So You've Graduated - Now What?

Take a look at this article from the official LinkedIn blog. This is helpful to all who just graduated this last May and to all who are curious about steps to take after graduation. LinkedIn is a great professional tool while starting out your career. Here are some tips on how to better utilize LinkedIn.

http://blog.linkedin.com/2013/06/06/three-ways-recent-grads-can-leverage-linkedin-for-long-term-success/

-Elaine

Interested in Internships? Here's A Good Start...

Previously I discussed how difficult it could be to make decisions in college. Today I am going to talk about something else. I recently met a junior who was looking for an internship. She told me she had looked on DonsCareers in hopes of finding an internship she liked. In short, she had an idea of what she was looking for, but didn’t have any previous job experience. This is a common problem for many students.

Our homepage, www.usfca.edu/career, has a four year plan checklist of where you should be at each year of your undergraduate education.  If you are having trouble looking for an internship, there are a few things you can do that can help you along the way. Bring your resume with you to our drop in hours (11am-2pm Monday through Friday); let a counselor edit your resume or cover letter. Most importantly, I can’t stress enough how important it is to be proactive.

Keep looking on DonsCareers (include the search agents feature) because it is updated all the time. Try Nacelink, Indeed, UCAN Internship Exchange, and even go to your professor or advisor’s office hours to express your interest in internships or part time jobs. This website: (http://spirit.usfca.edu/stuemp/on_campus.htm) has on campus jobs if you prefer to work on campus. Is there a certain company you are interested in working for as an intern? Look at the company or organization’s website to see if they have any internship programs available.

The main thing to keep in mind is to keep looking; there are internships and jobs out there, and as students our job is to be proactive in looking for the right one for us.

If your resume is lacking job experience, consider getting a summer job to build your resume. Even if your summer job is not your dream career, that’s completely alright. It’s better to have some job experience than none at all, and it will give you something to talk about when you get an interview for that dream internship you’ve been wanting.

Happy internship hunting!

-Elaine

Decisions and Milestones

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Hey students,

As a sophomore, I feel as though I have reached a fork in the road with my academic career. Many other students like me probably also feel this. As with any major, there comes a time to decide what you want to do with that degree and what field you want to enter. After all, I am deciding what I want to study and do the rest of my life at nineteen…and I seriously hope I’m making the right decision so far. With that huge responsibility, comes a lot of indecisiveness.

There are a lot of questions I have, such as do I want to make money and get a job straight out of school? Do I want to apply for graduate school? Or my nightmare: take a few years off before applying to graduate school to work and make some money, but not be able to find a job, and have to move back in with my parents and work at Starbucks or something to pay off my ridiculous private school debt.

In two and half years, we will (us sophomores at least) have to make some big decisions that, to me seem too far away. I wish someone told me my freshman year to start buckling down a little more and at least apply for a few internships or something. As a whole, the attitude of freshman year was a blend of feeling grateful you were done with high school, and embodying the ‘let’s get wasted’ persona because it was expected of us from each other on some level socially. Maybe you didn’t drink at all, but either way, freshman year was about making friends and getting adjusted to the college experience. It wouldn’t have hurt to be a little more proactive in exploring career options, or post USF options in general though.

For me, all I wanted in coming to college was to have the chance to be more than the cashier at the local grocery store in my hometown (not kidding, that was one of my first actual jobs). I just hope that at the end of these two and half years I will have a better idea of what that will look like and start trying to be as prepared for graduation as possible.

I know I do have some control over what will happen after the next two and half years. There are internships, more job experience, and research opportunities I can shoot for. People have been telling me that as a sophomore, asking these questions now is probably better than to start wondering about all this your Junior year, or even your Senior year. It’s better to be proactive and start applying for internships or whatever else now, and learning from that experience, than it is to be applying for your first internship your senior year. Procrastination, while it has gotten the better of me most nights I do homework, won’t do me much good on my four year track to the “real world”. 

Thanks for reading,

Elaine Ortega

Final Part 3: Long Story Short...

Clearly, it's taking me way longer than it should to finish all the parts of my story... I think it's senioritis... -_- so I'll try to sum it up succinctly and make the long story short.

