I don't have a job. Do I need a business card?

By Angela Cooley

When you don’t belong to a business it may seem strange to make a business card, but it is an invaluable networking tool because it carries your critical contact information. When engaging in conversation or an informational interview, offer to exchange business cards instead of whipping out your unsolicited resume and asking for a job. Think of nurturing your professional contacts like dating: you wouldn’t declare your undying love to someone you’ve just met and ask them to make a commitment on the spot (at least I certainly hope that you wouldn’t). You’re pursuing this relationship with a goal in mind, sure, but you have to build some sort of rapport first, “courting” your target and eventually winning them over.

This is where your personal business card comes into play: you’ve made a good first impression, and it’s time to exchange digits! Your card, as a student or recent grad seeking employment, should contain your field of study, degree level, university (boiler up!), email, and phone number. If you have an online portfolio, include the url. Don’t be tempted to turn it into a tiny resume, and don’t give yourself an imaginary job title. Your business card by itself won’t land you a job, but it isn’t meant to—it’s meant to get your foot in the door. Because they’re so much easier to tote around than a folder full of resumes, you can (and should) carry your cards with you at all times (an inexpensive business card case will keep them safe and crisp, even in the most treacherous purses or backpacks). You never know when you’ll meet “that special someone” who’s looking for a new employee.

How to create a website using personal branding

Personal branding is your key to professional development and job hunting sucess. Read this article to discover how to apply personal branding techniques to create your own website.

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Find #job postings using your iphone and #monster.com

Monster.com has a new iPhone app that allows you to browse job listings anytime, anywhere.

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Accepting a #job offer

Your excellent networking skills, flawless resume and spot on interview answers have resulted in an official job offer. So...what now?

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Success of the Week: Gaining Sponsorship!

Through experience I have found that when it comes to soliciting sponsorship or donations, there are two types of people in the workplace: those who are comfortable with it, and those who are not. I would place myself in the latter category. If you would place yourself in this category as well, despite your greatest efforts to avoid it, somewhere along the line your career might require this ability. So how do you overcome it? Just do it!
Coming into this internship I had had some experience with soliciting sponsors for a previous company I worked for. Unfortunately I still felt like it was a weak area in my abilities and I set a goal to improve this skill by the end of the internship.  Telling myself that I had to go through it at some point, I asked my fellow intern Meg if there was anything I could do to help her, since she was taking charge of sponsorship for our upcoming Career Week. She openly accepted my offer and we set out to get our sponsors with the help of our senior intern Stephanie.
After some brainstorming of local area businesses and organizations that we could approach, we just went for it. I was extremely nervous at first, because I had no idea how to ask a company for sponsorship. I told myself to simply be open, honest and professional and with the help of the other interns we started to get really positive responses. I started feeling pretty good about what we were doing, and after a few first attempts we began to truly learn the best ways to approach people, what worked and what didn’t. However cliché it may sound, I definitely learned that by simply encouraging myself to go out and try it, I became much more confident in my ability to approach other business professionals, and we gained some great sponsorships and donations along the way!

Customizing your #resume to fit the #job opening

You wouldn't submit the same book report for all of your English classes. So why would you submit the same resume to all of the job ads you apply to?

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If you could be any kitchen utensil, what would you be and why?

By Stephanie Grebe:

I was at a group interview for an internship a few years ago when we were asked a bizarre question: If you could be any kitchen utensil, what would you be and why? The faces of the candidates went blank and we looked at one another completely stumped. Why would an employer care about how we identify ourselves as kitchen equipment?

Questions like this have come up more than once in my interview experiences: if you could be any animal, what would you be and why? What talk show host are you most similar to? What would you do for a Klondike bar?

While these questions initially seem silly and irrelevant, their purpose is to show personality, creativity, and lighten the mood. You only have a few minutes to really win over an employer, so it is crucial that you utilize these moments, including the personality questions. The fact of the matter is, they really aren't interested in what utensil you say. They want to hear the rational you use to support it. This is not just a chance to be funny or cute, this is a change to display your strengths!


