Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

Lunch & Learn with Employers Event: Vanguard, October 3

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Posted By: Career Enrichment Network

This semester, we are hosting a Lunch & Learn series with employers.

Our second Lunch & Learn event will be hosted by recruiters from Vanguard.

Monday, October 3
11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
124 Sparks Building

Workshop Topic: Resume Reviews

Please join recruiters from Vanguard to learn more about what recruiters are looking for in resumes. Resume reviews will also be available. Vanguard will also share more information on current opportunities and the application process.

This is a great opportunity to network and gain valuable experience. Staff from the Career Enrichment Network will also be present to  answer any questions you may have.

Lunch will be provided.

Space is available for 30 students.

Please RSVP before the event in Network Symplicity.

For future session employers, dates and topics:

lunchlearnflyer

Pre-Career Fair Resume Review Walk-In Hours

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Posted By: Career Enrichment Network

In preparation for Fall Career Days, the Career Enrichment Network will be offering walk-in hours prior to the career fair.

Liberal Arts majors interested in receiving feedback on their resume, discussing how to prepare for the fair, or strategizing how to approach employers should drop by the Career Enrichment Network in 101 Sparks Building for a 15 minute session.

Walk in hours will be available from 12:00PM-5:00PM in 101 Sparks Building the following days:

Thursday, September 10th
Friday, September 11th
Monday, September 14th

Make sure to bring the most recent version of your resume and come see us!

Resume Review Walk-In Hours: February 23 & 24

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In preparation for the Helping and Service Professions Career Fair, the Career Enrichment Network will be offering walk-in hours on Monday, February 23 from 9AM-1PM and Tuesday, February 24 from 9AM-1PM.

Liberal Arts majors interested in receiving feedback on their resume, discussing how to prepare for the fair, or strategizing how to approach employers should drop by the Career Enrichment Network in 101 Sparks Building for a 15 minute session.

Walk in hours will be available the following days/times:

  • Monday, February 23 from 9AM-4PM
  • Tuesday, February 24 from 9AM-1PM (our office is closed for an event in the afternoon)

Make sure to bring your resume and come see us!

How to Prepare for the Fall Career Days

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Whether you are a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, the Fall Career Days can benefit you in ways you might never imagine. If you think you are too young or too inexperienced, think again. Attending Fall Career Days on September 11-13 from 11:00-4:00 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center just may be the thing to set you ahead of the game and prepare you for future years in college and after you graduate. September 11 is devoted to full-time non-technical jobs, September 12 is devoted to internships and co-ops, and September 13 is devoted to full-time technical jobs.

Besides having the obvious goal of obtaining an internship or job, you may take advantage of speaking with potential employers and recruiters to gain insight on different types of companies, what employers are looking for in their entry-level hires, or how to conduct yourself in a professional manner. By speaking with professionals, you can learn what kinds of questions they want to know about a student’s work or college experience and how to appropriately respond. If you have never held an internship before and want to learn how to make yourself a marketable candidate, what better way to find out than actually speaking with the types of people that may hire you one day?

Most students who choose to attend Fall Career Days have one objective: to obtain a position. If you have no idea where to start, please visit the Career Services website and follow their many links to tips and tricks to help you succeed. For freshmen, you can find out ways to volunteer at the fair to familiarize yourself with what happens for future years. For sophomores and juniors, Career Services and the Career Enrichment Network can help you with your search for internships. For seniors, the Career Services website gives you a list of all companies that are attending and what full-time positions they currently have open. Companies such as Bates White, Consolidated Graphics, Northwestern Mutual, and Capital One are a few examples of companies that are particularly looking for Liberal Arts students, so they may be worth exploring a bit beforehand.

The Career Services website has resources available about how to dress, what to say during your 30-second pitch, and how to approach the 400+ tables that will crowd the BJC in a week. One particularly interesting tip mentioned is that along with bringing hard copies of your resume and writing samples, you may want to also bring an electronic copy of those materials on a jump drive, as some employers may ask you to directly upload it on their computer. With the many other tips mentioned on the Career Services website, you will be surprised with the amount of preparation you can do just by going online.