After I met the recruiters at the Fall Career Fair and they asked me to send in my resume, I was extremely hesitant to follow through for many reasons: one was because I was in the process of waiting to hear back from another internship; other reasons simply included that I did not make time for it (in other words, I procrastinated).
But that Friday, bored at work in the office, I applied on their website and submitted my resume (literally 3 days after I was asked).... and.... with no cover letter.... *Disclaimer: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!* - you should ALWAYS send a cover letter even if they don't ask for one and try to do so in a timely manner. 3 days is pushing it. It may have worked for me but it will not work for everyone especially when planned happenstance is not involved.

So they receive my resume and I guess they liked what they saw, because on Monday I received a call from their Headquarters. Little did I know this was the screening call/the first interview.
*Advice: ALWAYS be ready and on your toes when speaking to any representative of the company over the phone. You probably won't be able to tell it's the first rounds of interviews.

By the end of our conversation, I was invited to a mixer/group interview a few weeks later. Totally unexpected.

The day of the group interview came around and had it not been for a follow up call I received that same day from the same rep whom I had been keeping in contact, I would not have gone to the interview. I was feeling extremely lazy and simply "not feeling it" anymore. All I have to say is: *Advice: Please be sure to follow through with any scheduled calls or interviews with a prospective employer.

Suffice it to say, the road to landing the internship was filled with planned happenstance. After leaving the group interview/mixer I was pretty sure I wan't going to get the job buuuuut I was offered the internship (the next day) and 2 months in, I am absolutely loving every part of it!

I am happy and comfortable with where I am and in the end, that's the most important thing. :)


Hang in there gang,
Rosie

Career Fair

Students!
Follow the Green & Gold Road to jobs and internships at the 25th annual Career & Internship Fair next Friday, March 1, 2013 from 11:00am-3:00pm in the McLaren Complex. Many companies and organizations will be here including Kaiser Permanente, AT&T, Oracle, WellsFargo Bank, Kiva, Peace Corps, Square, Flixter/Rotten Tomatoes, Apple Retail, First Republic Bank and more!

For a complete list of exhibitors, just click HERE or copy/paste the web link below:
https://usfca-csm.symplicity.com/events/students.php?mode=list&cf=2013CareerFair

MORE CAREER FAIR WEEK EVENTS!
The week will be packed with events to help you impress the employers attending the Fair. Here's a list of our upcoming activities:

RESUME REVIEW DAYS!
Get your resume reviewed by a real-world recruiter BEFORE the March 1st Career & Internship Fair. We have recruiters visiting on the 3 days from 12:00-1:30pm, UC 1st Floor (in front of USF Bookstore). See who's coming and get your resume reviewed:

February 26, 2013
Gary Russ (Management Consultant) * Advantis Global (IT Consulting Firm) * Novogradac (Accounting Firm)
February 27, 2013:
Omni Hotels * KGO-TV * Scherer Smith & Kenny (Law Firm)
February 28, 2013
Enterprise Rent-A-Car * Japanese Community Youth Council (Nonprofit Agency) * Indeed.com (Jobs Web Site)
CAREER FAIR PREP WORKSHOP
February 27, 2013
5:30 - 7:00pm
Maier Room Fromm Hall

Meet a panel of experienced recruiters and get tips on how to make a great impression at the March 1st Career & Internship Fair!

WICKED RESUME CONTEST
Due Date: 3:00pm, February 28, 2013
Enter the Wicked Resume Contest for a chance to win a Kindle or Skullcandy Headphones! You don't have to be present to win. It's easy to enter:

Submit your resume to USF Career Services Center, UC 5th Floor, OR email it to careerservices@usfca.edu and write "Wicked Resume Contest Entry" in the Subject Line by 3:00pm on Thursday, February 28th.

Questions? Contact USF Career Services at 415-422-6216, careerservices@usfca.edu, or stop by UC 5th Floor. 
USF accommodates individuals with disabilties. If you need a disability-related accommodation or wheelchair access information, please contact Elizabeth McMurtry, USF Career Services Center at 415-422-2165 orealand@usfca.edu. Requests should be made by 2/18/13.

-Nate

My very own success story in the making! PART 1

I just recently got offered an internship with indeed.com and I wanted to share my WHOLE experience with you through blog posts from the very beginning of my journey to the day I got the offer. It's actually quite an interesting story I am sure many of you will relate to some aspects of it. I will be doing it in parts as it is a somewhat lengthy reflection and I don't wanna bore you. I guess it also adds to the suspense... so here we go! Part 1.


