To view this job/internship listing, you must be a currently registered OSU student and have an existing Beaver JobNet account. If you are eligible and do not have an account, register now. Beaver JobNet is a great way to get your job or internship search started. Meet employers from a variety of organizations.

Job/Internship of the Week
stahlbushAssistant Buyer
Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc.

Description:

The mission for this position is to perform daily tasks as specified by the Raw Product Buyer to provide assistance in the collection and documentation of information required to meet customer quality standards and maintain the status of the farm’s certification as a sustainable and organic farm.

Outcomes
-Interact with contract growers, including scheduling, field scouting and collection of necessary documentation.
-Support raw product procurement as needed.
-Support internal audits of the farm for compliance to meet sustainable and organic certifications.
-Support in overall raw product logistics and scheduling as needed.
-Review pesticide records.
-Provide and track harvest-timing estimates for all crops.
-Develop and manage systems for collecting and using historic data.
-Develop field standards and measures to better meet the quality standards for the finished products.
-Perform other duties as assigned.

For more information on how to apply, check out the posting in Beaver JobNet.

When I was five years old, I took cat testicles to my kindergarten classroom for Show-and-Tell (remember Show-and-Tell, version 1.0?? Now it’s called “Facebook”). I brought them in an orange Tupperware that my parents happily supplied, and in some solution that kept them in their (almost) original shape and form. Looking back now, I can clearly see the giant thought bubbles popping out of my beloved kindergarten teacher’s head as I confidently shared the story and knowledge I had regarding said testicles (removed from my big gray cat at home, on the piano bench, by our family veterinarian). The thought bubbles screamed, mostly unintelligible, with a few question marks here and there, but bless her head—she let me share. And she let the other kids ask questions. And she defended me (and her choice) to any other parents who may have questioned why their kid came directly home and asked about feline balls. And thus, curiosity and an insatiable thirst for knowledge was protected, nurtured and encouraged to grow.

Growing up on a farm, I had the magnitude and minutiae of the world at my fingertips. Birth and death and everything in between surrounded me and I was encouraged to ask questions about all of it. When a teachers’ strike closed down my elementary school for three weeks one winter, my mother carried on with lessons at home, based in the constantly changing flow of activity on the farm: weighing chicks, counting elements in pond samples and writing about observations in the fields and trees. There was always space for learning, space for expansion, space to be awed by even the most mundane.

As I’ve grown up and moved through an undergraduate program in English, several jobs that held various levels of inspiration, travel and study abroad, a Master’s degree in counseling and the most recent expansion into being a parent and professional in higher education, I’ve learned that the space to be curious is not confined to the lucky and charmed experiences in my childhood. Sometimes, curiosity is met with fear by others: skepticism, sarcasm, even avoidance and hatred, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t the most crucial of necessities in so many ways. To be a lifelong learner—someone who is active and engaged in seeking out new knowledge and experiences and sharing those with his or her community and world, is to be a contributor and uniquely influential. It allows for adaptability and the ability to adjust when the currents change. It allows for one person to recognize another person’s passion and uniqueness and to step in to help those grow—either by asking the right questions, saying the right thing, or by simply stepping back and letting a kid share with the world what she finds to be most fascinating.

As a person currently involved in higher education, I recognize the emphasis placed on managing a schedule and meeting structured expectations, in class, work, sports, clubs, and beyond. The expectations are important—focus on grades, achievements, and meeting or exceeding standards in your education and career. But don’t forget, in your pursuit of answering all the necessary questions, to ask some questions of your own. Be curious, even about the day-to-day, and share what you learn so others can be excited with you. In fact, in recent research on career “success”, as published in Perspectives of Psychological Sciences,  it was found that curiosity (along with conscientiousness) is a much better predictor of success and achievement in academics and career than your level of intelligence! So, learn simply for the sake of learning, and you will be surprised at how far you might go.