An even better way to prepare is to visit the many workshops held in room 103 of the Bank of America building (where Career Services is located) in the days leading up the Career Fairs. Here are some you may want to consider:

September 4
4:00 p.m. – Effective Resumes
5:15 p.m. – Interview Prep for Non-technical Career Fields
6:00 p.m.- Dress to Impress, sponsored by Macy’s

September 5
4:00 p.m. – Finding Your Top 5
5:15 p.m. – After the Handshake

September 6
4:00 p.m. – Effective Resumes
5:15 p.m. – Interview Prep for Technical Career Fields
6:30 p.m. – Career Fair Prep for International Students

September 10
11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. – Resumania (resume reviews by HR professionals)
5:30 p.m. – What Questions Should I Ask Career Fair Recruiters?*

*This event will be held in the Grandfather Clock Lounge in Atherton Hall with Lincoln Financial Group. Pizza will be provided and resumes will be accepted. All majors are welcome.

By attending these workshops, you can gather advice and information from the people at Career Services – who, by the way, speak directly with employers visiting campus and know what those employers are looking for – and also get a better sense of what to expect when you set foot into the BJC. That way, you’ll know exactly what to look for and how to act when Fall Career Days roll around, and the only thing you will have left to worry is about getting your appropriate outfit dry cleaned in time.

In the next few days, upload your resume to Network Symplicity so someone from the Career Enrichment Network can review it (or have it reviewed at Career Services), attend a few workshops, make an appointment or drop by to see me or another Career Enrichment Network staff member for any specific questions (schedule appointments through your Network Symplicity account), and get started on the path to success!

Dispatch From the Other Side: Resumes and Cover Letters

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It’s That Time
Originally uploaded by iancorey

In my last post, I spent time writing about some of the intangible connections you could make that might lead to tangible opportunities if you decide to look for work after graduation instead of going to graduate or professional school. I thought I’d spend some time in this post focusing on a more tangible part of the graduation and job search process: resumes (and cover letters).

There is a wealth of information on the internet for resumes, and I’m sure that if you’re interested in what I’m writing about, you’ve probably already seen those resources. Since I don’t think it will do anyone any good to simply re-post instructions or good examples that you can find elsewhere, I just plan to share some experiences and tips that I’ve gathered from friends and colleagues on resumes and cover letters.

Resumes:

  • Keep it short. This is advice that you hear all over the place. Everyone from recruiting managers to salespeople will tell you that a one page resume is best. If you’re crafting a CV for academic reasons, that’s a different (and longer) story, but for the average job applicant: one page is best.
  • Use the resume to tell a story. If you are applying for jobs where you’ll be asked about your writing skills, highlight experiences you’ve had where you needed to write. It might be more important to note your role as a volunteer blogger than your role as a life guard, even if you only consider the life guarding position as a “job.” The people looking at your resumes aren’t interested in what your tax history is: they care what skills you have. Use past positions to highlight those.
  • Be precise. In nearly every field, it’s an “employer’s market.” They’ll have more applicants than they have space for. Everyone’s resume is going to be on that hiring manager’s desk: make sure yours stands out. I don’t mean to use an elaborate border (in fact, I’d urge against things like that), but to make sure that your resume is an accurate reflection of your training and experience. If your resume hits all the key points, he or she will call you, because it means that you have the key things the company is looking for.

Cover Letters:

  • Don’t be generic. Remember those college essays you had to write? Admissions officers don’t like reading the same thing over and over again, and neither do recruiters or managers. If you apply for a job at UPS and a job at Bank of America, you should have two different cover letters. Again: know your audience (to the best of your ability) and write for it.
  • Illustrate who you are. Don’t submit a cover letter just because you are required to. Think of all the things you want to tell the person reviewing the resumes but can’t fit on your resume. Use your cover letter for all those things. Applying for a job with Turkey Hill? There’s no place on your resume (or at least I can’t think of one!) where you could share how well you think your particular skill set will fit with their business model. Do that in the cover letter. Or maybe you don’t have a required experience on your resume but you still think you’d be great for the job. Find a way to explain that in the letter.
  • Be careful! If you’re writing a lot of cover letters, do yourself a favor and read them twice before submitting them. Spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, incorrect dates or names: these are all easy ways for your resume to get tossed aside. Don’t let them happen!