Anyone who knows me knows that for the past 3.5 years the Career Services Center has been the center of my professional life. I am definitely not complaining. As a matter of fact, I always look forward to going in to work because I absolutely love doing what I do at the CSC and the wonderful people I work with! :)

There have been some times, though, where I couldn't help but feel a bit of incongruity within myself. After all, here I am counseling my peers during drop ins, strongly encouraging them to have at least 3 internships before graduation, and yet, I hadn't been pushing myself to live up to the same standards. :/ I had managed to convince myself that my position as a Career Planning Peer was sufficient enough of an 'internship'. I would also reflect on the fact that I was more than content with what I had professionally and thought there was no need to look for something else. I was afraid. Afraid of rejection and afraid of not being able to balance something new.

But that BIG million dollar question every senior repeatedly gets asked when people figure out you're graduating soon was adding a lot of pressure. You know the whole, "so what are you doing after graduation?" question.... If it were up to me I would stay at USF forever but the reality is, that can't happen. I know I will soon have to leave my comfort zone here and needed to start pushing myself to start exploring more diverse experiences in an effort to figure out what I want out of life. I couldn't be afraid anymore.

I started telling myself it was time to be selfish and take advantage of the many platforms USF offers for networking and finding new opportunities rather than just promoting them. My first step was going around to speak to the employers and grad schools at the Fall Career Fair...

*Part II: 2012 Fall Career Fair, Where it All Began coming next ;) stay tuned!

Rosie

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to school!

I hope everyone had a great first week and is ready for an amazing semester. We have a lot going on this semester, from On Campus Interviews to the Non-profit Expo. Below is a listing of the many activities we will have this semester. 

Career Fairs:

- Non-profit Expo; Thursday September 6th, 2012, 11:30am-2:00pm, Gleeson Plaza

- Fall Career Fair (Career/Grad Fair); Tuesday October 16th, 2012, 11:00am-2:00pm, Gleeson Plaza

Info Sessions & Tables: 

- Peace Corps; Tuesday September 18^th, Wednesday, October 17th; Wednesday November 7th, and Thursday November 8th, all on the UC 5th Floor

- Across the Pond; Tuesday October 2nd, 2012 10:30am - 2:30pm, UC 2nd Floor Market Cafe

- Aspire Public Schools; Wednesday October 3rd, 2012, 12:00pm-1:00pm, UC 503

- FactSet Research; Thursday October 4th, 2012, 6:00pm-7:00p, UC 503

On-Campus Interviews: 

- Deloitte - resume due Sept. 19th, 2012; Wednesday October 3rd, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Burson - Marstellar - resume due Sept. 4; Tuesday September 18th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- KPMG - resume due Sept. 17; Monday October 1st, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Deloitte - resume due Sept. 19; Wednesday October 3rd, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Rothstein Kass & Co. - resume due Sept. 20; Thursday October 4th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- FactSet Research - resume due Sept. 21; Friday October 5th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Sensiba San Filippo - resume due Sept. 25; Wednesday October 10th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Armanino McKenna - resume due Sept. 27; Thursday October 11th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Hood & Strong - resume due Sept. 28; Friday October 12th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Novogradic & Company LLP- resume due Oct. 1; Monday October 15th, 2012, 9:00am-     

  5:00pm

- Grant Thornton - resume due Oct. 3; Wednesday October 17th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Consolidated Electrical Distributor - Stop by their table at the Fall Career Fair on Oct. 16th

  for a chance to interview on Thursday October 18th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- OUM and Co. LLP - resume due Oct. 4; Thursday October 18th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Pricewaterhouse Coopers - resume due Oct. 2; Friday October 19th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- EisnerAmper LLP - resume due Oct. 8; Monday October 22nd, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

- Seiler & Company - resume due Oct. 10; Wednesday, October 24th, 9:00am-5:00pm

- DZH Phillips - resume due Oct. 11; Thursday October 25th, 9:00am-5:00pm

- The Travelers Companies Inc. - resume due Oct. 15; Monday October 29th, 9:00am-5:00pm

- AT&T - resume due Oct. 25; Thursday November 8th, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

Workshops Events: 

- Resume and Cover Letter Workshops; Tuesday September 18th, 2012, 5:00pm-6:00pm,

   Fromm Hall Maier Room

- Resume Review Day; 12:00pm-1:30pm, UC 1st Floor 

     Thursday October 11, 2012 

     Friday October 12, 2012 

     Monday October 15, 2012 

     Tuesday February 26, 2013

     Wednesday February 27, 2013

     Thursday February 28, 2012 

- Career in Finance; Wednesday November 7th, 2012, 5:30pm-7:00pm, Fromm Hall Berman  

  Room

- Job Search and LinkedIn Workshop; Wednesday November 14th, 2012, 5:00pm-6:00pm,

  Fromm Hall Maier Room

To find more details click the link Career Services Website and then click the Events tab. 

