeling will be correct.
What other suggestions do you have for receiving sufficient feedback? Please share!
One Simple Tip to Immediately Improve Your Professional Communication
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships on July 29, 2011 at 7:15 am
Be more concise.
Yep, that’s it.
For many years I’ve taught professional writing seminars in addition to my career speeches and workshops. In these programs, “Be more concise” is the advice I find myself dispensing more than any other.
Even in our world of 140-charater tweets, 160-character texts and txt msg spk, most people make the mistake of talking and writing way more than is necessary.
Here are some reasons why conciseness is so important, particularly in the workplace:
- People are busy and have short attention spans. Being more concise shows that you respect other people’s time.
- The more information you provide, the less likely someone is to remember it all.
- One perfectly chosen word is worth a dozen less impactful words. As a writing teacher of mine used to use as an example, Which is more powerful: “Lindsey cried really, really hard because she was incredibly sad” or “Lindsey wept”?
- When you talk too much or write very long emails, even if they are beautifully crafted and grammatically flawless, you actually appear less professional to your colleagues. Why? People assume you can’t edit your thoughts or that you’re trying to show off. Or, if you’re a recent grad, you appear to be writing and speaking like you’re still in college and trying to meet a minimum word requirement. (Note: ignore this bullet point if you work in the legal industry, academia or another field where long sentences and paragraphs are the required standard.)
- You become more organized and clear in your own thoughts. Being concise forces you to have a clear understanding of what it is that you’re trying to say. The result is that you are more prepared mentally for whatever next steps are required.
Here are three ways to be more concise right now:
- Cut the preambles. There is no need to begin an email or conversation with “It has come to my attention that…” or “I know you are really busy, but…” A short, polite greeting is great, but don’t dilute your message by adding an unnecessary introduction. Some better introductions are “As requested…,” “As discussed…” and “Below please find…”
The worst example of a long and unnecessary preamble came in an email I once received from an intern who attended one of my workshops: She wrote, “I know you said in your workshop not to write long emails, so I apologize in advance that this is going to be a long email, but…”
What a way to turn off your reader!
- Use more bullet points. Yes, some thoughts need to be expressed in formal sentences, but this is not often the case in the workplace. Your reader or listener (of an email, memo or presentation) will be more likely to remember your points when you shorten them into memorable snippets. Remember that your goal is to communicate, not to write the Great American Novel.
- Edit every email message you send. Before I click send on any message, I always go back and read through it to see what I can cut out. This includes shortening sentences, cutting long paragraphs into two shorter paragraphs and eliminating unnecessary information. If this sounds like too much work, then start by editing your most important emails. I predict that the results will be so good that you’ll start to edit all of your messages.
By no means am I advising that you be rude or curt; the goal is to cut out the fat. You know that feeling of dread when you open an email and see that it is pages long and super dense? Don’t give that feeling to anyone else.
My workshop attendees who apply these three simple tactics frequently report back about the immediate positive results they achieve. The more concise they are in their written and spoken communications, the faster they receive replies, the less follow-up they have to do and the more work they can accomplish. My conclusion? The shorter your communications, the longer your career success!
The #1 Way to Be a Great Employee
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships on July 14, 2011 at 2:16 pm
In one of the first jobs of my career, I had a very hands-on, micromanaging boss. She frequently double- and triple-checked that I had completed even the smallest tasks. Not surprisingly, it kind of drove me crazy.
Looking back, though, I consider that job to be one of my best learning experiences in professionalism, attention to detail and — most importantly — the art of “managing up.”
When people talk about management, they’re usually referring to how you manage the people who work for you. In this case, we’re talking about managing the person for whom you work: your boss. Can you really “manage” the person who is managing you? Absolutely. This is what it means to “manage up.” And I consider it to be the best way to become a great employee and get what you want from your career.
Note that managing up is not the same as kissing up. I love what blogger Penelope Trunk says on this topic, “Some people think managing up is brown nosing, but in fact, a lot of it is about humanizing the workplace. Managing up is about you caring for your boss, and the result will be your boss caring for you.”
I totally agree.
Here are some suggestions for how to manage up:
- Learn what drives your boss crazy. We all have pet peeves, and one of the best ways to manage up is to learn what completely irritates your boss. Does she cringe at grammar mistakes? Does it irrationally annoy him when people send overly long emails?
