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A friend of mine was discussing how to properly turn down an offer that doesn’t meet your needs or expectations. Again, by expectations I’m talking about much more here than the the $ figure attached to the offer. Do you want to live in that city, do you want to travel that much, do you see yourself spending 8-9+ hours a day 5 days a week in that office, and do you fit in and feel comfortable with the people that work there?

If you answer no to any of these questions, then you are going to have to professionally decline. If you have been sending thank you emails to your recruiters, then you should only decline the offer to the person that extended the offer, usually the human resourses associate who led you through the job process. Some resources and advisors will recommend that you write a letter to the HR team declining the offer which is a nice gesture, but I will let you decide if this is right or not really necessary on top of a personal call.

A friend of mine suggested this website which has advice on interviewing, resume tips, as well as a section on career fairs. At first glance, you will think that the advice is centered on those in the construction or building management areas of study, but much of the advice is more applicable to job searching and interviewing for all of the different types of positions and jobs that are availlabe. The point made on the side of the first page sums up the key to job searching:

“One of the best indicators of probable success is the degree to which a person is proactive with their job search.”

In this article on tips to perform well at a Career fair they make it sound very nerve-racking and top it off with a rigid procedure. I think you should use their bullet point list of topics you need to cover as a guide, and nothing more. I think you should wing it a little bit. After being on both sides of the table at a career fair, I can’t tell you how nice it is to have someone come up that is as natural and smooth as can be. They are so intersted in finding out about the company rather than going over the standard details of their resume or background. Go with the flow after the initial introduction and find out as much as you can about what kind of opportunities are available and if you could see yourself working for the compnay.

I would lean more towards winging it: less pressure, more natural, more beneficial to you finding a company that truely fits you.

Do not pay for someone to write your resume or to review your resume. Don’t be stupid. Get together with your friends or people who sit around you in a certain class or anyone who is willing to reveiw your resume for you. Return the favor by reviewing their resume, and you will be surprised what you will learn. Everyone has their own tricks and style, and if you switch resumes with enough people you have a nice little bag of tricks from which you can choose from for different job applications with resume submissions. The people around you that are going through the same search and experience that you are will be your greatest resource.

If you absolutely can’t find a single person to review your resume, go to the career center and they will help you out. Don’t feel stupid. It would be stupid of you to not ask these people for help because 1) it is their job 2) they have seen many students’ resumes and 3) you need a great resume in the right format to be considered.

How’s the challenge coming along? 20 resume AND cover letter submissions by March 1st, baby. Hopefully you are all rocking it out. I apologize for not posting yesterday, I try to post 5 days a week or whenever I have something valuable that I need to get out there, but I was actually catching up on work from time that I lost last week to the Valentine’s Day Blizzard.

I stumbled upon a great college student oriented audio broadcast, possibly a podcast - I don’t know, in which students that were in a career class were asking Dick Bolles, the author of What Color Is Your Parachute? (a great book, check it out) questions about their search. Listening to this podcast was bizarre because I could relate to both sides. I remember the ideas, the jobs that I thought I wanted, and what I was feeling while searching for jobs last year. On the flip side of the coin, now I also feel like I could answer my own questions from the past right along with Mr. Bolles. It was a deja-vu experience for me, and I think you will learn a few things from listening.

I especially liked the first caller, “I’m a senior plus, plus, plus…”. What does that even mean?

I don’t know who this guy is, but I like this short article on what to do to get the offers. He thinks like me. Check out this quick bullet list of pointers for first-time job seekers, much like yourself.

Smile. That’s one I haven’t hit on, but it’s important. You feel better when you’re smiling, and other people feel more comfortable around you. Don’t cheese it though. Keep it el natural.

I’ve got a little challenge for everyone still looking for a job or internship:

Apply with at least 20 companies by March 1st.

This may seem like a lot, but considering that submitting a unique resume and cover letter online at your university’s career web site or directly through the company’s website takes about a half hour you should be able to do this.

Doing this will produce at least a few callbacks if not quite a few. I would rather you have more callbacks and opportunities than you can handle rather than sitting there wondering if a job will land in your lap.

If there are on-campus meet-n-greet opportunities with employers and recruiters, go check them out. Make yourself available, so that companies know you exist.