Example: I would say that I'm a spork. I have always been incredibly versatile and can adapt to different situations, and with a spork, you can use it as both a spoon AND a fork!

Example: I would be a measuring cup. I am always very precise with my work and make sure I am always reliable. A measuring cup is consistent and dependable. 

Example: I would be a blender. I really love mixing things up and trying new things. I am never afraid to jump right in and love being adventurous.


Whatever you do, don't just answer the question. Draw upon your professional experiences and qualities to support whatever answers you give. Just saying "I'd be a spatula," isn't going to cut it.


What not to say: A young man that was interviewing with me responded with "I'd be a knife, because I'm cut throat." Needless to say, he did not get the job.

LinkedIn: the 10 Mistakes You Want to Avoid

LinkedIn can be a great professional networking tool but these mistakes will harm the way you are percieved on the site. Study up so you don't make the same mistakes on your profile page.

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How to Learn from an Awkward Intern Experience

By Christina Ripley

For reasons unexplained, bizarre and awkward situations seem to make up large sections of my life. I publically fall on ice at least four times during the winter months. In sixth grade someone managed to break into my locker, oddly stealing only my rented flute for band class, a canister of pencils and a Ziploc bag full of Goldfish crackers. And junior year of college, one of my professors walked in on me while I was using the bathroom. I’ve tried to explain these occurrences by blaming karma, my own personality quirks or on the assumption that the Almighty has a black sense humor. Either way, this penchant of strange happenings has spilled over into my work as an intern.

Probably the most entertaining story occurred this summer while I was interning in London. I worked for a blog called “Beauty and the Dirt,” that published stories about the cosmetics and fashion industry in London. One day my boss asked me to go pick up some catalogs from another company’s office located a few blocks away. OK, yes I got lost once. But the street system in London is absolutely insane. Some of the street layouts were adapted from the walking patterns farmers used to herd cattle hundreds of years ago. Seriously.

Anyway, I found the office building and they buzzed me inside. You see, offices in London are often very small and there is a small stairwell and entryway shared by multiple offices. It kind of resembles the entrances to apartment buildings. I picked up the catalogs and all seemed well and good. I walked back down the stairs and tried to open the door that lead to the street. Except, it was locked.

I searched for a deadbolt to twist so I could unlock the door but there wasn’t one. I started to panic a little bit. The hallway was completely empty and I had no intention of heading back up 3 flights of stairs to ask the secretary to open a door. That would have been pathetic. So instead I stood in the doorway for about 10 minutes just praying that someone would open the door. Sadly, no one came. I started to worry that I would be trapped inside this stupid building forever. How useless was I as an intern? I couldn’t even open a door! Expletives began gathering like a cloud in my head as I cursed everything from my logic skills (why hadn’t I played more chess as I child! I could solve this puzzle if I had played more chess!), to the entire city of London (who locks a door from the inside? What a terrible business model. No wonder the British Empire fell apart.).

Suddenly I noticed a small button on the right side of the door, somewhat hidden by a shadow. Underneath was a small sign that simply said “Open.” I hesitantly pushed the button and heard a small click as the door miraculously opened. It was really that easy!

There is a moral to this story. As an intern, you will run into tasks that you don’t expect. Sometimes they might be less complicated than you are making them out to be. Calm down and evaluate your surroundings. The solution might be right in front of your face! Eventually, you’ll find a way to unlock the door.

The 15 toughest #job interview questions ranked by monster.com

Be prepared for some of the difficult questions that an employers might pose during a job interview. Monster.com has ranked the questions in terms of difficulty, listed both good answers and bad answers to the question followed by short tips that can help you answer the question in a personalized way.

