Interview Workshop and Professional Dress

Hi everyone, 

There was a big turnout at Ellen's CSC Interview Workshop and the information was relevant for all of us undergraduates so I thought I would share some of the highlights. 

The interview process can be really stressful and many students avoid applying to jobs for fear of the interview. It doesn't have to be so scary however, if you follow the advice Ellen gives. First, be on time, have a good handshake, smile and make eye contact. All of these things may seem obvious but they make a huge impression. There are a list of interview questions you can find on our website here. You should go through these and write out answers for each one in the days before your interview because you could be asked any of them. Ellen taught us the STAR system, situation, task, action and result. In your responses give specific examples of your experience and use these 4 points as a guideline, addressing each.

Professional dress was one part of Ellen's presentation that I believe it would be important to highlight here because after the career fair it seems obvious many people are not aware of how to dress professionally. To me, professional dress seems daunting and to be honest I don't have much professional apparel at the moment. I'm planning on going downtown to buy some things to be prepared for my summer internship interviews. Some stores for professional clothes are H&M, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx and Macy's. You can find some great professional clothes, even on a budget. All of these stores also sell the opposite of professional clothes so be very careful in your selections, keep it conservative and don't show a lot of skin. My boss said to our office last week, "the more skin you show, the more you're viewed according to your gender, not as a professional." Professional dress may be a very sexist institution but in order to succeed you need to dress as much like a man as you can without seeming androgynous/we need to play this to our advantage and use dress to benefit us, not have it work against us. Your rule of thumb should be: if you would wear it out, it's not professional. A mistake many young women make is wearing high heels.Heels should be no more than 1-2 inches, keep it kitten. Men, you have it easy, a classy suit is all you need to worry about having. You can go here for a prezi on how to dress professionally. You can also find the video of Ellen's workshop here. 

 

Kelleen 

How to Succeed in Interviews

Last week one of our career counselors put on a workshop on how to succeed in interviews. I personally learned quite a bit from it.

Two things I took home that I knew I needed to fix when I go in for interviews, and the third thing that was reinforced (as I had learned the hard way):

1.      I need to buy a portfolio. I have gone into interviews without them before and gotten hired at places like a local grocery store. It’s very different, however, when going in for interviews for graduate school or jobs in the workplace. In situations like these, a portfolio is necessary.

2.     How to dress the part. I have never owned a pair of slacks. Up till now I refused to buy them simply because I didn’t think they were cute or worth any amount of money. If you don’t go in to an interview properly dressed (including, slacks/ professional business skirt, a button up shirt/ professional-looking blouse that covers everything) you most likely will not get the job. So, after attending the work shop I invested in some slacks, shirts, and flats, from H&M that were professional and cute. Girls, if you are looking for a good deal on professional attire, Forever 21 and H&M are stepping up their game. I’d start there. As for guys, I did see a professional attire section on the guy’s side at H&M as well. Here is a prezi from our website on how to dress for an interview: http://prezi.com/pvxnuxbwy9mx/interview-attire/

3.     Ask questions at the end of an interview. In my experience with interviews thus far with college, this actually does make a difference. I have had three interviews for on-campus jobs total in my two years at USF, and the one that I didn’t get the job went embarrassingly like this:

Interviewer: So do you have any questions?

Me: No

At this point I was so nervous, my cheeks were turning red. Honestly, I was so nervous I couldn’t think of any questions because my mind had blanked.

Interviewer: Ok, it was nice to meet you. We will be in contact with you shortly.

It was probably a combination of being so nervous and not asking any questions about the job as to why I wasn’t chosen. Which leads me to my next tip…how do you stay calm during interviews? As a freshman, I had zero job experience and zero experience with interviews. On top of that I am a painfully shy person. The best advice anyone can give you is to practice what you are going to say and how you are going to say it, as well as putting perspective on the interview process so you don’t work yourself up into a ball of nerves. With that being said, a great tool you can use to practice interviewing is through our Mock Interview program. You can have a mock interview with a recruiter or with a career counselor. Check out our website for more details:

http://www.usfca.edu/CSC/Students/Mock_Interview_Program/

Next time, I will I talk in more detail about how I personally learned how to stay calm and collected during interviews…

-Elaine

INTERNSHIPS WORKSHOP-TUESDAY, 4/9, 5PM, MCLAREN 250

 LAST CHANCE FOR INTERNSHIPS WORKSHOP
 Learn How To Get An Internship And Why You Should Have One
TUESDAY, April 9, 5:00-6:00 PM
MCLAREN 250 (PLEASE IGNORE POSTERS STATING FROMM-MAIER)

*The Best Internship Resources
 *Paid Vs. Unpaid Internships
 *How much should you be paid for an internship?
*Get a full time job from your internship
 *We will announce fresh, never before seen internships during the presentation!