Do you have questions that I didn’t address? Are you looking for additional resources on resumes and cover letters? Let me know in the comments! If anyone else would like to offer advice that I didn’t get to, I’m sure our readers would love to see that in the comments too.

Dispatch From the Other Side: A Look at Career Fairs

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Photo Credit: Greg Grieco Welcome back to campus, Penn Staters. I hope that you all had relaxing breaks and that you are eagerly looking forward to an exciting Spring semester.

Now that we’re about a month away from Spring Career Days, I thought I’d contribute with some thoughts on the career fairs.

When it comes to career services, I think Penn State’s efforts are exceptional. I still recall touring schools back when I was in high school, and I was surprised by how much emphasis my Penn State tour guide put on the career services program for students (and alumni!). It’s a pretty unique feature, and one that Penn State is – and should be – proud of. Each Fall and Spring, the career services folks host a huge career fair with employers from many different industries. The fair is designed to appeal to underclass students looking for internships and seniors looking for full time positions, although not every employer will be looking for both. To get the most out of these events, I recommend taking the following basic steps:

  • Think about what types of employers you want to talk to. If you don’t have any interest in talking to a Marketing Research firm, then there’s no need to stop by that booth.
  • Do your homework: find out what employers will be attending, and make a list of some you definitely want to find. You probably won’t have time to see all the employers, so making a list that has the ones you definitely want to see can make your life less stressful.
  • Create a great looking resume. Then run it by someone else. Then take it to career services to have one of their professionals look over it (tip: check out “Resumania” on February 11). I don’t believe there can ever be a perfect resume, but with work you can make one that will cause you to stand out from the pack. There will be an upcoming post on resumes and cover letters, so keep your eyes open for that.
  • Prepare a short pitch about yourself. It can be pretty nerve-wracking to just walk up to a potential employer and start talking. If you have a prepared set of ideas to go over (don’t sound mechanical, but don’t go in without any plan), it will be easier to talk. Questions are important too – employers are usually happy to hear prospects asking specific questions about the firms and roles available. 
  • Schedule enough time to stay and walk around a little bit. The BJC is far away from many class buildings on campus, so make sure you factor in time to get there and back and make sure that you’re not rushed while you’re in there. The amount of time you will need depends on how many employers you intend to see.

My biggest tip of all would be: don’t let the career fairs distract you from other ways of meeting employers. The fairs are where many students go to meet many different employers – and sometimes, it’s easy for both sides to think that events like that are enough. But the smaller, less hectic options are great to explore, and some of them are cosponsored by the College. For example, you should check out the People-to-People Fair being planned for February.

I’m sure I’ll mention the career fairs again, but if you have specific questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. Questions in the comments section can be about the career fairs or any other topic, and you may always reach out to me on Twitter as well. If you have a topic you want me to write about next time, I’m happy to hear about it.

Photo Credit:Greg Grieco, 2007
Originally from Penn State Live

Dispatch From the Other Side: A Look From a Recent Alumnus

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PL SC Alum Sam Loewner
Originally uploaded by LAUSatPSU

Hello, LAUS community! Some long-time readers might remember me from entries on this blog last spring, and some newer readers might recognize my name from the comments section from time to time. For readers that don’t know me, I’m a May 2010 graduate, the former President of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council, and deeply interested in Penn State’s present and future.