Oh, and if your kid ever wants to take testicles to school, my advice to you is: let her. Just make sure you know which Tupperware she used before packing lunch the next day . . .

Posted by Malia Arenth, Career Services Career Counselor

Ready to get inspired for your job, internship, or career search? Each month we will spotlight an OSU student that has inspired us when it comes to their career development. Check out their success stories—besides inspiration, they also show that academic major does not have to restrict your goals and that there are many ways to define success.

Want to nominate an OSU student or alum for the Student/Alum Spotlight series? Or do you want to share your own success? Then please fill out this quick form and Career Services will contact the person nominated.

jessicaName:  Jessica Hua
Major: Public Health & International Studies
Year in school: Junior
Internship: South Africa: Pre-Med Rotations

1.        How did you find out about the internship?
It has always been a dream of mine to go to Africa to volunteer and now, I’ve been given the amazing opportunity to serve as an intern with Child Health Family International and IE3 Global Internships.  I discovered this internship primarily through a career fair last winter while visiting IE3 Global Internship’s booth.  There, the representatives gave me pamphlets and flyers leading me to further resources online, which all helped me find the program I was passionate about.

2.        What will you be doing in your position?
Within this internship, I will be traveling to both Durban and Cape Town.  Starting off in Durban, I will be working on community development projects to identify the post-apartheid public healthcare system revolving around HIV/AIDS, environmental health, and other underlying causes.  In Cape Town, I’ll be rotating through various clinics, hospitals, and emergency services to shadow health professionals to follow patients through their treatments while observing the healthcare team.

3.        What advice do you have for others interested in finding an internship?
The best advice I have for others trying to find an internship is to not be afraid to ask for help or fail.  I wouldn’t be anywhere today if I didn’t reach out to others for help, whether it be to ask for a second opinion, for a reference letter, or to find out more about a program.  Everyone genuinely wants to see you succeed and will help in any way they can.  Besides, the worst thing that someone can say is that they don’t have the time to help, which in that case you just continue to ask others for help- which leads me to say that we can’t be afraid of failure.  It has always been one of my biggest fears but without failure also means we do not learn because we have nothing to build upon.  I’ve looked and applied to internships before this and have been denied positions.  Despite the feelings of disappointment I had felt, failure works to our advantage because success will come to us at the right time through hard work and determination.

4.        Did Career Services assist you anyway? If so, how?
Career Services played such a big role in helping me get this internship!  Right from the beginning, they were already helping me with this internship because they are the ones who host career fairs.  Following that, the internship application required a resume and cover letter so my friend had suggested me to visit Career Services because they are a great resource to proofread those kinds of papers.  I had never gone to Career Services before but the process in setting up an appointment was very easy through Beaver JobNet.  There, I met with Jen and she was an amazing help in making my resume and cover letter the best that it can be.  I was a little shocked at first when she scratched up my initial resume, which I thought was pretty decent, but it looks so much better now.  Jen was really great in her willingness to help someone she just met; she was friendly, welcoming, and genuinely wanted to hear the goals I had accomplished which I included in my resume.  She was flexible with my constant emails after our initial meeting to read over the many “final” drafts and offered me advice on how to keep improving my speech.  I couldn’t have done it without Jen; Career Services was definitely a very big factor in my internship process and I am very glad that I went in to see them.

Thanks Jessica for being our Student/Alum Spotlight! If you are interested in learning more about internships,  there are many resources available to you on the OSU Career Services website. You can also find out about International Internship opportunities through IE3!

teachingTeaching isn’t just for education majors. If you’re graduating with an emphasis in any subject taught in elementary or high schools, a teaching position can broaden your career options while giving you a chance to pass on your passion to others. Still, teaching isn’t for everyone, and it takes a somewhat different set of skills than those needed for survival in the corporate world. It may take some time for you to know for certain whether you’re cut out to be a teacher – but keeping an eye out for green lights (and red ones) can help keep you pointed in the direction you want to go. So here, two education experts share the questions they’ve learned to ask prospective teachers after years of firsthand teaching experience.