Don’t be just another 12pt font Times New Roman name that gets passed over in the resume pile.

Good question brought up after that last post. I guess that would have been useful information. How do you get an internship aka quasi-professional position when you have never had any other professional experience? Always work from the time you get a car until present day, and avoid having large gaps of time where you are unemployed. This is the truth, walk around any career fair and just listen to the questions being asked by recruiters. I have been grilled on this, and many others have as well. Work ethic is a thing of the past, and if you have held steady jobs (an indicator that you realize work is necessary even though it is not always fun) for significant amounts of time this will bode well in the interviews. Believe it or not, you gain professional skills in almost every job, and these are what you need to put on your resume under your work experience. As previously mentioned, I worked for an estate management company the summer after my freshman year. Did I put "mowing straight lines", "gassing up the riders", and "trimming perfect edges" as my skills? Yes. Just kidding. Rather, I put "worked collaboratively and independently in a fast-paced, demanding environment", "developed multi-tasking skills by working in different positions on over 25 different properties", and "took pride in my work, and developed a strong sense of accountability". Sounds good, and it's true. Dig deep to find out what you really took away from a job that may seem ridiculous when you look at the position or title you held. What if you don't work? Are you screwed? Up the Ganges without an oar, so to speak? Not totally, but you are definitely at a disadvantage to your competition. If you don't work I would recommend taking 18+ credit hours of courses each semester and going to school in the summer and graduating in 2.5 years, and holding a 3.5+ GPA. College is definitely considered a "job" where you build up skills. Be sure to mention collaborative projects, research papers, favorite courses, technical skills, and all of that. One of the biggest questions I got in almost all of my interviews was actually a statement: "Describe a time when you worked with others as a team to complete a project and the problems you encountered along the way as well as the solutions developed to prevail". Be ready for this one, because you rarely work alone in professional settings, and they want to make sure you agree that there is no 'I' in team. I'm sure there's more that I will remember and add to this at some point down the road.

Many internships don't last the entire summer, so it's going to be tough to find housing for say, 2 months. Look for companies that offer housing for summer interns, where you will usually room with others interning at the same company. Most of the time you will be in an average to above average apartment or condo. Look for internships that pay. It used to be hard to find internships that came with a paycheck, since you would essentially be learning the entire summer. Now, there are many internships that offer decent summer wages for your work, even though you will probably not be making a significant impact in your 2-3 month tenure. Companies are willing to invest a couple thousand dollars into summer interns, and then they will hopefully pick their full-time employees from the same pool the following year when they are graduating seniors. This way, the new hires are not at square one when they start after graduating, and can transition into their new roles more easily. Not only do internships look great on the resume (biggest seller in my opinion - a MUST), they could also lead to an almost guaranteed full-time position with a company if you enjoyed your summer. That means ZERO extra stress figuring out what you will do after you graduate. What will you actually do in a summer internship? This will vary from working with other interns on meaningful projects that will help the company to simply being at the office and pushing papers. That's why it is important to really ask a lot of questions when you are interviewing, so that you actually enjoy your summer and don't have to count down the days until your return to campus. Fortunately, internship programs have become quite popular and competitive among different companies, which is good for you. This means more internship opportunities and less BS work during the hot summer months. Right now, I would say the internship hiring process is probably picking up from where it left off in the fall based on emails that I'm still getting from my old campus career center. I wonder how long those will keep coming? Get out there and get some.

I took a sociology course my freshman year at IU, and the teacher really took an interest in our lives and plans for the future. She gave us advice all of the time before, during, and after her lectures. One thing she harped on was that once you're in college you should never work in a position that a high school student could fill. This makes sense, and I never worked another job that I could have had in high school after I became a collegian (I worked at an estate management company - hmm, lawn mowing - that hired only college students after my freshman year which could be considered borderline). I realize that everyone has different circumstances that may "force" them to work in retail or restaurant positions, but I still think you should pursue opportunities on campus, an internship, a receptionist or data entry position at an office, or anything else that will give you some pre-professional experience. A great way to find a "starter" office job where you will be doing low-impact work is through your friends' parents or your family's friends. If you do end up working in the retail or the dining industry (sounds fancy), really try to learn how the business operates, and gain as much business knowledge as you can. One thing I always did when I would get frustrated working as a sales associate at a retail store in high school was to develop new processes and ways that I would run the business differently. Nobody would ever take the thoughts seriously because I was 16-17 years old at the time, but it was the beginning of my entrepreneurship "hands-on training" and I felt more productive. This common business knowledge that comes only from experience will help you in interviews and the hiring process, as you will be able to hang, so to speak, with the professional on the other side of the table. No diggity. That just popped in my head from an old song, and I had to throw it down, so enjoy that.

