What You Need to Know Before Attending an Info Session

By: Maureen Corbett

It’s becoming more and more popular for companies to host info sessions. There are many reasons for this, some being that it is a way for companies to provide more details about their business to interested students than they would be able to at a career fair. Attending a job information session is a great way to show your interest in being employed with that specific company, as well as learn more about the industry. If you are planning on attending an info session soon, here are some key things you need to know before you show up:

1.       Dress Professionally

You don’t have to wear a suit like you would to an interview, but it is definitely essential to dress in business casual attire. You are meeting employees of a company you are interested in working for, so it is important that you make a good first impression. Conduct some research on the company’s culture before you decide what you’re going to wear. For example, if you are attending an info session for a company in the fashion industry, take the opportunity to show off your own sense of style.

2.       Come Prepared

Print off your resume, practice your handshake, and make sure you’ve spent at least 15 minutes prior to the info session browsing the company’s website. While these employers don’t expect you to know very much about the company, having some background knowledge will help you ask more informed questions.

3.       Take Notes

You’re not going to remember everything the employees talk about in the info session. Make sure you write down important deadlines, any tips they give you, and contact information of the people you meet. This is another great way to show them that you are interested in pursuing a position within the company.

 

4.       Use it as an Opportunity to Network

If the situation allows, make sure to personally introduce yourself to one employee after the info session is over. Take the time to express your interest in the company. Let them know why you think you would be a good fit for the position and ask any additional questions you may have. Hopefully you’ll stand out enough to land yourself a job!

Students, Start your Internship Engines

By Shelby Oyer

While it may seem entirely too early to be thinking about an internship for next summer, the scary truth is: it's not. Many companies are already looking into who they want to hire for next summer. Before you panic, while some companies may be looking already, not all of them are. However, it's still time for you to start thinking about where you want to be in the summer of 2014.

There are lots of great options out there for summer internships. Some are local, others are spread out all over the country. Some are paid, others aren't, and still others count for college credit. Some internships are even international. 

First things first, decide what you want. Where do you want to go? What kind of company do you want to work for? What do you hope to get out of the experience--a future job, money, credit, etc.?

Then, do your research. Search for companies in the location you want to be. See if they have internship listings on their website, learn how to apply, and make sure you know when the deadlines are to do so. Get a second opinion on your resume and practice your interviewing skills through LACD's Peer Partners to prepare yourself to become the best possible candidate for the company. 

If you're not quite sure what you want to do or where you'd like to intern, check out a career fair. There you can network with individuals from all different kinds of organizations and show them what skills you possess to see if they align with what the different companies are looking for. Check out the Alumni Meet-n-Greet Panel on November 19th from 6-7:30 in Beering 1284 for a chance to network with Purdue alumni. Be sure to attend Career Week from February 3-6 to brush up on your professional skills, especially the Career Expo on February 6th where there will be plenty of companies for you to meet and look into interning with. 

Below are several sites that are great for finding internships of all kind, even international. While you shouldn't be stressing out about finding a summer internship, you might want to start thinking about starting your search.

LACD Job and Internship Postings: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/careers/job_postings/

Study Abroad Internships: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/careers/study_abroad/

myCCO Internship Listings: https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Student/Internships.shtml

Color me Successful

Over the past month, my friends have been busy preparing themselves for career fairs, interviews, and other professional settings. I have watched them scramble to put together a presentable resume, portfolio, and prepare their social media properly. While working at LACD, I have learned the importance of having these things always ready: you don’t know who you will run into and when. Needless to say, my friends were having me proofread their resumes and I found them to be bland, basic, and boring. If this is what I am thinking, imagine what a recruiter would think while going through the never ending stack acquired over time.

The necessary changes that would’ve spruced up the resumes are a dash of color, personality, or design. I understand that not everyone is studying in Liberal Arts or they don’t feel comfortable taking that risk, but I am ready to take the risk and to create a resume that reflects my personality. If an employer doesn’t support creativity, then I don’t want to work for that employer! Here are some tips and ideas on how to get a personal color brand started for your portfolio, resume, and business cards.