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Your Worst Job and What You Learned From It

by: Adam Beasley

While I’ve had numerous jobs in my life up until this point, there is definitely one job that sticks out in mind when I think about my worst job experience. During high school I was looking for a way to make some easy, extra cash and a friend of mine kept telling me about a market research place in town. The pay was good and I was told that all I would have to do is sit in a chair for a few hours. Sounds like a deal, right? At first, it seemed like it. We would sit at ancient computer screens and call people on their telephones to ask for their opinions about shopping and merchandise. I thought I had found my dream job.

About two weeks on the job and it was already starting to get to me. The hours slowly droned by, seemingly never-ending, as I had to call answering machine after answering machine. Most times when I would finally get a hold of someone on the phone, their response would either be yelling at me and accusing me of ruining their supper or asking me, and I quote, “when I lost my soul?” I even had one woman very loudly mock my “southern accent” as she was knee-slapping it with her daughter. I’ll admit I had a bit of a Southern Indiana accent from my parents, but I’m from Bloomington for goodness sake. Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that it was definitely not a confidence builder. The only times I was saved was when I was able to get a hold of a little old ladies who had nothing better to do than talk about the “optimization” of shopping malls. I never thought I would squeal with joy at the thought of a 40-minute conversation with someone’s grandma.

As much as I hated that job, from the boring hours to the co-worker who was always trying to tell me about his weekly television shows, I did learn a few things. You have to keep yourself busy when you’re working and I’m not talking about seeing how straight you can get a paper clip (which I have done), but I am talking about doing actual work. It will make the time fly by so much faster. You also have to learn how to talk to many different types of people because it will help you so much in the world of employment. It will help you get a job or that promotion over the person sitting at the desk next to you. And lastly, appreciate it when you have a great job. If you have a great job and you like what you are doing, then just realize that it could be so much worse.         

Education or Experience: Who has the edge in a #Job search?

The slumping economy has caused many colliegate students to consider attending graduate school while they wait for the job market to improve. What is the best choice for liberal arts majors? What is more valuable to an employer: education or experience?

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What is workplace culture?

By Angela Cooley

When seriously considering a new job, dozens of questions spring to mind: how much money will I make here?  What is the benefits package? How much vacation? How long is the commute? These are all good questions that deserve an answer, but what many interviewees overlook is the critical question that can help them determine whether or not they even want to accept an offer:  what is the office culture?

Every workplace has a distinct atmosphere and set of rules (some clearly stated, some unspoken) that govern how employees conduct themselves. Environments can fall anywhere on the spectrum between extremely formal and extremely casual. When pursuing a job opportunity, determining if you would be a good fit—not only for the position, but for the office team already in place—is of the utmost importance. If you can’t stand wearing a full suit every day, or if the weekly “sharing circle” makes you cringe, it’s better to find these things out beforehand than be hit with unpleasant surprises your first day on the job. It’s also a good idea to ask more than one person about workplace culture. After all, Michael Scott of NBC’s The Office prides himself on fostering a “fun” working environment, but whether or not he has succeeded is another matter entirely!

For Liberal Arts Career Development, office culture falls somewhere in between formal and casual, sort of a comfortable transition from the hoodie-and-flip-flops college environment to the professional world. Because we work in an office environment and may have to meet with the dean at a moment’s notice, dress is business casual, but the atmosphere is far from stifling. We talk, tell jokes, listen to music, and go out to lunch together… as long as we get our work done!

Ways to use social media in your job hunt

Read advice from Annie Fisher, columnist for CNN, about the importance of utilizing social media and personal branding in a job search.

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The Do's and Don'ts of Business Casual Wear

Thelimited.com

If you’re like me, you may spend more time staring at your closet thinking about what you should wear than actually getting ready.  This is especially the case when it comes to business casual attire.  Even though a seemingly simple term, “business casual” has been cluttered with many definitions and guidelines.  While preparing myself for graduation and careers, I decided to compile some sources on appropriate business casual attire to make sure I am always dressed to impress.

Do:

1. Keep it classy: You should feel comfortable walking into a meeting with someone you are trying to impress.  If you wear it out to the bars, it should stay out of the office.

2. Stick to the basics: classic pieces such as khaki or dark neutral pants and a clean button down.  Add a sweater or nice jacket to mix up your basic pieces.