You can find out what drives your boss crazy through several methods:
1) Trial and error. I once had a boss who stormed into my cubicle one day saying, “Lindsey! Will you please stop cc-ing me on so many emails?!”
2) Consulting with colleagues or other people in your workplace who know your boss’s style well
3) Asking directly. There is nothing wrong with setting up a chat with your boss to ask if he or she would like you to handle anything differently or communicate in a different way. “Do you have any pet peeves I should be aware of?” is a great question to ask, especially if you’ve just started a new job.
Know what, when, where and how your manager likes to communicate. This is absolutely crucial. You may learn a bit about your boss’s communication style by asking about pet peeves, but communication happens in many forms. Remember that the way you like to communicate may not be the same way your boss likes to receive information. To be great at managing up, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Does your boss’s communication style lean towards the informal or the formal?
- About how often is it acceptable to “pop in” to your boss’s office?
- In general, does your boss prefer to receive long emails covering a lot of topics, or individual emails for individual topics?
- If you’re running late or taking a sick day, how would your boss like to be alerted (phone, email, text)?
- Does your boss prefer to be kept in the loop on everything you’re working on (e.g., with daily or weekly update emails) or is he or she more hands off?
Again, you can find out the above information through trial and error, consulting with colleagues or asking your boss directly.
Bring solutions, not problems. One failsafe way to manage up is to always bring your boss ideas, solutions and research instead of questions, problems and complaints.
For instance, let’s say you can’t find information your boss has requested about a start-up company called NewCorp. Instead of saying, “Sorry, I couldn’t find any info about NewCorp,” come to your boss and say, “I did several Google searches, looked on LinkedIn and Twitter and called a few venture capital firms, but I couldn’t come up with any information at all about NewCorp. As a next step, do you have the names of any of the founders or products that I can research and perhaps find more information that way? Or would you like me to research other companies that have recently launched with similar products? Let me know how you’d like me to proceed.”
What you’re doing in this situation is making your boss’s job easier by reporting the facts, bringing suggestions and simply asking your boss to decide on a course of action. In any situation, ask yourself, “What can I do here to make my manager’s job easier?” The result is that your boss will see you as a problem- solver, a doer and a person he wants on his team. Everybody wins.
What is your best advice for managing up? Please share!
How to Be Great on the Job: Interview with Communications Expert Jodi Glickman
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships on July 7, 2011 at 10:29 am
Jodi Glickman is an amazingly good communicator. She is so good, in fact, that she has built an entire business, Great on the Job, around teaching young professionals how to communicate.
She also has a new book on the topic, Great on the Job: What to Say, How to Say It. The Secrets of Getting Ahead. This week, Jodi took some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few of my questions.
Q: I love the concept of your company, Great on the Job. Can you describe what you do and why you started the business?
A: Great on the Job was founded to teach young people how to talk to one another at work, every day in every situation—when you’re on top of you’re game and when you have no idea what’s going on.
I started the business in 2008 after realizing I had been highly coached and scripted at business school during my interviews with investment banks and consulting firms. There’s a whole lot of networking and interviewing support out there when you’re looking for a new job. But the minute you get to that new job, you’re left to your own devices to figure things out.
There’s no roadmap at work that teaches you how to ask for help in a smart way or answer a question you don’t know the answer to. No one ever teaches you how to raise a red flag in advance of a problem or tell the boss you’ve just screwed up. Great on the Job was launched to meet that need— to give practical, tactical advice for all of those mundane, daily one-on-one conversations that make up 80% of the workday and are so critical to success yet are overlooked by academic and corporate training programs.
Q: In your new book, Great on the Job, you give some very specific communication strategies. I particularly like your strategy for effective phone calls and use it all the time. Can you describe that?
A: The beginning of every phone conversation should start like this:
- Introduction
- Purpose of your call
- Key question: “Do you have a few minutes to speak?”
You can’t assume everybody is just sitting there waiting for his or her phone to ring. Even when someone picks up their line, they aren’t necessarily ready and willing to engage with you. Give the other person an “out” if it’s not a good time to speak and offer to call back or find another time that works better. Great on the Job is all about generosity—asking someone if they have time to speak before you start talking is the generous thing to do.
Q: What are the biggest mistakes young professionals make when it comes to in-person communication?
A: Have you ever heard: “Hey Julie, did you get that email about the thing I sent you last week?” And you, Julie, think to yourself, “I have no idea what she’s talking about.” You can’t assume that I know what project you’re referencing or client you’re talking about. When you’re talking to me, lead with the punch line. Tell me front and center what’s new, different or important. Young people are often far too casual and long-winded in their communications. Get right to the point and don’t make me guess about what we’re actually talking about.