Do you enjoy explaining things to people you don’t know well?

That’s what most of teaching comes down to: Parsing your advanced knowledge into words and ideas a child can understand, then making sure that a roomful of relative strangers soak up that knowledge and hold onto it for a whole semester – ideally even longer. This takes far more than just knowledge – it takes a genuine desire to help others understand your area of expertise.

“I’ve run across hundreds and hundreds of people who thought that because they knew their subjects front to back, that they could teach those subjects,” says Bob Kizlik, a retired college professor who runs the education resource website Adprima.com. “But there’s a big difference between knowing and teaching. To teach well, you need that wonderful combination of knowledge of the content and the ability to communicate your knowledge to others in a way that motivates them to learn.”

You don’t have to be a fiery speaker or a poet laureate to teach effectively, but passion and adaptability are both crucial for success. You’ll need a love for your subject that’ll keep you motivated to explain it to others day after day – and you’ll need an intuitive understanding of the topic, so you can answer oddball questions without creating awkward silences in the classroom.

One way to get a feel for this is to pay attention to your behavior in ordinary social situations. When someone has trouble understanding what you’re explaining, do you enjoy the process of walking that person through the details – or does the knowledge gap leave you feeling a little irritated? If you’re more like the former, you’re already a teacher at heart.

Do you like working around elementary or high school kids?

To state the obvious, being a teacher means spending about eight hours of every weekday surrounded by them, and several hours of your nights looking over their homework. If kids energize you and fire up your passion for sharing your knowledge, you’re probably cut out to teach – but if school’s an exhausting environment for you, you may find yourself tapped out long before the semester’s end.

If you like explaining ideas but aren’t quite sure how you’ll interact with a roomful of kids, another option is to try substitute-teaching for a semester and see how you and the school get along. “Sometimes just a bachelor’s degree is enough to get you a substitute position in a school system,” Kizlik says, “so you and the school administrators can find out if you actually want to be a teacher.”

Positions like these may even transform into permanent jobs if all goes well – and even if it doesn’t work out with one particular school, “developing a relationship with the school’s principal can boost your chances of securing a position at another school,” says Derek Jack, assistant director of career services at UtahStateUniversity. “A letter of recommendation is highly regarded by school administrators, and a letter from a principal often makes a significant positive impact on their view of you.”

What unique skills and angles can you bring to a teaching position?

Getting certified to teach will take some time and effort; same goes for finding a permanent job as a teacher. The experts agree that if you want a long-term teaching position, you’d better be prepared to fight for it. “You need to have what I call ‘hard bark’ – a thick skin,” Kizlik says. “You’ve got to know how to take criticism from students and administrators, and you’ve got to be detail-oriented. You can’t fly by the seat of your pants.”

Your teaching certification attempt will be the first test of your detail-orientedness. “Every state has very specific criteria for teaching certification,” Jack explains. “Each state has an examination that measures your level of credibility, and passing that exam is the only way to get licensed.”

While it’s true that some states greased the wheels of their certification processes during the first few years of the recession – especially for degreed experts willing to teach – today’s standards are stricter. “Occasionally we’ll still have a math teacher shortage, and an engineer can step in and fill that role, and usually the school district gives them an opportunity,” Jack says. “But most schools would prefer to hire someone with a traditional teaching certification.”

Still, you may be able to stack the deck in your favor by picking up some practical job skills. “ESL (English as a second language) is highly sought-after in a lot of schools right now,” Jack says.  “And teachers who specialize in math, science and special ed. always seem to be in demand.” If you’ve got some useful skills like these, use your resumé as a canvas to emphasize your unique spin on the material you want to teach – to share the accomplishments and skills that make you uniquely well-suited for the job.

Teaching tends to be a polarizing career: Those who love it often find that jobs and accolades come their way naturally – while those who can barely tolerate it may find themselves wondering how they ever got into such a mess. The only way to find out where you fall on that spectrum is to ask yourself how you feel about it – and listen to what your intuition tells you.