Hope you are all excited about this new semester! 

Aloha, 

Nate  

You might have heard of MOCK INTERVIEWS being offered at the Career Center, but have you actually thought of going in for one yourself? USF's student Jared is in a Communications Studies class that was required to do a mock interview with the CSC. He had an interesting enough time to share his assignment with us!
----
"Going into this mock interview, I was scared out of my mind. Of course, it wasn't for an actual job, so that was a bit of a relief, however, being interviewed for anything, whether it be a job, internship, college admission, etc. is just plain scary! Days before my scheduled appointment, I received a call from the Career Services Center, reminding me of my appointment, (awesome customer service!) and asking if I would like to be video taped. I quickly said "absolutely not" to that question, hoping to avoid even further humiliation. I felt bad enough that someone at CSC was going to have to suffer through my interview, there was no way I wanted to relive it! (Not this time around, anyways.) 

When I arrived at the CSC, to my surprise, I was met by extremely friendly students and staff who were eager to talk to me. When the woman came out and called my name, I instantly got even more nervous, however, my nerves were calmed by her kindness and friendliness. Before we got started with the interview, Ellen (that was her name), offered to look over my resume and cover letter again, as she had previously helped me with it for the last assignment. She picked out a few remaining errors, and offered great advice on how to tweak it to make it perfect. I now feel really confident about my resume.

So, on to the interview. This is where the fun began. I didn't go in with a job description, but rather told her about my current position at DNA and what I do, and she based the interview off that. At this point, I was shaking, sweating, and just plain freaking out! I'm not one for interviews (is anyone?), so this was not fun for me. As my voice started to get shaky and the questions started coming my way, I tried my best to answer them using my pre-thought out answers, even if the questions weren't exactly what I had expected. 

So the interview continued, and at the end, Ellen had a full page of notes scribbled down, front and back, on things she wanted to talk to me about. This made me question how horrible it actually was, but to my surprise, she had a lot of good things to say. She took me back to a few instances in my answers that she really liked...

1) My eye contact was very good. I didn't notice, I think I blacked out during the interview, so for all I know, I could have been looking at the gum under the table. But, apparently not!

2) I mentioned that fashion was what I am the most passionate about, and she asked "Then why not FIDM?" It took me a second to ponder this question, but she liked my answer. I explained how I wanted the University experience, a solid liberal arts education, and that pleased her. 

3) While talking about the wonderful liberal arts education we receive at USF, I had mentioned core classes, and she asked about them. I took a minute to talk a little about a few classes that I really liked, and when Existentialism came up, rather than bombarding her with a story, I asked her if she would like me to expand on why I loved this class. She said that this was great because I first gave a quick overview, and rather than throwing a story at her that she might not want to hear, I asked her if she wanted to know more about it, which intrigued her. I told a story about the class, and at the end, mentioned that "my mind doesn't work like an Existentialist's." She liked this because it showed her that even though Existentialism isn't something that I love, I do value my liberal arts education that I'm receiving. 

Anyways, you know what they say...when it rains, it pours, so let's move onto the bad...and by bad, I mean, I pretty much blew it!

The last question of the interview had finally arrived, the most important question, the one that I had prepared myself SO much for...

"Why should we hire YOU?"

My answer: "Uhhh, well, I want experience and I'm eager to learn and uhhhh..."

MY MIND WENT COMPLETELY BLANK. I had a five minute answer prepared for this question, and after 20 minutes or so of being interviewed, I lost it. I couldn't get a single word out of my mouth. So, the interview awkwardly ended, but to my delight, Ellen had tons of good things to say, which I already mentioned. She gave me her sheet of notes, and pinpointed what I nailed, and what I (obviously) blew. We spent another 15 minutes talking about ways to improve, and she gave me some awesome constructive criticism that I definitely appreciated and will use to improve my skills in the future. 

Moral of the story: the interview was extremely helpful and I think that I learned a lot about myself by doing it. I fully plan on utilizing CSC again, probably even before a real job interview comes about, just to practice my interviewing skills. I really enjoyed talking with Ellen, sharing stories with her about my experience and my current job (sometimes, it's nice to just talk to someone about what you love!), and getting her feedback on the whole process. 