Q: What are the biggest mistakes young professionals make when it comes to email communication?
A: If you have to ask whether or not an email is appropriate, don’t send it. Conflict, bad news, sticky situations—they should never be left to email. Any time you have a contentious issue at hand, you’ve got to handle it in person. It’s way too dangerous to send an email that might be interpreted as angry, snarky or whiny. Just don’t do it.
Q: Why is workplace communication so challenging? Is it harder for Generation Y than previous generations?
A: I think the biggest reason Gen Ys struggle is that they’ve grown up with technology as such a core part of their lives and they’re simply lacking practice. Young people need to get out of their comfort zones and drop by a colleague’s office or pick up the phone and speak to a client on the phone. You can’t hide behind email. You really need to practice the art of engaging with people live, face to face. When you have information to share, instead of sending an email, try out giving an update live in a meeting.
Q: Please tell us where to read more of your advice.
A: I’d love to hear from you! You can find me online at Great on the Job and check out my new book: Great on the Job: What to Say, How to Say It. The Secrets of Getting Ahead on Amazon. There’s also lots of great information on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greatonthejob and I spend a lot of time on twitter at @greatonthejob.
Yet Another Reason to Clean Up Your Facebook Profile
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships Managing Generational Differences Uncategorized on June 30, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Over the years I’ve written multiple posts about the importance of cleaning up your online image and, specifically, your Facebook profile.
When I first wrote about this topic in 2007, I found a study by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy think tank, reporting that 35 percent of hiring managers used Google to do online background checks on job candidates, and 23 percent admitted to looking people up on social networking sites. According to the survey, about one-third of those searches led to rejections.
By January 2010, a survey from Microsoft found that a whopping 79 percent of U.S. hiring managers have used the Internet to better assess applicants and 70 percent of employers have rejected a candidate because of information they found about that person online.
Last week things got a little scarier. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission gave approval to a company called Social Intelligence Corp, which keeps files of Facebook users’ posts as part of a background-checking service they offer to their customers for screening job applicants.
This means that even if you delete an embarrassing photo or raunchy wall post, the material could stay in your file for seven years, where a potential employer using Social Intelligence Corp’s services could access it.
Frankly, I’m not surprised we’ve gotten to this point. Social media is such a part of our daily lives that it was only a matter of time before even deleted material could be discovered.
That said, what concerns me about this new development is that it leaves no room for people to make mistakes, which we all do (especially when we’re in high school or college and first using Facebook). Do I think one mildly inappropriate party photo from sophomore year will sink your CEO chances? Probably not. But if your Facebook account is chock full of concerning behavior, comments and images that may hurt your chances of landing a job in the future. The good news is that you can take control of your online presence and avoid this possible fate.
Here are some common sense tips to follow on Facebook (as well as on Twitter, YouTube or any other social networks you use):
- Adjust your privacy settings. Use all the tools Facebook itself provides to protect your photos, wall posts and other content from public viewing. For a great list of essential privacy settings, check out this privacy guide from Mashable. Remember that Facebook has a tendency to change all the time, so stay on top of changes to their privacy policy and various settings options.
- Make sure your Facebook profile has a PG-13 rating. Even if you’re super careful with your privacy settings, you never know who might be able to access your account in some way. To be on the safe side, remove any photos of nudity, partial nudity, underage drinking (yes, even if you were in a country at the time with a lower drinking age), drugs or any other illegal behavior. When in doubt, ask yourself: Would I be comfortable if a recruiter (or my grandmother) saw this photo?
- Be proactive about deleting posts and untagging photos. An employer won’t necessarily distinguish between something you yourself posted and something a friend posted to your profile. Whenever something appears on your profile that could raise a red flag, delete the post or untag yourself from the image.
- Think twice before updating your status about anything career-related. I’ve seen way, way, way too many status updates from people at all professional levels that bash their jobs, their bosses or work in general. Since most people are connected to at least a few colleagues or clients (and often their bosses, too!), this is never a good idea. Even if you’re not saying anything truly offensive, multiple status updates about how much you hate Mondays, how crummy your workday was or how idiotic your company’s policies are can hurt your career prospects in the future.