Posted by Ben Thomas who writes about careers in teaching, among other job fields, for the Riley Guide.

NOTE: This post was written by a guest blogger and the content for the post approved by Oregon State University Career Services. We are not responsible for the content of  the websites linked in the post.

To view this job/internship listing, you must be a currently registered OSU student and have an existing Beaver JobNet account. If you are eligible and do not have an account, register now. Beaver JobNet is a great way to get your job or internship search started. Meet employers from a variety of organizations.

Job/ Internship of the Week
clearpathEntry Level
ClearPath Capital Partners

Description:
ClearPath Capital Partners is a privately-held investment management firm with a track record of successfully managing the personal wealth for high-net-worth private clients in the Silicon Valley and the Venture Capital arena. We’re growing significantly after establishing our footprint over the past decade and are now searching for highly talented individuals to join our team in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles offices.

Responsibilities:
• Contact high-net-worth investors who we have identified and followed
• Communicate ClearPath’s Wealth Management philosophy and strategy to prospective clients
• Help facilitate the client acquisition process with qualified investors
• Work with Vice Presidents to coordinate meetings with potential clients

For more information on how to apply, check out the posting in Beaver JobNet.

Situational interviewing is different from behavioral interview questions. In the behavioral type, the interviewer delves into the past work experience and asks the candidate to recount instances and how they were handled. On the other hand, situational interviews, also known as ‘hypothetical interview questions’ are those where the interviewer gives certain hypothetical situations and asks the candidate to respond to it.

Here, the idea behind asking situational interview questions is to judge the spontaneity of the candidate and to test problem solving abilities.  The spotlight is on the interviewee to evaluate if he/she can handle situational pressure or cower under it. Most HR professionals believe that rather than asking generic questions, it’s better to pose situational questions as it helps to select the right candidate.

For instance, the interviewer might ask questions like:

  • What would you do if your supervisor asks you to do something which is unethical? How would you handle it?
  • What would you do if you find a colleague stealing?
  • If on certain days your workload is heavy because of staff shortage, how would you handle it?

…and so on!

Below are some tips to answer situational interview questions and hopefully, get the job.

1.      Guess Questions

You can easily guess the situational questions that the interviewer can ask if you know your role and responsibilities thoroughly. For example, if you are applying for the position of a supervisor, you will be asked questions about managing employees and teams, budgeting, organization vision, and so on. Once you know, you can draw up hypothetical questions and practice. Practice the questions with someone who can point out the positive and negative aspects of your answers and help to improvise. It helps to have someone provide constructive feedback.

2.      Know the Organization

Guessing questions are fine but you need to know the organization and its hierarchies and its level of working. You can easily do this research by going through the organization website and its press releases. When you know about the organization, you can answer situational questions better. Secondly, know the advertised job profile and find out the responsibilities attached with it. If you know what the employer seeks, you can prepare better.

3.      Draw on Previous Experience

Situational questions are hypothetical but it doesn’t mean you cannot rely on past experiences. Prepare a list of situations you handled in the previous organization/s and how you sorted them out with a positive outcome. Note how you handled situations and how they enhanced your understanding. You should use this knowledge in the present situational interview questions. Take this question, for instance.

Question: What will you do if you find a team member not contributing towards a project actively?

Answer: There has been an instance in the past where one particular team member was not contributing as other members. This attitude was affecting the whole team negatively. I would react to this situation similarly. I would communicate with every team member right at the beginning and delegate responsibilities. Communication will be non-confrontational. When team members do not understand the work involved, it causes problems like this. Therefore, the best way is to find the cause of the problem and sort it out at the beginning.

4.      Use Factual Representation

Answers to situational interview questions should be short, to-the-point and concise. No need to give long and rambling answers. Secondly, try to quote facts to support your answers. You can take examples of concepts and examples set by senior managerial leaders in your field. You will come across as well-read and knowledgeable.