 Priscilla A. Scotlan Career Center
 University of San Francisco
 2130 Fulton Street, UC 5th Floor 
San Francisco, CA 94117-1080
415-422-6216
www.usfca.edu/csc

-Nate

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

Interview Workshop!

Hello Students,

If you are in the process of job searching or looking for an internship, before you go on an interview, attend this workshop! Prepare for success with lessons on how to answer difficult behavioral questions, researching organizations, practice questions, and appropriate attire & follow-up.

The Interview workshop will be held on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 from 5:00PM to 6:30 pm in McLaren 252.  This workshop is brought to you by the Career Services Center.  For questions or more information, contact careerservices@usfca.edu or 415-422-6216.



















Hope to see you there!
-Nate

Government, Politics and Civic Engagemernt Career Panel

Hi Everyone,

I attended the Government, Politics and Civic Engagement Career Panel last month both because it was put on by our office and because those are areas I'm thinking of working in for the future. I plan to work in nonprofits one day, most likely political nonprofits. As a newly declared Politics student I've been really excited about getting involved with my major and meeting people within my future field.

I got to the panel late because I had class but I was able to see the second half of the presentation. There were five panelists, reps from the State Department, the CIA, two local government members and someone from USF's own McCarthy Center. I was most interested by the State Department jobs because the rep described exciting internship opportunities all over the world at different embassies. The panelists talked about what it was like to work in their fields and what kind of opportunities were available to students and recent graduates. The panelists also discussed different dos and don'ts concerning resumes and different professional things. Looking back I wish I had taken some notes because they gave smart advice. 

I was hoping to talk to the State Department representative but there were a few people lined up already and I got intimidated and nervous that I wouldn't have any good questions to ask. Looking back I regret not making a connection with the rep since working at an embassy sounds like something I would really love to do someday. As a USF student, I often feel that our school is small and unknown and I wish I attended Berkeley or another larger school in the area but the truth is we often don't realize what advantages we have as USF students. Since USF is so small we have less competition and stronger relationships with many companies and agencies, we need only utilize these connections. Being at this panel I realized that if I work hard and network efficiently I can have an exciting internship and/or job when I graduate, even in this competitive work environment.

I implore everyone to attend these panels and workshops and come into our office, utilize the advantages of attending USF!

Decisions (part 2)

The most intimidating part about college for me has been choosing a career path for my major. I am a psychology major and my journey so far has taken many turns. I had decided on doing premed spring 2012. Come October, I was sure I was going to be a high school counselor. It’s March 2013, and now I have no idea.

The most helpful thing I have done for myself in figuring out what I am not going to do in my future, was trying new things. Yes, that sounds a little cheesy, but process of elimination is probably the best tool in a college student’s utility belt. I highly recommend this to everyone.

I tried (and ultimately loathed) science classes. Well, becoming a doctor is off my list.

I struggled with seeing people very close to death while volunteering at UCSF. Cross doctor off again.

In volunteering at UCSF, I assisted in medical research with a few medical students (which I actually enjoyed, surprisingly, and had never considered doing before).  Write possible career in psychology research on my list.

As a result, I got involved with a psychology research lab on campus. Why don’t we keep a possible career in research on the list for now?

As for the high school counselor ambition? It’s not crossed off at the moment.  I am hoping to get involved with volunteering with a crisis line this summer. So hopefully I can make more progress on my list soon again.

As a sophomore, I still have some time before I need to make a concrete decision as to what my final career will be. However, it’s relieving to feel like I am making headway in navigating myself through all these big decisions.

Till next time,

Elaine Ortega