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  

Interviewing: What NOT to do!

I read this article recently, "Blowing the Job Interview: A How-To Guide" and thought it may be helpful for those of you who have interviews lined up, or already had an interview but it didn't go so well. I will summarize everything the article says not to do.

1. Arriving Late: Pretty self explanatory. You need to give yourself enough cushion time for any possible mishap along the way and be sure to arrive EARLY.
2. Being rude to the receptionist or assistant: Don't do it. 6 out of 10 executives seriously consider the opinion of their assistants in the hiring process and if you have been rude or condescending to them, they will tell on you.
3. Acting like you're the only person there: You very well may be the only person in the room at the moment, but you never know who is listening or how thick the walls actually are. If you get an incoming call, I would suggest to ignore it or answer and let them know you are busy and will call back later. 
4. (Which brings up another point not mentioned in the article but which I think is important to mention... make sure your phone is on SILENT! Last thing you want is your phone to go off with your Lil Wayne ringtone in a quiet waiting room or worse yet...the actual interview!)
5. Going into the interview unprepared: Do your research on the organization you are interviewing for beforehand.
6. Appearing arrogant: There is a distinct difference between confidence and arrogance. Stay humble.
7. Not asking questions: You want to ask at least 2 or 3 questions. The questions should go beyond basic information you can find on their website during your research.  A good question may be "What does a typical day in this position look like?"
8. Not following up: Send your thank you letter right after the interview. Send your thank you letter right after the interview. Send your thank you letter right after the interview. I cannot stress how important this step is! More than half of the employers consider this in the hiring process as well.
   
   

Interviewing can be scary, I understand, but practicing will also help. The Career Services Center offers great Mock Interview options just for this exact purpose. Give it a try!

Rosie

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!
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"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!"
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University of San Francisco
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Twitter: @USFcareer