5.      Be Imaginative

Some of the situational interview questions could be those you haven’t even heard of before so you need to be quick witted and imaginative to deal with them logically and convincingly. This is an attribute that you need to practice actively.

Conclusion

Answering situational interview questions is easy if you know your job well and know how to use past experiences to solve current problems, while keeping an open mind for newer solutions.

Posted by Diksha, Social Media Specialist and Blogger, studynation.com, a leading education portal that provides the genuine information about educational institutes like medical and engineering colleges, latest education trends, courses, etc.

NOTE: This post was written by a guest blogger and the content for the post approved by Oregon State University Career Services. We are not responsible for the content of  the websites linked in the post.

To view this job/internship listing, you must be a currently registered OSU student and have an existing Beaver JobNet account. If you are eligible and do not have an account, register now. Beaver JobNet is a great way to get your job or internship search started. Meet employers from a variety of organizations.

T_1234089722Job/Internship of the Week
Administrative Assistant/Event Coordinator
CampusPoint

Description:

  • Assisting with the scheduling of training sessions, and booking/notifying all relevant parties
  • Taking responsibility for ensuring all training rooms/venues, equipment catering arrangements, and other requirements are booked up or canceled in advance.
  • Sending out appropriate pre & post-course information to participants/managers in advance of training courses
  • Taking and preparing meeting minutes
  • Formatting and editing materials and presentations for training meetings and events
  • Requesting and compiling objectives in advance of training courses
  • Keeping track of training supplies and reordering when needed
  • Working with vendors to coordinate and deliver food/beverage services for training events

 

For more information on how to apply, check out the posting in Beaver JobNet.

lifeIt’s your first year of school. Or your fifth.  The academic year begins after you’re fresh off of a summer of interning, vacationing, working or continuing education in a myriad of ways. Campus explodes with returning staff and students, skateboarders, bikers and pedestrians vying for space, and you step into another new schedule. Between the 15 credits you’re taking, you’re handed an armload of other expectations: make friends, keep friends, find a job on campus or close enough to bike, do EVERYTHING social that comes your way, join a club or three, meet with your advisor, take weekend trips, call your mother, study abroad, and keep your grades up. Oh, and work out. Students who are also parents, older than 25, first generation or otherwise considered “non-traditional” typically face even more demands for a successful blending of academics and everything else. It sometimes seems that everyone on campus is under pressure to do everything, be everything and be GOOD at everything, regardless of the personal toll.

Blending career with the rest of your life outside of school doesn’t get any easier, but the climate around what constitutes a “successful” career is changing.  Currently, the United States is dismal in terms of providing support and resources for the easy integration of work and life: we as a nation rank 28th, only 9 from the bottom, of advanced countries in terms of successful work/life integration. Conversations, though, in the past few years have shifted significantly toward figuring out how to redefine success in life, including career, and I do believe we will get better as a nation in taking care of each other.

While greater governmental and policy change is needed to implement support at a larger scale in the work/life integration, it is up to us now to manage our own balance. During school is a good time to practice. Here are a few tips on how to get started:

1.      Know yourself.

No other person will be able to tell you what is best for your life. You must do this work on your own. Take each day as an opportunity to learn about who you are, what you prioritize and how you see the best version of yourself in your community. Are you exhilarated by good grades? Does the happy exhaustion of a long trail run outweigh the extra hour of time spent talking on the phone with a friend? Is quiet time something that allows you to do well in other areas and, if so, how are you scheduling quiet time into your days? Unless you know where you are starting from, it is going to be extremely challenging to define where you’d like to be, and much easier to take on everything without intention and forethought.

2.      Redefine what is valuable.

The world will attempt to define this for you on a daily basis. At any turn, it is easy to allow another person or entity to tell you what holds the most value in your life. If this is a system that works for you, go with it. But if not, take a step back and analyze it for yourself.