And, it's over!"
----


University of San Francisco
Career Services UC 5th floor
FB: USF Career Services
Twitter: @USFcareer

Success!

       Happy October!   

Have you met USF Alumna, Sarah Hirsch? Well, you should know her. Ms. Hirsch is an alumn very near and dear to our hearts here at the Career Services Center (CSC). She worked all of her four years at the CSC (2007-2011) and even helped to start and oversee the CPP (Career Planning Peer) program until she graduated last May. So, if you ever stopped by drop-in hours, you may have had the honor of getting your resume/cover letter checked or received sage interview advice from her.
        Although I knew Sarah for only a semester, it was clear that she was going to use all of her acquired CSC skills to land a job after graduation. Today, she works at a rising tech company, Square. The company was co-founded by the co-creator of Twitter (Jack Dorsey), and  has the former Executive Vice President of Paypal (Keith Rabois) as their COO; not to mention Larry Summers and other advisors on their Board of Directors.  A few months ago Square received another million dollars in funding, and have been mentioned in numerous news outlets (The New York Times, Forbes, The Washington Post to name a few). To check out more about Square take a look at the press page on their website.

       Apparently, this company is a pretty big deal. Sarah was oh so kind enough to take some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few lingering questions I had about what she's been up to, post-grad: 

_______________________

Name: Sarah A. Hirsch

Age: 21 

Degree: B.A. Communication Studies, Emphasis on Interpersonal Communication, Minors: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Child and Youth Studies

Super Power of Choice: flying or mind control

What is Square? Square is an incredible startup company in San Francisco that, in essence, allows anyone to be able to take a credit card payment on their mobile iOS or Android device. The application and card reader are free (just download the app from the app store, create an account and a reader is sent to you) and the only fees involved are a 2.75% transaction fee per swipe. Refreshingly simple. What this means is that those who historically could not accept credit cards due to the complication and cost (babysitters, farmers market vendors, caterers, food trucks, small business owners) are now given a platform to compete with the big guys. The goal of our company is to put people in business. Personally? I've used it when out to dinner with friends – a large bill comes and someone "didn't bring cash"? That's fine, just pay me with your credit card instead!

Will you please tell me a little bit about what you do? I'm an office admin at Square, Inc., which honestly means I do a little bit of everything. I coordinate office supplies, I help plan and execute office events. I communicate with caterers and food vendors, I create mailing slips and field questions on packages, I communicate with the building manager on facilities issues, I write fun office-wide emails about security and policy, I setup for our weekly all-hands meetings, I help manage our reception desk... I'm even working on creating a twice-weekly in-house smoothie bar (which means sourcing fruit, researching and buying the best blenders, creating a menu, etc.) I'm a project organizer/event coordinator/facilities manager/copy writer/help desk. The fun part about being an office admin in a tech start-up is that we've got an incredible amount of freedom – tech start-ups in particular strive to make their offices fun and exciting places to be, and we're the people who are tasked with making that happen.

Greatest thing you've learned while being out in the "real world"?
What you majored in during college means surprisingly little – in fact, it's fascinating how just a few months out your entire college experience just becomes a small "blip" in your overall history and life story. The things you've done and the people you know become far more important.

How did you get end up getting a job at Square?
Networking! Several people in my friend circles were employees at Square, and the timing for my need of a job and Square's need of a new admin assistant synced up perfectly.

What’s the best way to network? Be truly interested in other people and their stories; never stop asking questions. Be positive and engaging. Don't underestimate your social circle or your family circle – there's often possibilities there you would never expect. Maintain your connections via LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Don't ever be afraid to ask for help and put your job search out there. Informational interviews x10.

What do you wish you would have known while studying at USF? With the exception of a few professions, don't get so caught up in having the perfect grades and picking the "right" major. Choose classes that fascinate you, join clubs and really participate in other campus activities, volunteer A TON, and try having a part time job or two. Really experiment more with jobs and internships. Start a project that's interesting to you – photography, writing, programming, guitar, whatever. Have fun. Cook more. Read (for pleasure) more. Be nice to others, and maintain friendships you have.

Lastly, where would you like to work for the rest of your life (or industry, basically where do you want to end up?) I used to know the answer to this. Two months out of school, everything has changed. Check back with me a few months down the road and see.

_______________________

You never know what's ahead of you! See what’s out there, and let us help.
--Victoria

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