• Select a color you can own: Color associations increase brand recognition and build brand equity. That distinctive blue box with a white ribbon announces there’s no ordinary bauble inside, but a Tiffany & Co. bauble. Colors mean something. Take the time to research colors and find a unique color that reflects your professional personality.
• Understand cultural significance: Because color connotations vary greatly among cultures you must be aware of positive and negative associations. In China green is used for stop while red means go because red is the national symbol of communism. Chinese brides wear red to symbolize fertility, whereas in the United States a white wedding gown symbolizes purity, the color of death and mourning in many Asian cultures.
• Consistency is king: Whether print, pixel or paint; on paper, screen or fabric, your palette should be consistent. Your logo should appear the same color on your business card as it does on your resume, portfolio, and other details. Take this seriously, but don’t over do the color scheme. I don’t suggest printing a resume on red paper, wearing a red suit, and handing over a red business card. This situation calls for a code red. Try to be subtle.
• Once you own it, really own it: Protecting a distinctive color is as important as protecting your logo, slogan, or other visual elements of your brand identity. Use this color to your advantage… make it your own. I didn’t see ONE resume with any personality, so if you try this color branding technique, you will stand out above the others.

Color won’t save you from having bad content on your resume, or from being a bad interviewer. Color will save you from being just another applicant, another face, or another boring resume. Don’t be fools: have your resume, portfolio, business plan, social media, and elevator speech prepared at all times. This is not a game, friends, this is the future.

By: Janna Parke

Take a look at this infograph regarding color choice! 

These tips were found in this article. This blog has a lot of great facts, figures, and information regarding color choices!
http://biznik.com/articles/color-yourself-successful

Life is a journey.

By Neysa Herrera

Few days ago, I met with a good friend of mine. We were talking about business and life. I love those sort of conversations. They make you re-think your ideas and philosophize about the path you are taking in life while you are drinking a warm cup of coffee.

She was telling me she was worried about her daughter Victoria because she is not sleeping enough at night. She barely eat because she has to be studying every time for an exam to be admitted in the medical school. Well, she is a nuclear engineer who is working on the cure for cancer. I don’t understand why she is so worried about her, it makes total sense for me. I know she wants to do huge things and change the world and I am sure she will. That sacrifice must be rewarded.

So, this is what I want to talk about here. Sacrifices are rewarded someday, some way and you will notice. But if you don’t make any, how do you expect to get want you want or live what you always have dreamed of? Life it is a path, yes! ... A journey.  It is a lane where you have to achieve things (goals) and make sacrifices to become in the person that you want to be. In your professional life, you have to follow a Career path that goes from your first day of elementary school ad that will last throughout your entire life.

In this journey every single goal achieved is not an ending but a beginning of a new adventure. The fun with it, it’s up to you. It depends on the passion that you have about your goals that makes you to be the best in every singles thing you do.

So, definitely your future it’s up to you; it’s up to the sacrifices you make along your career path. It’s up to your decision between having fun with your friends in a party or stay at home or in the library studying for your exams. Be aware that every single step, every single move counts for benefit or harm. You decide how you want those moments impact  your life.

Take the control of your life, of your career. Life is a journey but make sure you are the manager of yours. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the professional you don’t want to be. And always remember to advance yourself.

Just go for it

Traveling is second nature to some, while to others it is a foreign adventure.  For those who have traveled truly understand the importance of cultural diversity and the exploration and interpretation of it all. It can either help you or hurt you, and the way I see it is that it will help you if you do it, (if you travel), and it will hurt you if you don't. To travel is more of a learning experience than what most of us receive in a classroom, it shows us the real world and how we can adapt to it on our own. To be comfortable in the real world, you must be comfortable with the possibility of not staying in the same place for your entire life.  I do not mean that everyone must pack up and move from the town they grew up in, I am saying that everyone should pack up and adventure new cities and countries, new people and cultures, to be able to learn about the world around us.