3.      Welcome reality.

If you consider yourself on a budget of sorts, you may be able to better welcome and adhere to reality. With a strict budget, there is only so much money to spend. The same goes for your personal energy and engagement: once you’re tapped out, it is hard to refill and start over. Figure out ahead of time what your require in order to be the student you want to be: study groups, tutoring, time alone, breaks, staying busy, etc.  If you are a parent, an employee, a friend, a partner, decide what of your personal energy is required to be the kind of (insert role here) you want to be, and then stick to your budget. Set boundaries respectfully, with yourself and others and practice enforcing them.

4.      Adjust.

Work on your flexibility and forgiveness, with yourself and others. Recognize that it is easy for other people to place demands on you because it is their job to do so: your employers need your time and energy, your professors need your time and energy, your family needs your time and energy, your friends need your time and energy and all of this is okay. When you create expectations for yourself and others that are rigid and resentful, the stress will only increase. When you aren’t good at something, adjust. When a schedule changes that is out of your control, adjust. When life doesn’t happen exactly as it was supposed to, adjust. And then, when you figure out how to do that easily, write down a how-to and send it my way . .

5. Sleep.

Often for people, physical/mental health and sleep are the first things to go when life balance is out of sorts. Recognize now that none of the above practices are going to be possible for you if you are an exhausted, sick and emotional wreck 24/7. Be stingy with your time for rest.

Oh, and work out.

Thoughts on what helps you achieve balance and wellness in your own life? Please comment!

Conversations/resources/articles on this topic:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ronashkenas/2012/10/19/forget-work-life-balance-its-time-for-work-life-blend/

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/a_key_to_us_competitiveness_wo.html

http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/work-family

Posted by Malia Arenth, Career Services Counselor

experience

1.     Identify

The first step to a successful internship is being able to identify what industry and position you are interested in working. This will require you to think intentionally about your experience and work to align it with your career goals. Some things to think about include: the environment you want to work in, the projects or tasks you would enjoy completing, and your own professional goals.

2.     Question

The wonderful part about an internship is that you have the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. Take this time to become educated about the company or organization you are interning with, understand the structure, mission and function of the work space. Your site supervisor is there to serve as your mentor and resources of information. Don’t be shy about asking the why or how questions, they understand that this is a learning experience for you and are there to support you.

3.     Engage

Don’t be afraid to jump right in when you start you internship, this is your chance to gain on the job experience and really engage in hands-on learning within your field of interest. Take on any and every project you have the chance to do, whether it is large or small, it will show your commitment and work ethic and likely lead to other projects during your internship. Actively engage with your co-workers and be a team player, this will enrich the experience for everyone.

4.     Learn

Really take this opportunity to learn from those around you, especially the individuals who have been in the industry for a while, ask them about their experience and how they got to where they are today. Conduct on the job informational interviews with someone whose position interests you or you could see yourself doing that job in the future. This is your opportunity to learn from them and engage in meaningful conversations about their experience and to form a solid network that will carry on outside of the internship.

5.     Reflect

The foundation of experiential education is on the element of reflection done throughout your experience and at the completion. And in order to develop a summary of the skills and knowledge you learned both professionally and personally, reflecting on your experience is essential. This will also help you to articulate to an employer in an interview or conversation what the key points and skills you developed from your internship experience were and what you will bring to the next position or experience you have.

What are other tips to a successful internship? Please leave a comment below.

Posted by Ciara Lynn, Career Services Internship Coordinator

Ready to get inspired for your job, internship, or career search? Each month we will spotlight an OSU student that has inspired us when it comes to their career development. Check out their success stories—besides inspiration, they also show that academic major does not have to restrict your goals and that there are many ways to define success.

Want to nominate an OSU student or alum for the Student/Alum Spotlight series? Or do you want to share your own success? Then please fill out this quick form and Career Services will contact the person nominated.