I feel a bit like I’ve just given a schoolmarm-ish lecture, but I’ve seen too many people—recent grads in particular—lose really good job opportunities because of information or images they posted online. It breaks my heart every time because this is such an avoidable mistake. So, have fun on social media, but always keep in mind that nothing you post on the World Wide Web is ever really private.
8 Steps to Effective Informational Interviews
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships Job Search Tips Networking and Personal Branding on June 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm
8 Steps to Effective Informational Interviews
One of the most frequent pieces of advice I give to young professionals is to seek out successful people and ask to conduct an informational interview with them. Essentially, an informational interview is a networking meeting where the interviewee (the successful professional) agrees to share some career advice with the interviewer (you).
I conducted tons of informational interviews when I was a student and young alum, and now I’m often the one being interviewed. And here’s the thing: If someone impresses me, I’ll go out of my way to help that person find a job or connect them with other people I know. If that person doesn’t seem to take the informational interview seriously, I usually end the call early and rarely keep in touch.
If you want to be in the former group with the people you ask for informational interviews, here are some secrets to success:
- Confirm. At least 24 hours in advance of your scheduled phone call or meeting, confirm with your interviewee. This shows that you respect the person’s time and that you are taking this opportunity seriously.
- Be on time. This is just as important for a phone call as it is for an in-person meeting. If you have agreed to 2pm, call at 2:00pm on the nose. Again, it’s a matter of respecting the other person’s time.
- Do your research. It’s really irritating when someone asks to speak with me and then his or her first question is, “Can you tell me about what you do?” A simple Google search will lead you to my (or anyone’s) LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, website and all of the articles and blog posts I’ve written. This opening question isn’t a smart use of the time you have to gain valuable career advice.
- Clearly and concisely explain your situation. In most cases, the person you are interviewing won’t know much about you (don’t assume that he or she has read your resume or any other information, even if you’ve sent it in advance). So it’s a great idea to start the call with a brief (one- to two-minute) introduction to who you are and what you’re looking for. For instance, “I’ve just graduated with a BA in computer science and I’ve completed a few internships at big companies. My goal is to find a job at a start-up in the Boston area where I can work in product development.”
If you’re not totally sure what you want to do, it’s fine to say that you’re not sure yet, but do give the person some indication of the fields you’re interested in. For example, “I’ve just graduated with a degree in communications and, although I’m not completely sure yet what career to pursue, I’m currently looking at positions in public relations and marketing and would be open to other opportunities as well.”
- Prepare questions in advance. I recently spoke to a student who had prepared about 5 questions to ask me in a 30-minute phone call, which struck me as the perfect number. She clearly had specific issues she wanted to discuss and I really respected the fact that she had prepared so thoroughly. Her questions were also a good mix of specific (regarding a particular interview she had coming up) and general (she asked me what books I was currently reading and would recommend to a recent grad).
- Show that you’re listening. Remember that you are the interviewer in this situation, so it’s important to be a great listener. You want your interviewee to do most of the talking so you can gain as much wisdom as possible. This means repeating back some of the highlights of your interviewee’s advice and jotting down some action steps that you can share with the interviewee at the end of your call. For instance, perhaps the interviewee recommended a book to read or a particular company to research.
Sharing action steps is also a fantastic way to set up the expectation of a follow-up conversation. Tell the interviewee that you will be in touch as you accomplish the tasks he or she has suggested.
- Send a thank you email within 12 to 24 hours. Just like a formal job interview, an informational interview— even a very quick or casual one—requires a thank you email. The sooner you send one, the better to stay on that person’s radar screen and show that you appreciated his or her time. A handwritten note is a nice gesture, too, but given the speed of the world today, I generally prefer email thank yous following an informational interview.
- Keep in touch. If someone has agreed to an informational interview, that person now has an investment in your success and wants to hear how you’re doing as your job search continues. While you don’t want to overdo it, it’s absolutely appropriate to follow up with this person in a few ways:
- As mentioned, let the person know that you have taken action on his or her suggestions.
- Connect on LinkedIn with a personalized connection request that can serve as another thank you note (for example, “Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me last week. I look forward to keeping you posted on my job search!”).
- Be sure to inform this person when you eventually land a job. Everyone wants to feel that they contributed in some way to your success.
Do you have any other informational interviewing tips or best practices? Please share!
How to Turn an Internship into a Job: A Q&A with Nate Whitson of Intern Match
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Internships Job Search Tips on March 9, 2011 at 12:05 pm
By Lindsey Pollak
This week’s post is a Q&A session with Nate Whitson from Intern Match. As you’ll see, Nate shares some valuable tips and pointers on getting, keeping and making the most of internships.