3. Wear a leather belt with a leather shoe: preferably coordinating colors

4. Wear conservative accessories such as watches or women’s jewelry: simple is better

5. Invest in an iron

6. For the ladies: keep your skirts at a length that hits your knee, and make sure slips are hidden

Don’t

1. Wear jeans: They are too casual for the office.

2. Try to be overly “trendy”:

3. Over do it on the perfume/cologne:  Strong smells can be offensive to others.

4. Feel like you need the most expensive pieces to look nice

5. Mimic your business attire after what you see on television:  Business casual attire is not portrayed appropriately on TV.

6. Overlook small details (how do your fingernails look? Did you remove the tags off of your new outfit?)

7. For the ladies: feel like you need hosiery, unless you feel it appropriate

8. For the Gentlemen: feel like you need a tie, (but you could always stash one in a briefcase for emergencies!)

expressmen.com

-If you find yourself in a situation where you do feel underdressed, don’t feel frustrated.  Simply make a kind apology for your attire, and start impressing with what you say!  It is always better to be slightly over dressed than under dressed.  Virginia Tech has a great college-based webpage on business casual attire:

http://www.career.vt.edu/JobSearchGuide/BusinessCasualAttire.html

Try finding ladies pieces at The Limited in the local Tippicanoe Mall, or online at: http://www.thelimited.com/

Or Men’s pieces at Express Men, also in the Tippicanoe Mall and online at: http://www.express.com/for-him.sec

Common Misconceptions About Internships

by Megan Fingert

           Whether it’s our favorite celebrity or an unpopular consumer product, misconceptions and false ideas run rampant in our society. We are bombarded with images of and ideas about everything from cars to perfume, from being a politician to being a cheerleader. As a college student, I know my peers have lots of ideas about what it means to be an intern or to have an internship. In the three internships I’ve held, including my current internship with Liberal Arts Career Development, it has become clear to me that the majority of intern stereotypes are false. I’ve decided to highlight the three that I feel are most prevalent throughout the undergraduate community and debunk these internship myths.

1.            Internships have no substance—all you do is bring your boss coffee and perform other mindless tasks.

It is such a common image on television and in movies that an intern is a sort of personal barista. It appears that we are mostly running back and forth fetching pastries and lattes for an overbearing boss.  While it can make for humorous or shocking entertainment, this is totally false.

In all the internships I’ve held and currently hold, I have been assigned tasks with purpose and with substance—and not once have I been asked to get someone a cup of coffee! Whether asked to proofread press releases at the John Purdue Club, launch a more effective social media campaign for Hungry Boiler, or project manage the first day of Career Week for LACD, I was able to learn something new and worthwhile from every assignment. Bosses were always willing to tailor work to my strengths, whether I had hoped to showcase my writing abilities or better develop my event planning skills. If I had a goal in mind, they always wanted to help me reach it.

So, the next time you fear your internship will come with a second job in a green apron with a certain iconic mermaid on your hat, think again! An internship will provide you with experience that is far from mindless.

2.            If I’m not getting paid, an internship isn’t worth the time or energy.

A lot of college students, including me, are always happy to have some extra cash. There is nothing more frustrating that having empty pockets after buying expensive books for class. So, we have come to believe that a job is only worth it if it helps us make that pretty green bill. Though, many internships don’t come with the perk of payment, neither salary nor hourly wage. Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! In fact, you can gain a lot more than just a few new lines on your resume from having an internship.

You can receive academic credit for most internships. Often a company will offer this opportunity with a plan in mind, or you can work with them and your academic advisor to develop a plan for how you will earn the credit. I am currently working towards earning academic credit for my internship with LACD. It’s wonderful to have on my transcript and, if I perform well, it will be a nice grade to add to my GPA in the end.

Next time, don’t turn down and opportunity because it doesn’t pay! You’ll end up paying for it!           