Not only will traveling and exploring help with the understanding of ourselves and those different from us, but it will help us develop a better sense of direction for finding the career we belong doing. Many people give excuses for not traveling, such as they don't need to live anywhere else because they are happy where they are, or it's too expensive. These are excuses that are stopping people from becoming more intelligent and more personable individuals, it is closing there minds, rather than opening and broadening them. I have heard the excuses many times and I won't accept it because I know how much time, money, and other commitment it takes and I have been able to overcome these challenges due to its overall worth. The quality of life I feel after traveling and learning a new lifestyle and culture is powerfully worthy of everything that it takes to do it. College students think they don't have time to spend money and travel while they are in school, but they do not realize that they have twice as much time to do it now than they will in 5 years time after graduation. The experiences from traveling and exploring build your ability to work well in different environments and with different kinds of people. You grow to appreciate the diversity and the differences, rather than to dislike them and shy away from them. Embrace the changes, because life is about changing and it wouldn't be worth the trouble to work as hard as we are known to, in America, if we weren't able to be enjoying our work and learning from it so much, which is the kind of attitude we obtain as travelers and explorers of the country, and of the world. Don't stop traveling until you have seen all there is to see, and learned all there is to learn, while applying every bit of it to your life in one way or another, because consciously or subconsciously aware, the results are equally rewarding.

-Bronwyn

Mastering Your Inner-view

written by Tanvir Rahman

When it comes down to interviewing almost everyone freaks out and gets nervous, but over the years I have found some tips that can help get you more comfortable at the interview. There are many articles out there with many tips on how to interview but these are my personal tips that I have used and feel would benefit a lot of people.

Experience

Almost every interviewer looks for some kind of experience and I have found that the easiest way to get that experience is through clubs and organizations. Getting involved outside of class is one of the most important things to do while in college because it puts you in a work place scenario working on real life tasks and projects. The experiences and role you play in your club/organization can give you great work experience and also something to talk about during your interview. I often had big problems answering many interview questions but the more involved I got over the years, the more experience I made and became more able to answer those tough interview questions.

Your Inner-view

Another good thing to know for interviews is simply put, yourself. It is important that you reflect on yourself and ask yourself questions as to who you are and what you want. You need to know what are your strengths, weakness, and what you can bring to the company or job you are interviewing for. Most interviews are simply a time for the interviewer to get to know you and if you know what kind of person you are and what skills and strengths you have it will make the interview a lot easier for both you and the recruiter.

Practice

The biggest thing that will help you with interviews is getting enough experience and practice. The more you interview the more comfortable you will become at interviewing. When I first started interviewing I was always a nervous wreck but after every interview I saw myself getting better and better. As you interview more, you find it easier to put yourself in those situations. You also learn more about what questions are being asked and how you can better prepare for them in the future. It is never too early to start practicing and even mock interviews can help greatly.

So it is important to put yourself out there in clubs and organizations so that you can have some sort of experience. It is a simple easy way to find answers to those tough interview questions. You want make sure you know a lot about yourself because you’re in a way, presenting yourself to the interviewer. Make sure to practice and practice to get comfortable with interviewing making it easier to answer questions. Interviewing is all about conversation and talking about yourself. You want make sure that you know yourself well enough so you can master your inner-view! 

Advance Yourself!

Written by: Shahd Khawaja

Being a university student almost guarantees that you’ve heard of graduate school. Some of you are one step ahead and are considering graduate school. Even better, some of you have started looking into and applying for graduate school. Whatever your situation may be, the graduate school fair Advance Yourself will provide you with extremely important information that may help you decide where you’d like to go, how you’d be able to get there, how you’d be able to afford it and when the best time to attend would be. If you’ve completely ruled graduate school out of your to do list, at least make it an educated decision. Don’t miss out on something until you know all the details regarding it and are sure it’s not what you want. Advance Yourself will take place tomorrow October 3^rd Purdue Memorial Union, West Main Lobby. Panel- 9:30-10:20, networking with the universities: 11:00-3:00

Bring all the questions you may have with you and make the most of this opportunity! Hope to see you there!