JainaName: Jaina McGregor
Major: Business Information Systems, Finance, and Management (triple major)
Year in School: Senior

1. While a student at OSU, what have you done so far to gain experience?
Now that I look back on my time at OSU, I’ve come to realize that I’ve actually done quite a lot to gain experience. Maybe it’s because of my interest in three different areas of business and wanting to broaden my horizons with each or just a natural curiosity and desire to learn new things. Either way, each time I tried something new, I learned something more about what I wanted to do, how I could get there, and who I ultimately want to be as a person.
When I first came to OSU, I really wanted a “college experience” so I became involved in anything I could that would bring me in to the OSU community. My very first term on campus, I became an ASOSU intern even though I was never really interested in student government or politics or anything like that. I’m really glad I joined, though, because I was exposed to a whole different side of campus and got to work with a broad variety of really amazing people. It also didn’t take me long to figure out that I could spend my entire time there (a year) without ever touching student government, but could focus my time on working with various task forces to help make the OSU campus a better place to be. Working with ASOSU allowed me to build connections across campus, get to know people in various departments, and even led to the founding of a club where I was able to stretch my leadership legs for the first time.
I also sought out other opportunities to gain more knowledge about the field I was going into by looking around for various tech-related clubs and organizations on campus. It was then that I discovered a club for women in engineering, so as a way of trying it out, I joined the listserv. The listserv sent around a scholarship announcement to attend a conference I’d never heard of before for women in technology up in Portland called the Grace Hopper Celebration. Getting the scholarship was a long shot because I didn’t have the GPA stipulated in the requirements, but I applied anyway and was fortunate enough to be chosen. The conference was an amazing three-day event where EECS transported us by bus to and from the convention center, provided us with meals, and put us up in a hotel near the event. I was able to attend workshops, speaker events, panels, and a career fair where my timid and shy self managed to build up the courage to strike up a conversation with a very nice lady from IBM. Little did I know that I was having a conversation with a director of a department who was only watching the booth for a few minutes and that this very same director would offer me a 6-month long internship without even an interview with one of the teams she oversaw back east two weeks after the conference. Realizing that this moment only happened because of my courage to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone, I have done what I can ever since to keep up that momentum.
Since attending that conference, I have gradually gained more and more confidence with talking to strangers and, the even more terrifying, potential recruiters. One way that I helped to build my confidence was to expose myself to as many opportunities to practice as possible by attending mock interviews, volunteering to be the speaker for class presentations, and any other opportunity where I could practice talking with or to people that I didn’t know. I remember that there was an event at the alumni center that had a speed-dating type interview where you only had a few minutes to talk before you would get feedback from each interviewer. I was completely unprepared for anything because I wasn’t feeling very well and had completely forgotten about this particular component of the event. But it was during this speed-dating interview session that I discovered what my real passions are because I was “shooting from the hip”, completely unfiltered and unrehearsed because it didn’t really matter so there was nothing to lose with really letting go and just telling it like it is. I received incredibly positive feedback from each interviewer because I showed sincerity, passion, and eloquence without stuttering or sounding rehearsed. Since then, I have treated each interview (whether mock or real) the exact same way: showing sincerity and enthusiasm by being genuine and unrehearsed.

2. What are your career plans?
Since I’m such a planner-type personality, I actually have two different “categories” of my career plans: immediate and life-long. My immediate career plans include an internship with The Walt Disney Company back in my hometown of Los Angeles at their corporate office. I’d been solicited by a recruiter who had seen my experience with my on-campus jobs at both the Bexell Computer Lab and Business Solutions Group. It was the help desk experience that really interested her, though, as the position entails communicating technical information to non-technical people. I used to think that my jobs on campus didn’t really count or matter because they weren’t classified as an “internship” but I’m really grateful for that experience now and wish that I had thought of it as a type of internship a long time ago because recruiters don’t see a difference, it’s all about experience, not location.
After graduation, I’m looking to get started in an IT discipline since my primary major is information systems. I’ve also started taking classes from Harvard University toward their graduate program in IT so that I can add to my knowledge base to make myself a bit more marketable and broaden my knowledge of IT. The plan for graduate school also ties into my life-long career goal of pursuing upper-management within a large company. I never thought that I would have the courage to pursue such a lofty goal, but with the experience and encouragement that I have received from the different outlets I’ve pursued as well as the gift from my mentor of confidence in myself at a time when I had the biggest case of impostor syndrome on the planet, I’m able to reach heights I never dreamed possible.