When I was a student in my last three or four semesters, I remember thinking about how much I wanted to know what to do next. I knew what I needed to do as a student to graduate, and I had spoken with alumni and professionals that gave suggestions for how to behave once I was settled into a workplace world. But what about the time bridging those two periods in my life? What should I do to position myself to find a job I wanted while I was still in school so I wouldn’t have to worry during and after graduation? What do entry level positions look like, and how can I find them?  What things – good or bad – are potential employers going to look for from my time at Penn State? Though your questions might be different, I think everyone has some questions – especially in the College of the Liberal Arts, where we’re trained to ask things and think about our future selves and communities.

Now that I’m in a position to answer some of those questions (or attempt to answer, at least), I wanted to “rejoin” the LAUS online community and try to provide insight that I think only very recent alumni can. I consider this sort of an introductory entry and, if the good staff of Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies is willing to put up with me, I hope to contribute regularly – I hope that you aren’t shy with your questions.

I accepted an offer before I graduated and started in June. I work in the political world in Washington, DC, but I’m far from a political operative (no, I’m not one of the people they quote anonymously on politico.com). I do technical and social media work for a non-profit organization that works with political campaigns. I had a very wide range of exposure to different opportunities, and I think I can answer general and specific questions. If anyone is after unique information that I don’t have, I bet I can find the answer from friends that graduated with different degrees and career plans.

I view this as an opportunity to create a back-and-forth style community through the blog. I am easily reachable on Twitter (@smloewner) and the comments section. You may also email me at sam.loewner@gmail.com.  Once you find a way to get questions to me, I’ll try to answer them specifically and then, if you don’t mind, I can compile some of them together and generate a post out of it.

Even in just the past year or so, I’ve seen many of the “moving parts” of the life-just-after-graduation world. There’s job-searching, networking, resumes, cover letters, internships, relocating to different cities, career research, and much more. I think we can take questions on any of those topics.  

So, Penn Staters, what’s first?

It’s All About the Resume (and Cover Letter!)

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Resum�s
Originally uploaded by SanaSyed

My internship blog post this week will focus on creating effective r�sum�s and cover letters. I have learned that all students should create a r�sum� early on in their college career that they continually enhance and perfect. I am so glad that I prepared my r�sum� and sample cover letter in advance because it enabled me to modify my r�sum� and cover letter for different summer internships both effectively and efficiently.
 
I am currently enrolled in LA 495.1, the College of the Liberal Arts non-departmental internship course, to receive college credit for my Spring 2010 internship with the Schreyer Career Services Office. When I visited Dr. Karen Peters, my professor for LA 495.1, during her office hours, she advised that when students are interested in a specific internship position they should look at relevant full-time job descriptions from the organization of interest; students can look at the qualifications section of a full-time job description that relates to a particular internship position and try to infuse the skills and qualities delineated in the description into their r�sum� and cover letter. I used this strategy by compiling a list of descriptive verbs and adjectives (e.g. execute, implement, orchestrate, utilize) from both full-time job descriptions and company websites of interest to me. I then employed this vocabulary to enhance my r�sum� and cover letters.
 
Before submitting a r�sum�, students should have professionals critique it. Career Services counselors can provide this service during drop-in counseling, open Monday – Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Drop-in counseling provided me with a great deal of flexibility because it afforded me the opportunity to receive quick career counseling on the fly. For instance, one day I received feedback on my r�sum� in between classes, and the next day I went in again to receive advice on my cover letter–what an incredible resource!
 
In addition, I possess a copy of the Career Guide for 2009-2010 provided by Career Services.  It includes information about professional events and career advice, ranging from how to create a r�sum� to interviewing tips. The Career Guide includes examples of r�sum�s and cover letters that are very helpful to students who are creating their first r�sum� and cover letter. Students can stop by Career Services to pick up a hard copy of the Career Guide, or they can just visit the Career Services website, which contains a wealth of useful professional resources and information.
 
If anyone else has tips for creating effective application materials for internships or full-time positions, post them here!

Gena is a junior psychology major and a current intern for the Schreyer Honors College Career Development Office. She will be participating in a summer human resources internship at FOX 29 in Philadelphia. Read her first internship blog post here.

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