1. How has the internship world changed over the past 5 to 10 years?
The value and importance of internships have changed in many ways over the last 10 years. First, internship experience has evolved from simply a resume booster to essentially a pre-requisite for landing an entry-level job.
Second, the popularity has increased. In fact, the number of internships taken by students has increased over 8-fold in the last 10 years, and internships are now the #1 way in which employers are hiring students.
Because of this increase in importance, internships have become much more competitive in the past decade. Career changers, graduate students and even high school students all compete for the same positions. This means that looking for positions early and often in college is essential.
2. A lot of recent grads are taking unpaid internships after they graduate. Can you discuss this trend and whether you think this is a good choice for a recent grad who can’t find a full-time, paid position?
In the current economy, recent graduates are having a hard time finding jobs and are willing to do just about anything to get a foot in the door. At the same time, other employees who are being laid off are trying to break into new industries — and at times are offering their services as unpaid interns. This means businesses are seeing applications from a variety of qualified candidates who are willing to work for free.
There are a lot of problems with this. Unpaid internships can be exploitative, and they exclude those students and graduates who need to support themselves with a wage. They are also illegal in some circumstances.
That being said, considering an unpaid internship as a recent grad depends on the individual and the opportunity. For example, some non-profits or startups simply cannot afford to pay, but offer a highly educational experience that may be worth taking (in fact until this year, White House internships were unpaid). My recommendation is to keep an open mind, but be cautious of organizations looking to exploit over-eager job seekers. Part-time unpaid opportunities are frequently a better decision.
3. What are some ways to get the most out of an internship?
The first step of any internship is proving your salt – turn work in on time, keep a positive and professional attitude, and make yourself a valued member of the team.
Throughout the internship, develop a broad understanding of how the organization works, what skills different employees have that make them valued, and talk to your co-workers about their jobs and how they got there. Networking is more powerful when combined with a sincere interest in your co-workers’ career paths. Also, focus in on learning industry-specific software tools, like Salesforce for a sales internship, or QuickBooks for an accounting internship. This experience is something that is not taught in school.
4. How can people turn an internship into a full-time job?
Turning an internship into a job is a matter of proving your commitment to the organization and going the extra mile — even on small tasks (all organizations have grunt work, and showing that you are committed regardless of the task helps prove that you are indispensible).
Also, staying in touch with your boss after the position is over is a great way to convert internships into jobs. Connect with co-workers on LinkedIn, try to assist the organization in finding their next intern and write a positive article or blog post in your school newspaper or department blog about the experience.
5. Can you share some tips and tricks about the intern hiring process?
Having a great resume is essential. You can view our sample internship resume here, and know that highlighting past work experiences in a quantitative manner helps a resume standout.
Getting hired also means marketing yourself. Develop a professional persona that you use in all of your applications. Create a LinkedIn account that includes a professional picture. Make this picture the same as your Facebook picture (as long as it’s professional), and print out business cards.
The easiest and most often overlooked tactic that makes a major difference in the hiring process is following-up. Send a kind follow-up email the day after your interview. If it was an in-person interview, send a hand-written “thank you” note. Small personal touches will make you stand out.
Thank you to Nate for answering my questions today. What additional questions do you have about internships?
Top 10 Job Hunting Tips of 2010
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships Job Search Tips on December 10, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Top 10 Job Hunting Tips of 2010
I absolutely love end of year lists, and swooned when I found Time.com’s list of The Top 10 of Everything of 2010.
Although Time’s list of lists is pretty comprehensive, ranging from apologies to new species to Twitter moments, I wanted to add my own top 10 list — top 10 tips for job seekers. Here are the tips that readers found most helpful this year.
1. Ask for honest feedback. Recruit a trusted relative, career services staff member, professor or friend to assess you honestly as a job seeker. Ask the person to list your best qualities and most impressive accomplishments. On the flip side, ask for constructive feedback on your weaknesses. Find out if the things you’re most concerned about — lack of experience, a less-than-desirable GPA, shyness, etc. — are legitimate concerns or if you’re obsessing over nothing. If your fears are unfounded, let them go once and for all!