3. What advice do you have for others who are preparing for their job or internship search?
Do your homework by researching companies, practice interviewing, and constantly improve your resume. One of the best things I did while at OSU was take a class required for business majors called Professional Development. In this class I had to create a Gap Analysis which consisted of evaluating your current skills and abilities to that of a job you want to pursue. It gave me a way to create a course of action that would lead me to my dream job. I also found that it really helps when you find a job that you’re passionate about, you create an incentive for yourself, a way to motivate the job search. And with the analysis, you would know what kinds of internships to target instead of just taking the shotgun approach of applying to as many things as possible and hoping something sticks. What’s the point of getting an internship that doesn’t provide you with the ability to gain experience in a career field that you are interested in pursuing? It’s better to take your time (and yes, this will take a lot of time) to find the right kinds of internships to apply for and tailor your resume and cover letter to that role. I also used Linkedin to find connections that work in a company I’m interested in working and starting to build a relationship with them by having an informational interview. It’s as simple as having a conversation about what they do every day. I’ve had tremendous success with this and even had the guts to try and connect with people whom I’ve never met. You’d be surprised at how many people are willing to help out a student who shows an interest in them and is professional in how they interact.

4. Did Career Services and/or anybody else assist you with your career development and preparing you for an internship or job? If so, how?
When I first came to campus, I knew my entire purpose for coming to college was to graduate and get a job so I made an appointment with Career Services fairly early on in my academic career. I wanted to make sure that every step I took while in school was leading me to that goal. I took several assessments of my personality and skills, learning more about myself and what I wanted in the process. I think those assessments really flipped a switch in me to constantly improve. I always found ways to better myself, never really being satisfied with anything I created no matter whether it was a resume, a Linkedin profile, a personal website, etc. I always found something that could be tweaked or improved in some way. I still do this even with offers for internships, I’m just constantly trying to improve.
But what really comes to mind when I think of career development is that I’ve had the benefit of working with two really great instructors on campus, Gene Young and Bob Mayes. Gene taught my BA 353 class and I’m better off for taking it with him. He rips you apart, but it’s obvious that he cares about each student’s success. It’s almost like he has to rip away all the bad habits in order to create a better, more refined person. I had some work experience and have had a few interviews so I felt that I was fairly professional already (especially because this was after landing an offer from IBM without an interview, I felt like the top of the professional world!) but this man humbled me. He gave me new tips and insights I hadn’t heard before and boy do they work. I’ve had even greater success since taking his class and I attribute that success to his tutelage.
I also took a chance on taking a random 1-credit class that didn’t apply to any major, but the title intrigued me: Think Like a Leader. It was a bit odd because I had to “apply” to enroll in the course by submitting an essay and I’m not that decent of a writer, but I decided to chance it. I’m incredibly grateful that I did because not only was I accepted into the class, but that action started a chain reaction of self-improvement. I was exposed to high-level executives every week and had to constantly refine my interactions with professionals. This class led to a mentorship, a nomination to join a leadership honor society, ongoing relationships with top-level executives, and a constant improvement of my professionalism. Bob has even coached me on interviewing and professional etiquette. I know that my mentorship with him has taken my professional development to a whole new level. For the first time, I’m really looking forward to what the future holds for my career.

Thanks Jaina for being our Student/Alum Spotlight! If you are interested in learning more about the job search process,  there are many resources available to you on the OSU Career Services website, including a specific section on preparing for your job search.  Be sure to check it out!