3.            All bosses treat interns like workhorses and won’t ever give me a break.

            

            This myth actually holds a little bit of truth, but not for the reasons you think. Our fabulous director at LACD is Lisa Snodgrass. Does Lisa ask a lot of us as LACD interns? Sure. Is it ever anything we can’t truly handle? Never!

            Often internships can feel very overwhelming for a one major reason. We are entering a work environment that we are not used to. As undergraduates, we have yet to experience a real live office environment and this setting is very different from the classroom. While we try to adjust to performing tasks as a professional and not just a student, it can feel as though the work never ends and that each task is nearly impossible.

            What’s wonderful about this is that you’ll find it is totally possible! As a student at Purdue University, your professors, advisors, and the Career Development office have always provided you with the tools you’d need to succeed in the work place. Don’t doubt the skills that you have developed throughout your college life, whether in class or in a student organization. They are there and they can bring you success in internships and jobs after graduation.

            So, instead of debunking this myth, I’ll say that this myth is in fact truth if you decide to approach it with a positive attitude (and more positive wording.) If you can do that, you need not worry if you become overwhelmed. You will make it through and with flying colors!

What do I type into Monster.com?!?

By Stephanie Grebe

A Liberal Arts major has a strong competitive advantage in today’s economy. We are jacks-of-all-trades with skills that can be applied to a variety of career paths. While our majors do not directly translate into careers, we have a broad education that exposes us to language, communication, history, culture, diversity, math, and science. The versatility of this education allows us to be adaptable and experienced in as a professional, instead of specializing in one particular field.

While this is a powerful benefit, I have found this freedom and versatility can be incredibly frustrating when it comes to searching for a job. I cannot type “communication” into a search box at monster.com. I cannot type “political science” or “English” the way an engineer can just enter their major. Where do I focus?

What I have found is that, while a Liberal Arts major does not always translate directly into a career, it helps us develop a wide range of transferable skills that are applicable to a variety of careers. So when searching for positions, I personally can search for “Public Relations and advertising and event planning and external relations and social media and global and international…” The list of my passions and experiences are endless, making me qualify for a variety of positions.

Liberal Artists must really focus on their strengths and passions, but also be willing to embrace their broad education. Don’t be afraid to highlight what makes you unique and use a Liberal Arts degree to your fullest advantage.

Why Does Everyone Make a Big Deal About Internships?

By Christina Ripley

Interns: they have a reputation for working long hours for little or no pay, completing tedious projects, receiving limited recognition for their labors and being degraded by upper level management. Before I started interning, I always imagined that internships were similar to the portrayal in “The Devil Wears Prada.” I was terrified that I would be spending my days refilling the coffee pots while my boss rattled off impossible tasks and treated my desk as her own personal coat closet.

Why is there so much emphasis put on internships? After all, they are optional and not required coursework for Purdue Liberal Arts students. Who in their right mind would voluntarily compete for the job that is certifiably the lowest rung on the career ladder?

The answer is simple (and a little clichéd). You’ve got to start at the bottom if you want to make it to the top! Advanced education can only take you so far, especially if you are a Liberal Arts student. Businesses are eager to hire applicants that already have job experience within their field of study. Internships are irrefutable proof that you have applied your knowledge and skills within a real world career situation. They also give you a chance to develop your professional skills, increase your business contacts and help you transition from academia to the working world. Today’s competitive economy makes it more important than ever before for undergraduate students to complete at least one internship as a undergraduate so that their resume will be considered competitive.

My first internship was during the summer of 2009 for the architecture company A2SO4 located in downtown Indianapolis. I wrote content for their Communications department. Previously, the only professional experience I had was working as a lifeguard during high school. At A2SO4, I was expected to dress in business casual attire, attend staff meetings and collaborate with other employees in the office on various projects. It was a completely new experience for me, and I was pretty nervous for most of the time I was employed there. But, I am thankful for everything I learned because the experience opened numerous doors over the past 2 years.


Check out this article posted on Careerbuilder.com if you are still curious about the rationale behind becoming an intern.