2. Don’t be turned off by the terms “internship” or “part-time.” This tip came from Lauren Porat, co-founder of UrbanInterns.com. In a difficult job market, sometimes you need to be flexible and “settle” for a less-than-perfect opportunity, such as a non-full-time job. According to Lauren, many people have developed incredible careers by serving multiple part-time clients. Also, starting out this way may allow you to get your foot in the door with some very cool, interesting startup companies.
3. Overprepare. Think about your confidence level when you walk into a test for which you’ve studied really thoroughly versus how you feel walking into a test for which you’ve skimmed your notes for ten minutes the night before. Most people don’t realize that a job hunt is something you can study for. Before attending a job fair, spend an hour or two on the websites of companies that will have booths. Before a job interview, spend an hour reading the organization’s website (especially the mission statement, recruiting pages and recent press releases) and study the LinkedIn profiles of the people who will be interviewing you. Read e-newsletters and blogs from your industry to keep up with current events that might be discussed at a networking event. The more preparation you do, the more confident you’ll feel when you interact with recruiters and other professionals you’ll encounter during your job search.
4. Do not ask to “pick someone’s brain.” Okay this one is more about how not to ask me in particular for advice on your job hunt (or anything for that matter!). Some people don’t mind this phrase, but I definitely do. Why? First of all, I think it sounds kind of gross (think about it). Second of all, it is very one-sided: if you are picking my brain, what’s in this conversation for me? It feels as if I’ll be left brainless afterwards. My advice is to always request advice in a way that makes the ask-ee feel respected and like he or she will leave the conversation with something, too.
5. Clean up your online image. According to a recent Microsoft survey, 85 percent of HR professionals responding said that positive online reputation influences their hiring decisions, and 70 percent said they have rejected candidates based on information they found online. Make no mistake about it: your online image will affect your job search and your career. If you haven’t already, set up strict privacy settings on all social networks (often, including on Facebook, the default setting is for all of your information to be public, so check every setting!), take down any inappropriate pictures or content, set up a 100 percent professional profile on LinkedIn and Google, and think twice before posting any new content on Facebook, Twitter or a blog. In many recruiters’ minds, you are what you post.
6. Spell recruiters’ and hiring managers’ names correctly. Of the emails I received responding to a part-time position I posted this year, about half (!) spelled my name wrong. To me, that was an instant sign that a candidate lacked attention to detail. None of these people were called for an interview.
7. Don’t be too early for a job interview. While we’ve all heard the advice never, ever to arrive late to a job interview, employers are equally peeved when you arrive too early. By all means get to the company’s building or parking lot as early as you’d like, but don’t enter the actual office any more than 15 minutes before your scheduled interview time.
8. Focus on what you can do for your employer, not the other way around.
In cover letters, email messages, conversations with recruiters, salary negotiations, etc., make sure you frame your value in terms of what you can offer, not what you need. Recruiters roll their eyes at cover letters that begin with, “I would like to find a position in which I can learn.” Likewise, negotiations fail when you ask for more money because, “I need it.” You’ll have a better chance of getting what you want when you focus your argument on how it will benefit the company in terms of increased sales, more productivity or lower costs. Always ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?”
9. Never call to say “Just following up.” There is a fine line between appropriate persistence and pointless pestering. It is absolutely fine to call or email a recruiter to say thank you for a company information session, to ask a few questions or to mention that you’ll be attending another event they are hosting. But “Just calling to follow up!” doesn’t add much to your candidacy. If you find yourself calling multiple times with no response, you may have to accept the fact that, as the famous dating book title says, this particular employer is just not that into you.
10. It’s never too late to say thank you. I’ve had a lot of students ask me “how late is too late to send a thank you note?” and I truly believe that a thank you is always warranted and always appreciated, even if it comes much later than expected. If you do find yourself sending a belated thank you, simply say something like, “I truly apologize for the delay in thanking you…” or “This note is late but I am deeply grateful…” It’s better to feel a bit awkward and do the right thing than to hope the person doesn’t notice that you never showed your gratitude.
What other job hunting tips were most helpful to you in 2010? Please share!
The Single Most Important Resume Item
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships Job Search Tips on October 8, 2010 at 5:53 pm
I recently moderated a panel discussion of prominent CEOs from three very different industries — professional services, social media and nonprofit. While they each gave excellent advice to the students in the audience who were interested in their particular fields, the CEOs all came together on one key point:
All employers in all industries are seeking one major resume item: leadership.
Why is leadership so important?
Read the rest of this post on my “College to Career” blog at MyPath.com…