Colts, Baby!! Super Bowl Champions!! Besides the Colts being the best football team in the world, I thought the commercials were pretty good. Since this is a "career advice" site for college students I'm of course going to mention the new Career Builder ads. The monkeys were getting old, and I like the new marketing campaign theme "don't just survive the workweek" or something along those lines. Their tagline is now "A Better Job Awaits" which is more representative of what they have to offer. I think it is an excellent site for those who have a few years of professional experience, and wish to change positions or companies. Not so much for the college students, though. Having an online job posting site that is heavily advertised on college campuses is too easy. Why, you might ask? We are a generation that buys and gets everything through the internet from cell phones, to ordering delivery food, to keeping track of every detail of your friends' lives. Why wouldn't we try to get a job on-line with as little amount of work as possible? Well, as a college student the one thing that you are less likely to get online than in person is a job or internship. The risk associated with hiring entry-level employees and especially college graduates is high for a company, and they will do most of their interviewing and hiring right on campus. So, the next time there is a career fair and you think, "Oh I have my resume on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, something will come up", you just shot yourself in at least one of your feet. You're going to have to meet recruiters face-to-face eventually, so you might as well get out there every chance that is offered to you. You will be so far ahead of the game, and you still can have your resume online at as many sites as you want, just in case. Here's one of the CB ads though, for your viewing pleasure.

Continuing with the "buying a new tv" analogy, how can you sell yourself? Will you be a name-brand or a knock-off? What kind of first impression will you leave? Do you have the features to fit the buyer's needs? Here's a good article from AllBusiness.com about self-promotion and selling yourself to potentional employers and recruiters. It is kind of centered on women going through the hiring process, but the concepts presented are beneficial to all of us. As a college student, you will need to prove that even though you are between the ages of 21-23 you can still be yourself and mesh and fit in within the professional workplace. Sell yourself - the good qualities, your abilities, your accomplishments, but most importantly, be yourself.

Not literally, of course. This is the basic mindset of a serious recruiter interviewing the nervous college student. Imagine you're in the store looking to buy a new tv, and also imagine that you like to talk to yourself aloud or in thought. You've found a tv that seems to fit your requirements, but you ask the tv a few more questions (also imagine you enjoy talking to inanimate objects). Will you last (will you quit when the first thing doesn't go your way, or when your friend claims they have a way better job)? Will you work (will you show up motivated, dedicated, and willing to work most of the time)? Are you worth the money (will the productivity and return on investment from you outweigh the hiring costs, salary, benefits, and other costs to the company)? Will you not break in the first year (many college students usually change jobs within the first year, and I don't want to assume the risk that this may happen and waste precious time and training, so do you really want to work for me)? Will my friends enjoy watching this tv (will you fit in with the other members of the company, and are you able to work collaboratively)? See, there are many more "bigger picture" questions that have less to do with what is on your resume, and much more to do with the recruiter's decision to hire you. People put so much emphasis on the resume, but the resume is simply like the back of a baseball card. It's just numbers that you will have to back up once you step foot in the office on day one. That's why the cover letter, which is more personal and representative of your true qualities, works magic when paired with a well prepared resume. Neither answers the "bigger picture questions, though. Those questions cannot be answered with words, and yet your future depends on the answers. It's your personality, qualities, character, past actions, and plans for the future. You can fake them and get hired, but you won't be happy. You will become the statistic and perception of our generation by quitting, and then searching for the right company. Just be true to yourself the first time around, and get your career started out on the right foot by waiting for the right company...or stumbling upon it. I'm telling you, check out companies that you have not heard of, you will be pleasantly surprised.